Hello, my name is Jess Wilder, and I am the head wrestling coach here at Cumberland College. I am often asked how the women's wrestling team came about. This is our story.

The first thought of a women's wrestling team belonged to our college president, Dr. Jim Taylor. While in high school, Dr. Taylor was an avid wrestler, so he has always been supportive of our sport. It was the fall of 1998, when I checked my on - campus mail box and found an article put in there by Dr. Taylor about a brother and sister from Virginia who were on the same high school wrestling team. On a post - it note, Dr. Taylor asked for my thoughts on the article. Thanks to the many beatings I took from my older sisters, it was easy for me to envision girls wrestling, and that was the message I relayed back to Dr. Taylor. At that point Dr. Taylor gave me permission to start researching the necessary components of a women's team. At the time, there was only one other team with a women's program, so I began to follow them. As I was beginning my research, Maria Davalle, a freshman at Cumberland, approached me. She expressed to me her interest in wrestling because she competed in high school, so I agreed to let her workout. Maria worked hard and started to learn techniques, but she just didn't have any workout partners. The following year, 1998 - 1999 season, two more girls joined the wrestling team. Their names were Shelly Bowden and Heather Kenyan. Finally, by partnering with one another, the girls began to make immediate advancements. Carson - Newman had a girl on their team at the time so we set the match up between Heather and the Carson - Newman girl to take place at the beginning of the men's dual meets. Although Heather lost, she fought hard and gained a lot of respect from everybody. The fans loved it. Unfortunately, Shelly sustained a season ending injury, so Heather no longer had a partner, but the groundwork was in place.

I began to receive calls from prospective female wrestlers, coaches, and parents. I knew women's wrestling could work as long as they were looked at as competitors. I took my list of names over to Dr. Taylor's office along with the proposals for budgets, scholarships, schedules etc. After approval, I began to actively correspond with interested girls and to recruit our first team at Cumberland College. The team members for that fall of 1999 were: Joy Warren, Anne Waddell, Sarah Van Skaik, Tamera Arnold, Mary Jacques, Nikki Woods, and Ami Hiett. With this first team, we began to work hard. The ladies had a lot to learn about wrestling, and I had a lot to learn about coaching women wrestlers. We all worked hard at what we had to do, and it began to pay off. The girls began to win matches, learn techniques, and have fun. We had several girls place at tournaments. We also participated in the first ever women's varsity college dual meet against Minnesota Morris. There were 6 weight classes. Due to injuries and several girls being in the same weight class, we were only able to fill 4 of the 6 weight classes. The 2 weight classes that we didn't have girls in were filled by then high school phenomenon's and present Cumberland College students, Jessi Shirley and Toccara Montgomery. I was so proud of our girls because it was their first college matches ever and it was against an established program and we still won 2 out of the 4 matches wrestled. Most importantly, everyone wrestled hard! We finished the season strong and the calls from prospective female students began to flow in. As the interest grew, I realized it would be too much for me to handle both the men and women's wrestling teams. I proposed to President Taylor that a full - time women's coach be hired. Since that time the women's program has made immense strides in talent and athletes.