Outgoing Varsity Blues athlete Rachel Zack penned a first person account of her experience with the Varsity Blues for the University of Toronto student newspaper The Varsity.
Things don’t always go according to plan.
In terms of my long relationship with sports, hockey was my first love. While it was my childhood dream to become a professional hockey player, it became clear that I would not realize that goal. I came to university looking to take up a new sport — one that would tap into my strength and aggression. I attended my first open wrestling tryout in 2018, and I immediately fell in love. My sparring partner hadn’t cut her nails and, by the end of the tryout, I looked like I’d gotten into a fight with a huge cat. Scratch marks covered my neck and arms, and my sparring partner looked horrified. However, I remember that my first thought was, “When can I do this again?”
After I secured a spot on the team as a redshirt — someone who may practice with a team but not necessarily play with them — my wrestling accomplishments started racking up much faster than anyone, least of all myself, expected. Within weeks, I was winning matches, and by February 2019, I won a bronze medal at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championships and secured a spot at the U SPORTS national championship. The next year, I followed up with an OUA silver medal and improved my U SPORTS showing to fifth place.