Former Olympic wrestler Donell Bradley is currently in her second year as the head girls wrestling coach at Greenbrier High School, and she’s riding high with a bonafide state championship contender team.
After clinching back-to-back area duals titles and, one year removed from a third place finish in the first-ever Georgia High School Association’s girls duals wrestling tournament, she has the Lady Wolfpack positioned for another run at state Saturday.
Greenbrier defeated Putnam County 69-9 Friday in the first round of the state duals tournament in Carrollton. The Lady Wolfpack also knocked off Lumpkin County 51-27 which punched their ticket to a Saturday morning semifinal matchup with Jordan. Match time is at 9 a.m.
Of course, the goal is a state title. But even if that goal is out of reach this season, Bradley will see her team’s success as taking another step toward her goal of helping grow girls wrestling in the area.
Women’s wrestling is arguably the fastest growing high school sport in Georgia already, and Bradley sees more room for growth.
“In 2015, Georgia started with only 178 girls, and then last season we ended with around 1200,” Bradley said. “It has definitely grown over the last few years. Especially the last six years have been very quick growth.”
Women’s wrestling is not only growing in Georgia, but across the country.
“In 2015, nationally we were at about 16,000 girls to 2023 we are at 52,000 nationwide,” Bradley said.
Bradley, a Hawaii native, who won the first ever wrestling state championship in the state in 1998, went on to be a two-time state champion in Hawaii. Bradley was also a high school national champion her senior year, which led to her decision to continue wrestling at Missouri Valley College.
Bradley was a multiple-time All-American at Missouri Valley, and after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science, she went to the Olympic Training Center to prepare for the first-ever Women’s Olympic Team Trials in 2004.
Unfortunately, Bradley was sidelined due to an injury. This led to her pursing coaching, which landed her in Georgia.
Bradley joined Greenbrier’s squad as an assistant for the 2021-2022 season. She was promoted to head coach the very next season.
With any new sport, it can be tough to build a new team, but Bradley used her first batch of wrestlers to recruit girls throughout the school.
“They are my biggest recruiters. Sometimes they brought friends out and said, ‘Hey, this is my friend. She wants to try out wrestling,’” Bradley said. “Most of the girls I have on the team have been because somebody else has brought them in.”
Bradley uses her own experiences to make the predominantly male sport more approachable to females.
“I got a college education because of wrestling,” Bradley said. “I built my own confidence throughout high school through wrestling. Me sharing my experiences with the girls has been my testimony and my biggest sales pitch as to why they should come out and try wrestling.”
Senior Ryan Lewis has used wrestling to make new friends outside of her normal circle. She has also used wrestling to build her confidence up throughout high school.
“From freshman year I was really shy, and I hardly talked to anyone,” Lewis said. “To now, my senior year, and I am more vocal and even a team captain. I feel so much better about myself, I can reach out to other girls and not be as scared as I used to be.”
The team honored its six seniors during the duals tournament. Mya Pilger, Jade Stephens, Ryan Lewis, Phoebe Melvin, Jordan Epstein and Arieana Bacon were instrumental in building the program, and with this being their last ride, every moment will be special.
“My last dual formatted tournament in front of our home crowd, it was really fun to finish off in a good way and become area champions,” Senior, Ryan Lewis said. “It was really nice to be honored and have the support of all the girls and the fans.”
This year, Greenbrier got to host both the girls and boys Area 1 Duals championships, with Greenbrier’s boys following up the girls’ area title with a strong second place finish.
Of course, with the girls and boys wrestling teams having joint practices, meetings and sometimes tournaments, there can be some minor issues between the two teams.
“Even though we are a men’s and women’s team, we are all still Greenbrier at the end of the day,” Bradley said. “As coaches, when we see those issues, we can come together as a team and set certain expectations on what we want as a team.”
With girls wrestling, the alignment is different from most other sports. There are no classifications as in sports like football or basketball. Every team is under the same classification, which is then split up into eight different areas. Each area contains 35 to 40 schools.
“Even though there are some larger teams, there are still some teams that cannot fill a full roster, so there are only a certain number of teams that can compete in the dual format,” Bradley said.
Bradley knows that bringing home a state crown will go a long way in helping raise the popularity of the sport locally. But no matter what happens Saturday in Carrollton, her desire to make the girls game go viral will remain intact.
“Last year we were at 36 states that held a women’s state tournament,” Bradley said. “The goal is to reach all 50 states within the next few years.”
