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THE Best OF THE Best: COACH OF THE YEAR

SCOTT TANKERSLEY 5/30/04
CAPROCK € WRESTLING

Tankersley coached the Caprock girls wrestling team to a UIL state championship and the boys team to a district title.

What was the highlight of your 2003-04 wrestling season? "I have two most memorable moments," he said. "One is when both boys and girls won district at Tascosa. The boys weren't expected to win, and they prevailed. It was awesome. And the other one is how things turned out at the state tournament. Friday night was so low, we actually thought that we lost the tournament, but the wrestlers woke up the next morning with a new attitude when they announced that the Lady Horns won state. It was unbelievable."

How can you improve next year? "In order to be successful each year, you have to have athletes with great attitudes," he said. "They have to be taught that patience, perseverance, discipline and honor are part of the destination. Once an athlete embraces this philosophy, it becomes easier to develop work ethic, positive attitude and goal-setting. Focus on the process is the key in becoming a successful athlete. Once an athlete focuses on the final results, he or she will tighten up and will be geared to failure."

Orangeblood: Tankersley was already bleeding orange when he accepted the head coaching job at Caprock in 1998. Tankersley is a 1982 Caprock graduate. He played varsity baseball and football for the Longhorns, earning second-team all-district honors as a junior linebacker.

A good read: "There is no doubt that Bob Richards' book 'The Heart of a Champion,' is probably one of the best motivating books I've ever read," he said. "It literally talks about everything athletes needs to know. It talks about the heart of a champion - the desire, belief system and working toward a goal. Anyone who reads this book won't be able to put it down. It'll fire anyone up."

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Area man driving force in women's wrestling

ORTONVILLE
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, May 30, 2004
By Keith Morris
kmorris@flintjournal.com = 810.766.6184

If an American woman wins an Olympic wrestling gold medal this summer in Athens, Greece, she should thank Kent Bailo.

It is Bailo, after all, who is largely responsible for the growth of girls and women's wrestling in the United States.

After working behind the scenes for years to create wrestling opportunities for girls and women, Bailo is beginning to draw accolades for his efforts. One of the biggest comes courtesy of Wrestling USA Magazine, which recently named the Ortonville resident its Man of the Year.

"What he's done for women's wrestling is unbelievable," said Cody Bryant, Wrestling USA's managing editor. "It's great what Kent has done to get women's wrestling established in such a short period of time. There's no question, Kent's had a huge influence on women's wrestling becoming an Olympic sport this year."

Bailo, 53, is an excellent choice for the award, according to USA Women's National Wrestling Team coach Terry Steiner.

"There's no doubt he's opened up opportunities for women in wrestling," said Steiner. "He's kind of a trail blazer."

Bailo, who resigned as Brandon High's wrestling coach last month to devote more time to female wrestling, created and runs the United States Girls Wrestling Association. When he's not working as a forklift operator at General Motors Service Parts Operations in Pontiac, he's coordinating an organization which conducts a national tournament and 35 state tournaments.

"I'm the Don King of women's wrestling," he said, tongue in cheek. "I organize it, then when we get them there I turn it over to somebody else the day of (the tournament). There are like 10,000 high school wrestling coaches nationwide and I'm the only one doing what I'm doing at the national level."

Bailo became interested in beginning a movement for girls wrestling as a high school referee.

"I've been refereeing wrestling since 1968," said Bailo, creator of the United States Girls Wrestling Association.

"In the early '90s, I'd see the occasional girl and ask them why they were wrestling against boys and they'd say, 'This team has one (girl) or this one has one and I don't know of any others.' The story was always the same. These girls were getting the crap beaten out of them and if it was a girl versus a girl, a girl would win 50 percent of the time and get the thrill of winning."

That planted the seed of all-girls competition in his head and it didn't take long for him to start doing things to change the situation.

A year after organizing this state's first girls state tournament, Bailo put together the first High School Age Division Girls National Championship, which was held at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School in 1998.

"We let seventh through 12th graders wrestle and 116 girls showed up," Bailo said of the initial state tournament. "That told me it was time for a national championship, so the next year we had the national championships and 272 girls showed up. We had 14 champions.

"This past one was our seventh national tournament and we had 600 girls. We had 300 in the high school division but we have divisions all the way down to kindergarten. We had 105 elementary, 130 middle schoolers and about 60 collegians and we had both freestyle and folkstyle (high school style) for them. We had a 39-year-old mom of one of the girls from New York compete."

Steiner said Bailo opened doors for women and girls.

"He's had a role in the development of women's wrestling in the United States," the coach said. "He's giving the opportunities state high school associations aren't giving at this time. We've talked and hopefully every state will run its own high school (girls) tournament and run him out of business."

Bailo, who shelled out thousands of his own dollars to start the state tournaments in 1997, has made many sacrifices for the sake of advancing female wrestling.

"In February and March I'm pretty much on the road every day," he said. "Now I have probably 3,500 girls nationwide who wrestle in my state tournaments or nationals every year. I have to update the addresses in my computer because I mail to them all."

He said tournament entry fees finance the mailing of tournament registration forms and press releases. Those funds also help pay for referees and tournament staffing.

"The first year it cost me $8,000 in printing and postage," Bailo said. "Now I have enough money built up to start up without dipping into my own pocket. It costs a bit more now because I mail to 10,000 high schools that have wrestling and also to about 4,000 kids who've wrestled in my tournaments. Then I mail to every daily newspaper before a tournament in that state.

"It's a one-man operation until the day of the tournament and others do what you have to do then. I don't want to run a tournament in Colorado. I want to organize it then let high school coaches or fathers of girls wrestling who know people who can open the gym doors the day of the tournament run it. They get people to take tickets and five or six kids on the wrestling team to roll up the mats."

Bailo grew up in South Lyon. He moved to Lake Orion for 10 years before relocating to Ortonville five years ago. He coached one year (1986) at Bentley High and led the Bulldogs to a 27-7-1 mark a year after they went 3-17. He was voted the Flint-area's Class B-C Coach of the Year.

Fenton varsity coach Bruce Burwitz has been impressed with the effort put forth by his former Metro League rival.

"He's almost single-handedly started the girls movement," Burwitz said. "He's been a major force behind girls wrestling and he's done a great job of promoting it and making that movement really come of age. I'm not a big proponent of the girls wrestling with the guys. I think it's better to have girls against girls."

Holly varsity coach Don Pluta said Bailo's passion for the movement has been key.

"When he first started talking about women's wrestling, we'd say, 'Oh, OK,' '' Pluta chuckled. "But it became clear if anybody could pull it off, it was Kent. He had some skeptics among the coaching ranks, but you listen to him talk about it and people start taking him seriously.

"The more you talked to him you could see his belief in it and his passion for it and you realize he's starting to make believers. It's important to get people who have been involved in the sport involved and when those guys get involved you start to believe in what they're trying to do. I think it's great that girls are starting to have the opportunity."

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Being an Olympian still settling in for Homer's O'Donnell

By BEN STUART 5/30/04
Morris News Service-Alaska

In "The Iliad," the classic poet Homer described the sport of wrestling in ancient Greece more than 2,500 years ago. This summer, at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, one of Homer's residents, Tela O'Donnell, will be making some wrestling history of her own.

O'Donnell grappled her way to Greece on May 23 by pinning her longtime nemesis and two-time world silver medalist Tina George twice at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis.

The victory cemented the 121-pounder a spot on the first ever U.S. women's Olympic wrestling squad. She and three other U.S. women's wrestlers will begin competition Aug. 22, when the event makes its Olympic debut.

O'Donnell said Tuesday during a phone interview that at times she still can't believe she is going to the Olympics.

"I think it comes and goes," she said. "I don't think it's settled in yet."

O'Donnell had to wrestle through a minitournament and win three matches earlier in the weekend to reach the finals against George.

"All the girls are real close, strong competitors," she said. "It was good for me. Nothing was an easy win."

George, on the other hand, received a free pass to the finals with her victory over O'Donnell at the U.S. National Championships in Las Vegas in early April.

The extra work in the tournament paid off for O'Donnell, who has faced George in several tournaments and beat her once in 2003.

"She's a real explosive lady with strong legs and strong arms," O'Donnell said. "I was working on making angles and not getting right in front of her."

In the first of the best out of three matches the two wrestlers sparred like gladiators.

O'Donnell scored on four takedowns while George scored on a pair of takedowns and a reversal.

Nearly six minutes into the second period O'Donnell clamped a headlock on her opponent, sending George to the mat. O'Donnell then finished her off with a pin to take the first match.

O'Donnell said she didn't feel as nervous as she usually does during the matches, even though an Olympic berth was on the line.

"It was weird," she said. "I was just trusting in my training, in my skills, and if they were good and I could beat her, I'd be ready to go."

In the second match George came out quickly, taking a 6-1 lead into the second period.

"She came out real strong and real aggressive," O'Donnell said. "It took some time to adjust, then it started to work.

"I thought, 'Well if she got six points in the first then I can get six in the second,' so here we go."

O'Donnell scored a takedown to begin the second period and then threw a hold on George that proved to be George's Achilles' heel.

"It was a half-nelson," O'Donnell said. "I just drove, drove, drove, with my feet and pinned her."

O'Donnell's friend, Brittney Gaethle, watched the victory unfold in the stands.

"It was literally amazing, I can't even explain it," Gaethle said. "It was so out of the blue that she pinned her. It was like boom, and she was down."

With the victory, and the spot on the U.S. team, O'Donnell has earned the right to compete in the country that gave rise to the sport.

"I think about that," she said. "I feel very lucky to be part of women's wrestling the first time women's wrestling is an Olympic sport."

Back home in Alaska, word of her accomplishment spread quickly. Her picture donned the cover of the Anchorage Daily News Monday, TV outlets carried video feeds and a radio producer tracked her down for interviews.

O'Donnell, 21, said she is slowly learning to grapple with the newfound fame.

"I'm not at all used to it," she said. "Sometimes I get shy when I talk."

In Homer, one of O'Donnell's former wrestling coaches, Patrick Daigle was excited by the news.

"I guess it's hard to believe," he said.

Daigle coached O'Donnell at Homer High School through her junior year. She then transferred to Nikiski, where she was coach by David Martian.

"For the most part, she wrestled against the boys," Daigle said. "She just enjoyed wrestling. It was a sport that fit her."

O'Donnell went to women's nationals as a sophomore and won the tournament. Daigle said it was at that point that O'Donnell realized how good she was.

"It's really fun. I've coached a lot of kids and often she was the best athlete in the room," Daigle said. "I just think that Tela had some special abilities (as a wrestler)."

For now, O'Donnell is taking a week off before training begins for the games.

She said she hopes she can make it back to Homer before the trip to Athens.

"It seems like it's been a long time since I've been home," she said. "Even if it's just for a day."

The games will mark O'Donnell's first world tournament experience, something she is looking forward to.

"It is pretty neat, to be part of that, and to see other countries. Wrestlers have good sportsmanship," she said. "It's neat to represent the U.S. and be with people from other countries that represent their culture."

At the games O'Donnell said she has set at least one goal for herself.

"I'll try to make Homer proud," she said.

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2004 US Olympic Team Trials: Women's Finals(Photos by Al)