Barnabee Will Make Hurricanes History as First Wrestler to Compete at All-Girls State Tournament

When Juliet Barnabee’s younger twin brothers signed up for the Westhampton Youth Wrestling program as elementary school students, she would go over to the gym at the East Quogue School and watch them practice. Pretty quickly, she was bored — so she decided to join them.

“I’m not somebody to just sit around and watch sports,” Juliet, now a junior at Westhampton Beach High School, said. “I was like, why don’t I just do it?”

At that time, it was easy not to overthink it. Barnabee was still an elementary school student herself, in fifth grade at the East Quogue School, and there were a few other girls in the youth wrestling program. She admits she didn’t love it at first, but found specific motivation to keep going.

“We’d have these mini matches, and there was this one kid I always wanted to beat,” she said. “I finally beat him, and I just loved it from there.”

Sticking with the sport has paid off for Barnabee, who is having a successful season as a member of the Hurricanes varsity team. She will make Westhampton Beach wrestling history this weekend, when she becomes the first female Hurricanes wrestler to compete at the inaugural New York State Girls Wrestling Championships, set for January 27 at the SRC Arena in Syracuse.

The number of girls competing in wrestling has exploded in recent years, leading the New York State Public High School Athletic Association to host a girls championship for the first time this winter. A majority of schools in Suffolk County now have at least one female wrestler on their teams, and there are several all-girls club teams that have seen increasing numbers over the years. Since she was in middle school, Barnabee has competed with Alpha Wrestling, an all-girls club team based in East Islip. There is even talk of trying to create combined teams by geographic location in Suffolk County next year, to create what would be the first all-girls wrestling league in the county.

“The sport is growing like crazy [for girls],” said Westhampton Beach head coach Pete DeTore. “The girls today are really laying a foundation for the girls of tomorrow, because they’re putting all that work in in mixed competition.”

The creation of teams exclusively for girls could lead to even further growth in the sport, DeTore explained.

“There may be girls who are interested in wrestling,” he said, “but don’t want to wrestle the boys. So the girls competing now, are carrying the bulk of the workload with getting that up and running.

“The girls wrestling now are real pioneers,” he added.

That description can be applied to Barnabee, but she prefers to think of herself as just another teammate on what is a close-knit Hurricanes squad. While she has had the opportunity to wrestle other girls throughout the regular season, the bulk of her matches have been against boys. This weekend will give her a chance to see where she stands against some of the top female wrestlers in the state. Just getting there is an impressive achievement for Barnabee — more than 400 female wrestlers applied for a spot at states, and only 200 were chosen, according to DeTore.

“I’m really excited for her and excited to see what it’s like,” he said.

Barnabee’s ability to make it to states is even more impressive considering she was limited the last two seasons because of the pandemic, and then a herniated disk that required surgery. She only got back to action on the mat in November. With that in mind, she said she’s adopting a simple mindset heading to states.

“It’s still a learning experience, and I’m just really grateful and excited that I get to do this,” she said. “I’m going to work my hardest, and the outcome I get is going to be the one I put in the effort to get.”

No matter where she finishes at states — where she will compete in the 114-pound division — Barnabee said the season has been a success so far, not just in terms of what she’s done on the mats, but in terms of the overall experience, as well.

“Everybody has been so welcoming and the boys have been really nice to me,” she said. “They know I can handle what they can handle. They’re nice, but not overly nice — they treat me like the other boys, and so do the coaches. I don’t get special treatment, but nobody tries to make things harder for me. Everything is equal, and I’m so grateful for that.”

The gratitude from the coaching staff is mutual.

“She has one of the best mindsets and attitudes on our team right now,” DeTore said. “She’s extremely coachable, and always walks off the mat with her head held high. She’s constantly asking questions and puts what she learns to work right away. She’s very unique in that sense. She understands where she is on the team and going against mixed competition, and she uses those challenges as a way to get better. She doesn’t see the challenges as brick walls but as obstacles she can work to overcome.”

As for the future, and what her goals are for what will be her final high school season next year, Barnabee said she just wants to continue to keep moving forward in the sport.

“I just want to keep getting better and pass where I was before everything happened,” she said, referring to the time she lost to COVID and back surgery. “Even if there is a girls’ league next year, I would probably stay with the boys. I’ve been waiting to join this team for so long. They’re like a family, I don’t want to leave them.”