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She has passion for pinning
New Oxford's Groft excels at sport normally reserved for boys

By By JEFFREY MARTIN Dispatch/Sunday News 3/23/03

Rachael Groft is different.

Just different -- she's a girl on the New Oxford High wrestling team, the only girl.

This is nothing new. Girls have been defying the odds for years now, participating in sports originally intended for boys. Many of those attempts, however, have been nothing more than a gimmick or even a token effort. Rarely are there cases such as Groft, a girl whose involvement in wrestling is more than just a novelty.

"It's not a big deal," she says.

Groft is over it by now, this being her junior year, as are her friends and most of her classmates. But as much as she considers herself to be just another girl, as much as she needs that to be the case, she knows it isn't.

She reluctantly admits it, but only after being told an account of a trio of "normal" girls gathered in the school's lobby. The three girls sat a table after school one day, talking about topics ranging from R&B/pop princess Ashanti to why they weren't involved in more extracurricular events.

"See, that's why I don't play sports," said one of the young ladies, pointing toward a girl from the track team, obviously injured. "I would fall on my face, and I wouldn't want to mess up my face."

Groft grins and begins to blush. She initially stumbles for her words, finally finding a suitable reply.

"I'm a little tougher than them," said Groft, leaning against a wall in a hall at New Oxford. "I'm not real ditzy like that."

Yet, moments later, she is giggling uncontrollably at a wrestling teammate who is taking his time at the water fountain. Then, she says she enjoys talking with her friends on the phone, almost too much. One of her guilty pleasures is painting her nails.

Suddenly, she doesn't seem so different, like any other girl.

But then she explains how this past year, wrestling at 114 pounds, her improvement was immeasurable, even though she finished with a worse record (7-16) than her sophomore year (10-11). Then, she gives her reasoning for passing on the fourth annual United States Girls' Wrestling Association Pennsylvania State Championships, an all-girl affair, in favor of a co-ed AAU Mid-Atlantic tournament.

"There isn't any competition at the girls' meet," said Groft, who is ranked No. 2 in the country at 110 pounds by the USGWA and plans to wrestle in the organization's national championships next weekend.

She is different.

She's had great success vs. girls: This is a girl who has experienced tremendous success in the past wrestling against other girls, finishing sixth nationally last year, third during her freshman year and first in eighth grade. She would undoubtedly dominate the state tournament, yet she chooses another where -- let's be honest -- there's virtually no chance she will walk out a winner.

For Groft, the challenge is the chase.

"She has her goals and wants to get better," said New Oxford wrestling coach Dave Conaway. "She's a hard worker, very determined. She's focused."

Although she plays field hockey and participates in track, nothing can compare to wrestling. It is the sport she fell in love with in fourth grade, learning by watching her older brother. It is the sport she realizes she will never be able to master. It is the sport in which she enters each match -- at least against boys -- at a physical disadvantage.

It is, in her words, her passion.

How many high school athletes describe their sport of choice in that manner? And if they do, do they really mean it? Groft does.

"I need to keep getting better, have to keep working," she said. "It's good to practice. We had a new coach this year, and he stressed how hard you have to work in every practice to get better. ... Wrestling takes so much dedication. It's a demanding sport. But if it's something you want to do, you go for it."

Overcoming skepticism: She overlooked the initial skepticism, tuning out the rude comments uttered toward her when she first started. She struggles enough with her own confidence; she couldn't care less about what others think of her.

It's interesting -- the only sport in which she tends to question her abilities is wrestling.

"I kind of have a problem with my confidence," said Groft, 17. "Every now and then, during a match, I stress out and lose it. There is a lot of frustration out there for me sometimes. ... I try not to dwell on the negative stuff. You have to block that stuff out, just take it as it goes.

"You can't worry about it."

Groft doesn't bother with what she can't control, namely the perception of her. She doesn't waste time dwelling on it, but clearly, it's something she's still sorting out.

She believes the other kids at New Oxford see her as "a regular girl, an athlete, a normal girl," but then reveals that her teammates consider her to be "just one of the guys, just a wrestler."

Can she be both?

She's not perfect. She loses more than half of the time she wrestles against boys. Her self-confidence has suffered at times as a result, but she sticks with it. If there is an easy route, she's prone to ignore it. She's respected by her teammates and foes alike. She's always striving to improve.

"She has gotten better, but there is always room for improvement," said Conaway. "Has she progressed as fast I would like? No, but no one else does. I'm impatient ... But she puts in the time. She's committed."

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