Anyone that knows the Bartelson sisters knows that they have been proactive wrestlers almost their whole lives. What most people do not know are the things they have done to get there and continue to do in their daily lives.
Sophomore Jordyn Bartelson explains her goals for this year as a wrestler. Last year she won at State for wrestling as a freshman.
“Our goal is to go back to State and win another title. This year my goal is for my sister to win; I want my sister to win more than I want to win myself. So I mean, working hard for her is really benefitting me too because we are both competing,” Jordyn Bartelson said. “She is my sister and I want to see her succeed and do well this year. Before season started I told myself that I was going to work hard to make sure she gets there. We are pretty close, she has been my practice partner ever since we were little.”
Not only is Jordyn Bartelson a state champ wrestler but she is also a multi-sport athlete. She plays club soccer for the Washington Premiere on the ECNL (Elite Clubs National League) team. Her team went to National Championships and is required to trek all across the state for their games.
“I have to travel with my team a lot and miss wrestling practices this year which is really tough. My sister and I do a lot of extra practices outside of school and we pretty much practice seven days a week. A lot of the time I go from wrestling practice to soccer right afterwards. Then sometimes I go to another wrestling practice on top of all that. Doing wrestling and soccer at the same time is a lot to keep up on,” Jordyn Bartelson said.
Jordyn Bartelson expounds on her experience being a multi-sport athlete. Her team traveled to Florida over winter break and over the course of the last year they traveled to Texas, California, Idaho, Chicago and Oregon to compete against other select teams.
“Over winter break was a really important time to be here and practice but I had to go to Florida for a week with soccer and miss that practice time with my sister. When everyone else was practicing, I was in Florida and it is tough,” Jordyn Bartelson said. “We have league games in California so sometimes I have to miss tournaments and stuff like that to go to soccer. There are positives and negatives. With soccer I get that extra conditioning but on the other hand I am missing practice, drilling and practicing with my team. It is kind of tough but it all works out in the end.”
Currently, Jordyn Bartelson plays soccer and wrestles; she used to play fastpitch on top of both those sports as well. She enjoys being a multisport athlete but along with that comes the battle of time and overlapping schedules.
“Both of us used to play fastpitch, soccer and wrestling but then I quit fastpitch and went to my soccer team and Brooklyn quit soccer and went to fastpitch. It was hard and I really liked all the sports I played. That is why I just play fastpitch for the high school now,” Jordyn Bartelson said.
Jordyn Bartelson and her sister were not very serious about wrestling until about seventh-grade at Edgemont Junior High. Up until that year they were not competitive wrestlers but when competition stared them in the face they had to say yes.
“When we were younger we kind of just went to practice and matches and stuff. But then in seventh grade we started to do a lot more with tournaments outside, for school and extra practices. We just got to that age where we wanted to win and we wanted to be the best,” Jordyn Bartelson said.
Last year Jordyn Bartelson went to State wrestling as a freshman and competed for the State title. Though it was intimidating for her to be standing alongside high school seniors she gave all she had to give and reaped the rewards.
“It was exciting but I did not expect to win; I did not really know what was going to happen because I was such an underdog and I wrestled a senior in the finals. I just decided I was going to go out there and give it my all because I did not have anything to lose,” Jordyn Bartelson said. “It is really tough to win as a freshman because you do not have as much experience as all the older kids there. You just have to come out with that confidence that you are not going to be beat and that you want to win. But on the other hand, anyone can beat you on any given day.”
Jordyn’s sister, Brooklyn Bartelson, a freshman at Edgemont Junior High, describes her experience watching her sister win at State for wrestling last year from the bleachers of the sweaty, intense gym they competed in.
“It was pretty cool because Jordyn went half way through the year to wrestle at the high school since she was not really sure if she wanted to wrestle without my dad coaching her. So she went there about half way through the season and it was cool to watch her win state because of how hard she worked,” Brooklyn Bartelson said.
Brooklyn plays fastpitch for the Lady Hawks as a freshman. Though she is also a multi-sport athlete, her schedules do not conflict as much compared to her sister Jordyn.
“Right now it is not really hard because we only practice a couple days a week. I have batting one day during the week and I usually come home from practice, go for an hour and then back to practice,” Brooklyn Bartelson said. “It is not really too bad because we just practice on the weekends [primarily Saturday and Sunday]. Usually I do not go to practices on Saturday because of tournaments and things like that but I always go on Sunday. We practice three days a week. We have batting one day a week and then practice for three to four hours on Saturday and Sunday. I think it is pretty easy right now, you just have to learn how to balance things and know your priorities.
Brooklyn explains her wrestling background with her dad who has been coaching for over 20 years, who is also a coach to her and her sister. Unlike many other athletes, Brooklyn and Jordyn Bartelson have been practicing with their dad since they were old enough to wrestle.
“We have always been around it. We just grew up in the gym but our first couple years of wrestling my dad coached at Puyallup when we were younger. We would come to practices and go in the gymnastics crash pad room and play around in there for the first couple of years,” Brooklyn Bartelson said. “We have always been around it and kind of wrestled but we did not really get competitive until seventh grade. We started at this little league in Fife because my dad started coaching that. So then we started wrestling down there more and competing more and that got us to where we are at now.”
She goes on to explain her motivation to compete at State this year alongside her sister as a high school student. Seeing Jordyn Bartelson compete for title was the spark of her motivation to go to State as well.
“I think when you do a sport you should always do it to the best of your ability and go for the highest goal that you can. So for me I think winning state would be like the highest goal so you just practice hard enough and try to get there. If you fail then just go back in the practice room and work harder,” Brooklyn Bartelson said.
Brooklyn Bartelson not only plans to try and achieve her goal of going to State this year but she also looks at her future for next year when she wrestles as a sophomore for Puyallup High School.
“This year at the beginning of our fastpitch season they were talking about how next year we will have to choose and be a one sport athlete. I was talking to my mom about it and I do not just want to be a one sport athlete, I want to keep wrestling so I will just have to find a different club if they will not let me keep wrestling next year. I do not think I would ever give up wrestling because I enjoy it now. It is hard but kind of fun at the same time,” Brooklyn Bartelson said.
Brooklyn Bartelson then goes on to tell of her plans for next year as a competitive wrestler. Losing will be no roadblock on the road to success for this avid athlete.
“When I lose I just go back to the practice room and figure out what I need to work on and practice more on it. State is what we are going for. We work hard so we can get there,” Brooklyn Bartelson said.
