Delilah Taylor has been a multi-sport athlete for years. It turns out, the one she waited until her senior year to try is the one that will carry her into college athletics.
And, just as she was part of history a few months ago, she will be again later this year when she becomes part of the first-ever women’s wrestling team at Concord University. The Shady Spring senior made it official during a signing ceremony on Wednesday.
Concord announced the addition of wrestling as its 11th women’s sport and 17th overall varsity sport in December. Last month, Princeton graduate Claire Holt became the team’s first signee. She won the 235-pound state championship as a senior for the Tigers in 2025 and spent last season as an assistant coach for her alma mater.
Taylor became the second signee for inaugural Concord coach Bill Edwards.
Taylor has played basketball and soccer and run track in her four years at Shady Spring. Wrestling coach Anthony Shrewsberry had tried talking her into wrestling every year since she was a freshman, but she was resistant.
“Just the nature of the sport. You know, scared of getting hurt,” Taylor explained. “It’s a rough sport, obviously. I just finally gave it a try, and I fell in love.”
Even though she didn’t officially begin wrestling until last winter, Taylor had been following it. Her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years, Braelen Holstein, was an all-stater for Shrewsberry.
Shady was among the first area schools to try to get the girls sport established, something that has been a statewide movement. It paid off in February when the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission approved it as a preliminary sanctioned sport starting with the 2026-27 academic year.
Just before that, the SSAC implemented girls regional qualifying tournaments for the first time. And Taylor was there for the historic moment, representing the Tigers at the South Region tournament.
Taylor advanced to the 185-pound championship match at the South Regional, where she was pinned by Greenbrier East’s Makaylee Bennett. They wrestled to the same result in the fifth-place match at the state tournament, and Taylor finished her only season as an all-stater with a 22-12 record.
“I have recruited her since she started ninth grade,” Shrewsberry said. “I finally got her to come out as a senior and she was a natural.”
“I’ve been involved in soccer, basketball, track, so I feel like sports kind of come naturally to me,” Taylor said. “And I’ve always had a little bit more strength. I have a stockier build, so wrestling, I just took to it. And I’m a very aggressive team player. So that was a good way to release some anger and stress.”
Taylor will be graduating soon, then her attention will shift to getting prepared for more history.
“I’m just really excited, and I really want to be a part of growing the culture of girls wrestling, growing the culture of the team,” Taylor said. “I think it’s a pretty big thing.”
