COLLEGE WRESTLING: WAVERLY'S VANDERHOOF SIGNS TO WRESTLE AT ELMIRA COLLEGE (7 PHOTOS) (April 23, 2026)
By TIM BIRNEYValley Sports ReportWAVERLY — Waverly senior Emma Vanderhoof likes everything about Elmira College, but it was the wrestling coaches who sold her on spending the next four years there.
On Thursday, Vanderhoof signed a National Letter-of-Intent at a brief ceremony in the high school's learning center to continue her wrestling career for the Soaring Eagles.
"I like the environment and the campus, but it was really all about the coaches," said Vanderhoof.
"They're the best coaches I've ever met in my whole life," she noted. "One is my club coach, that really sealed the deal for me.
"And Cody Griswold is one of the most positive coaches I've ever seen in my whole life," added Vanderhoof. "I'm extremely excited to wrestle at Elmira, the program is very good."
Vanderhoof said she needs to work on the mental part of wrestling as she prepares for the next level.
"I need to work on my headspace and cleaning up my technique a little bit," she said.
"And that will entail a summer of practicing and hard work," added Vanderhoof.
Waverly coach Devan Witman knows Vanderhoof has some work to do to be ready for the next level.
"I think she needs to work on her defense," said Witman. "She's very comfortable. letting girls in on her legs, and she can score points when girls get in on her legs, but it's a lot easier if you are able to have that baseline defense of head and hands.
"If she improves that and limits the amount of times girls can get in on her legs, I think she's gonna see her own scoring opportunities open up more," added Witman. "I think it will help her score a lot more points from those defensive positions."
Witman has little doubt Vanderhoof will be successful.
"She never stops wrestling," he said. "She probably thinks about wrestling more times in a day than most successful boy wrestlers or some of the top girl wrestlers.
"She thinks about wrestling all the time, ways to get better, how to improve," noted Witman. "And then she goes out there and does it. She's constantly reviewing her own tape.
"She's also constantly asking questions on how to get better at this, how to get better at that," he added. "And that's what's going to make her successful — she's not going to be satisfied with where she is today. She's looking forward to tomorrow and getting better each and every day."
Witman also notes that Vanderhoof was one of three seniors on the Wolverines this season, and all three will be wrestling at college. He attributes some of that success rate to the fact New York State girls wrestle freestyle — the only state in the U.S. to do so — just like college does.
"I think this is one of the few things that New York State has right," said Witman. "We don't get to say that often, but to prepare these girls for that next level, I think that was a tremendous leap that we made last year going to freestyle.
"They're familiar with the rules, and they're familiar with some of the nuances ... I think the girls coming from New York are gonna have that advantage over girls who are not from New York," added Witman.
Vanderhoof will major in Criminology with the intent of being a state trooper and working with Cyber Security.
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