Girls go to mat in Valley’s Red Rose Wrestling Club

Phoenix Toney gave up cheerleading and gymnastics to take on a sport that, traditionally, has attracted more males than females. The 7-year-old from Austintown is part of the Red Rose Wrestling Club that brings girls of all ages together to practice and spar.

The all-girls wrestling club, which meets twice a week at Dinger’s Athletic Facility on state Route 14, is the only one of its kind in the area, according to its coaches.

The combat sport is gaining popularity among girls, nationwide, and locally, from schools including Boardman, Canfield, South Range, Poland and Brookfield.

“Twenty-four seven, she wants to wrestle at home,” Phoenix’s dad, Tim Toney said. “She’s all about this.”

Instructor Joey Murray, of Austintown, said the program started three years ago, with four girls, and continues to expand.

“It’s just grown exponentially,” he said, explaining the girls are tight-knit and hang out after practice. “But they battle when they’re out there.”

Murray, a 2004 Fitch High School graduate, wrestled for most of his life and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

His daughter, Demi, 7, is in first grade at Heartland Christian School, and his niece, Ella Thomas, 16, is a sophomore at Poland Seminary High School and placed two years in a row at the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s state tournament for wrestling.

“She really found a passion for the sport,” he said, adding she spent a few years wrestling against boys until the state began recognizing girls wrestling a few years ago.

Murray said he enjoys coaching female athletes because they’re eager to learn and they work hard.

He said his partner, Jordan Beadle, Poland’s head wrestling coach, is a pioneer for girls wrestling.

Beadle’s daughter, Lexi, 19, helped coach the practice and said 13 girls attended that evening, though the club usually practices about 30.

She attended Boardman schools through her junior year but graduated from Spire Academy in Geneva, where she lived her senior year so she could wrestle.

She attends Baldwin Wallace University, is on the school’s wrestling team and is studying neuroscience with a minor in psychology.

She said wrestling gives the girls confidence and teaches them to get back up and keep going. “I think it’s the perfect sport for life,” she added.

Lexi Beadle said she had a winning record throughout her career and wrestled boys until her junior year, when the state-sanctioned women’s wrestling in Ohio. She also competed at the world team trials the last two years in Spokane, WA.

“I was probably the first girl in the area to wrestle,” she said, adding that she enjoys coaching other girls and watching them “grow into the women they’re becoming.”

Two girls in the club — Thomas and Isabella Williams, 16, of Brookfield, have qualified for the 2025 USMC junior nationals in July in Fargo, North Dakota.

They recently competed in the state championship in Ada, representing Red Rose. Thomas placed first in freestyle and Williams took first in Greco-style wrestling.

Williams’ sister, Delaney, 14, said the idea to start wrestling was hers and she coerced her sister to join her. “I made her sign up because I didn’t want to do it by myself,” she joked.

Their mom, Cyndi, said she loves watching her daughters wrestle and credited the club with giving them expert instruction. “We can actually see improvements,” she said.

Jordan Beadle, who got involved in mixed martial arts after graduating in 2003 from Wellsville High School, said his daughter began to wrestle in third or fourth grade and showed promise right away.

“Wrestling is being comfortable in an uncomfortable position,” he said. “Wrestling does a nice job of teaching that.”

He said about 1,800 girls competed at the high school level last year. Nationally, he said, girls’ wrestling is the first or second fastest growing sport in the country.

A national duals event will be held in June in Indiana. Jordan Beadle was chosen as a coach for Team Ohio, which will include Thomas and Abbie Miller, both of Poland, competing on the junior’s team; Isabella Williams on 16U; and Saydee Artup of East Palestine, representing the 14U category.

Jordan Beadle said he’s also hoping to be chosen to coach at the Fargo event.

Ashley Lucas, of Canfield, said her 10-year-old daughter, Raegan, took an interest in wrestling after starting Jiu-Jitsu, which shares some similarities, including grappling.

Lucas said she appreciates the lessons the sport teaches and said Red Rose is the kind of club where her daughter is “treated as an athlete and not just a girl.”

She said Beadle and Murray pour their hearts into Red Rose and the lessons they teach will stay with the girls for life, adding “I don’t know how they do it, but it takes a lot of guts to walk into a gym full of boys who don’t want you to be there.”

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