Iowan Pilcher is among prep stars giving girls wrestling a shot

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Updated: January 15, 2025

Photo: Katie Pilcher of Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, an all-state catcher and college signee in softball, took up wrestling as a senior this winter. (Pilcher family photos)

By Mike Finn

Katie Pilcher knows something about hitting home runs in softball. In fact, the senior from Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, became just the second girl in Iowa high school softball history last season to hit two homers in one inning.

And for the first time in her successful prep athletic career, the all-state catcher learned how she could “hit a home run” in another sport — wrestling — in early December, when she pinned an opponent in the third period of her 170-pound bout.

Pilcher had gotten pinned by the same foe a few weeks earlier.

“When I wrestled her my first week of competition, she was more skilled than I was,” recalled Pilcher, who also fought off the move where she had gotten pinned previously to pin her opponent in the same move. “The fact that I came out with a win showed my growth. Also, it’s fun to pin someone right away, but getting to the third period by keeping working, I felt tired but also felt stronger than my opponent. Being able to explode at times when you are tired and feel that you can’t give any more feels incredible.

“I felt like my hard work was paying off. That felt good and was the same feeling as when you hit a home run.”

What made that mat “round-tripper” even more significant for Pilcher is that she’s only been on the mat for a few months after she announced this past fall she was going to wrestle for the first time in her life.

“(The winter months are) kind of our off-season for softball and I wanted to be active and try something new,” said Pilcher, who was a reserve on her high school basketball team in previous winters of her high school days. “I kind of heard about (a girls’ high school team at Xavier) my junior year and I thought, ‘why not do it to stay active in the winter.’” 

Pilcher’s father, K.J., used to wrestle and writes about wrestling for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. But his profession had nothing to do with Katie wrestling.

“I used to go to boys’ tournaments with him, but that didn’t inspire me a lot to wrestle,” she said. “I decided to do this on my own. A lot of the boys and girls you see wrestle are in very good shape and are very athletic. That and all the other things wrestling provided was what I wanted. 

    And perhaps no one was happier — other than her parents — to see her wrestle than Xavier girls coach Henry Riecks, a longtime boys assistant coach at the school, who started a girls’ team two years ago.

“I think it was a boost and a boon to the entire program,” said Riecks, who was well aware of Pilcher’s softball exploits, which also earned her a scholarship to play softball at Truman State in Missouri next year. “Other girls see that and realize they don’t have to start wrestling when they are in kindergarten to participate in this sport when they are in high school.

“Katie, being the all-around athlete that she is, has had a huge influence on other females in our school. Everyone looks up to Katie because she is a solid human being.”

What should a coach tell wrestlers, who are newbies-at-an-older age?

“I try to instill in them that it is not the result of a match, but the progress they are making in the wrestling room,” Riecks said. “If it doesn’t work on the mat, I’m not upset. But if they don’t try anything, that’s when I get a little upset. I view it as victory if they try moves we teach them … and it’s a real victory when they succeed at it.”

Going out for wrestling for the first time also took some courage for Pilcher, who had lost as many matches as she had won in the first month of the year.

“I’m trying to be the best and trying to get better every single day and having the mentality that there is someone better than you,” Katie said. 

“You have to keep working every single day and no matter what sport, wrestling or softball or anything you do in life, you’ve got to keep working harder. The harder you keep working, the more competitive you will be at the highest level.

“I like that fighting aspect and to see how hard you can go at somebody. You know they are going to give you a tough time. It’s that competing back and forth and seeing who will outlast each other.”

And she added that she is simply having fun.

“I think it honestly has helped me in the best way, physically and mentally,” Katie said. “I think it’s fun getting out there and being able to wrestle by giving it your all no matter what. It’s my senior year and I have nothing to lose.”

As a catcher in a team sport, Katie has adjusted to being in more of an individual sport.

“It’s kinds of one vs. one in wrestling,” said Katie, who hopes to go into clinical counseling after she graduates from college. “But when you are in the wrestling room, you are drilling with teammates and at the end of the day you want to push them so they can be better too. You feel a little bit of the team aspect … like a family where you are working together.”

Katie is also aware how fast girls wrestling has grown in this country, including the state of Iowa, which officially sanctioned it as a high school sport two years ago. 

The National Federation of High School Athletics reports that 64,257 girls wrestled nationwide in 2023-24, including 2,093 girls in Iowa; compared to 21,125 (nationally)/204 (Iowa) girls five years earlier.

“I think those numbers come from the girls who started wrestling and started passing the word around and being very influential,” said Katie, mindful that her program like many in the country are relatively new with inexperienced wrestlers. There are a lot of girls going through this and learning every day. 

“The most important thing is that we have to get better day after day.”

And Katie Pilcher, who may never wrestle again after this winter, will make the most of her days with wrestling.