News
At the 7th National Women's Wrestling Championship held recently at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium. — Pic. by V. Ganesan
Tamil Nadu - in India 11/25/-4
CURIOUS ONLOOKERS thronged the Sivanthi Thidal at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on the final day to watch the women grapple with each other for supremacy. The occasion was the 7th National Women's Wrestling Championship and the event was being conducted for the first time in Tamil Nadu. The fair amount of crowd that came to witness the bouts knew very little about the nuances of the sport, which has a strong base in the North. But the spectators seemed to enjoy every moment under the blistering sun.
With all the officials being from the Hindi belt, getting information proved to be a Herculean task for the local press. Even the host grapplers and their coaches initially found it difficult to communicate with them. The atmosphere was distinctly North. Things got better during the latter part of the final day. The event showed how entrenched the sport is in the North, given the domination both from the point of officials and wrestlers. But the nascent Wrestling Association of Tamil Nadu under its Secretary Rohtash Singh has charted a course to make Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai, the hub of wrestling. The interest evinced by the spectators was not too bad either, as each time the name of the Tamil Nadu boxer was announced, the crowd went into raptures. It was a different matter that the fight put up by the host was nothing spectacular. Of the 25-member Tamil Nadu team (four were borrowed from Delhi), four were boxers and the rest were first timers. As usual, wrestlers from Haryana and Delhi ruled the roost, leaving hardly a crumb for the host. Only Delhiite Indu Sharma representing Tamil Nadu bagged a bronze in the senior 55 kg weight category.
The question that did the rounds was how long it would take for Tamil Nadu to reach the proficiency level of its Northern counterparts? Replied Rohtash Singh, a wrestler himself, "Our objective of conducting the wrestling championship here was to create awareness about the sport. With the support of the media we have achieved that. We have to build on that. Already, I have received a lot of queries from Salem, Coimbatore and Erode." He was confident that in the years to come, Tamil Nadu would be a force to reckon with.
While admitting that the infrastructure in the city and the State was limited, Rohtash said the association was making all efforts to promote the sport in Tamil Nadu. "For the purchase of mat, the Central Government has given 75 per cent of the funds and we have to put in the rest. The system is already in process," he said.
The Akhara scheme, whereby a coach, gym facilities and the mats will be given to the concerned states, is on the anvil and will come into effect soon, according to president of the Wrestling Federation of India M. S. Malik.
The WAT also plans to conduct tournaments in the districts to popularise the sport and tap the talent with a view to building a strong Tamil Nadu team for the next National Women's Championship to be held later this year in Chandigarh.
"The SAI has also deputed a woman coach for Tamil Nadu," said Rohtash. The WAT believes that the infrastructure will be ready by the end of the year.
K. KEERTHIVASAN
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By Katie Downing 11/22/04
More and more opportunities open up each year in the sport of women’s wrestling. If you love to wrestle, there is no reason not to pursue what may be out there for you. You can always search for what’s going on in our sport on the internet, but I want to give you a list of some of the possibilities you should check out. A lot of these are specifically geared towards high school wrestlers who want to continue a wrestling career after graduation.
The Newsletter
Terry Steiner is the national team coach for women’s wrestling in the US. He puts together a newsletter to get the word out on what’s going on in our sport. He sends this out through a group email. He sends it out to leaders and directors for women’s wrestling in each state (the state director for women in Texas is Chuck Brown) so that they will forward it on to all wrestlers. You can get your name put onto Coach Steiner’s email list for the newsletter if you want it to come straight to you. All you have to do is give him a call or email him. If you catch him on the phone, introduce yourself and tell him a bit about yourself. If you leave a message or email him, let him know you want to be on the newsletter mailing list, give him your name, your email address, and a phone number he can use to contact you if need be.
USA Wrestling # is 1-800-999-8531, ask for Terry Steiner
Terry Steiner’s email address is tsteiner@usawrestling.org
College
Being a member of a wrestling team truly enhances the college experience. A college wrestling team quickly becomes like a family that helps each teammate reach the next level in wrestling and education. Here’s a list of colleges that have women’s teams, clubs, or are developing a women’s team. I included the contact information for the coach. Of course, this may change year to year, so you may want to look up the school online to check out the wrestling programs that way.
Pacific University (OR) Scott Miller- sdmiller@pacificu.edu
Cumberland College (KY), Kip Flanik- kip444@prodigy.net
Lassen College (CA) Vugar Orudjev and Stephanie Murata- email for Murata is samurata51@yahoo.com
Missouri Valley University (MO) Carl Murphree- murphreec@moval.edu
Menlo College (CA) Lee Allen- LDA5660@aol.com
Mac Murray College (IL) Jerry Kelly-jkelly@mac.edu
Cal-State Bakersfield (CA) TJ Kerr- tjkerr@csub.edu
Ursinus College, Pennsylvania Club (PA) Ron Tirpak- rtirpak@ursinus.edu
Univ. of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Club (HI) John Kerley- JDKerley@Yahoo.com
Cleveland State Club (OH) James Martin- M60SemperFi@hotmail.com
Bacone College (OK) Kenard Booker- bookerk@bacone.edu
Olympic Training Center at Northern Michigan University
A new program started this year up at Northern Michigan University with the US Olympic Education Center (USOEC). This program is designed to give athletes the opportunity to attend college while they train for national and international level competitions. The women’s coach is Shannyn Gillespie- sgillesp@nmu.edu. This year, thirteen of the nation’s top university women wrestlers currently attend NMU. The USOEC is a good opportunity because many of the junior and university age camps will be held there on campus. Residents in this program can earn tuition and living expenses through the USOEC as well as through the BJ Stupek grant that residents at the OTC in Colorado also receive.
Funded Access-Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs
You can train a week or two at a time with the nation’s top women wrestlers if you qualify for funded access. You qualify for funded access by placing at the following tournaments:
US OPEN SENIOR NATIONALS Top 10 Olympic Wts, Top 7 Non-Olympic
SENIOR LEVEL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS All US Athletes Qualify
UNIVERSITY NATIONALS Top 7 Olympic Wts, Top 5 Non-Olympic
FILA JR NATIONALS Top 6 Olympic Wts, Top 4 Non-Olympic
FILA JR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS All US Athletes Qualify
FILA CADET NATIONALS Top 5 All Weights
FILA CADET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS All US Athletes Qualify
US JR NATIONALS Top 6 All Weights
If you qualify, then you can train at the OTC with free room and board. You must find your own way out to Colorado Springs, CO. You must also contact Terry Steiner to request a training special at least four weeks before you plan to go to the OTC. If you do not qualify for funded access, you can also request a training special, but you will have to pay $40 a day if there are open rooms at the OTC. Finally, all practices at the OTC are open for anyone to visit and watch.
Residency-OTC-Colorado Springs
Ideally, all clubs and college programs are a feeder system for the OTC in Colorado. It holds the most opportunities for women in wrestling all in one place. If you gain residency at the OTC, you get free room and board on campus, grant money for college, a sports medicine staff to take care of your health, sports science to provide you info, a sports psychologist, a career center, and the chance to get special benefits in Olympic jobs. Also, the nation’s top athletes live and train together under two national coaches and a strength training coach. Terry Steiner is the coach to contact about OTC residency. All world and national team members receive information about OTC residency at the world team trials.
Tournaments
I encourage you all to get to freestyle competitions as much as possible, because freestyle is where your opportunities will lie once you graduate high school. There are a number of tournaments that will be good competitions to get experience at the national level.
Feb. 4-6 is the Dave Schultz International Open. This is a senior level competition, and there will be several international teams represented there. It is at the OTC in Colorado, and it is a world team trials qualifier.
March 19-20 is USGWA nationals in Michigan. This is a folkstyle tournament that is guaranteed to give you a lot of girls in each weight class.
March 24-26 is the Rocky Mountain Regional in Laramie, WY. It is a world team trials qualifier, and it is open to cadet, junior, university, and senior aged competitors.
April 8-10 is the Body Bar National championships in San Diego, CA. Body Bar is the biggest sponsor for women’s wrestling, and they are hosting a freestyle tournament for cadets, juniors, university, and seniors. The winners of the junior weight classes will represent the US at Junior World Championships
April 28-30 is US Nationals in Las Vegas, NV. This is a world team qualifier, and one of the toughest competitions for women in the US. This is also a senior only age event.
June 6-13 is a Cadet tour in Gotzis, Austria
June 17-19 is World Team Trials in Ames, IA. It is the toughest senior level tournament, and it determines the team that will represent the US at Senior World Championships
July 5-10 is FILA Junior World Championships. The ladies that won Body Bar Junior Nationals will travel to Lithuania to represent their country.
July 29-30 is Junior National Championships in Fargo, ND. This is a USA Wrestling event, as opposed to a FILA event that qualifies you for a world championships. This tournament is a great way for you to represent your state at the national level.
August 11-21 is World University Games in Ismir, Turkey. The highest placing woman at the World Team Trials in Iowa, who is of the FILA University age group, will represent their country.
Here are the ages and weight classes for each division:
Cadet
Age group-born 1988-89 (1990, you must have a medical release)
Weight classes- 79.83.75, 88, 94.75, 101.25, 108, 114.5, 123.25, 132.25, 143.25, 154.25, (170, 185, 220-these weight classes are offered at nationals, but are not FILA weights that are represented at world championships)
Junior
Age group-born 1985-87, (1988, you must have a medical release)
Weight classes-88-97, 105.75, 112.25, 121.25, 130, 138.75, 147.5, 158.5
Senior
Age group- 1985 or before, (1986-88, you must have a medical release)
Weight classes-105.5, 112, 121, 130, 138.5, 147.5, 158.5
Camps
Ladies, keep your eyes and ears open for camp opportunities in your area. You may want to consider boys high school camps if that is all that is available in your area. If at all possible, get to some freestyle camps for girls. This will help you a lot when you make the jump from high school level wrestling to national level wrestling.
March 28-April 1 is the Future Freestyle camp at the OTC in Colorado. It is open to cadets and juniors. This camp will have the nation’s top athletes and coaches there to teach you.
May 28-June 4 is the Future Freestyle Camp at the Training Center at Northern Michigan University. It is open to cadets and juniors.
June 25-July 1 is the Future Champion Camp #1 at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs
June 20-30 is the Junior World Team Training Camp at Northern Michigan. It will be a camp to prepare the Junior World Team for their World Championships. Both junior and university wrestlers will be there.
July 16-22 is the Future Champion Camp #2 at Northern Michigan
July 20-26 are the state Junior National training camps. Each state will have camps to prepare their girls for the competition in Fargo. Many of these camps will have top ranked senior women there as clinicians.
July 24-Aug 6 is the World University Games Camp at the OTC in Colorado. It will be a camp for the University National team that will compete at the University Games.
The possibilities continue to grow for women in the sport of wrestling in the US. Get out there and take advantage of everything you can. If you love to wrestle, there is no reason not to pursue a career in wrestling after high school. Start setting high goals for yourself. You may travel the country and the world doing something you love with people who become great friends through this sport. You may be an Olympian if you start to want it now.
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By Katie Downing 11/16/04
Every time you put on your school letter jacket or wrestling warm-ups in high school, you acknowledge the fact that you represent your team and your school. When you put on a varsity warm-up or singlet, you also acknowledge that you have earned the right to represent your team in a varsity position. Everyone should take the opportunity at one point or another in life to take this act one step further. Everyone should take some time to think about who and what they represent, what that means to them, and the responsibilities that come with representing something. As soon as you become a wrestler, it becomes even more important for you to take a look at what it means to represent, and to take seriously everything that you stand for.
First of all, you represent yourself. When you consider how you represent yourself, you think about what kind of man or woman you want to be. Representing yourself well is how you build your legacy. When you consider your legacy, you think about what kind of impact you want to leave with people if they were never to see you again. How do you treat other people? What kind of work ethic do you have when it comes to getting it done in the classroom or on the mat? Do you show respect to teachers, coaches, parents, etc.? How seriously do you take your personal spirituality? What do the choices you make say about you? What kind of personal standard do you have for yourself? These are only some of the aspects of your character to take into consideration when you actively begin to build your legacy.
Next, you must realize that you represent many things larger than yourself. If you take your legacy seriously, then representing everything else should come easily. It can be easy to forget everything or everyone you may represent. You represent your family. What does your family feel is important in a person? If you do not agree with your family, or they do not hold you to a standard, then now is the chance for you to begin to build a legacy for your family. You represent your school and wrestling team. What do your team and coach expect of you? How do they expect you to act in victory, defeat, in practice, and off of the mat? What will other teams know about your team by the way you carry yourself? Any time you travel for wrestling competition, you also represent your community. If you compete nationally, you represent your whole state. What do you want other people to know about where you’re from by the way you act? Take a moment to think of what else you may represent, whether it’s a church, friends, the sport of wrestling itself, etc.? There are some communities that love wrestling and truly celebrate the sport, but there are many places in this country that are not familiar with wrestling at all. When people learn that you are a wrestler, they begin to form their opinion of wrestling just by what they know of you. That can be a big responsibility.
Ladies, the responsibility of representing your sport is even bigger for you. If there are many people who do not know about wrestling, there are even more who know nothing of women’s wrestling. In many places, the only thing a community knows of women’s wrestling is through one person. If you are a woman wrestler, you may represent all of women’s wrestling for thousands of people who will never know any other female wrestler. What do you want the people around you to know about our sport? What kind of pride do you want to display about the sport through the way that you carry yourself? If you are lucky enough to be a part of an entire team of women wrestlers, then your team represents the sport. Every teammate is responsible for building the standard the team upholds. There is one more thing for a woman wrestler to consider. You are unique among women because you wrestle. You can take pride in the character that the challenges of wrestling developed in you. You are also unique among wrestlers because you are a woman. Take pride in that as well. One time one of the men on the national team told me that he admired the way that the women encourage and support each other even in practice. Take a moment to consider all of the things that are unique to women’s wrestling, and celebrate those things.