TRENTON, Ga. — Heidi Raines isn’t out to pave new paths or make history or appear in sports pages.
The Dade County High School senior wrestler may still do all those things, but when she competes with the Wolverines in a GHSA sectional Saturday at Trion — where Raines will be the only female among the event’s 212 competitors, all of them trying to reach next week’s state traditional tournament — her motivation will be simple and pure.
She just wants to compete.
Raines is a two-time individual state champion in the girls’ classification and, had she chosen to remain in that class, would have been a heavy favorite to win a third title next week in Macon. Instead, after the GHSA decided to give girls the option of competing with the boys in the postseason this year, she opted in.
“Some people have told me I should go get a third ring, but, nah, I’ve done that twice,” Raines said with a shrug when asked about her decision. “I’m not going to college, so this is it. I guess I just want to see how far I can go against the boys.”
To make the Class A state field, she will have to finish in the top six in the 16-person bracket for the 157-pound weight class, basically meaning she needs to win two matches before she loses two.
No one in the Dade County program doubts she will get there.
“She can make it to Macon,” coach Jeff Poston said. “I believe she can come out of the sectionals in the top four. I heard at the girls’ area (tournament) last weekend there were a lot of happy coaches and kids when Heidi didn’t show up.”
If there is any intimidation factor, Poston said, it’s usually her opponent that’s feeling it.
“The guys are terrified of wrestling her,” he said. “We went to East Laurens for (duals) sectionals and she pinned a kid, and one of his teammates was giving him a hard time afterward. I looked over and said, ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering him, she would pin you, too.'”
Added the Wolverines’ Landon Williams, a reigning state champion who happens to be Raines’ cousin: “She’s not afraid of anything, and she will bust your nose in a heartbeat. If the guy she’s wrestling knows who she is, they are definitely scared. I mean, who wants to lose to a girl, and you can see it on their faces. She’s a beast.
“I would be scared to wrestle her, too.”
As kids, the two did take the mat together. It was Heidi’s introduction to the sport, and she immediately fell in love with it.
Success, however, did not come instantly.
“I thought I was strong, but when I tried out for wrestling, I got my tail whipped every day,” she recalled. “I liked wrestling, though, and I decided to stick with it.”
As Raines caught up with the physical demands of the sport, she soon found out that wrestling — and beating — guys brought with it a different kind of challenge.
It was a hurdle she cleared as a freshman.
“We went up to a tournament in Tennessee, and we were walking in and this one team started calling me names,” Raines said. “Then I ended up getting second in that tournament, and those guys who were saying that stuff, I ended up pinning their kid. That was kind of nice.”
There are times she still has to deal with disrespect, but the answer is usually swift — and satisfying.
“It’s funny that I can watch a guy wrestle and he comes out moving really slowly, but when they face me they come out 100 miles an hour,” Raines said with a laugh. “Or, you get ones who sit there and laugh and say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a girl. This is going to be easy.’
“It doesn’t bother me — well, maybe a little bit — but when they do that, I like to throw them really hard when they get out there.”
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Dade County wrestling coach Jeff Poston watches his team practice Wednesday.Her final season hasn’t been easy. After sustaining a concussion during a volleyball match, she started experiencing vertigo and had to undergo physical therapy with an eye specialist. Since being cleared she’s gone 9-1, her only loss coming early when Poston pulled her due to dizziness while winning a bout.
Raines enters Saturday’s competition coming off a dominant showing in last week’s Area 7-A tournament, where she pinned her opponent in the first period in the title bout. No one was shocked.
“I’m not surprised in the least with her success against guys,” Poston said. “She’s probably the most technical kid I’ve ever been around and the hardest-working kid I’ve ever been around.
“She’s had to deal with stuff, but it’s made her tougher. She’s pretty hardcore, and she won’t put up with anybody who is weak-minded. Now she’s just one of the guys, and they all love her.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfeepress.com.