Meet Katrina Anderson. On the surface, Katrina appears to be your run of the mill 18 Year old beauty queen, interested in things like nails and hair. Maybe she is or maybe she isn't. However, this young lady is into things much more vicious and adrenaline charged.
You see, Katrina enjoys wrestling and soccer. This young lady has been wrestling since she was in grade school.
The sport of wrestling has become very popular with females, especially at the elementary school age. So popular in fact, that many states in the United States have adopted "female only" wrestling leagues. Not the state of Virginia, where Katrina grew up. Once Katrina entered High School, she had no choice but to wrestle boys if she wanted to represent her team. The Virginia High School League has yet to institute a female wrestling league.
Virginia has a private sector league that does have an "end of the year" female only state tournament but it is not sanctioned by our governing body, hence it really doesn't count as far as the record books are concerned. Katrina was a two time state finalist and one time champion in this female only state tournament.
This young lady was incredibly dedicated to her craft and had a tremendous work ethic. By the time her senior year rolled around she had amassed many victories and was a team captain. She was a three year Varsity letter winner, two time regional qualifier, and one match away from becoming the first 4A female State Qualifier in Virginia 4A history. Our Region is a 16 man bracket so for Katrina to lose in the "blood round" meant she had already beaten three other male counterparts.
As a coach, and more specifically Katrina's coach, I can honestly say that I trained boys to wrestle girls the same as they would anyone. Many coaches had this same philosophy. Suffice to say that I saw many boys slam Katrina with no remorse.
People love underdogs! I can't tell you how many times one of Katrina's matches would captivate the attention of the crowd. Katrina would be "taking a licking and keep on ticking." She would refuse to give up and people would take notice. Before long, she would own the attention of 100's of on-lookers.
She had an incredible desire to never give up. She would be losing by a lot of points but just keep hanging in there and chipping her way back into it. Maybe her opponent wasn't in as good of shape one match or underestimated how dangerous she could be in another match. Whatever the case, I personally saw Katrina mount so many come from behind victories over her High School career.
To see her in action please click this short youtube video of an incredibly dramatic come back win by pin. She was getting beat (both in score and physically) against this particular opponent from Washington DC. The vid is qued up about 30 seconds before she gets the pin over the HEAVILY favored opponent. (btw, I taught her the hip toss lat drop)
I have coached many females in my 20 year coaching career and none of them compared to this young lady. Katrina Anderson stepped on the mat every single time with something to prove. She wrestled as if she wanted to say, "Hey I Belong Here!"
I say, "she definitely belonged here!" I may never have another "Katrina Anderson" cross my path again. A truly unique athlete. I would like to give a very special thank you to the Anderson family for allowing me create such awesome wrestling memories.
Good luck wrestling in college Katrina! Sincerely, Coach
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