Wrestling with success

AUSTIN (KXAN) - When Elise Coleman told her family she wanted to follow in her brother’s footsteps and try wrestling, they were all caught off guard, especially her mom.

“She was kinda iffy about it causee I’m so small,” Coleman said. “She was kinda like, ‘you’re gonna get hurt.’”

“I was very happy. Also, surprised,” Elise’s father, Jason Coleman, said. “She talked about it a few times, and I wasn’t sure if she was 100 percent serious.”

“I thought it was kind of weird cause, you know, a girl going out for wrestling,” Elise’s brother, Jason, said. “But then I got used to it, and then I ended up enjoying it cause I noticed she was actually really good.”

So good, they both qualified for the state tournament.

“After the tournament, when we get up there and I’m looking, we’re taking a team picture of the qualifiers, and there they are, sitting besides each other in the team picture, and it’s like, wow, that’s special,” Rouse head wrestling coach Brad Bresnehen said.

“When they qualified this past weekend, I can’t put into words how much it meant,” Jason said. “I was telling everybody around, ‘That’s my daughter, she’s going to state. Once he qualified, I felt so happy for him, and then knowing that both of my kids were going, everything was great. I couldn’t … I can’t put it into words. I simply can’t.”

Growing up, Evan and Elise had their typical brother sister fights, but now that they’re wrestling together, their relationship couldn’t be better.

“It was kind of a lot of wrestling, but mostly I’d just beat up on my little sister,” Evan said.

“We didn’t get along at all, but now we get along,” Elise said. “We’re pretty close. I like the not fighting a lot cause he’s my brother and I love him.”

“The way that their relationship is now is way better than anything I could’ve imagined,” Jason said. “To see where they’ve come from, and where they are now, is just leaps and bounds above, like I said, beyond my imagination.”

But the chance to win two state championships is very much a reality.