At this point, North Callaway girls wrestling has been doing it for a while.

The Ladybirds sent two girls to state a season ago and bring other girls with previous wrestling experience.

Head coach Ronnie Kimbley said senior Brooke Giboney and junior Elka Endres lead the team of about 6-8 girls this season and are working for another trip to state. Giboney was a pioneer for the program, starting with the program four years ago and picking up other firsts like being the first all-conference wrestler, first all-district wrestler and first state qualifier. Kimbley said Endres, who was also all-conference and all-district last season, has been around wrestling “probably all her life.”

“Brooke started the girls program with us so it’s exciting to watch her progression, and she’s in there helping the girls and working hard at the same time,” Kimbley said. “(Elka) brings some experience and now maturity and leadership as she has grown.”

Among the others on the team are Lotus Gwaltney, who is a junior transfer from South Callaway, sophomores Madalynn Hutchason and Ella Baker and senior Dakota Dorner. Kimbley said Hutchason was also all-conference and has been wrestling for North Callaway since junior high, and Baker has grown up around wrestling her whole life.

Kimbley said he expects to fill in light to mid weight classes with his roster. He would like to see them accomplish more this season after winning the first tournament title for the program at Orchard Farm.

“We want to win conference outright as a team,” Kimbley said. “We want to place in more tournaments. We have a very tough and very full schedule this year as, each year, we have added more stuff. Seeing the wide range of competition throughout the state hopefully helps us have a better finish at districts.”