hough Jordan Blair may be small, she is fierce.
Blair is a high school wrestler who hasn’t let her size or her gender get between her and a long list of awards. She’s actually part of a growing trend in our state and a push for gender equality in the sport of wrestling.
“You pushed me to a corner, you underestimate me,” she said. “That’s like something that should drive a person.”
Blair may be a 106-pound, 14-year-old girl, but you don’t want to try to cross her.
Blair first got involved in wrestling in the sixth grade.
“I saw it on the fill out sheet, like we have to do for school, and I went home, and I asked if I could do it and I guess I just got into it,” she said.
Though Blair’s won several championships now, everyone has to start from somewhere. It was unfamiliar territory for her and, quite frankly, uncomfortable.
“I was kind of pushed to a corner and was shunned by my team because I didn’t know how to wrestle and I was really, really small,” she said.
But, Blair didn’t let that get in her way. Instead, it actually motivated her.
Blair started practicing and working out every day, even traveling to Standfast Wrestling Club in Edmond for practices.
“Sometimes, my dad will make me go every day, the whole week,” she said.
Blair said her father, a purple heart veteran, is the one who instilled in her a work ethic that her coach said is invaluable.
“She’s just a fierce competitor,” Jason McPhail, Blair’s coach, said. “She comes in, and she drills with the boys and works out with the boys every day.”
Right now, there’s no female wrestling division in the OSSA at the state championship level, but there is a huge push to change that. It’s a push the association is on board with for the future.
At Bethel Public Schools, they only have two female wrestlers, but they’re doing all they can to encourage more to join.
“With us, we built a girl’s locker room, specifically so that they would feel more comfortable when they come into wrestling,” McPhail said.
For now, this girl has no problem with competing against and beating the boys.
“I think she likes that competition,” McPhail said. “She likes beating the boys.”
Blair has dreams of competing for a Division I college team and eventually in the Olympics.
The OSSAA said girls’ wrestling at the state championship level is something they’d like to see but plans are in the infancy stages.
