Bluffton teen was the first female wrestler at her school. Now, more are joining her
Two years ago, Siobhan Rogers had never wrestled before. Now, the 16-year-old is a pioneer among wrestlers at her school and has qualified for the National High School Coaches Association Girls Wrestling Nationals tournament in Virginia.
The way Rogers chose wrestling was sort of an accident, but she soon “fell in love” with the sport, she said.
Her parents told her to pick a winter sport when they moved to Bluffton during the pandemic in 2020. Basketball, she said, was not an option because she isn’t “athletic enough.” Though she says that, Rogers, a junior at Bluffton High School who dreams of joining the U.S. Navy, has played t-ball, been a dancer and played volleyball since she was 9 years old. Four weeks ago, she joined Bluffton’s lacrosse team.
Rogers was the first girl on Bluffton’s varsity wrestling team and in January, capping her second season, became the first from her school to win a state championship.
“I put all that effort into it, I’m not going to fail,” she said.
Her day typically starts at 5:30 a.m. with Reserve Officers’ Training Corps weight training. After that, she attends a full day of classes and heads to two hours of wrestling for her school team, followed by another two and a half hours of practice for her club team.
She then heads home to scramble to do her homework while eating dinner, then off to bed to do it all over again in the morning. Her coaches, she said, help her stay motivated.
“They never let me take a break,” Rogers said. “I love that because I feel like if I did take a break and just stop for a minute, I wouldn’t get back into it. They keep pushing me, teaching me new things.”
On days when she isn’t wrestling, the teenager is heading to volleyball or lacrosse practice. In her free time, she said, she likes to drive around with her younger sister Fiona, a seventh-grade wrestler who is following in her sister’s footsteps. The two of them usually listen to Disney music as they drive to get takeout or to the beach.
‘She isn’t leaving’
After her family’s move to the area from Las Vegas in 2020, making friends at school was hard, she said. When she joined the wrestling team as the only girl, she stuck to one boy she had several classes with.
“At the beginning, it was sort of awkward,” she said. “A little further into the season, they decided ... might as well be her friend because she isn’t leaving any time soon.”
Since then, two other girls — a freshman and a sophomore — have joined the team and have become some of Rogers’ best friends, she said.
The three of them, however, won’t be able to represent their school in national competitions. In fact, at nationals next month, Rogers said, she will have to compete for her club team instead of her school because South Carolina does not sanction girls’ wrestling.
“It’s really frustrating because there’s a lot of girls in South Carolina who are some of the best girls in the country,” Rogers said. If the sport were sanctioned, she said, “so many more girls would do it because it is actually there.”
Rogers is talking with her school’s athletic director to see what can be done to make it so that she can represent her school at nationals next year. Getting there again “won’t be a problem,” she said.
But that positive attitude isn’t always to easy to maintain. At the state-level competition, she was so nervous she almost threw up. Not being intimidated by other wrestlers can sometimes be hard, she said. At nationals next month, she said, she’ll have to remind herself of her hours of training and “just do it.”
“I want to be an All-American, that is my goal right now,” Rogers said. “To win would be awesome, but to be an All-American, that’s what every high schooler dreams to be.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2022 at 2:00 PM.
