A similar gender-breaking move took place at Tonganoxie Junior High this fall.

Although girls are slightly more common in wrestling than in football, eighth-grader Haley Hansen became Tonganoxie’s first female wrestler.

For Hansen, the decision to wrestle wasn’t all that difficult. Through the suggestion of friends and twins David and Daniel McIntosh, Hansen joined the wrestling team.

“I wanted to prove to them that I’m not too much of a girl,” Hansen said.

Though that was her intention, she still stood out as the only female on the squad.

TJHS coach Dean Moss was slightly apprehensive, but Hansen turned out to be just another wrestler.

“Coming in, I’d never coached a girl before,” Moss said. “I was kind of anxious to see how it was all going to work out.”

It turned out everything was fine for the coach and his newest wrestler.

“I fit in really well,” Hansen said. “I don’t really hang out with a lot of girls. Most of my friends are guys.

“I know what it’s like to be around it. It’s just fun to hang around all the people I like and everything.”

The girl playing the predominately male sport and her coach were OK with the move, but that left the girl’s parents.

Haley’s father, Darlyn, had no qualms.

“He thought it was great because she has a lot of upper body strength and he thought she would do well with it,” Anna Hansen said about her husband, Darlyn.

It took Haley’s mother a little more time to become comfortable with the idea.

“It’s nerve-racking,” Anna Hansen said. “I said that was fine if she wanted to try it and felt like she was up to it.”

Tonganoxie’s first female wrestler had to get through an injury first.

For some time, doctors thought Hansen had a sprained wrist, but an upper extremity specialist later found that her center bone was