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‘At Saunders, women make a wrestling break-through'

By JULIE BELL- The Londoner 2/22/04

London, Ontario, CANADA - ( February 22, 2004) The students at Saunders Secondary School were ready to rumble. In a nice way.

The school’s competitive wrestling squad last week hosted teams from across the city for a tournament – and, coincidentally, that’s where The Dart landed, too.

“We have a very young wrestling team,” says coach and teacher Jeff Emery. “Most of our wrestlers are in Grade 9 or 10. Because the kids don’t really get a chance to be involved in wrestling until they hit high school, there is a really big learning curve during their first year of competing. Give it a couple of years and our team will be in an incredible position.”

Mr. Emery says the benefits to student participation in the sport go far beyond the medals or awards they win.

“It’s the best sport to get into shape. It also gives the students an excellent opportunity to bond with one another. It’s amazing.”

And he speaks first hand. Mr. Emery has been involved in wrestling since he was a student at Saunders.

Things have changed a little since his days on the mat, he says, as today the team has something his certainly didn’t. The once male dominated Saunders team not only has a couple of female athletes, one of them is their captain.

“It certainly adds an interesting dynamic to the team,” Mr. Emery says.

Lauren Radoja, 17, says being the captain of a team full of boys can be a challenge.

“It can be tough because sometimes they don’t respect me as much as they should. I guess boys just don’t like having a girl telling them what to do,” she says with a laugh.

That attitude continues on the wrestling mat, she says, as some of her opponents and team mates are nervous in the beginning.

“At first the guys didn’t seem to want to take me down on the mat. I think they’re afraid they’ll hurt me or something. Once I get them on the mat and take them down their point of view changes though. Then we really get into it.”

Hanging with the boys has given her a realistic view of the way men behave, she says, which at times can be amusing.

“At first the guys acted different. They were all polite and nice and watched what they said when I was around. After a while I got to see the real side of them. Now they just act like a bunch of guys and I see what they’re really like. It’s certainly different than hanging around with a bunch of girls.”

Now in her eighth year of wrestling, Lauren says she got her start at age 10.

“My best friend Kalyn’s twin brother had started wrestling and he got all of us into it. It just took off from there. Plus I grew up watching the WWF so maybe that had something to do with it too,” she says with a laugh.

Kalyn is also still involved in the sport and is the only other female on the team.

Finding competition during tournaments can be difficult, Lauren says, as she is only permitted to wrestle female opponents during tournaments and the number of females involved in the sport is much lower than she’d like it to be.

“It’s tough because there aren’t many girls that wrestle in my region. The numbers are way too low. A lot of times I’ll go to tournaments and not have anyone to wrestle. It makes it difficult for me to practice for bigger competitions.”

However, it won’t hold her back, she says. Lauren recently won the junior provincial championships in St. Catharines and last year came in fifth at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) championships.

This will be the first year female wrestling will be included in the Olympic Games, which according to Lauren is an incredible first step in getting more women involved in the sport.

“I really want more girls to get involved in wrestling. I hope my being involved with the team will help encourage other girls to do so too.”