Sturgills Become Baylor’s First Brother-Sister State Wrestling Champions

While it might be typical for an older brother to want to look after his younger sister, Hunter Sturgill does not worry as much as some teenage boys might.

That is because Ryleigh Sturgill just became a girls’ state champion in wrestling as a freshman. And it came just a week after Hunter won his third state championship as a junior and the same weekend in late February when he was finishing seventh in the national prep tournament.

As a result, they just added some new history to the already-rich Baylor wrestling tradition by becoming the school’s first brother and sister to each win a state title. Hunter won 10-3 over Boyd-Buchanan’s Austin Johnson in the championship match at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville at 160 pounds, while Ryleigh defeated upperclassman Vivian Mariscal of Nashville Overton, 5-0, at Williamson County Expo Center in the 100-pound class.

They were following in the footsteps of previous brother-sister state champions Logan and Piper Fowler of Cleveland High, who were joined atop the podium this year by younger brother Cy Fowler.

All these accomplishments by the various siblings came during a recently completed season in which several area wrestling teams also shined, with McCallie and Cleveland taking team titles in their respective divisions.

As the Sturgills sat together and chatted at Baylor recently, they said their paths to the shining moment followed both similar and divergent paths. Hunter said his involvement started when he was at a church function at his then-home community of Blount County, Tn., at the age of about 5 or 6 and his godfather, Jerry Teaster, thought he might be suited for wrestling.

“I jumped into an elementary school program and haven’t looked back,” he said with a smile.

Coach Teaster had headed up the Heritage High program there for a number of years before retiring in 2021, and Hunter became a state champion as a Mountaineer freshman in 2022 in the 132-pound weight class.

However, because wrestling is not as big a sport collectively or team wise in the Knoxville and Maryville areas as it is in Southeast Tennessee, he began looking for a little different experience. “I was looking for more of a team relationship and heard about Baylor,” he said. “The whole school is a family, and they look out for each other.”

As a result, he enrolled as a boarding student at Baylor his sophomore year in 2022-23 and won the state as well in Division II in the 152-pound class.

While his location atop the podium did not change, the family’s residential location soon did. After Ryleigh was accepted into Baylor before this school year, parents Josh and Erin Sturgill decided to move to the Soddy-Daisy area. Mom Erin said they have enjoyed Chattanooga after also living for 16 years in the scenic foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Regarding her career, Ryleigh said she had been wrestling since the third grade and soon took to the sport like her brother, with this year obviously being her most rewarding one. She said she enjoyed the feeling of turning a few heads by winning the state in her first year in school as only a ninth grader. “A lot of people doubted me, but I had a lot of people in my corner,” she said. “It was a really cool experience for sure.”

While people who don’t follow wrestling closely might be surprised girls are even a part of the sport, their participation in Tennessee has been growing steadily over the last 10 or 15 years. The TSSAA has offered state tournament opportunities for girls since the 2014-2015 school year.

“It’s almost like an explosion,” said Ryleigh. “It has all happened fast. There are a lot of good athletes everywhere, and the sport is starting to evolve and get really good coaches around the state. And the athletes are putting their hearts and souls into this sport.”

The Baylor girls’ team is led by head coach James Scott and assistant Schaack Van Deusen, a retired teacher who has been around the Baylor program for years. Both coaches also help with the boys.

Ryleigh, who is the Baylor girls’ second state champion behind last year’s titlist Vivi Christopoulos, said she tries not to talk too much about her unique athletic skills with her schoolmates. “It might be boring to them,” she said with a chuckle. “But a lot of my friends think it’s cool.”

Hunter said that while he simply sees a sweet little sister who weighs 100 pounds, he knows others at Baylor and in the area wrestling community might look at her differently due to her blossoming wrestling prowess. Ryleigh jokingly added she tries to play into the latter sometimes.

“When I’m on a mat, I have to play the persona that I am big and scary,” she said. “But I try to be as nice as I can off the mat.”

As siblings, they also have serious conversations about wrestling in addition to the more carefree talks that teenage siblings of differing genders also usually have.

“He is the one that got me into the sport, and to see someone so successful in the house with me is neat,” she said. “We have such a bond. We’re close. He helps me a lot, too.”

Added Hunter, “The fact we are in the same sport makes our relationship fluid,” pointing out they are not afraid to critique each other’s matches and point out how they can do better. “We have unspoken expectations of each other.”

Ryleigh added that they are able to do that without hurting each other’s feelings.

Hunter, who has already developed a respect for the Baylor tradition and is even aware of whom the late program founder Maj. Luke Worsham was, plans to get ready for some possible big tournaments this summer like the U.S. Marine Corps junior national tournament in Fargo, N.D., or maybe the U.S. World Team Trials. He then plans to finish his senior year hopefully by adding to his laurels and then going to Indiana University to wrestle. He said he believes the Hoosiers are a blossoming college program and he committed to them because of that.

“They are putting a lot more effort into it,” he said. “My recruiting class is the biggest they have ever had.”

Ryleigh also hopes to one day wrestle in college and maybe even beyond college. She is inspired in part by the fact that women’s wrestling is scheduled to become an NCAA sport in 2026.

In the meantime, they hope to add to the sibling accomplishments next year as well and replicate the joy they both experienced this year.

“To see her succeed like that on the state level for the first time was super exciting,” said Hunter, adding that he just tries to inspire her by example.

* * *

Jcshearer2@comcast.net