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Nethercott battles her way back

By Dominic Perrone -- Special To The Bee
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, March 4, 2004

Ashley Nethercott could see the top of the mountain. The Mesa Verde High School senior had reached the 132-pound semifinals of the state tournament for girls wrestling and was about to face an opponent she had defeated twice.
But a victory wasn't to be.

Nethercott lost 4-3 to eventual champion Summer Scott of Castro Valley, sliding briefly down the mountain. Looking up, she then had to win three matches to reach third place.

"I was not gonna let myself lose," Nethercott said. "I was totally pumped up to win."

Through the next three grueling matches, Nethercott made her way back up, but she was still disappointed that she did not reach the summit, especially after winning the title at the Region 2 Championships on Jan. 30-31 at Edison High in Stockton.
But a bronze medal isn't bad, either.

"It's a lot harder to wrestle for third than for first because you go back down and have to win three in a row to take third," Nethercott said.

She credited Scott, a wrestler she had pinned earlier in the season at a Napa tournament.

"I wasn't focused," Nethercott said. "I couldn't get an escape in the last second."

Although unhappy with her missed opportunity, her performance helped Mesa Verde finish ninth at the tournament Feb. 6-7. Teammate April Frank was second in the 235-pound division.

Carrie Hovda of Rio Linda was fourth at 108 pounds, and El Camino's Brittany Wulfert was sixth at 126 pounds.

Frank's finish - she was pinned by Anne Campbell of Tamalpais-Mill Valley in the title match - was an accumulation of a year of hard work that began her freshman year, when she wrestled for the first time on the high school team.

"A lot of girls give it a try," Mesa Verde coach Toby Harris said. "But (Frank) stuck with it."

Her concerned older brother Curtis, the team's top wrestler, was by her side all the while.

"He encouraged her and he was happy for her, but he was worried, because he does other sports, and he knows that wrestling is the toughest," said the Franks' father, Roy. "The fact that she stuck with and has done so well, he's proud of her."

At the dinner table, leg rides are often the topic of conversation, a favorite technique of the wrestlers at Mesa Verde. Wrestling advice reaches past the practice rooms and dinner tables.

But Roy is amazed at how much more social the girls are than the boys. He has seen opponents share tips.

"You'd never see a Ponderosa wrestler go up to a wrestler from Del Oro during a meet and give him advice," Roy Frank said.

One of Nethercott's best friends is Wulfert.

"It's nice because she's close to my weight, so we can work out together," Nethercott said.

While Nethercott and Frank were the only Mesa Verde representatives at both tournaments, they had plenty of support from male teammates.

"They like to see them succeed," Harris said. "They see the girls in here every day working hard, just like them."

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San Leandro's Pino comes through

By STAFF REPORTS 3/5/04

SAN LEANDRO -- She's too tough to be called a poster girl.

But San Leandro wrestler Estella Pino could very well be the poster girl of girls wrestling in the Hayward Area Athletic League. The 138-pounder went 23-5 overall as a senior this season, capturing an HAAL title and a North Coast Section championship along the way.

When the pressure was on, Pino stepped up the challenge and delivered a huge performance. That made her a clear choice for the Daily Review's Prep of the Week.

"She started wrestling as a freshman and pretty much dedicated herself to the sport," San Leandro girls wrestling coach Dylan Souza said. "She's one of just a few four-year wrestlers out there. To make it that far, she's proven she's tough."

Pino, like many other female wrestlers in the Bay Area, started out fighting the stereotypes that seem to envelope the sport of girls wrestling.

When the HAAL first started holding female wrestling matches a few years ago, many coaches were less than enthusiastic.

"Some people seem to look down on it or just don't want to give it any credit," Souza said. "There's been some ups and downs. But the sport keeps growing."

Pino has helped that process along. As a freshman, she was practicing on a daily basis, wrestling in every match that was available. By her sophomore year, the hard work was starting to pay off. Her technique had improved dramatically, and she was becoming a true strategist of the sport.

By the end of her junior year, Pino's skills were drawing the attention of everyone.

"During that summer after her junior year, she became a Junior All-American, and that really helped her confidence," Souza said. "After that, she was off and running."

The success carried into her senior season, where she won titles at the Lady Viking Invitational and the North Coast Classic. By the time the NCS tournament started, she was one of the best 138-pounders in the area and was immediately given a No. 1 seed.

But there was still a final hurdle for Pino to get over. The No. 2 seed in that tourney -- Castro Valley sophomore Ashley Mora -- was also on a mission to an NCS title. Pino had faced off with Mora four times during the season, winning the three of those matches,

But winning a fourth would not be easy.

"I told her going in to just put on her best wrestling," Souza explained. "If she did that, I figured she could beat anyone."

Pino wrestled a tremendous match, eventually pinning Mora to win the NCS title. It capped a brilliant career as a high school wrestler and could be a sign of things to come. Pino has not decided where she will attend college but is hoping to continue her career at the collegiate level.

"Her technique and her moves, they're all excellent," Souza explained. "She impresses just about everyone."

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Their ambitions helped open doors

These S.C. women smashed barriers in male-dominated worlds

By PAT BERMAN

Staff Writer 3/7/04

A surgeon, a police chief, a construction boss and a wrestler. None of it was supposed to be women’s work.

Women’s History Month, celebrated all through March, is meant to recognize S.C. women such as Harriett Steinert, Patty Jaye Patterson, Sandi Brazell and Laura Wall, who succeeded in opening doors for women to the operating room, the construction site, the police station and the sports arena.

Not one said she wanted to do the work to prove a woman could do it. Instead, they all wanted a shot at fulfilling an ambition.

As Dr. Harriett Steinert so bluntly put it: “If people try to beat you down and say you can’t do something without giving you a legitimate reason — say you can’t do it because you have the wrong set of genitalia — that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

‘FIGURE OUT WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT’

Harriett Steinert never would fit the traditional image of the white-coated surgeon. She favors purple scrubs, accessorized with striped top, matching striped socks and fingernails lacquered a deep red.

When Steinert finished medical school in 1975, the Medical University of South Carolina had 45 residents in its surgical programs. One was a woman. This year 79 residents are in surgical programs; 13 are women.

But the odds two decades ago did not bother Steinert. She possesses a straightforwardness peppered with a sense of humor. “My father said I did not call a spade a spade. I called it a g-------- shovel,” she cracked.

Steinert did not set out to be the first female surgeon in South Carolina admitted to the American College of Surgeons.

Steinert first majored in chemistry in college. Not caring for her adviser, she switched to elementary education. But, she found, “I was no more interested in teaching elementary education than I am flying to the moon.”

So, she switched to biology.Steinert gravitated toward surgery after discovering she liked working with patients while working on a master’s degree in pharmacology at Emory University. An inveterate knitter, she also liked working with her hands.

At the Medical University of South Carolina, the head of surgery, also her clinical adviser, told Steinert that “girls” had no business in surgery.

“So I just said, ‘All right,’” she said in a soft voice. The following year, she headed to the surgical program at the University of Maryland.

“Years later, as I was trying to shepherd other women through (surgery programs), the question I learned to ask was not: ‘How many women do you take?’ but ‘How many women do you finish?’” Steinert said.

Steinert finished her surgical residency at Maryland in 1981 and was the first woman there to become administrative chief resident. By the early 1980s, she was a general surgeon in Charleston and teaching at MUSC.

Some doctors refused to refer their patients to a female surgeon. But her reputation was growing and, to the chagrin of those doctors, patients would ask for her.

“The operating room is a great place to be. There’s nothing more peaceful than an operating room. It can get tough in there. Some people get hyper and anxious but I get quiet. I just want a good scrub tech, a good circulating nurse and great anesthesia. I do anything.”

But Steinert developed a severe latex allergy in the early ’90s, ending her days in the OR.

“I was feeling sorry for myself,” Steinert said when a friend called to cheer her up. The friend offered lunch and a shoulder to lean on, and Steinert had what she called a kick-in-the-pants moment. “I suddenly realized this lady is dying from breast cancer and there’s nothing I can do for her. I have a problem but if I stay away from latex, I will die from old age.”

After a stint in the health insurance industry, Steinert returned to doctoring at three latex-free emergency rooms at hospitals in Kingstree, Cheraw and Manning while also working in a Charleston practice specializing in rehabilitative medicine.

John Hales, chief executive at Williamsburg Regional Hospital in Kingstree, recalled one of Steinert’s first surgeries when both of them were at a Charleston hospital in the early 1980s. She went into the dressing room marked “Doctors” to change for surgery. Male doctors, in varying stages of undress, objected to her presence. Undeterred, Steinert changed into scrubs and went about her business.

Steinert, 56, married for 36 years to Steve Steinert, a Charleston attorney and municipal court judge, has two grown daughters and grandchildren. When other women ask her how she managed “to do it all” she replies: “I didn’t. You have to figure out what is most important for you to be doing and delegate the rest. Hire people who are smarter than you in their area.”

‘COMPASSION AND GRIT’

Patty Jaye Patterson was working part-time at Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1979. She wasn’t doing particularly well in college and figured she needed to quit wasting her father’s money and find a job.

Twenty five years later, Patterson’s office walls are covered with citations and plaques, and she oversees 185 employees as the city of Sumter’s chief of police. She is the city’s first female and first black police chief.

In 1979, Patterson did not know a warrant from a writ but, armed with an associate’s degree and a lot of psychology courses, she was hired as an investigator of juvenile cases for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department. She was the only female deputy at the time.

Family and friends were skeptical. “You’re too skittish. You’re too wimpish. You wouldn’t be able to shoot anyone if you had to,” they said to her.

Patterson’s retort: “Well, I think I can do the job. I’d like to at least try.”

Patterson graduated from the Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia in 1982. Then-State Law Enforcement Division Chief J.P. Strom recruited her as that agency’s second female agent. Gloria Byrd was the first.

Byrd, who died recently, and former U.S. Marshal Lydia Glover exemplified what Patterson wanted to be. “Integrity and doing the right thing by other people” came first with them, Patterson said. “You have to respect someone for trying to do the right thing.”

Sumter attorney Martha McElveen Horne has seen Patterson translate those thoughts into action.

“I admire her compassion and grit,” said Horne, who handles city and police business. Patterson is tough when she has to be, but knows “a kind word” can get the job done too, Horne said.

“I’ve worked with law enforcement officials for 25 years and I’d put her among the best,” Horne said.

The toughest on-the-job resistance she faced was as the first female on SLED’s SWAT team. “Some of the old-timers thought, ‘A woman can’t be here. She’s just a little girl.’ I hung in there.”

Some of the men were welcoming; their support was key. In law enforcement, “it’s always about teamwork. You can’t be out there by yourself,” Patterson said. “We used to call it ‘tombstone courage’ when someone thought they could do the job all by themselves.”

Patterson, whose husband works for the Department of Health and Environmental Control, likes to tell a story about their 7-year-old daughter’s ambitions.

“We were reading a book about Peter Pan. A little African-American girl wants to play Peter Pan but a little white boy says, ‘You can’t. Only a white boy can play Peter Pan.’” The girl insists she can be anything she wants to be, including Peter Pan.

“My daughter was only three when I first read that to her. She looked at me and said, ‘He can’t tell her what she can be. She can do anything she wants.’”

‘IT MADE ME GO AT IT THAT MUCH HARDER’

Sandi Brazell said she wanted more of a challenge when she went from being a cosmetologist and beauty shop owner to construction project manager.

Brazell’s father and brothers were in construction but brother Jack Brazell frowned on the idea.

“Her being a woman, it’s hard to tell people in construction what to do,” he said. “They work their own hours and are bull-headed in their ways. The cards were stacked against her.”

He’s glad she proved him wrong. “I know her boss wishes he had four more just like her.”

Raised in Columbia with an independent streak, Sandi Brazell was bound to do what she wanted. She’d quiz one of her brother’s friends in construction. “I would tell him how I would do something and he would tell me, ‘No. You can’t do it that way.’ But I could. I did and I have.”

Brazell was willing to work her way up.

“I’d do whatever needed to be done — crawl around in basements and attics,” said Brazell, who was hanging Sheetrock by 1992 and taking a carpentry class.

She also remembered one of her first bosses. “He was rough and gruff and he cussed like a sailor. But I learned a lot from him. He was very methodical in what he said and how he wanted things done.”

Brazell accumulated hands-on experience, took classes and decided to strike out on her own as a contractor. Divorced and with two children, she was scared. “But I’m also a very stubborn person. I had people telling me I couldn’t do it, I was stupid to do it, but that just fueled my fire. It made me go at it that much harder.”

Brazell, 47, now oversees all the projects for Monteray Construction Co. in Columbia. She spends much of her time talking to clients and working on their building designs from the ground up. But she’s more than willing to slip out of her blazer and into the work boots to check out a site.

“A lot of times I carry a change of clothes. As long as I have comfortable shoes, I’m OK,” she said, wheeling her SUV off a muddy site and onto the pavement.

After 20 years of owning beauty salons, Brazell thinks women are easier to manage than men. But she likes the challenge in construction. If her boss and the crew she works with respect her, Brazell does not worry about the prejudices of others.

“Anytime you’re in a male-oriented business there’s going to be somebody who thinks you’re not making it because of what you know and how hard you work. Anyone who works closely with me knows otherwise. And those are the only ones I care about.”

‘IT WAS IMPORTANT FOR ... GIRLS TO SEE’

Laura Wall didn’t have to ask to play with the boys when a neighborhood baseball game started. Her older sister would.

And she wasn’t shy about roughhousing with her younger brother. “He slammed me around the house,” said the 5-foot-3-inch, 95-pound soft-spoken woman with a sweet smile that could make opponents weak.

Wall was one of three Dreher High School girls whom wrestling coach Paul Watson recruited for the school’s team in 1999. She wasn’t the best. Liz Grice and Suzannah Zupan won some matches while Wall, who wrestled in the lowest weight class, 105 pounds, and was 10 pounds underweight, never did. “I liked to see what I could do. How long I could last — that was my goal and I made it to the second round in my very first match.”

Wrestling also transformed Wall: “I was extremely quiet — extremely meek.” She became more outgoing.

“From the get-go, Laura was dedicated,” Watson said. “She read the books and studied the techniques. She had fantastic technique. She just lacked upper body strength.”

Wall remembers racing from dancing class to wrestling practice. “I had on my tights, my leotard, my ballet shoes. My little skirt over my leotard. I had to run, tear off my ballet shoes and throw on my wrestling shoes. Throw on my warm-ups.”

Although a few opponents did not want to wrestle a girl, Wall and Watson said most of the guys were encouraging, as were most of her peers and her parents. “My mom and dad came to every match of mine,” she said.

Some coaches still don’t like to see girls participate in wrestling, but Watson says that’s their loss.

Said Wall, “After Liz (Grice) took down one of their guys, they knew girls belonged.”

Wall, 20, still tries to keep up with the wrestling team’s ups and downs but with a full-time job, plans to earn a business degree at USC, and a 6-month-old son, she does not have much time. Wall said when her son gets older, he might think what his mom did was weird. But then again, he could be proud of her.

“I didn’t join for the purpose of making a statement,” Wall said. “But once I’d gotten into it and realized what a big deal it was to some people, I thought it was important for other girls to see that it was OK to go out and do things like that.”

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Interest in girls wrestling hasn't found FWISD

By Carlos Mendez 3/2/04

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The Fort Worth school district produced its first boys state finalist in wrestling last weekend when Kyle Pawlak of Western Hills took the silver medal at 171 pounds.

He was one of seven Fort Worth school district wrestlers at the state meet in Austin, compared with four last season. Four years ago, the district had yet to produce a state qualifier.

The numbers are evidence of the sport's growth within the FWISD. But for girls, there is little interest and no opportunity in wrestling. It is in contrast to much of the state.

More than 1,000 Texas girls wrestle for 149 teams in UIL competition. Four years ago, the UIL counted 104 girls teams.

But Fort Worth schools, and Tarrant County-area schools with strong boys programs such as Weatherford and Azle, have struggled to bring girls to the sport since it became UIL sanctioned in 1998.

"We just don't have it. It's a shame," Trimble Tech coach Gerry Magin said.

In Fort Worth, the main challenge is marshaling interest. If a FWISD school believes it has enough wrestlers for a girls team, the principal can ask the UIL to place its team in a district, said Kevin Greene, an assistant athletic director for Fort Worth schools.

Greene said his office has not received a request for a girls team in the six years the sport has been UIL sanctioned.

"Every year, when I have my first wrestling meeting, I get 20 or 25 girls who show up," Magin said. "They're interested in it. But nobody ever really pursues it to the point where it goes to the athletic office."

Azle and Weatherford also have difficulty measuring interest. Weatherford coach Shawn Lane said three or four girls asked about wrestling last season. At Azle, coach Kim Thwaits said the few girls who have come out for wrestling decided it wasn't for them.

"In the next few years, it's probably coming," Lane said.

Girls wrestling does thrive in some neighboring areas. The Arlington and Grand Prairie school districts have competitive girls teams.

About 7,000 women compete in the sport in the United States, according to USA Wrestling, with about 4,500 of those competing in high school. Six women's varsity programs exist on the collegiate level, and women train with several U.S. men's collegiate teams. Women's wrestling will be a medal sport at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

In Texas, the level of girls wrestling improves every year.

"What you're seeing is a lot more technique with the girls," Trinity wrestling coach Kelsy Lynes said. "They're shooting singles and doubles, and stepping through. It's exciting."

But coaches and competitors say changes are still needed.

Frisco coach Chuck Brown said some UIL rules hinder improvement. For example, contact between male coaches and female wrestlers is prohibited, as well as practices between boys and girls.

Another obstacle to greater participation is attitude, Western Hills coach Gordon Stephens said.

"I don't necessarily frown on it, but there is a stigma that girls shouldn't wrestle," he said. "That's a hurdle to overcome."

Some teams struggle to keep girls, even when coaches actively recruit. Colleyville Heritage had four senior girls last year. This year, coach David Gerdes said he could not convince any girl to finish the season.

Magin, who is stepping down as coach at Trimble Tech, said he will continue to support wrestling in Fort Worth -- and girls wrestling, too, when and if it comes.

"Someday, I would think we're going to get it," he said.

Staff Writers Heidi Pederson and Eric Zarate Contributed to This Report.

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McCannell frustrated by CIS restrictions

Ian Hamilton
Leader-Post 3/8/04

Ali McCannell is spoiling for a good fight.

McCannell, 19, has had two frustrating seasons with the University of Regina Cougars wrestling team. Her disappointment is at an all-time high these days because, despite winning a gold medal at the Canada West championship, she isn't going to the CIS meet Friday and Saturday in St. Catherines, Ont.

She was jilted because the CIS championships don't feature the women's 90-kilogram weight class in which McCannell competes.

"I've gone both ways on it,'' she said when asked about her emotional state. "I should be going because I legitimately won (the conference title) in a legitimate category. Coach (Leo McGee) went to bat for me to get the weight category in.

"But I really don't blame (the CIS). Everything has to be established. It's going to take some time. I'm one of the only girls I know who weigh 90 who aren't huge. It'd be tough for (CIS coaches) to recruit someone who isn't a big fat girl who'd just prance around the mat.''

McCannell won the Canada West gold by beating Mychel Martin of the Calgary Dinos. They were the only two competitors in the event.

"How legitimate is that?'' said McCannell. "I was happy when I won, but then it felt like a hollow victory. I didn't feel like I'd earned it, even though I had.''

"She should be able to move on,'' noted McGee. "The reason why there were only two in the conference is because some of the other coaches said, 'We can't qualify for nationals at that weight, so why put time into the kid?'

"We have three kids who could have moved on at that weight. For one coach to say it's something in the water in Regina (that results in women who can compete at 90kg) is an insult. These athletes have every right to compete.''

Armed with the knowledge that high school competitions feature an unlimited weight class for women, McGee went to the Canada West coaches last season and put forward a motion to create the 90kg class. The motion passed and the division was added for the '04 conference championships.

Canada West then recommended the CIS adopt the division, but coaches from other regions wanted an amendment. They agreed to move the heaviest weight class from 77kg to 80kg and that was it.

As a result, McCannell was left out in the cold -- again.

"I really don't feel like an athlete,'' she said. "I go to half the competitions and I'm just the camera girl. I have no one to wrestle. Everyone else wrestles three or four times and I wrestle once.

"If I don't weigh 80 next year, I'll probably say, 'Screw it.' I've been here two years and I've wrestled six matches, but I still have to show up for morning sprints and practices. I don't receive the same benefits as all of the other athletes in terms of competition.

"I don't want to quit wrestling, but I don't want to do this again,'' she added.

"It's a really hard decision.''

Her absence this weekend will affect the Cougars' chances at a CIS team title.

"That certainly hurts us because she's probably the best kid in the country at that weight,'' McGee said. "The whole thing has to be looked at.''

The Cougars got some good news Wednesday when Erin Church was invited to nationals.

Because she finished fourth at 72kg in the Canada West meet, Church didn't qualify for the CIS meet. But she was added yesterday when Ashlea McManus of Simon Fraser -- the third-place finisher in the conference -- dropped out.

Church joins Amber McCrystal (48kg), Lisa Morin (53kg), Kailey Large (57kg), Carla Binning (65kg) and Carissa Holinaty (80kg) on Regina's female squad.

The Cougars men's team comprises Apollo Bellisle (54kg), Martin Meggeson (57kg), Dustin Seimens (65kg), Trevor Anderson (76kg), Scott Schmidt (90kg) and Jeff Geres (heavyweight).

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Girls league seen for teens wanting venue to compete

By Heather Barr 3/8/04
THE NEWS-TIMES

Danbury High School wrestler Susie Levitt is often approached by girls who want to compete like she does.
The two-time, all-American wrestler understands their desire. She also understands that it takes a lot of commitment to break into a sport dominated by men.
She envisions a local women’s wrestling league where women would feel comfortable slamming, pinning and winning.
"I would really love to see that,” she said. "It’s time.”
She encourages any girl who wants to try wrestling to go for it. "Don’t be intimidated,” said Levitt. "Don’t let anyone get in the way or interfere or discourage you" get in the way of your dreams.”
Mark Cammisa, treasurer of the amateur wrestling group USA Wrestling Connecticut, shares that goal.
Males are naturally stronger than women. As a result, many women wrestlers find it difficult to win, and thus to move up to the varsity level, Cammisa said.
At junior varsity tournaments, high school teams sometimes forfeit to avoid a match with a female because the male wrestler doesn’t want to wrestle a girl, Cammisa said. Other times, the girl can’t compete because the opposing team doesn’t have a player in her weight category.
Sarit Ofer-Moran, a Brookfield High School sophomore who went out for the wrestling team this year, realizes men face pressures when they wrestle women. And she knows the struggles women have wrestling men.
She said most guys, uneasy about the situation, simply want to get the match over with.
"Guys go right after you because they don’t want to lose,” agreed Newtown High sophomore Kimberly Solheim, who is new to the wrestling team. "They are so aggressive. They give 110 percent to go against you. They are quicker and faster. They want to get you pinned as soon as possible.”
With all the hard work women put in for the sport, Cammisa said, it isn’t fair there are so few opportunities to compete.
"It’s a Catch-22,” said Cammisa. Girl wrestlers who want to compete at some wrestling tournaments often can’t because their high school teams aren’t going. If they compete solo, they are considered ineligible to wrestle with their teams.
"Our goal is to have a separate division for girls in high school wrestling so girls can compete better against each other",” said Cammisa.
He said Danbury High School coach Ricky Shook tried once at a junior varsity tournament to get a separate division for women, but there not enough girls attended.
"They (women wrestlers) are sprinkled all around the state,” he said. "It’s about getting organized.”
Until then, Kent Bailo hopes to fill some of the void.
He formed the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association in 1998 in Michigan. As a wrestling referee, he met several woman competitors. They didn’t realize there were others like them out there.
After observing that most women lose to men because of the strength component, he thought a women’s association would give them more chances for success. So he sent out information about organizing a high school girls wrestling association program to some 10,000 or more schools.
On March 13, the USGWA will host the New England Championships for women for the second year. Last year there were around 80 women at the championships. On March 14, the first USGA tournament in Connecticut will be held at Pomperaug High School in Southbury. Bailo expects 30 to 80 women to attend. Only five so far have signed up, but he said many times women will sign up at the last minute.
Many times Bailo hears people say to him a girl shouldn’t wrestle "just because.” But he doesn’t see why not.
"It teaches them to work hard, sacrifice and make split decisions,” he said.
Bailo said the toughest part of getting women in the sport is because they have few role models. They are the pioneers. It is not like any of their mothers were able to say they were in wrestling to make them feel like it is normal.
But with any luck at all, girls who wrestle today will be tomorrow’s mothers. They’ll teach their daughters that wrestling can be a worthwhile, fulfilling sport.
"They won’t be afraid,” Bailo said.

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Female wrestlers grapple with nontraditional sport

By Heather Barr 3/7/04
THE NEWS-TIMES

Galia Ofer and Thomas Moran remember watching their daughter Sarit twinkle her toes across the floor at a ballet recital as classical music played in the background.
Then there were gymnastics, piano lessons and art classes — all typical activities for a little girl.
That was then. Fast forward three to five years.
Sarit’s new sport of choice has no music, no pretty outfits, no twirls. Slams, pins and clutches replace her once-graceful plie and pirouette.

Her footwork is about training and technique. Her mind is programmed on strategy.
In October, Sarit joined the Brookfield High School wrestling team.
Her parents now go to wrestling meets. They watch their daughter in a loud, aggressive setting, using her moves to pin girls and boys on a mat.
"It is very smelly and sweaty, very boyish,” said Galia Ofer. "There is a lot of suspense, excitement.”
After dabbling in everything from field hockey and track to gymnastics, Sarit, a Brookfield High School sophomore, has found the sport she loves. And she plans to stick with it.
"It takes a lot,” she said. "I didn’t know I had that much in me.”
Over the last 10 years, women wrestlers have emerged in a sport once dominated by men. Locally, there is no shortage of women making their mark as wrestlers.
U.S. Girls Wrestling Association member Susie Levitt, 16, sat in her family’s living room with her legs crossed last week. She is no brute. Dressed in white workout pants and a white Danbury wrestling T-shirt, Susie is a pretty blonde with a figure like a gymnast.
She just happens to love wrestling and is on the Danbury High School team — one of the best in the state.
She talked softly and humbly of her two-time all-American wrestling status. This year she was ranked fourth nationally in the USGA 105-pound weight class after a national competition in Michigan.
Mark Cammisa, as the treasurer for the amateur wrestling group USA Wrestling Connecticut, took a handful of women, including Levitt and other Connecticut women wrestlers, to the national competition. He said women are blasting onto the wrestling scene.
Seven girls from Connecticut went to Fargo, N.D., last July for the USA Wrestling Association nationals. Three women, one of them Levitt, received All-American status finishing in the top eight in the nation.
At the national competition, Cammisa watched women wrestlers going at their opponents with fierce intensity. When they took off their head gear afterward, long blonde or brunette hair would come flowing out.
"They looked like pristine dolls, but fight like tigers,” said Cammisa, who was a wrestling coach at Rogers Park Middle School in Danbury from 2000 to 2002.
Before joining the Brookfield High team, Sarit had never been to a wrestling meet. She had no idea what went into the sport.
"It is so mental and physical,” she said. "In wrestling you have to have patience and aggression at the same time. It involves every part. Your whole being is put toward wrestling. Your life becomes wrestling.”
What started off as a joke with her friends to try out and have fun has become very rewarding.
"People were surprised when I said I was going out for the wrestling team,” Sarit said. "Never in a million years did I imagine I would do it.”
Kimberly Solheim, 16, a Newtown High School sophomore, had wanted to go out for her school’s team for a while, but her parents worried about her safety.
Now they realize their daughter can hold her own.
"I went out for wrestling for the same reasons guys want to do it — it’s a great workout, a lot of fun, the atmosphere is great and it is a big commitment,” said Kimberly, who joined the wrestling team this year. "I did not go out to prove anything to anybody.”
At first, she had a frustrating time. It was hard learning moves and techniques. She questioned her moves and was hesitant to do them. She lost all her matches.
But her teammates pushed her forward and today she can pick up an opponent, slamming and pinning with the best of them.
"The guys on the team have been great,” Kimberly said. "They accepted me instantly. They encourage me all the time. They are always there for me.”
In January, Kimberly won against a New Fairfield woman wrestler who was two weight classes above her. She is 103 pounds and her opponent was 119 pounds.
"It was amazing, very exciting,” she said. "When I walked over to my teammates I could see they were so proud of me.”
After that, she felt part of the team. Her teammates tease her that now that she has won a match, no one can mess with her.
Sarit’s teammates have also been supportive. She expects them to be as rough on her in practice as they would be with any male. Anything less would be insulting.
"You don’t want to treat her special at all,” said teammate Kevin Mooney, 17, a Brookfield High School junior. "If she has to go out at a match and has to wrestle a guy, it won’t be any different.”
But he admits he and other teammates have had to learn to adjust to wrestling a woman.
At the beginning of the season, Sarit, too, was often hesitant while competing. Not anymore.
"She has improved her technique and her strength,” said her coach, Josh Levine. "She has learned how to wrestle and about connecting the moves.”
One of Sarit’s favorite moves is called crossfacing, when a wrestler takes the bone on their wrist and slides it across the bridge of another wrestler’s nose.
"It is the only way to inflict pain on a person,” said Sarit. "It’s the easiest way.”
At first, Sarit was surprised to see how many other women were into wrestling. But she found that girls are quicker and more flexible than men.
While she hasn’t won a match yet, she wants to keep learning.
"She doesn’t give up,” said Mooney, who has watched her improve. Before, she couldn’t get through a match without getting pinned. Now she can.
Tom Liesegang, 15, a Brookfield High School sophomore who wrestles Sarit in practice, said he considers her just "another teammate.”
"I think it is good that she is on the team,” he said. "She has definitely been able to mix.”
Mooney said Sarit has shown everyone in the community "anybody can do something if they set their mind to it.”
When Kimberly thinks of the kind of wrestler she wants to become, she thinks of Susie Levitt. Because of her, she knows anything is possible.
"She is really amazing,” said Kimberly. "Susie beats guys all the time. I hope one day to live up to that. I admire her a lot. She is very talented.”
Susie began wrestling at the age of 7. In fifth grade, she had open heart surgery. Her doctor advised her not to wrestle for fear of injuring her chest.
But after a few years, she decided to get back into it. She began weight training at age 11. Today, she trains about four hours a day including drills, running and weight lifting.
While she is normally not stronger than the male wrestlers, she knows how to use what she has. She uses her whole body to flip an opponent.
Abigail Scudder, 51, of Ridgefield, Susie’s weight trainer, has watched her mature and become the wrestler she is today.
"She’s awesome, just an athlete,” she said. "She is a real tough cookie. Any girl that gets into wrestling is somebody special, someone who thinks outside the box and wants a little more than the traditional sports available. It takes a strong person to start and an even stronger person to stick with it.”
Susie achieved one of her goals in March 2003, when she placed fourth nationally in her weight class at the USGWA nationals in Michigan.
Cammisa met Susie while she was in elementary school. Last year, he began coaching her. He trained her for the New England Championshps for girls wrestling in March 2003 where she took first in her weight class.
"She has always been very, very competitive,” he said. "She has always been strong and a quick learner.”
Competition is nothing new to the family. Susie’s older brother, Ben, a 1991 Danbury High School graduate, was a four-time Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference champion, a two time state LL division champion and a two time state open champion in the late 1980s. His uniform remains on a wall at Danbury High.
"I am overly proud of her,” said father Andrew Levitt, who wrestled in high school. "It was an uphill battle, but she stuck with it.”
Not only is Susie a good athlete, she is also a distinguished student, he said. "She creates a lot of pride in our family.”
Ofer is "enormously” proud of her daughter Sarit as well.
While at first she was surprised her daughter wanted to wrestle, she and her husband, Thomas Moran, are glad Sarit went for it. They encourage her to always try new things.
"I think it’s fabulous,” Ofer said.
She predicts Sarit’s interest in trying different experiences will aid her in the future, especially when it comes to competing with men in the workplace.
Sarit’s new passion has also rubbed off on her 13-year-old brother, Ethan. The Whisconier Middle School seventh-grader has joined a youth team. His big sister has already taught him some moves.
Sarit can do things now that she never thought possible. Recently a friend told her that they thought she walked stronger.
Sarit encourages others to explore a new sport, traditional or not. "You could be surprised. You may have the time of your life.”