Every high school student has the opportunity to create their own legacy, whether it is through their academics, or even the clubs, activities and athletics that they participate in.
At White Pine High School, a lot of the students have the opportunity to play multiple sports, one for each of the three seasons in the fall, winter and spring.
For Callie Hollingsworth, she was a four-year varsity softball player, catching and building that connection with the pitchers, including being a big piece in reaching the 2A state championship game this year.
Callie Hollingsworth with her family after signing to wrestle this fall at Utah Tech University.
She was an all-conference player her sophomore season before earning back-to-back all-state honors each of the last two seasons as she was part of both teams’ run in the state tournament.
In 2024 alone on the diamond, she hit .355 with two doubles, two triples and four home runs with 29 RBIs, 30 runs and 19 stolen bases. Defensively behind the plate in 2024, Hollingsworth had a team-best .979 fielding percentage and committed just two errors in 29 games.
However, entering her junior season, she added soccer and wrestling for not only the 2022-23 school year but into her senior season for both.
Playing half back on the pitch, Hollingsworth was an all-conference soccer player in her senior year. A couple months later, she was winning matches left and right on the wrestling mat.
During her senior season this past year, she was also a captain for both her soccer and softball teams as she was named Female Athlete of the Month in April by Nevada Sportsnet.
Joe Sedlacek, who is the head coach for both softball and wrestling at White Pine, said her growth to wrestle and play softball has been a big part in her earning the opportunity to take her wrestling talents to the next level at Utah Tech University.
“In those two years, she went from winning a good chunk of her matches to winning the majority of her matches this last year and now she’s going to compete at college because of that,” he said. “She is a competitor, and she works. She worked really hard to improve and it shows. I think it’ll show in her freshman year of college as well.”
The grind it takes a wrestler to go through every match, not only physically, but also mentally goes a long way.
That is where the connection of being a wrestler (combined with the physicality that soccer brings) to being able to crouch behind the plate and be as ready as possible, not only the pitches coming in, but also any contact from a foul or even a bat.
Sedlacek said Hollingsworth’s mental game to wrestle and catch goes a long way to not only her success, but also success for her team.
“It takes determination and toughness. I believe that catcher is probably one of the toughest positions to play, if not the toughest position to play in baseball or softball and that mental toughness, working through adversity and being in pain,” Sedlacek said. “You can equate both of those fairly well together because wrestling is the same kind of sport where it’s not a comfortable sport. You’re out there going one-on-one against another individual and it’s tough. The comparison between the two and her being a catcher and being the wrestler that she is, I think that mental toughness shows.”
Getting into any unfamiliar sport is one that can be daunting.
Her support to play soccer and wrestling comes within her family roots and the support that she receives.
Hollingsworth’s father played soccer in high school and she was able to grasp her role.
Hollingsworth’s boyfriend is a two-time state wrestling champion. Her dad and uncle were both wrestlers in high school. Furthermore, her grandfather, William, was a wrestling coach at El Dorado High School in Las Vegas.
However, she also got influence from her peers and was part of a handful of girls competing on the mat.
“The year that she started, they had a huge number of girls that tried out, so she played softball with one of them and said I’ll give it a shot,” said Jenn Hollingsworth, Callie’s mother. “So, she had a lot of support from the family and friends to start it so that’s what kind of initiated it.”
After figuring out how to win on the mat in her first season, that offseason, outside of softball and soccer heading into her senior year, is when she figured out the technique. Adding in that form is when she was able to take her wrestling game to the next level and wins match after match and tournament after tournament.
Jenn Hollingsworth said the biggest task is seeing a player, let alone her daughter, play multiple sports, including rodeo in the fall her first two years before soccer,
“When you go from sport to sport, training for that sport, postseason, getting ready for that next sport, trying to find that balance,” Jenn Hollingsworth said. “As adults, we call it work-life balance, but I think it’s like sport, school-life balance. Just trying to make sure that you take time to soak everything in about the high school experience along with sports and living that normal teenage life.”
This past February, when the state wrestling tournament was right around the corner, an obstacle struck Callie. It was not an injury, but she caught the flu that derailed her opportunity to go after a NIAA state title.
However, this came after she was talking to colleges about playing softball, soccer or wrestling at the next level.
Even after one season of wrestling the coaches saw something in her and got in contact with Bryson Anderson, who coaches wrestling at Utah Tech University. During her junior year, she announced her commitment to be a Bison.
As her four years at White Pine High School came to an end with graduation, Callie Hollingsworth’s it with a lot of commitment and support as she now gets set for the next chapter.
“We’re super excited,” Jenn Hollingworth said of her daughter.
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