WRESTLING PROGRAM
You won’t see the names of the mat girls from Jones County High School’s wrestling program listed on any bracket result sheets, and odds are that medals of top finishers won’t be awarded to them, either.
But their impact off the mat and behind the scenes has time and again proven invaluable. Their support enables the Greyhounds coaching staff to focus on what happens on the mat and leaves keeping the match going to a group of four mat girls – Avery Giles, Courtney Cromer, McKalee Gilstrap and Maci Martin.
In fact, it’s not hard for Gilstrap to point to the most gratifying thing about being a Greyhounds mat girl.
“Being able to help out and make the coaches and wrestlers lives easier, Gilstrap said.
Gillhouse, Jones County’s head wrestling coach didn’t mince words about the group recently, “I think we have the best group of mat girls in the state,” the Greyhounds head coach said.
In both dual meets and tournaments, the Greyhounds mat girls step forward, ensuring roles such as running the scoreboard, keeping the scorebook, running a live video stream and alerting officials at the end of periods by tapping them on the shoulder with a pool-noodle type device.
“Being a wrestling manager has given me so many opportunities over the past two years,” Gilstrap said. “The other managers are some of my best friends and having them by my side is always fun. Coach Gillhouse is such an amazing leader, and through this program I have become extremely close with him and his family. It has been a blessing. In and out of wrestling, he is someone I can come to. The other coaches are extremely fun to be around. I consider every wrestler on the team my friend, some of them I even consider my brothers. Interacting with the team is the best part of being a manager.”
In high school wrestling, there are two types of matches that teams face one another in. Whereas dual meets pit two teams against one another on one mat, tournaments bring in multiple teams, sometimes filling an entire gymnasium with not just multiple matches, but various other factors and variables to juggle.
“Tournaments are a lot more stressful because there is so much going on. We’re not just working with two teams, we’re working with multiple teams,” Giles said. “We’ll have our boys on one mat and we’re trying to see if they win or not, so we’re all over the place. Duals are much more relaxing, because we’re focused on our team and the other.”
In short – tournaments can be a bit of organized chaos at times.
“Tournaments tend to be a bit more chaotic because we have to work with multiple teams and matches at once. Duals are much calmer,” Gilstrap said. “Because we focus on one match at a time and when we’re at home, we have to balance multiple jobs at once, like running the clock, keeping a book, interacting with referees and wrestlers, plus other miscellaneous things that pop up.”
As is the case with any team, even a loose connection to a group during the path of a season develops a tight bond. It’s no different for the Greyhounds mat girls.
“Being around the same wrestlers for so long, they kind of become like family. Sometimes we talk about how we’re team moms and they are all our bonus and we try to take care of them. Being with the team usually makes my day better during the week, Martin said.
That sentiment is echoed by Cromer.
“We are all a family; we take care of each other. The coaches are like our bonus dads and wrestlers are like our bonus brothers,” Cromer said.
So how did a group that’s become a backbone behind the scenes come together? Oddly enough, it was rooted in another sport at JCHS. Before taking over as the Greyhounds head coach prior to last season, Gillhouse was also an assistant football coach for Jones County. It was there that his duties involved coordinating with the team’s student managers during the season. That helped pave the way to them eventually coming aboard to support the wrestling program.
“I knew that if Coach Gillhouse was a good football coach to us when we were football managers, he’d be awesome to us as mat girls,” Cromer said.
In a testament to how wellrounded each JCHS mat girl is, each lists multiple other campus activities on their resumes. Cromer, for example, has been part of the football team’s film crew; Gilstrap has been part of FCA and a football cheerleader; Martin’s activities have included being a football manager and part of Junior Leadership Jones; with Giles’ resume also including being a football manager.
“Knowing that I can help these boys and show them how much we care for them and have their back, it means a lot,” Giles said.
