Slippery Rock youth wrestler places at state meet in 1st season
SLIPPERY ROCK — As her confidence grew, her wins piled up.
Next thing she knew, Slippery Rock Middle School seventh-grader Amber Snyder placed fifth at the Keystone Girls State Wrestling Championships last month in Reading. She competed in the 12U 125-pound weight class.
And this is the first year she ever wrestled.
“I never expected anything like this to happen,” Amber said. “I was hoping for maybe eighth. I was pretty excited.”
“She’s a competitive kid and she has a lot of natural talent,” Slippery Rock youth wrestling coach Kevin Shamblin said. “Once Amber developed confidence in herself on the mat, about halfway through the season, she just took off.”
Amber had been involved in cheerleading and gymnastics before trying wrestling.
“It looked like something fun to do,” she said. “The feeling I get when I hit the mat, going up against someone else one-on-one ... I like the challenge of that.”
Slippery Rock does not have a separate girls wrestling program, but has had females experience success in the sport in girls state tournaments. Lexi Doerflinger placed second in the 2022 high school state tourney and fourth last year. Sophie Hensel placed fourth as a 10-year-old in the 2022 youth state tournament.
Amber was 7-7 wrestling against boys in the regular season. Slippery Rock had four total female wrestlers in its junior high and high school programs this season.
“We’re trying to get a girls wrestling program started in Slippery Rock,” Shamblin said. “I feel like the interest is there.”
“I found it harder wrestling against girls than I did boys,” Amber said. “Maybe they (boys) wrestled me differently because I’m a girl, I don’t know, but going up against boys never bothered me.”
Amber was pinned late in the first period of her first match at the Keystone State Championships. She then rattled off pins in 1:14, 45 seconds and 1:06 in the consolation bracket before dropping a 6-1 decision.
She placed fifth by pinning Noelle Miller of Canon-McMillan in 1:08.
“Amber’s strength is her eagerness to learn,” Shamblin said. “She works hard at everything in the practice room. She’s done this well already and she’s just learning the sport. There’s no telling how good she can be.”
While Amber said her biggest strength on the mat is her own confidence, she admits she has a long way to go.
“I’m still working on putting different moves together during a match,” she said. “My execution of certain moves aren’t where they need to be, but I’ll get better.”
Her goal next season is place third or fourth in the state tournament, “or maybe first or second. I hope to wrestle in high school ... We’ll see how that goes.”
