Girls wrestling: With injuries behind her, Elyria's Jaelyn Green can focus on ending season in style

When it comes to her high school wrestling career, Elyria senior Jaelyn Green has spent some time being black and blue. "Last season was huge for her … it was the first year that she finished the full season," Pioneers coach Paul Felton said. "Her freshman year, at the Columbia tournament, she got slammed and broke her collarbone and that ended her season. Then two years ago at Tri-Valley, she was having another great season and then she blew her knee out. "So to be able to come back from that and still want to wrestle after having two big injuries, she could have called it quits, but that's not in her blood. That's not in her nature." Green not only battled through the setbacks, she returned to become one of the area's top wrestling talents and earned a trip to the state tournament during her junior year. She's continued to grow and sits at 32-4 with a few weeks left in her senior season. "If anything, (returning from the injuries) made her tougher," Felton said. "It made her want to work harder. Last year, every tournament we went to, I know she was worried about getting hurt and as the season went on, with each week, she got a little bit more confident and wrestled even better." Green picked up the wrestling bug from older brother Isaac — a 2024 Elyria grad who went on to wrestle at Loudes University — although her attempt at youth wrestling was short-lived after she was not able to compete in any tournaments. Green instead began playing basketball and she was already an accomplished softball player, but decided to give wrestling another try when she got to high school. "It was more of me doing it to get in shape for softball at first, but eventually I just started to love it and it became my thing," she said. "One day the switch just kind of flipped and I was like, 'Oh, wait, I'm kind of good at this.' "I don't know how it happened, but one morning I was like, 'Wait, this is my favorite sport.'" Green was one of seven girls who officially made up Elyria's first girls wrestling team during her freshman season — senior Riley Banyas had been the lone girl in the program and had competed in the boys lineup to that point. "That first group — I wasn't the head coach yet — but we had a good group of girls," Felton said. "Riley was kind of our leader at the time, but we had a bunch of young girls and most of them had never wrestled — Jaelyn being one of them — and that was our starter group. They kind of led the way to where we're at today." While Green has fond memories of being a pioneer for the Pioneers, she's not as keen on the finish that season … or the next. "Coming back after (the collarbone injury) my freshman year was terrible," she said. "I was nervous, I was scared and I was kind of just questioning why I was still doing it. Then after my sophomore year my dad told me we're not doing wrestling anymore. Then I told him no, because I have too much potential. "I kind of live by this quote that says, 'Don't let one bump in the road be the end of your journey.' I kind of realized that I can come back from this and be better than I was before." Felton said Green was a natural defensive wrestler from the start, capitalizing on opponents' mistakes to score points and win matches, but she's added a willingness to push the pace and become more aggressive on offense over the last two seasons. "She's come around to shooting a lot more and she's got a great shot," Felton said. "She still doesn't have confidence in it all the time, but when she shoots, she's hard to beat. She can score points on her feet." Green went 0-2 in Columbus last season — getting pinned in both losses — and was disappointed in the finish while also knowing it would inspire her to work harder during the offseason so she could finish big as a senior. "I was out in Milan most of the summer working out (at the Burnett Trained Wrestling camps) and really just drilling and working hard to try and get better," she said. "I know what to expect this year (if I make it to state). Walking out of the tunnel, the lights aren't going to shine as bright in my eyes … we can go down there prepared and knowing how it feels to be out there. "I still have some things to work on to be able to reach my peak by March, but as of right now I think things are going great. I just need to fix a couple things and then I think I'll be able to place pretty high." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.