In some ways, Skylar Hattendorf wrestling for Bow High is perfectly normal. She has been wrestling against boys for years, so being on a male-dominated team like the one at Bow is nothing new for Hattendorf, a freshman. It’s also nothing new at Bow, where Anna Krause made an impact on the team last year as a female freshman.

“I’ve always felt accepted, even on boys’ teams, and it’s definitely made me a little tougher,” Hattendorf said. “And it’s definitely normal at Bow. Everyone on the team accepts me and they’re kind of like, ‘Oh, it’s another girl wrestler, we’re used to that already.’ ”

In other ways, there’s nothing normal about Hattendorf’s wrestling. In 2018, she won the USA Wrestling Schoolgirl (grades 7-8) Folkstyle National Championship at 127 pounds, she took first at the USA Wrestling Girls’ High School Preseason Nationals at 125 and she was runner-up at the New Hampshire Middle School boys’ state championships at 118.

There’s been little drop-off during her first high school season. Hattendorf is a staple in Bow’s varsity lineup and earlier this month she was named the Outstanding Wrestler at the 17-team Nashua South Invitational after she won the 120-pound title.

As far as anyone at Bow knows, that’s the first time a girl was named OW at a boys’ tournament in New Hampshire. Hattendorf was surprised and flattered by the honor, but she’s not satisfied.

“I’m super confident that I’m going to win states and MOCs this year,” Hattendorf said, referring to the Division III state championship meet on Feb. 16 and the Meet of Champions on Feb. 23, where the best from all divisions competes for a true state title.

Bow coach Brock Hoffman shares her confidence. Asked if she is a contender for the 120-pound D-III title, Hoffman couldn’t get his words out fast enough.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I expect her to win it.”

Happy Birthday

Hattendorf started grappling when she was a little girl living in California, where she was born. She had two older female cousins who did judo, so for her fifth birthday Hattendorf decided she wanted a judo-themed party. The party was a hit, and Hattendorf had found her passion.

“She showed a propensity for it right off the bat,” said Chuck Hattendorf, Skylar’s dad. “I had done judo in the army, and I was a boxer while I was in the army, and as an athlete you recognize when people naturally take to things and she just picked it up right away. It was amazing how quickly she picked up the fundamentals.”

So Chuck and Marla Hattendorf, Skylar’s mom, decided to foster that propensity and passion. They took her to several judo coaches until they found the right fit for Skylar, and when an opportunity arose for her to go to an international judo competition in France when Skylar was 9, the Hattendorfs flew across the Atlantic. When Skylar ended up winning the gold medal-clinching bout for the United States team, the Hattendorfs knew they had a lot more traveling ahead of them.

“She just ate up that experience in France,” Chuck said. “So when we came back and we were still in Southern California, we were like, ‘We’ve got to get out to the East Coast.’ ”

The specific draw to the East Coast was Jimmy Pedro, the former World Judo Champion and U.S. Olympic coach who works out of Pedro’s Judo Center in Wakefield, Mass. So the Hattendorfs left the Los Angeles area, where both Chuck and Marla had grown up, and moved to Coventry, R.I., in 2014 when Skylar was about to turn 10.

Wrestling love

They didn’t throw her into Pedro’s dojo with Olympians at that early age, but when she finished second at the senior nationals at 48 kilograms as a 12-year-old competing against adults, the Hattendorfs figured she was ready. That’s when they moved to Hooksett, because it was closer to Wakefield and the family has, “an affinity for New Hampshire,” Chuck said. But during their time in Rhode Island, Skylar tried wrestling for the first time, and eventually the sport started moving in on judo’s territory in Skylar’s heart.

“Honestly, at first I didn’t really like wrestling, I was really just doing it because I wanted to help my judo,” Hattendorf said. “But as I got into it more and I met some people in the wrestling community and stuff like that, it really grew into a love for the sport and it’s my favorite sport now.”

Hattendorf started training with Hoffman at his Steel Mat Club wrestling program after the family moved to Hooksett. The coach knew right away that Hattendorf was special.

“When I first met her she was still just dabbling in freestyle (the wrestling style used in most women’s and international events) and we were trying to prepare her for folkstyle (the wrestling style used in U.S. high schools and colleges) so we had a lot of work to do,” Hoffman said. “But even then, when I first met her, she had all of the natural ability and mechanics to be a good wrestler, for sure.”

The grind

She also has the work ethic. Hattendorf does weight training at Brian’s One2One Fitness in Concord four days a week because, as she put it, “I need to get a little bit stronger because the boys are getting really manly right now.” She wrestles with the Bow team five or six days a week. On Thursdays after wrestling, she goes to Pedro’s where she trains with people like Travis Stevens, who won a silver medal in judo at the 2016 Summer Olympics. And on Sundays she goes to Doughboy Wrestling Club in Lowell, Mass., to train with the Doughgirls.

“She’s the hardest-working wrestler in the state that I know of,” Hoffman said.

That hard work has paid off in many ways, but winning the OW at the Nashua South Invitational on Jan. 12 was a pretty special payment.

“I didn’t hear it, but when I threw the kid in the final and pinned him, my dad said the crowd stood up and was cheering, so I thought that was cool,” Hattendorf said. “But I was super surprised (when the OW award was announced). I was blown away that people voted for me and they believe in me so much, it was a really cool moment.”

There’s no end in sight for the hard work. There’s the D-III meet and MOC to prepare for, but Hattendorf will hardly slow down when the high school wrestling season ends. She is planning on traveling to Germany, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and Nebraska for USA wrestling developmental camps and competitions. She’s going to Nevada and Colorado for judo competitions. The Hattendorf family is on board with all of it, but all that training and traveling is expensive, so Hattendorf is raising money at gofundme.com/SkylarJudo2016.

There’s a chance she could make three world teams in 2019, two for wrestling and one for judo. Of course Hattendorf has loftier expectations than just making the teams.

“My main goal this year for women’s wrestling is to go to world team trials in May and then to go to the World Championships in Bulgaria and win it,” she said.

That would be an ambitious goal for some. For Skylar Hattendorf, it seems normal.

(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341, tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)

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