News
Wrestling Coach Shooting for the Moon
Published on October 15, 2025 - 3 p.m.
Ashley Courtney, 爆料公社’s first women’s wrestling coach, comes from a
prominent central Kentucky wrestling family.
Her father introduced her to the sport at 7. Her second-oldest brother, Harrison, a four-time state champion, coaches the mat men at their Woodford County High School, which has won 13 state championships, celebrating more than any other Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) school with 61 individual champions.
Courtney wrestled for four years at a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school, the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., home of the Patriots and mascot Patriot Pete — not to be confused with the Cumberland University Phoenix east of Nashville in Tennessee.
The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains and near the tripoint of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
Courtney, who served as team captain for two years, graduated cum laude in May with degrees in biology and communication arts intending to pursue environmental journalism. “Stuff like National Geographic. You plan for one thing, then life spins you in a different direction,” said Courtney, who wrote for the school newspaper in high school.
Wrestling on the boys varsity, she was a KHSAA boys state qualifier.
“I wouldn’t call myself a pioneer,” she said, “but when I was younger, I was often the only girl at a tournament. I wrestled at 106 pounds, the lightest weight class, and wrestled mostly boys, although my sophomore and junior years, women’s wrestling kind of started to take off.
“I wasn’t the first girl to make it to the boys state tournament. There was one girl before me, Priscilla. I’ve met her.”
Campbell County's Priscilla Brownfield competed in the Kentucky state wrestling tournament in the 103-pound class in 2006, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“My dad wrestled and has been a coach going on 40 years,” Courtney said. “Two out of three of my older brothers wrestled. It was just natural to think this is what I’m going to end up doing because it was what I was around all the time. I grew up at wrestling tournaments. My younger sister was the stat girl, like the manager of the team.”
Her hometown, Versailles, the county seat of Woodford County, sits 13 miles west of Lexington and has a population of about 10,000. Her grandfather farmed tobacco.
“It’s spelled the same as the palace (near Paris, France), but it’s pronounced like ‘sales.’ ”
Truth be told, she’s more nervous about enduring a Michigan winter than the upcoming inaugural women’s wrestling season.
“I’ve crocheted myself a couple hats and a couple scarves,” she smiled. “I’m on to mittens next. I’ve got to get myself a good pair of snow boots because the Farmer’s Almanac said this is supposed to be a bad winter.”
Starting out, Courtney remembers “crying in the middle of every match — even if I was winning,” though she was plucky enough to never quit. “It frustrated my dad. I got beat plenty my first year. My second and third years I went to an academy run by an awesome coach who coached my brothers and my dad. I immediately jumped up in success, even though I was 9 or 10. I was winning tournaments. It was awesome.
“Then middle school came around, boys hit puberty and I was no longer on an even playing field when it came to strength. These boys had biceps now and I couldn’t throw them around, so I had to work around that with technique. Figuring out small things for other people and seeing their success made me want to coach.”
Courtney, who already knew Dowagiac’s football field is named for Olympic wrestler Chris Taylor, said her team, which practices at 6 a.m., “looked good” at their first scrimmage.
“A lot of our (14) girls are brand-new. Either I recruited them (she’s evening supervisor of the Student Activity Center) or our girls did. My ladies have been putting in a lot of hard work. I’m proud of them because wrestling is scary. Nobody is out there with you. You’re by yourself, in front of a crowd.
“We’re (debuting) Nov. 1 in Muskegon” at its club’s competition.
“I have high expectations. Everybody deserves someone in their life who sees their potential and has high expectations for them. For us, nationals is laid out like an open tournament,” she said. “We don’t have to qualify, like the men’s team does. I think we can have two All-Americans. I don’t care if that’s unrealistic. I like to be optimistic. Shoot for the moon and you land amongst the stars.”
