By Chris Cox
When Eisenhower senior Lainie Burkhart started wrestling, she was one of a handful of girls. In fact, when she got to high school, Kansas still hadn’t sanctioned women’s wrestling at the high school level.
“I didn’t have my own girl’s tournament until the end of my sophomore year,” she says. “So, I pretty much wrestled boys. It’s really been exciting to wrestle girls these past couple of years after wrestling just guys.”
Burkhart says it’s exciting to be at the forefront of girl’s high school wrestling.
“It’s grown a lot, especially on our team,” she says. “I was the only girl my sophomore year and now we have 11 girls on our team. There’s a connotation that wrestling is gross but now I think people, especially girls, are starting to see that it’s not gross and they can prove themselves here.”
Being one of the more experienced wrestlers, boys included, on the Eisenhower squad means Burkhart is asked to take a leadership role. A role she does not take lightly.
“For the girls’ team I try to lead them by showing them what to do during tournaments and how to warm up,” she says. “I think I’m more of a quiet leader for the whole team. I just try to lead by example mostly.”
Coming into this season, Burkhart laid out a couple of goals for herself.
“I wanted to find the college I wanted to go to and I’ve done that,” she says. “With wrestling specifically, I want to be in the finals match at state.”
Off the mat, Burkhart is also a member of the Eisenhower softball team.
“I’ve played softball since kindergarten,” she says. “I absolutely love it and probably love it as much as I do wrestling.”
Playing both sports, she says, really helps her to be the best athlete she can be.
“In softball you’re taught to do the basics every day,” she says. “Wrestling it’s the same. You have to focus on the basics.”
Burkhart has committed to wrestle at Simpson College in Iowa. Where wrestling takes her beyond college is unknown but Lainie knows it won’t be then end of her story.
“I just have a really big dream,” she says. “I want to make a name for myself and the best I can be.”
