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Trent Hills - First season led to Nationals for wrestler Kayla Patfield

by Michele Fairfield 04.29.04

First-year wrestler Kayla Patfield says she is "very proud and very happy" with her performance this season and hopes to build on it. The 14-year-old Grade 9 student at Campbellford District High School wrestled her way to the Canadian National Championships after just a few months in the sport.
Tough practice turned into fun when she began placing in local matches. She managed second in the Kawartha Championship and went on to place third at COSSA. "I was one place away from going to OFSA," said Kayla." It was a bit of a heart break, but I did as well as I could." She lost the chance to go to OFSA to a second-year wrestler in Grade 12. "She was a tough wrestle," Kayla admitted with a smile.
Kayla headed for the Ontario Winter Games, however, with a fourth-place finish at the qualifying matches in St. Catharines. That placement led her to the Canadian Nationals held at the University of Windsor April 2 to 4, 2004. Eighteen wrestlers from all over Canada competed in her 52-kilo weight class. She wrestled three times, winning the first and losing the second two matches. In the end, she placed in the top 12.
Kayla swims competitively, played soccer for several years and now plays rugby. But, she maintains wrestling is the hardest sport she has tried. "It involves strength and endurance,” she says. "You are thinking the whole time: 'what can I do next and what should I now be doing.’" It is also physically demanding; in the last few seconds of Kayla's last match at the nationals she separated her shoulder on a double-leg takedown.
Comparing wrestling to other sports, Kayla says one big difference is the one-to-one aspect of wrestling. "It's just you; you don't count on the team. You make all the decisions; you are in control." The student wrestler believes the concentration and discipline she learned in her first experience with the sport will carry over into other areas of her life.
Like all sports, to do well takes commitment. She noted there were others who left the team because they did not have the time to train because of other extracurricular activities. At first some of Kayla's friends were surprised by her choice of sport. Her mother even laughed when Kayla announced she was going to wrestle. Her dad, who had wrestled for CDHS under Coach Murray Fischer, convinced her it might be fun, she says. And, in the end, her friends were supportive and even her mom and sister got into the sport.
Kayla points out there are fewer stereotypes around girls wrestling at the high school than you might expect, with past students like Lauren Weaver doing well in the sport. "If you get a chance to wrestle, go out for it," says Kayla. "Anyone can learn the sport. I had my doubts, but I stuck with it and met many people and learned many things." Kayla hopes to wrestle next year, providing her school has a coach.
There have been rumours that veteran coach of about 30 years Murray Fischer would like to retire from the job, she noted. "Mr. Fischer has put a lot of dedication into his work," she comments. "He coached my dad. He knew a lot and had a lot to teach use." Kayla sums up her year in wrestling. "Amazing and fun. It is an amazing sport to be doing and a lot of fun along the way."

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Takin’ It to the Mat
United States Prepares to Field Its First Female Olympic Wrestling Team

By Judy Muller May 1 —

Women's wrestling is the only new sport being added to the Olympics this year.
(ABCNEWS.com)

After years of dreaming of the Olympic Games, women wrestlers are finally going to get their shot.

Women's wrestling is the only sport being added to the Olympics this year, and Kristie Marano — a former waitress from upstate New York who has won multiple national and world championships — hopes to be one of the four women selected in May for the first female U.S. Olympic team.

"It's been my dream since I was really young," says Marano, "ever since I started wrestling at 5."

Women's wrestling has long been accepted in other countries, but Americans have been slow to warm to the idea. The young women who wrestle hope to change that cultural prejudice.

"Women have a natural ability to go out and be aggressive when you have to be," says Toccara Montgomery, another Olympic hopeful, adding, "I think a lot of people sell us short on that issue."

Popularity Contest

Right now, there are six colleges in the United States that offer women's varsity wrestling.

At California's Menlo College, the men and women work out together, because of limited funding and facilities. But there are, of course, differences. The men have more upper body strength, while the women compensate with agility.

And that's not all, says wrestling coach Sara Fulp-Allen. She thinks the women who choose this male-dominated sport "have a lot of intensity, a lot of movement and a lot of adrenaline."

Some 5,000 girls are now wrestling nationwide. That's a 300 percent increase in the last five years. But despite that surge in popularity, only two states — Texas and Hawaii — sanction girls' wrestling at the high-school level.

There have been concerns that girls involved in such an aggressive contact sport could be injured. And yet, because so few female teams exist, girls must join the boys' team if they want to compete. At West Covina High School in California, Coach Don Stephens often has to reassure parents that there is no inappropriate touching.

"The last thing going through that boy's mind when he finds out he has to wrestle a girl," says Stephens, "is how pretty she is. He's thinking, 'Please, don't let me lose.' "

Tough Young Women

But they often lose to 17-year-old Norine Cruz, a top-ranked wrestler in California who hails from West Covina.

Her petite frame masks a tough spirit. After she broke her nose in a match, her doctor gave her a choice: set it now and give up wrestling for awhile, or wait until the end of the season when he would re-break the nose and set it then. "I went to the league finals," she says, "and finished off the season." That's right: with a broken nose.

One of Cruz's younger teammates, 12-year-old Samantha Lopez, took up wrestling as a way of defending herself against her brothers. She says she's used to the taunts she sometimes gets. When boys tease her, she simply replies, "You want to go wrestle?"

That's the sort of grit that motivates these young women to aim for the top which, in wrestling, is definitely the place to be.

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What's Title IX Got to Do With It?

Regarding "Female Athletes Continue to Gain Ground" [Sports, April 22]:

The inclusion of women's freestyle wrestling in the 2004 Olympics is
the direct result of USA Wrestling's unrelenting support for its female
athletes, not of Title IX.

In fact, Title IX has virtually no bearing on women's Olympic
achievements in such sports as cycling, gymnastics and kayaking, to name just a few.
Many of these athletes did not participate in NCAA programs before their
Olympic debuts. To credit their Olympic glory to federal regulations is a great
disservice to the athletic accomplishments of these young women.

Unfortunately, proportionality remains the favored method of Title IX
compliance, which runs afoul of the Olympic spirit as it denies the
opportunity to compete for countless male athletes in our collegiate
sports system.

Wouldn't readers benefit from hearing their perspective?

-- Eric Pearson

Washington

The writer is executive director of the College Sports Council.

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Cashing in on Olympic success

By DAVID NIELSEN
April 30, 2004

There is nothing amateurish about the Olympics anymore.

Not with billion-dollar TV contracts, million-dollar endorsement deals and gold medal bonuses of $50,000 and up.

The Olympic Games are oozing with cash. And so are the top Olympians.

Today you can find Olympic heroes driving Cadillac Escalades and negotiating seven-figure endorsement contracts.

In Athens, the U.S. Olympic Committee will give American athletes $25,000 for each gold medal, $15,000 for each silver and $10,000 for each bronze. In some sports, like swimming, wrestling and soccer, federation officials will throw in additional bonus money.

USA Swimming will give $50,000 for golds, $25,000 for silvers and $12,500 for bronzes. USA Wrestling will toss in $15,000 for gold, $8,000 for silver and $6,000 for bronze. The U.S. Soccer Federation offers a bonus pool to be split among the 18-player women's squad ranging from $100,000 for finishing fourth up to $720,000 for winning the gold.

Some U.S. swimmers have incentives with a lot more zeros attached. USA Swimming will award a $1 million bonus to any U.S. swimmer who sets a world record while winning a gold medal in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle or the women's 800-meter freestyle in Athens.

If Michael Phelps can win seven gold medals either in Athens or at the 2008 Games in Beijing - and match the seven golds that Mark Spitz won at the 1972 Olympics in Munich - he'll earn a $1 million bonus from his sponsor, Speedo.

Still, all athletes aren't created equal. Here's a capsule look at the life of three different levels of athletes in three different sports - the superstar, the veteran and the up-and-comer.

- DAVID NIELSEN

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com)