Athlete mixes it up
Fowlerville’s Paige Rife wrestles and cheers for Gladiators
Friday, January 21, 2005
BY JASON DEEGAN
News Staff Reporter
When Paige Rife’s varsity jacket was finished last spring, an employee of the store that created it made a worried call to the family.
“I’m afraid we’ve made a mistake, “the caller told David Rife, Paige’s father. “They put cheerleading and wrestling on the back.”
Rife could only smile, and laugh. “You’ve got it right, “he recalls saying.
Paige Rife, a sophomore at Fowlerville High School, has been competing in wrestling and cheerleading in the same season for so long, she can’t remember anything else. The two sports that seem like total opposites work well together for her.
“Some people find it unique that I wrestle and do cheerleading together, “she said. “After doing it so many years, it feels normal. Wrestling is very male-dominated, but so many more girls are coming into it. It’s not just a manly thing. It’s a part of who I am.”
Rife’s recent performances at top national tournaments for girls have proven that she’s one to watch. She finished fifth at the ASICS/Vaughan Girls Junior Nationals in the 138-pound weight class last July and is nationally ranked in her weight class. She has an open invitation to train with the U.S. women’s Olympic wrestling program in Marquette.
She’s been out most of this high school season with torn ligaments in her right elbow suffered in a junior varsity match at the season-opening tournament at Howell High School. But the 15-year-old has a bright future if she decides to commit herself to training for the Olympics. Women’s wrestling became a sanctioned sport in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
“My dad tells me all the time, ‘You don’t know how good you are’, “she said. “I just don’t think about that I’m nationally ranked. It’s just wrestling practice to me.
“But I realize the 2008 Olympics are not that far away. I’m excited to start training for it. I would be in heaven if I made it there. It’s slowly coming to me what wrestling can do for me.”
All in the family
Paige, then 8, attend her first wrestling practices to watch her younger brother, Travis. She rolled around on the mat so much, her parents signed her up for the Fowlerville’s TNT wrestling club team the next season.
Wrestling has grown into a Rife family tradition. David Rife said both his sons, Travis, 12, and Mason, 6, have won a pair of Amateur Athletic Union national championships. Paige Rife hasn’t won a national title, yet.
David Rife, 41, who wrestled at Fowlerville High School, graduating in 1982, said he picked up the sport again four years ago to coach his children. Within two years, the professional monster truck driver captured his weight class in the Ironman Wrestling World Championship in Nashville, Tenn.
“I started to wrestle just to show them (my children) moves and found out it was not as easy as it used to be, “he said. “It added credibility (to my coaching) that I go to nationals.”
Taking on the boys
Both David and his wife, Trish Rife, admit they don’t like their daughter wrestling boys. But it’s the only way to learn the sport.
“She had to work at it to get good, “her father said. “That first match she won (against a boy), we cried like babies. It took her a good six-eight tournaments before she won. She kept getting beat up.”
As she grew older, Paige Rife said she grew more comfortable wrestling guys. Her flexibility and determination are her only weapons against boys who are stronger and quicker. Being an underdog makes a victory all the more sweet.
“The best part (about wrestling) is if you beat a guy, “she said. “They wrestle so different when you’re a girl. They feel they have to beat you. You get a different feeling out of it when you beat the guys. That is what’s cool.”
Trish Rife said her daughter has a killer instinct on the mat. “She will not back down from anybody, “she said.
As she watches Fowlerville’s wrestlers practice, Paige Rife sits near the mat, the large bulky brace a reminder that she’s stuck on the sidelines.
She worries her injury might keep her from several important upcoming national tournaments – the U.S. Girls’ Wrestling Association championship in Lake Orion in March and the Body Bar Cadet Nationals in San Diego, Calif., in April.
Her arm doesn’t bend well. She flinches in pain, trying to straighten it. Doctors have told her that surgery is an option, but she’s staying positive.
“It won’t set me back too far, “she said. “I know when it’s time to buckle down and get ready for nationals.”
Jason Deegan can be reached at [email protected] or at (810) 844-2012.
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