Mrs. Sweitzer, Spanish teacher and JV volleyball coach, has returned this year to coaching high school wrestling after a 10 year hiatus replacing Doug Schenk as the JV wrestling coach.

Mrs. Sweitzer is no stranger to wrestling. While she was enrolled here, she was the first woman wrestler at Wilde Lake, wrestling from 1991-1994.

From 1991-1995, Mrs. Sweitzer attended Wilde Lake and wanted to join a sport.  “I hated running, could not dribble, and could not do gymnastics,” said Mrs. Sweitzer.

She decided to try out for wrestling. “I was very excited to join wrestling because I’m not a person who is afraid of challenges,” said Mrs. Sweitzer.

When she made it on the team, her coaches, teammates, staff, and family were very supportive of her. “Wilde Lake wrestling is like a family. Even though I was the only girl on the team, all my teammates treated me like I was ‘one of the guys’,” said Mrs. Sweitzer.

Although she was able to build up a support system, not everyone was liked the fact that Mrs. Sweitzer was wrestling. “Many times when we would go wrestle other schools players and coaches would stare at me, but eventually they learned to deal with it.”

Mrs. Sweitzer also encountered some criticism from classmates and peers.

“Sometimes girls at school would say negative things about me, but I don’t like to pay attention to negativity. If I have a goal I go for it,” said Mrs. Sweitzer.

By overcoming adversity, Mrs. Sweitzer was able to make it to the regional championship her freshman year. “If I didn’t have the team I had, I wouldn’t have been as good as I was,” said Mrs. Sweitzer.

While Mrs. Sweitzer does not grapple on the mat, she focuses on the basic fundamentals of wrestling.

Sophomore Saleem Jackson, varsity wrestler, describes Mrs. Sweitzer as “focused.”

“Coach Sweitzer coaches with intensity and wants to coach you until you have done the drill right,” he said. “Even though it can be bothersome at times it eventually pays off when I win my match.”

Junior Ayan Kazi who also wrestles on varsity, admires Mrs. Sweitzer’s dedication.

“When Coach Sweitzer is leading practice she believes in working the fundamentals repeatedly, so we’ll run a lot of repetition drills , where we’ll run the same thing over and over to work on technique, speed, and instinct,” said Kazi.