WIN Magazine exclusive feature for Wrestling Leader Members of USA Wrestling: A Ripley Effect

This special feature appeared in the USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner section of the WIN Magazine November Issue.

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A Ripley Effect

California Women’s Director and National Team Leader individualizes
athletes, connects on a personal level to bring out best in each

By Tristan Warner WIN Magazine

Nationally renowned as a pioneer on the women’s wrestling front, Malinda Ripley Griffin — who was just married two weeks ago to Jason Griffin, with whom she coaches at Albany High School in California — is proving that proficiency as a wrestling coach knows no gender.

Backtracking a few decades, Ripley, who long played softball with her twin sister, got her start in wrestling in high school when she decided to venture off on her own athletic journey.

Joining the boys wrestling team initially, when Deer Valley High did not have a girls’ team, Ripley’s trajectory through the ranks of the sport ascended quickly. By the end of her sophomore campaign in 2000, she won the unofficial girls’ state championship and later became a FILA Cadet champion.

By the time it was all said and done, her banner career as an athlete included three state titles, a Junior National title, two Senior-level national titles as well as a qualification to the 2004 Olympic Trials.

The transition to coaching, however, was not necessarily a no-brainer for Ripley, especially as a young mom in the early 2000s.

“As an athlete, I had no idea I would ever coach,” Ripley Griffin recalled. “I was retired, had a few babies, and as a brand-new mom with a full-time career, I knew I would have to be the most selfless human being to coach because that is what the athletes deserve. I only knew how to be a selfish athlete. That is the part of wrestling I knew.”

Her longtime friend, Marcie (Van Dusen) Lane, a five-time U.S. National Team member and 2008 Olympian, not only urged her to coach but made arrangements that made it possible to do so with children. At summer wrestling camp, for example, the young family got their own cabin and other amenities to care for their children.

“Marcie provided resources for young moms to coach, otherwise I never would have been able to do it,” Ripley Griffin said. “At one point, I was breastfeeding and burping babies while coaching. My kids would sleep under my coaching chair.

“It was rewarding because I had moms telling me they wanted their daughter to wrestle for me so they could see what kinds of things women are capable of doing.”

Today, Ripley Griffin wears several hats in the coaching realm. Among them, she has served as Albany High School’s girls’ coach for six years. And, with her husband Jason serving as head coach of the boys, the pair share duties and coach both teams together.

She also fulfills the role of California USA Women’s Director and National Team Leader, an affiliation she has occupied for over a decade.

With a vast array of knowledge and experience within the sport, both as athlete and coach, and by transcending gender barriers, Ripley Griffin gives back to wrestling even further by using her well-rounded background to serve as a mentor to both male and female coaches.

“As a mentor of coaches, I need them to understand they need to have confidence in their corner,” Ripley Griffin stated. “We need to have more female coaches, and we need male coaches who are comfortable with that. Even at national events, my husband, Jason, tells me he is my assistant. I teach these coaches to have a voice.”

Ripley Griffin has overcome much adversity in her coaching career, having been kicked out of gyms on several occasions by men, even being told “this is a men’s conversation” a time or two.

The perseverance she has shown to continue to fight for her opportunity to do what she loves parallels her unrelenting quest to pull the best out of the athletes she coaches, which is not necessarily measured by the number in the win column.

“I individualize my athletes,” she confidently stated. “If I have somebody walk in who can’t even do a push-up, I can push that kid to their potential, and maybe they will get to 10 push-ups by the end of the year or maybe win just one match.

“Then somebody else comes in who wants to be a CIF state champ. I can push them to their potential level in that same practice room. It is individualized based on their goals and potential.”

Digging even deeper, Ripley Griffin is an adamant believer in uncovering the surface level and finding an athlete’s true purpose.

“As a coach, understand what their goals are. You can teach technique for hours, but you have to have a connection with them. What drives them? What are their goals? Are they scared of their goals? Are they extremely talented but having trouble with the mental or emotional part?

“Coaches coming in have to know there is a lot more than teaching technique and expecting hands to be raised. It is our job to give them feedback they don’t want to hear sometimes … and it is about how way we say it. Don’t degrade them. Give them the resources if they choose to take them to have a different outlook.”

In fact, one Wednesday per season, unbeknownst to her athletes, Ripley runs a “Why Wednesday” practice, a grueling physically and mentally demanding workout that aims to coerce wrestlers to answer hard questions as to why they truly choose to subject themselves to the rigor of a sport like wrestling. Her athletes hate the workout as they endure it but love the effect it has.

Similarly, unearthing the “why” for coaches is an integral foundation for the job, too, she says.

“Them winning is just a bonus for all of us, but the reason I coach is to teach them the life skills to be accountable, present, hardworking, and to cope with not always winning, even if you think you should. It is crucial as coaches to help them become the human we know they can be but also being human with them.”

Sometimes it isn’t until a decade or more later that those dividends are realized.

“You don’t know the payoff until they come back 10 years after they graduate,” she said. “It is not so immediate, but as your athletes grow up and come back and they are good human beings… it is not about ‘success’ financially or athletically, but just about being good solid human beings.

“As a coach, I am part of small chunks of their lives, but I am a huge chunk of what they learn and take with them. Just two weeks ago we had over 30 of our former wrestlers at our wedding. Hearing their stories of what we taught them … you realize you change kids’ lives.”