Cody Thorn
A little more than a month after the state wrestling tournament wrapped up in Cypress, a handful of wrestlers from the North Texas area are traveling to Prosper Rock Hill High School each Wednesday for a mix of bonding and wrestling.
Kortney Livingston, the Rock Hill girls’ wrestling coach, is one of the coaches who oversee the Sisters On The Mat locations in the Frisco/Prosper area of the metroplex. This is the third year of this chapter of the SOTM.
The nonprofit was started by former Azle head coach Monica Allen with an idea to help grow women’s wrestling through a mix of community building and leadership.
Livingston said wrestlers from multiple schools come together and practice and learn the sport, focusing on freestyle wrestling — a more offensive strategy than what most girls in this state wrestle during the high school season — and Greco wrestling.
Wrestlers between the ages of 12 and 18 are welcome to attend.
Livingston said in addition to the Frisco and Prosper area, wrestlers from McKinney and Allen were invited to the once-a-week session that runs from 5:15 to 6:45 p.m.
The final 15 minutes of each practice is what the coach called mindset training. Athletes are asked to write in a journal.
“Like in our area, we’re making it better because we all know the areas and the regions that are really good at wrestling and they’re good because they have that community and the drive,” Livingston said. “There’s that push and that competition between schools but it also comes down to learning other schools to keep that competition.”
Practices initially started three years ago at Frisco Lebanon Trail and then moved when Caity Hohmann took a job at Haltom City. After that, the event shifted to Rock Hill. Hohmann, current Coppell assistant Maxine Lisot and Livingston helped the Frisco chapter of SOTM start. Lisot currently runs a SOTM chapter in Coppell.
During the first week of practice about 20 girls showed up from Rock Hill, Allen, Frisco Memorial, Frisco Heritage and Frisco Independence to name a few….
