PREP GIRLS' WRESTLING: Phy nearly unstoppable

| JOSIE LIMING THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Every one of them wants to be where Phy was last season come Saturday night, standing atop the medals podium.

“I think I’m a little more nervous this season because it’s my senior year and everything is on the line,” Phy said. “If I mess up I can’t go back and change it.”

Messing up is something Phy hasn’t done often on the mat this season. She’s put together a 29-1 record with 29 pins, winning sub-regional and regional titles, while helping the Mountaineers become one of the most feared girls’ programs in the state.

“She’s definitely got some talent in this sport,” Mount Baker coach Ron Lepper said. “I think it’s a sport that she fell in love with as soon as she got involved. She’s a physical girl and doesn’t mind that aspect of it and that’s helped her.”

Phy hasn’t lost to a girl from Washington in over a year.

“I wish some of my matches had gone a little longer so I could get a little more experience and a little more mat time,” Phy said. “If it’s a new wrestler I might try to work some more moves and get some practice in. But if someone is on their back I don’t want to be rude.”

Phy is an elite wrestler at this level and she knows it. It’s a success she seems to appreciate, but struggles not to overestimate. She’s worked hard to get here, and despite wrestling more matches this season than ever before, her record remains sterling.

“I don’t want to be cocky,” Phy said. “There are a lot of people out there that I don’t want to let down, but a big part of that is not letting myself down. I want to prove to people that I’m a good wrestler because I try my hardest.”

In the fairly new sport of girls’ high school wrestling there are few her equal at this point. The handfuls that are grew up around mats and started wrestling boys early on. It’s a lofty perch for any athlete, and Phy hasn’t been impervious to letting it get the best of her.

Her only loss, against a wrestler from Idaho at the girls’ Dream Duals in Spokane in January, was a product of overconfidence and poor preparation, she said. It was a hard lesson to learn, but an important one about remaining humble that could help her reach a second state title.

“I learned that I have to wrestle to my ability,” Phy said. “I think I got a little hot-headed and started thinking I didn’t need a game plan for that match. It was a reality check. I’m human and I can’t get too ahead of myself. There are other girls out there that are good, too. I had to take a step back and make sure I wasn’t slacking because I thought I was better than I am.”

Should Phy win a title on Saturday she’ll join a short list of wrestlers from Whatcom County that have won at least two state wrestling championships. The list includes such area high school wrestling luminaries as Ferndale’s Jason Muggy and Chet Slevin, Blaine’s Tony Harriman, and Sehome’s Graham Morin.

Like any senior high school wrestler, that final match, whenever it might come, will be a bittersweet one. Maybe even more so for Phy, the headline grabber for a girls’ program that started from nothing a few years ago and is now a contender for a state team title.

Phy just hopes the girls’ wrestling buzz she and teammates helped start over the last two seasons will continue to grow throughout Whatcom County and the state.

There are other schools with girl wrestlers around, like at Ferndale and Nooksack Valley, but it hasn’t taken hold like it has at Mount Baker. Her fear is that interest could wain, that the sport she loves will, in time, die.

“Once state is over wrestling is basically gone for me,” Phy said. “It’s my last shot. It will probably hit me more, but I’m starting to feel it a little bit now. It’s sad because I’m so close to all the girls, especially the new ones coming in. I’ve tried to teach them a lot. They’re part of the family now and I have to say good-bye even though I just met them.”