Alberta Elite Women’s Wrestling Club dominates the mat, becoming Canada's strongest girls club

Since 1994, coach Michael Dunn has run the Roc Wrestling Club, which is hailed as one of the best youth wrestling programs in the country.

Recently, Roc Wrestling split into two different clubs: the Alberta Elite Women’s Wrestling Club as a girls-only team, and the Roc as a boys-only team.

Generally, clubs around Canada combine girls and boys, but Dunn and his team wanted to try a new tactic to get more girls into wrestling.

Boys involved in wrestling equate to “about one third to about two thirds or 30 to 70” in Alberta, according to Dunn.

“We switched over to be all-girls and all-boys with a goal to hopefully make this place more comfortable for girls,” Dunn says, adding that it can be quite intimidating for a young Grade 7 girl to walk into a room with 20 high school boys training at the same time.

“We're just looking to grow the club and make it the strongest yet. We basically are the strongest girls club in the country already. We're trying to give girls from the ages of eight to 18 a chance to be part of the group and to be awesome at wrestling.”

During the national championships in Vancouver in March, the Alberta Elite Women’s Wrestling Club had more points than any other male-female combined team in Alberta.

The Alberta Elite team won second place in U19 Team Greco, third place in U19 team freestyle, second in U17 Team Greco, third place in U15 Team freestyle, and teammate Page Weloso won the women’s 65 kg to claim most outstanding wrestler.

“Our five girls beat the University of Calgary Junior Dinos, the Edmonton wrestling club, and the Lethbridge group in total points,” Dunn says.

While the team's recent success is largely due to the skill of the girls, Dunn and his team have worked hard to prepare them to be their best.

“We train all year long, which is unique for most of the groups in Alberta,” Dunn says.

“Our model for the club is quite like bantam AAA hockey. There’s a commitment level that’s required… [such as] showing up on time, every time. It’s a full commitment.”

From the ages of eight to 18, with some having been on the team for five to six years, the coaches train the kids three to five times a week in order to equip them with the skills and the drive to become student athletes at the university level.

“We want to move kids on to the appropriate university program so they can wrestle in college and be student athletes and reap the benefits of that as adults in regular day life,” Dunn says.

Two Grade 12 girls from the Alberta Elite were recently recruited by McMaster University, with one going into engineering and the other business, Dunn says.

“There’s not many kids that leave our group without going to university.”

Getting the kids to university is not the only goal for the coaches as there are many other life events that young people need to be prepared for.

“You're alone a lot of the time you're training, whether it's off the mat running and weightlifting, or on the mats,” Dunn says.

Wrestling is different from other team sports such as soccer in which players communicate with each other and work together towards objectives. They either win together or lose together.

In wrestling, it is just two people against each other.

“It's quite demanding emotionally when you're heavy into the match and someone is on you trying to hold you down and take you down. These things are very difficult to overcome at times,” Dunn says.

However, Dunn believes these challenges are what set his students up for success.

“For adults, you're alone when you have to deal with issues. Whether you're trying to be an excellent husband or an excellent wife or an employee. These challenges happen most often when you're alone. I think wrestling prepares you for these things more than other sports.”

With its recent achievements, the club has become a model for other wrestling programs in the country.