Staff photo by Fritz Busch Remilee Rieke, left, and Lillian Henderson, both of New Ulm, participate in a girls wrestling practice at New Ulm High School Saturday. The event was led by New Ulm native and olympic wrestler Ali Bernard of Shakopee, who now works as a corporate trainer for Best Buy.

NEW ULM — New Ulm native and former Olympic wrestler Ali Bernard really seemed at home in the New Ulm High School wrestling room, leading a practice with a couple dozen young girls.

Bernard led about a dozen girls in calisthenics that included cartwheels and bear crawls, both of which Ali can still do with gusto.

Some of the girls wrestle on boys teams and came from as far away as Rochester. Others were too young for that, but showed interest in wrestling.

The girls’ parents talked about why they thought wrestling was important for young girls. Some of the thing they felt wrestling could provide young girls included positive body image, leadership, and self confidence.

New Ulm Rolling Thunder youth wrestling President Tony Ruch talked about why Bernard came to led the female practice.

“Female wrestling is growing very fast. We didn’t feel we were getting people enough exposure to it, so we asked Ali to come,” said Ruch.

Bernard competed on the New Ulm High School boys wrestling team years ago and said wrestling with boys in practice and on the team greatly improved her wrestling skills. She excelled in competition against other women, earning a scholarship to wrestle at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan where she won many championships.

In the 2008 Olympic trials, Bernard defeated the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist to make the 2008 U.S. Olympic team. She finished fourth in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China in the 158.5 pound freestyle wrestling tournament.

Bernard finished third in the 2011 World Championships. She made the 2012 Olympics in London but lost in the first round.

She studied kinesiology at the University of Regina, then recreational sports and tourism, graduating at the University of Alberta, Canada, where she was an assistant wrestling coach.

After working as a fitness consultant, sales advisor, marketing representative and territory manager, Ali became the Minnesota Wrestling Assistant Womens Director in 2014.

In 2015, she became a fitness manager and sales consultant at the Best Buy corporate office in Richfield. She became a Best Buy corporate and retail employee trainer in 2016.

“I train employees on how to have a growth mindset, do their job better and to become leaders and develop,” Ali said. “I traveled the country for Best Buy at one time.”

“I was super excited to have this opportunity to learn about wrestling here. I’m learning that you can be a wrestler but still be girly,” said Ashlin Doering of Redwood Falls, who participated at the Saturday practice.

Ali and her husband Jason Sprenger, an electrical engineer, have a 15-month old daughter.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.