Because she likes to try new things, Grade 9 student Rachelle Fullerton-Lee listened to Olds High School wrestling coach George Grant when he encouraged her to join the Spartans wrestling team in November.
Because she likes to try new things, Grade 9 student Rachelle Fullerton-Lee listened to Olds High School wrestling coach George Grant when he encouraged her to join the Spartans wrestling team in November.
Just four months after taking to the mat for the first time, Rachelle, 14, will wrestle for Zone 2 in the 60-kilogram weight category at the 2014 Alberta Winter Games.
Rachelle took part in a tryout tournament for the games in Cochrane in December and, with no other contenders in her category in this zone, she learned she had landed a spot on Zone 2’s wrestling team for the games immediately after the tryouts ended.
She said when she received word she would be going to the games, she felt relief and a strong urgency to break the news to her mother, Rhonda.
"It was my first tournament so I was kind of like relieved. I was just like, oh my gosh, this is so cool, I’m going to be in the Alberta Winter Games," Rachelle said. "I was waiting for my mom to come back. I’m like mom, I’m going to the Winter Games!"
To prepare for the competition, she is practising with the Spartans on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and also trains with the Cochrane Cowboys Wrestling Club in Cochrane on Sundays.
Rachelle added she has taken part in wrestling day camps at the University of Calgary where she had a chance to meet Carol Huynh, who earned a gold medal for Canada at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for wrestling.
With such an opportunity before her, Rachelle said a great deal of credit for her wrestling success goes to some of the older wrestlers on the Spartans team who have mentored her, especially Meagan Wild and Taylor Ormann.
"When I first started, I was the only first-year girl, so they kind of helped me," she said.
And Rachelle has high hopes for when she competes at the games, not just for herself, but also for those who have helped her get there.
"Receiving a wrestling medal would be pretty cool because the wrestling coaches in Cochrane, Vern (McNeice) and James (McKeage), they want everybody to have a medal so it’s like you want to push yourself hard and win the match and the tournament. I’m kind of hoping that I’ll win so I can actually make them happy."
Rachelle will join fellow Spartan wrestler Austin Mitchell, who will compete in another zone at the games, as well as hockey players Alayna Wagstaff, 13, and Paige Grenier, 14, in representing Olds at the games.
The games take place in Banff and Canmore from February 6 to 9 and Zone 2 stretches from Olds in the north to High River in the south and from Banff in the west to the Saskatchewan border in the east.
The Olds Albertan was not able to reach Austin Mitchell for an interview before press time.
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