The foundation of the Tallassee High School girls wrestling program lies with Alli Smith.
Now the Tiger senior will continue to wrestle at Huntingdon College.
While girls wrestling is new to Alabama High School Athletic Association, Smith is a veteran. Her parents introduced her to the sport in elementary school.
“I was always a very tomboy kind of girl,” Smith said. “I liked doing stuff that was different. I was open to anything. One day, my parents said there was a wrestling club I could try out.”
Wrestling pinned the interest of Smith from the start.
“My first practice, they taught me some of the basics,” Smith said. “I had no idea what I was doing, but I was like, I love this.”
The first year Smith went to the club at the age of 9, she placed second in the state. She was undefeated for the next two years.
Smith aged out of the club wrestling program as she entered high school. The only way she wrestled was if she went up against boys. Smith and her parents chose not to do that. But Smith didn’t let her dream die.
“She was determined,” Tallassee boys wrestling coach John Mask said.
Smith stayed in the ear of school administrators and Mask who frequently spoke with the AHSAA about girls wrestling.
Finally the AHSAA was going to sanction girls wrestling.
“They told me if I could get enough girls together for a team, we could start,” Smith said. “I busted my butt and found girls who wanted to do it.”
Tallassee hired Jason Taylor to coach the girls program for its inaugural year.
The determination Smith showed even before the high school wrestling program was already evident to her club coach Brent Tennyson. He returned to coaching to help start the program with head coach Jason Taylor.
“Her determination was one of the reasons why I was excited to do it,” Tennyson said. “It was to finish what we started, especially considering she's been trying to get this program since she started high school. It has been awesome.”
But the season didn’t go quite as planned for Smith. An injury kept her off the mat but not from the team.
“Her leadership off the mat was amazing,” Taylor said. “She was always there encouraging the girls the best way she could. Her leadership was tremendous even though she wasn’t on the mat for the entire season.”
As a team Tallassee placed fifth this past season. Smith thought it would be her last. Taylor said Huntingdon currently has the only lady’s wrestling program in the state.
“We looked at their roster and saw the girl in her weight class was a senior,” Taylor said. “We knew they would be looking for somebody.”
Taylor made a phone call and Smith visited the campus. An offer to wrestle at the college level came. It is an opportunity Smith wants to take advantage of and excel.
I want to make it to nationals,” Smith said. “That's my biggest goal, just like how I came here and I said ‘I wanted to make it to state’ because not every girl makes it. It's the same for college.”
Smith helped grow the program at Tallassee and wants to do the same for the young Huntingdon program finishing its third year.
“I love growing programs,” Smith said. “You don't really have anyone to look up to. It's kind of like you have to work yourself up and you don't have to worry about what others think.”