The life of Boardman’s Lexi Beadle revolves around wrestling.

“This is like the only thing I do,” she said. “I wrestle all year round, freestyle in the summer and then I go into the school season, no stop.”

Beadle estimates that she has been wrestling for nearly 10 years, and she has developed into one of the premier competitors in Ohio. She is currently ranked sixth in the state in the 110 weight class and has a record of 32-2.

Beadle’s hard work over the course of the decade will reach a culminating point this weekend. She will be one of the local competitors representing her school in the girls state wrestling tournament at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center in Columbus. It is the fourth annual girls state tournament and the first with girls wrestling as an officially sanctioned OHSAA sport. For the first time, the girls will be competing in conjunction with the boys tournament.

While it just became an OHSAA-sanctioned sport in the 2022-23 athletic year, Boardman wrestling coach Hadi Hadi said that girls wrestling is nothing new in the area.

“There are girls that have been wrestling for years,” Hadi said. “(Four) years ago, the Ohio Wrestling Officials Association basically embraced the girls and started a girls state tournament with the intention that the OHSAA would take it over.”

Olive Karam of Champion High School, whose record is 31-3, is one of the girls who will be making the trip to Columbus this weekend. Like Beadle, Karam has plenty of wrestling experience as she competed in the OWOA state tournament held at Hilliard Davidson High School in 2022 in the 135 weight class. Although she has prior tournament experience, Karam knows that it will be a much different atmosphere this year.

“Last year it kind of felt like a regular tournament game,” Karam said. “It was in a regular, random school in the middle of nowhere. This year, it’s actually going to be at an actual university with all the boys and stuff.”

Despite the past experience that the wrestlers may possess, the difference in magnitude between the prior OWOA tournaments and the OHSAA tournaments will likely prove to be a culture shock. Hadi, who has coached wrestling in the area for decades, is well aware of this. He said that no amount of preparation would truly prepare the athletes for what they will experience at Ohio State.

“It’s not going to hit any one of these girls in the whole state until they walk into the Schottenstein Center,” Hadi said. “And they walk through that tunnel, and they come out and they see 10 mats on the gym floor, and they look up. That’s when it’s probably going to hit them. As a coach you can try your best to prepare them for that, the weigh-ins are in the Schottenstein, so you kind of get to go down on the floor. But it’s not the same until there’s fans in there, you hear the cheering and there’s 10 mats going at the same time.”

Emily Flynn of Hubbard boasts a 31-6 record and will be competing in the 130-pound weight class. Flynn has spent the past week fine-tuning her abilities in preparation for the meet. Flynn is confident in her abilities and excited for the meet, but the thought of wrestling in a bigger gym with far more fans than usual has been in the back of her mind.

“Me and the other girl I practice with have been working on everything,” Flynn said. “We’ve been working really hard this week… And so, we’ve been really just giving it our all. Once I start wrestling, I won’t be thinking about it. So, it’s not that big a deal. I’ll just be nervous up until the time I actually have to wrestle.”

While Beadle is dealing with nerves much like Karam and Flynn, she has plenty of experience to rely on. Beadle has competed in the past two OWOA state meets, and while this year’s meet will be different, she feels that her competitive experience will help boost her confidence.

“I mean at least I know what I am kind of getting myself into,” she said. “So, I am not like freaking out as much as I would have my first year.”

The past few weeks of preparing for the meet have been rigorous for Beadle. But she said it has not been much different than what she typically goes through.

“I’ve traveled to Liberty and Jackson Milton to go to practices,” Beadle said. “Definitely my eating has been a little more restrictive since there’s two weigh-ins. But I feel like everything’s been pretty normal compared to normal season. I train pretty aggressively, so it wasn’t much different than how it’s been all year.”

One issue that Beadle has dealt with through the inaugural OHSAA season has been with the competitive level of other wrestlers. Beadle’s two losses came against Hayley Snyder of Warren High School who is ranked third in the 110 weight class and Gabrielle Gartin of Chippewa High School who is ranked fourth. Other than Snyder and Gartin, Beadle’s competitors have been mostly inexperienced.

“I’ve wrestled in all girls tournaments,” Beadle said. “I’ve competed well, the only problem with it is that the girls I have been wrestling are brand new to the sport. The two losses I had were against Snyder and Gartin. Snyder I will probably be wrestling this weekend and maybe Gartin, those two are ranked top five in the state, they’re really good. And I mean I’m just right there. I’m learning where I am compared to some of these other girls. I’m ranked sixth in the state, but it’s where I need to be to push higher.”

Beadle, Karam, and Flynn, are all happy to be on the ground floor of sanctioned girls wrestling in the state of Ohio. The three of them shared their excitement for how girls wrestling will continue to grow in the future.

“I think it’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger,” Flynn said. “It’ll become more like its own league like the boys are. Hopefully more schools will have all girls teams and it will become separated, kind of like how basketball is.”

Karam believes that as girls wrestling continues to grow in Ohio, other states could look to sanction the sport as well.

“I think it’s definitely going to grow in Ohio,” Karam said. “And I think the fact that it’s growing in Ohio is going to help it grow in other states around here, and hopefully continue to spread, not just in Ohio.”

Being one of the main female wrestlers in the area for most of her life, Beadle has had to wrestle against boys numerous times. While she has been successful in her wrestling career, Beadle hopes that having girls wrestling sanctioned by the OHSAA will encourage more girls to pursue the sport.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for more girls to get out there and see that this is a sport for women, this isn’t just for men anymore,” Beadle said. “Growing up, I was like the only girl in the area that was wrestling, so I had to prove myself everywhere I went. I put a lot of pressure on myself doing that. But now it’s like relaxing knowing that I have these college opportunities now, and I don’t have to worry about wrestling boys or going somewhere and not feeling comfortable anymore.”

The OHSAA state wrestling tournament runs until Sunday in the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.