It’s Schell’s turn to shine on Huskies wrestling team
She’s become a very dangerous wrestler and she’s become much more dynamic. It’s been pretty exciting to see.
Alex Schell used to fly under the radar with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies wrestling squad.
That all changed this season after some veterans graduated and moved on.
Now it’s Schell’s turn to shine. “It’s kind of what we’ve been working towards with her,” U of S wrestling head coach Daniel Olver says of Schell, a College of Kinesiology student who also leads her team academically.
“The past couple of years, she’s had Annie Monteith, Katie Dutchak and Natasha Kramble — people she’s had to compete against in order to get opportunities.
“Now they’re gone and the end result of that is the No. 1-ranked girl in the country.”
Schell has posted stellar results this season to move to the forefront in the 48-kilogram category.
“It’s definitely been a good season,” admits Schell, one of the Huskies’ medal hopefuls for the upcoming Canada West conference championship and U Sport national championship. “It would be cool to come out on top at CanWest. We’ll see.”
The 21-year-old wrestler, from Smithers, B.C., collected gold at the Cascades Classic, Golden Bear Open, Huskies Open and Cougar Invitational, as well as a silver from the first meet of the season, the Dinos Open.
“It’s the first time people are kind of talking about her, but we knew this all along with her,” added Olver, whose men’s and women’s wrestling teams head to Edmonton this weekend for the conference championship.
“With her personality, she was OK with that (being unknown). We kept on trying to push her and now we’re seeing the results. We’ve got a lot of growth out of her. She’s become a very dangerous wrestler and she’s become much more dynamic. It’s been pretty exciting to see.”
Schell admits it was tough, at first, being stuck behind some of U Sport’s top female wrestlers. She says there were “a lot of people” ahead of her in the pecking order on the Huskies.
She paid her dues for two years. She was due for an opportunity to show what she can do.
It was a big decision to leave B.C. for Saskatchewan to wrestle, but she doesn’t have any regrets. The Huskies were her first choice.
“A big part of it was the fact that they had a lot of depth in the lower weight classes, which was tough training the first couple of years but now it’s paying off,” Schell says. “It’s nice to see that it might have been the right choice.”
Schell has developed a love for the sport of wrestling and, most days, even the hard work and dedication needed.
“It’s a weird thing to say, but it’s a little addictive,” she says. “It sucks sometimes but it’s definitely motivating to see progress and see what you put in comes out.
“I say it’s different than other sports. With the opponent right there, there’s a lot more variety. You don’t control that whole other opponent.”
Olver admires how Schell controls only what she can control, and that’s work ethic and attitude, to go along with some natural ability.
“She has some good length to her,” Olver says of Schell. “She’s extremely athletic and she’s not really afraid of challenge. She’s very coachable in terms of she listens to what you’re saying and she tries to execute it right away and then comes back for more feedback and keeps going from there.
“For a coach, she’s amazing to work with.”
She’s also a medal hopeful. “She obviously has athletes she’s had to model herself after if she wants to be successful,” Olver says. “What she has to do is take that, from what she’s seen in the room with her training partners, into a match and good things will come out of it. We’re absolutely expecting her to do some great things. We expect her to be on the podium.”