Cassandra Schmidt started wrestling to overcome shyness when she was little. Now Schmidt, 18, has her sights set on wrestling at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

The Big Sky High School graduate returned to Missoula for the Thanksgiving holiday before heading back Sunday to Northern Michigan University. In high school, she was the only female on the wrestling team. In Michigan, though, she's on the women's freestyle team at the United States Olympic Education Center, and she wants the ranks of competitors to grow.

"I want to get more women out there," Schmidt said Saturday.

As an ambassador for the sport, Schmidt has returned to Big Sky High to wrestle with the high-schoolers while she's home. The former senior class president and valedictorian said the athletes did well, but so far, the only girl on the team is another Schmidt, her little sister.

Schmidt's father, Carl Schmidt, pushed her into wrestling when his daughter was young because he wanted to build her confidence and likes individual sports.

"It was close, convenient, and I never knew a wrestler who wasn't in great shape," Carl Schmidt said.

The early years weren't easy, though. Schmidt said his daughter cried after every match, and while tears are common in the young athletes who take the poundings to heart, standing on the sidelines was hard.

"You're watching your little girl get beat up," he said. "It was tough."

Cassandra Schmidt said younger wrestlers haven't yet learned to brush off the intense physical bruisings as part of the game: "If someone takes you and slams your face into the ground, it's hard not to take that personally."

Somewhere along the way, though, she fell in love with the sport. Schmidt said she likes working hard, drilling hard, and the discipline that comes with training and competing.

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In Michigan, she wakes up at 4 a.m. to start her first workout of the day at 5 a.m. No one's walking in the door at 5 a.m., either, she said. That's when the 17 athletes have their boots laced up and are ready to hit the mats.

NMU is one of just a handful of colleges in the United States that has a female wrestling team. The Olympic Education Center Web site notes the program began on the heels of the 2004 Olympics, the year female wrestling kicked off at the international level.

"Due to the small number of female wrestling programs in the United States, the resident athlete program at the USOEC has attracted Olympic-aspiring female wrestlers from across the country," the site reads.

The competitors work out until 7 a.m., then head to class. Schmidt is studying pre-law, and her interest in law is one thing she has in common with one of her role models, Patricia Miranda. Miranda holds a degree from Yale Law School and in 2004 was the first American woman to capture an Olympic medal in wrestling.

Another role model, Mary Kelly, is training with the team, and come 1:45 in the afternoon, Schmidt is back for another workout. She stays late after practice to lift weights or work on techniques.

Schmidt lives with other athletes, weightlifters, speed skaters, boxers and fellow wrestlers. Being on a female wrestling team is a huge change of pace, just being among athletes who hold the same center of balance as she does, for starters.

In the past, she's had men nervous to take on a female, and others determined not to get beat by a girl.

"I've had guys flat out tell me you shouldn't be on the mat," Schmidt said.

She's shown some of them otherwise, too.

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This school year, wrestling is taking Schmidt all over the world. She heads to Austria in December, then Japan come March. A trip to Cuba may be around the corner, too. Competitors in different countries have different styles, and her program aims to create world champions.

"We're not training to be the best in America. We're training to be the best in the world," Schmidt said.

When she's back in Michigan, she'll share huckleberries with friends who didn't really believe they existed or hadn't heard of them. She'll work on her favorite moves, too, like the half nelson.

"My favorite shot is the fireman's carry," Schmidt said.

Her father offers to let her demonstrate that one on him. In one instant, the two are standing, locked, and in another instant, Schmidt has rolled her father onto the ground.

"Next time, I get to throw you around," her father jokes.

"You're on."

As she continues, Schmidt will do her part to encourage young Montana women to give her favorite sport a go. Standing in their living room, her father wears a team shirt his daughter brought back for him, and it seems the worry he felt those early years for this particular young woman has been replaced by another sentiment.

"I'm really proud of her," Carl Schmidt said.

Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262, keila.szpaller@missoulian.com or on MissoulaRedTape.com.