They’re the Sutter family of wrestling
Big sister coached four of her Abbotsford siblings at the recent high school provincials
For Ashley Topnik, Monday and Tuesday at the B.C. high school wrestling championships were family days.
Topnik, 27, a former high school provincial champion at Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat who went on to compete at Simon Fraser University, has taken up coaching. Four of her charges who made it to the provincials at the Langley Events Centre this week were her siblings.
Sisters Jade, Charisma and Mikaela Trolland competed for W.J. Mouat, while brother Talon Trolland represented Abbotsford’s Colleen and Gordie Howe Middle.
Mikaela, 15, made Tuesday’s 60-kilogram final, while Jade, 18, made the 64-kg title match. Charisma, 17, was in the 57-kg class, while Talon 13, wrestled at 38 kg.
“At first, it was weird to coach siblings, because they don’t want to listen to you,” said Topnik, who has another little sister in Laken, 11, and another little brother in Phoenix, 10, as well. “They think that you’re being too bossy and you don’t know what you’re talking about. At first, there were challenges. It’s been a lot better now.
“Coaching non-siblings is a little bit different, too. It’s not as easy to connect automatically with them. You do find something.”
Dad Scott got Ashley into wrestling. Her sisters and brothers would regularly tag along to her practices and meets.
She won the 64-kg final at the 2010 provincials, and that gold-medal match with Nicole Stanton of Sardis was voted as the best finals match of the meet. During her time at SFU she represented Canada at the 2012 junior world championships in Thailand.
“I’d say some of them have been on the mat since they were little ... maybe as young as four or five,” Ashley said. “They weren’t necessarily wrestling that young, but they were on it and playing. And now they’re all going up through it, which is nice to see.
“I really enjoy it. They’re all so different and seeing them doing the same sport you can see their different personalities come out. And just being able to have that connection with them, through a sport that I played and am able to give them advice and guidance for, is really special.”
Being in different weight classes the siblings wrestled at different times, which gave Ashley a chance to watch them all this week.
“It makes for very long days,” she said. “By the end of the meet, you have next-to-no voice.
“And it’s probably more stressful watching them than it was competing. You’re on the side. There’s nothing you can do. You’re not able to get in there and help them out.”
Along the way Ashley has acted as Jade’s training partner at times.
“It was good, but now she’s getting a lot stronger and I’m getting older and out-ofshape,” Ashley said.
Growing up in a family that large had to be a challenge in itself at times. Ashley admits that with six siblings it can be “hard to keep track of birthdays.”
“I don’t know how my mom (Becky) does it. They all play like three sports. Getting them to everything … you need to be very organized. She is special,” said Ashley.