Toledo’s Andrea Jones Joins Grays Harbor Wrestling

TOLEDO — It was Toledo senior Andrea Jones’ younger sister who helped jumpstart her wrestling career back in fifth grade. Jones was playing basketball that year at 11 years old and saw her sister wrestle in a couple meets. It sparked her interest and made her turn in her basketball sneakers for wrestling shoes.

“It intrigued me a lot,” Jones said. “The next year I wanted to try wrestling and see if I liked it. So sixth grade I tried it and I just fell in love with it.”

It was a move Jones is 100 percent thankful she made. Seven years later and Jones is a two-time state competitor, wrestling at Mat Classic both her junior and senior years at 130 pounds. She placed third at regionals this year as a senior.

It helped her earn a scholarship to compete with Grays Harbor College women’s wrestling team in Aberdeen, Washington, where she will be heading to this fall.

“It’s exciting because I didn’t know if I’d be able to wrestle in college like I wanted to,” Jones said.

Jones met Grays Harbor’s wrestling coach, Kevin Pine, during Mat Classic in March at the Tacoma Dome, where he invited her to come watch some college meets two weeks later, see how they run and determine if she was interested in joining the team. Pine hinted at the possibility of offering a scholarship at Mat Classic, then did offer one during the college meet.

Jones could barely put into words what it meant to have a college team want her to compete for them.

“It was humbling,” Jones said. “It’s not a thing that’s very common, especially over here.”

Wrestling at the college level is difficult for high school girls wrestlers in the state, and nation. Grays Harbor is the only community college in Washington to offer women’s wrestling and was just the second junior college to offer it in the entire nation, with Southwestern Oregon College in Coos Bay, Oregon being the other.

It’s made even more difficult for someone like Jones, from tiny Class 2B Toledo. Mat Classic and  tournaments for girls in the state lump all classifications together into one. So Jones was routinely wrestling girls from 2A, 3A and 4A schools. Many of those girls have multiple and sometimes dozens of teammates to practice against. Jones had zero this year.

Jones was the lone girls wrestler at Toledo this season. She wrestled against players from the boys team in practice to prepare for tournaments. There was only one boy who was the same weight as her and another who was 15 pounds heavier who she wrestled regularly. It has its difficulties Jones said, as the boys are usually stronger but also not as flexible, which brings its own challenges.

“It’s difficult sometimes,” Jones said. “But some guys won’t be able to get out of certain positions that some girls can because of flexibility. It helps me because they’re a lot stronger than I am and I had to work harder.”

Also, Jones did not have a girls coach this year at Toledo, while most of her competitors did have a dedicated girls coach to guide them throughout the season. The Toledo boys head coach did travel with Jones to girls tournaments, however, and when he couldn’t one of the assistants would.

It’s a sport Jones could never see herself giving up. She’s turned out for cross country, track soccer, basketball and softball in the past, but it’s wrestling that has become a special part of her life. She loves not only the physical challenge of the sport, but the mental aspect, as well.

“It is one of the hardest sports I’ve ever done,” Jones said. “It is so physically draining. It’s not just that, it’s so much mental. You don’t have a team to back you up. I’ve lost matches before even stepped onto the mat because I wasn’t mentally there. How much it takes to do it is what I enjoy.”

She used to be scared and intimidated when she first entered the circle. But over time she learned the mental game of it, through trial and error, understanding how to believe in herself and push to new physical and mental heights. 

Now she’ll take her skills to Grays Harbor, a burgeoning program that started in 2016. The Choker women placed first at the inaugural National Collegiate Wrestling Association Northwest Championships in February. Nine GHC women’s wrestlers finished in the top four of their weight class to earn a trip to the NCWA National Championships. There, in March, the Chokers placed third as a team and advanced four women to the finals, ending up with two champions.

Girls wrestling is one of the fastest-growing sports in the nation. From 2018-19, six states sanctioned the sport. Jones wants to see girls wrestling continue to gain traction and become more popular. She encourages any high school girls to give it a shot. They don’t know what they’re missing out on.

“I wish there were more girls wrestlers,” Jones said. “A lot of girls I’ve talked to are scared of it because it seems scary, but it’s actually not. If you’re going to ride a horse, it seems scary, but once you get on there and you get the feel of it it’s enjoyable and you have fun. I just wish girls would take that first step.”