VERO BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Young women in Florida have taken on wrestling and are dominating the sport, tightening their head gear and taking down the competition.
At Masters Academy in Vero Beach, the phrase “fight like a girl” is worn as a badge of honor.
An all-girl wrestling program is not heard of often, but at this school they have just that.
“Just a little over a year ago, I felt like I needed a wrestling program for my kids, but there wasn’t any middle school program anywhere an hour north to an hour south from here,” said head coach John-Peter Demsick.
Demsick saw the void in the sport and created the wrestling team.
He then put his kids in wrestling in hopes that his sons would take a liking to the sport.
While they did, it was his daughter Kaylee who fell in love with it.
“I started wrestling because I come from a long line of wrestlers, and it looked really fun,” said Kaylee.
Despite only weighing 88 pounds, Kaylee is wrestling high schoolers in the 100-pound weight class.
“It’s the best stuff you can get, it’s the best sport in the world,” said Kaylee.
She’s joined by sophomore Myleshia Willis, a beast on the mat who placed fourth in 2025’s district tournament.
“It’s a male-dominated sport, so just do your best and go after it,” said Willis. “It’s very cool, like you get to experience a lot of traveling, and you build really good bonds with people.”
The team consists of eight girls in middle school through high school, and each wrestler competes against high school varsity competition statewide.
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