First Lady of Wrestling

Durant’s Addison Polk signs scholarship
  • Durant wrestler Addison Polk, who signed to continue wrestling at Northern Oklahoma College, celebrates with Kenzie Trotter, Bailey Cross and Olivia Crossland.
    Durant wrestler Addison Polk, who signed to continue wrestling at Northern Oklahoma College, celebrates with Kenzie Trotter, Bailey Cross and Olivia Crossland.
  • Durant Lady Lion Addison Polk signed to wrestle at Northern Oklahoma College and she is the first female athlete in school history to take wrestling to the college level. Shown sitting are her mother Kelley Polk and father Chaz Polk. Standing are DHS head wrestling coach Jim Taylor, Addison’s grandmothers Bonnie Eastwood and Pam Polk, brothers Aiden Polk and Channing Polk, and NOC women’s wrestling coach Jayden Miller. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat
    Durant Lady Lion Addison Polk signed to wrestle at Northern Oklahoma College and she is the first female athlete in school history to take wrestling to the college level. Shown sitting are her mother Kelley Polk and father Chaz Polk. Standing are DHS head wrestling coach Jim Taylor, Addison’s grandmothers Bonnie Eastwood and Pam Polk, brothers Aiden Polk and Channing Polk, and NOC women’s wrestling coach Jayden Miller. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat
  • Durant Lady Lion wrestler Addison Polk, who became the first female athlete in school history to continue wresting in college, is shown with her grandmothers Bonnie Eastwood, left, and Pam Polk. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat
    Durant Lady Lion wrestler Addison Polk, who became the first female athlete in school history to continue wresting in college, is shown with her grandmothers Bonnie Eastwood, left, and Pam Polk. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat

Just over five years ago, girls wrestling was not even an inkling in the eyes of Durant head coach Jim Taylor. Then along came Addison Polk and the rest is history.

Polk, who became the first-ever Durant female wrestler, signed a scholarship offer last week with Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa to become the first to ever gain that notoriety as well.

As a senior, she’ll be bidding for a fourth straight trip to the state tournament this week in regional competition with a 28-6 season record as one of the qualifying favorites but now has her immediate future well within sight.

“This is definitely a big day for Addison and our program,” said Taylor. “She’s been such an asset to our program and helped to build the girls division to what it is today. This is obviously something that has never been done before so it’s quite an opportunity for her.

“She faced plenty of challenges along the way but has met every one of them head on and gotten better and better every day.”

During her time at Durant High School, she has been an influential part of the influx of girls wrestlers in the program at all levels.

She regularly helps coach the girls at the middle school level that are trying to learn the sport much as she was just five years ago.

“Being able to coach these middle school girls has really been one of the highlights for me. It’s really given me everything I could’ve ever dreamed of,” Polk recently commented. “To help girls find the passion for the sport so that it continues to grow is really the main goal because we don’t want it to stop. It’s just amazing to be able to show little girls that it is possible to compete in this sport.”

Competing in wrestling though wasn’t always something she thought about growing up. In fact, it was middle school when decided on the idea while being a regular attendee at Durant little league practices that her dad Chaz regularly oversaw.

She quickly figured out she liked the sport and as it turns out was pretty good at it.

“My dad started the little league program and my family was around it all the time,” Polk added. “I decided to try it and just fell in love with it from there.”

Polk quickly began competing at that time right along with all the boys because girls divisions in the sport were still several years away.

The challenges of competing against boys was real but the young Lady Lion continued to persevere and began seeing success.

She qualified for the Class 5A state tournament as a freshman at Durant High. She claimed third at the state meet in her sophomore year and returned to state again as a junior, running into a tough bracket draw along the way.

After the conclusion of this year, Polk will embark on what will likely be a similar journey for a Northern program that is also in its infancy as one of only three colleges in Oklahoma that offer women’s wrestling as a scholarship sport. In fact, only four NCAA Division I schools nationwide currently offer women’s wrestling but the Durant senior knows those numbers are growing every year.

“This is really exciting for me because I am eager to see what I can do at the next level,” Polk said. “I had a few offers, most were farther away than I wanted to be. This is a brand-new program and it sparked an interest in what I wanted. It’s kind of cool that I’m going to be able to be on the first team once again. They have a bunch of girls coming in from different areas. There will be different practice programs and practice partners.

“We will be competing against other junior colleges and some four-year schools. We’ll compete in tournaments as well as national tournaments. Women’s wrestling is classified as the fastest growing sport in college with more schools catching on. My goal is to go up there for two years, then at the end of two years decide what school I want to go to next to continue my career.”

There’s no doubt there will be even more opportunities for what will always be Durant’s First Lady of Wrestling.