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PD's Nelson suspended for one week for violating UIL wrestling rule
By Jeremy Heath 1/8/05
jeremy.heath@amarillo.com
Amarillo Globe-News
Palo Duro wrestling fans might have noticed something missing Tuesday
night during the Dons' and Lady Dons' home duals against Caprock.
PD head coach Steve Nelson, in his 18th season, was serving a one-week,
Amarillo Independent School District-levied suspension with pay for his
actions Dec. 10 at the Santa Fe (N.M.) Invitational.
Nelson's entry in the 119-pound weight class - a male - was scheduled
to face a female wrestler from Espanola, N.M., in a consolation-bracket
match. Nelson's entry pinned his opponent, and subsequently, the AISD pinned
Nelson for violating a University Interscholastic League rule that prohibits
males and females from opposing each other in sanctioned competition.
He was not suspended from his teaching duties.
UIL rules apply to any wrestling teams involved in out-of-state
competition as well. Hawaii is the only other state that does not allow males and
females to oppose each other in wrestling.
Nelson said he was aware of the rule and knew it might come into play
when the tournament started because three Texas schools - Palo Duro, Tascosa
and El Paso Franklin - were scheduled to compete. When the situation
presented itself, Nelson chose not to forfeit the match.
"The rule that a Texas high school boy may not wrestle a high school
girl anywhere in the U.S. is a bad rule," Nelson said. "In the 48 states
outside of Texas and Hawaii, girls have to wrestle the boys division. This UIL
rule should not extend over Texas state lines.
"In different states, no matter what the sport is, you abide by that
state's rules, and that should apply to wrestling also. When other states
wrestle in Texas, they must abide by Texas UIL rules without any exception."
Section 361, subchapter C of the UIL's Constitution and Contest Rules
is one of three exceptions to the league's nondiscrimination policy. It
prohibits males and females from wrestling against each other.
UIL assistant athletic director Mark Cousins said the rule is clearly
defined and said the rule applies to any tournament - in Texas or out
of state - in which a UIL school is involved.
Cousins said UIL rules that restrict males and females from competing
against each other are specific to individual sports. For instance, a
female is allowed to play football for a UIL team, but UIL boys and girls
soccer teams cannot play a sanctioned match against each other, Cousins said.
"In those situations, those rules will always apply," Cousins said.
As of Friday morning, Cousins said he was not aware of Nelson's
suspension.
AISD athletic director Tex Nolan confirmed the suspension but deferred
comment to AISD committee chair and personnel director David Cargill,
calling the suspension a personnel issue.
Cargill said Nelson was issued a private reprimand by a district
executive committee comprised of three voting members, from the three district
schools - Amarillo High, Tascosa and Caprock - other than the school in
question. Cargill said the committee, facing the option of issuing a private
reprimand or yielding to a state executive committee, chose to keep it at the
district level.
According to Section 29 of the UIL's Constitution and Contest Rules:
"The penalties that may be imposed ... are: private reprimand; public
reprimand; forfeiture of contest; disqualification from germane activity; and
suspension recommended."
Cargill said because the reprimand is private, he cannot comment on it.
Nelson said being sequestered from his team during Tuesday's matches
and this weekend's Lady Longhorn Classic at Caprock has made this the most
miserable week of his career, but he also said he understands the
AISD's decision to suspend him.
"With respect to the AISD, my suspension had nothing to do with the
rule being a good rule or a bad rule," Nelson said. "They gave me a week
suspension strictly because I broke a UIL rule. When rules are broken,
there are consequences, and they must be accepted. The district took
appropriate action in this matter."
Nelson said he was not only sticking up for his wrestler, who had
worked to make weight and advance in the tournament, but also he was supporting
the female wrestler.
"I did not follow the rule because I believe it is in direct violation
of my wrestler's right to compete, and it's a full and total example of
discrimination against the New Mexico girl to refuse to wrestle her,"
Nelson said. "I will always do what is right for my kids, regardless of the
consequences I may have to suffer myself.
"There may be coaches out there who are willing to force their
wrestlers to lose, but I'm not one of those coaches. I don't consider my wrestlers
Amarillo's kids or PD's kids. I consider them my kids, and I could
never or will never tell my kids they have to lose.
"I am not a rule-breaker and would never do anything to embarrass Palo
Duro or my district, but my ethical responsibility is to serve my kids
first, and I stand by my decision."
Nelson guided girls teams to state titles in 2001 and 2003, including a
mythical national title in 2001. As an amateur wrestler, Nelson was a
two-time national champ.
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Girls wrestling is gaining momentum
Duals attract 17 teams; 160 competitors expected at state meet
12:16 AM CST on Saturday, January 8, 2005
By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
GRAND PRAIRIE – Texas' already blossoming girls wrestling movement received another boon Friday when 17 teams competed at the Lone Star Duals at South Grand Prairie High School.
Officials said they usually expect nine or 10 girls teams to participate at the Duals.
The increase should be no surprise, however, given the state's pioneering role in girls wrestling. Texas and Hawaii are the only states that sanction a high school state championship in the sport.
Frisco coach Chuck Brown said that this year's state championship will feature 160 girls, compared with 80 in past years. And make no mistake: That's 160 of the meanest girls in the state.
"I am really mean," said Frisco sophomore Vanessa Epps, who will wrestle in the final of the 138-pound weight class today. "I was cut from basketball freshman year because my coach thought I was a little too mean."
Frisco graduate Jamie Odom, who wrestled at Frisco, knows the feeling.
"I broke a girl's nose in a basketball game," Odom said. "I was kind of mean, too."
Arlington senior Candy Guevara advanced the final in the 148-pound weight class. She laughs when she recalls her start in wrestling.
"I started sophomore year because I had guy problems and I had a lot of anger," Guevara said. "I needed to take it out on some people."
Brown and Arlington coach Henry Harmon said the next step for girls wrestling in Texas is to generate more fan support.
"We still have a ways to go," Brown said.
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Girls national events added to Body Bar Women’s Nationals in San Diego, Calif., April 8-10
1/3/2005
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
In addition to the three age-group national championships previously announced, there will be a major girls wrestling tournament for young athletes contested as part of the Body Bar Women’s National Championships, set for San Diego, Calif., April 8-10.
During the first two years of this event when it was held in Minnesota, there was an additional freestyle championship event for girls. The organizers of the Body Bar Nationals this year have agreed to add on the girls freestyle event this season, as well.
Competition will be held in freestyle in two age divisions: Grades 3-6 and Grades 7-8. Weight classes will be determined after weigh-ins using a blocked weight system, pairing wrestlers within 12% body weight of their competitors.
In addition this competition provides USA Wrestling national championships for female wrestlers at three different age levels, the University division, the FILA Junior division and the FILA Cadet division.
University athletes are ages 18-24, including many of the best college wrestlers in the nation. FILA Junior athletes are ages 17-20. FILA Cadet athletes are ages 15-17.
This will allow competition for female wrestlers of a wide variety of ages, from young girls in third grade all the way up to young women who are 24-years old.
The Body Bar FILA Junior Women’s National Championships is the qualifying event for the FILA Junior World Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 5-10.
The venue for the competition has also been determined. Competition will be held at Grossmont High School in the city of El Cajon, which is in the San Diego community. The local organizing committee is California USA Wrestling, the state association in California.
There will be a team competition on the University level only, with awards for the top two teams entered in the tournament.
“A few years ago, USA Wrestling decided to move all the women’s age-group tournaments to one location,” said National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner. “This is the best way to showcase women’s wrestling now. It allows the younger girls to see what their future holds, and to witness the stars of women’s wrestling. Any time you can place heroes in front of young people, it is great for the sport.”
“Moving the tournament to San Diego is a strong plus, because of the large number of female wrestlers in the Western United States,” said Steiner. “This will provide a high quality competition for girls and young women from all across the nation. Every eligible female wrestler should plan now on going to San Diego for a great National Championships.”
For information, contact event director Richard Bailey at 619-303-6886 or the California USA Wrestling office at 559-275-9478.
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1/6/2005
Josi Carlson/USA Wrestling
Training camps for women’s freestyle, men’s freestyle and men’s Greco-Roman wrestling will be held in January and February at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Many of the top international wrestlers will take to the mats and practice with the National Team coaches in preparation for the winter tour events, including the Dave Schultz Memorial International Tournament Feb. 4-6 at the USOTC.
The first women’s camp runs Jan. 3-10 and includes a number of the U.S. and Canada’s top Olympic-caliber wrestlers. Following the Schultz Tournament another women’s freestyle camp will be held Feb. 8-15.
Among the wrestlers attending the camp are:
• Tela O’Donnell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC), 2004 U.S. Olympic Team member
• Tina George (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC), Two-time World silver medalist
• Stephanie Murata (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), 2001 World silver medalist
Coaching the women’s freestyle camp:
• Terry Steiner (Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Wrestling National Head Coach
• Tom Tomeo (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USOC Scholarship Coach
• Christine Nordhagen (Calgary, AB, Canada), Six-time World Champion
• Leigh Vierling (Calgary, AB, Canada), Canadian Olympic Coach
• Shannyn Gillespie (Marquette, Mich.), USOEC Head Coach
• Levi Weikel-Magden (Charlottesville, Va.)
The competition between the U.S. and the Canadian women in the training camp has been a great learning opportunity for both teams.
“It’s great to have Canada down here,” Steiner said. “They’re one of the top teams and anytime we can train in a joint situation it’s a better opportunity for us to prepare for 2008.”
“If our countries are going to get better we have to use each other,” Vierling said. “Wrestling the same people all the time just kills you. Wrestling down here raises the bar of competition.”
The first men’s freestyle camp runs Jan. 5-15 and is mandatory for National Team members and open to any athletes who will be competing in any of the winter tour events.
A mini-camp will be held Jan. 10-15 for those athletes competing in a Russian tour event, which runs Jan. 22-31. The winter tour camp starts again Jan. 30 for athletes competing in the Schultz Tournament.
Among the freestyle stars who will be attending the camp are:
• Chris Bono (Gilbert, Iowa/Sunkist Kids), Two-time U.S. World Team member
• Daniel Cormier (Stillwater, Okla./Gator WC), 4th place at 2004 Olympics
• Sammie Henson (St. Louis, Mo./Sunkist Kids), 2000 Olympic silver medalist, 1998 World Champion
• Jamill Kelly (Stillwater, Okla./Gator WC), 2004 Olympic silver medalist
• Tolly Thompson (Cedar Falls, Iowa/Sunkist Kids), 1998 U.S. Nationals Champion
• Joe Williams (Ames, Iowa/Sunkist Kids), 5th place at 2004 Olympics
Coaching the freestyle camps are:
• Kevin Jackson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling National Head Coach
• Sergei Beloglazov (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling National Resident Coach
• Dave Bennett (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling National Developmental Coach
Jackson hopes to see a good turnout for the camp in this year of rule changes.
“This year is very important with the implementation of the new rules,” Jackson said. “There will be new tactics, new strategies and new techniques going into the new year.”
The Greco-Roman camp runs Jan. 5-Jan. 15 and a second camp will start Jan. 25 in preparation for the Schultz and the Fort Carson International Cup.
Some of the Greco-Roman standouts attending camp include:
• Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./ U.S. Army), 2002 World Champion
• T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC), Two-time World Team member
• Jim Gruenwald (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), Two-time U.S. Olympic Team member
• Keith Sieracki (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army), 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials champion
• Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC), 2004 U.S. Olympic Team member
• Oscar Wood (Fountain Colo./U.S. Army), 2004 Olympic Team member
Greco-Roman coaches include:
• Steve Fraser (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling National Head Coach
• Anatoly Petrosyan (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling National Resident Coach
• Momir Petkovic (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling Asst. National Coach
• Ike Anderson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Wrestling National Developmental Coach
• Rob Hermann (Pensacola, Fla.), U.S. Navy Head Coach, 1996 U.S. Olympic Coach
• Dan Hicks (Fredricksburg, Va.), U.S. Marines Head Coach
• Dale Oliver (Albany, NY)
• Shawn Sheldon (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
• Rich Estrella (Colorado Springs, Colo.), U.S. Air Force Head Coach
• Shon Lewis (Fort Carson, Colo.), U.S. Army Head Coach, 2004 U.S. Olympic Coach
The Greco-Roman camp will also emphasize working with the new rules.
“There will be some different strategies and techniques that we will be focusing on,” Fraser said.
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By Robert Slager/ In this Corner
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
She wrestles boys who weigh more than 200 pounds, but 16-year-old Katerina Fotopoulos somehow floats above the fray. The sophomore from Holbrook-Avon knows that hundreds of eyes fall upon her every time she enters a gym, but she doesn't return their stares. She knows where she belongs.
It isn't about attention or equal rights. She isn't trying to make a statement. Katerina only wants to wrestle because it gives her confidence and its helping her to get into shape. And if anyone is foolish enough to verbally challenge her decision, there will be consequences.
"Everybody's been very supportive of me being on the team, but if somebody in the crowd started giving me a hard time because I'm a girl, I'd get up from my match, walk over and beat the crap out of him," she said.
Katerina is part of a growing sorority of girl wrestlers throughout the country. According to the USA Wrestling Association, 3,800 of the 250,000 high school athletes participating in sanctioned wrestling programs are female. Title IX has been in effect for more than 30 years now, and it has given young women such as Katerina equal access to scholastic sports. If a school does not offer gender-specific teams in a given sport, than both boys and girls have the legal right to try out for the lone existing team. Hockey, wrestling, football, golf and field hockey have seen the greatest number of coed teams because of the legislation.
No reasonable person could contest the positive effect that Title IX has had. In 1997 (the 25th anniversary of the legislation), the U.S. Department of Education announced that participation of girls in high school athletics had increased from 300,000 to 2.4 million since the law was introduced. That number reached 2.8 million last year.
Athletic scholarships for women were almost unheard of before 1972. Only 50 women nationwide were receiving a free education because of sports, compared to 50,000 men. While progress has been made, women still receive $133 million dollars per year less in athletic scholarship dollars than male athletes and women's recruiting budgets are only 32% of the total recruiting budget, according to the Women's Sports Foundation. But without Title IX, it wouldn't be nearly that close as long as football and men's basketball continue to raise the most revenue for the school.
But Title IX still has its critics. Many programs at the college level have been disbanded because of budget problems incurred by Title IX. The football team at my alma mater - San Francisco State University - is gone. According to Mike Moyer, head of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, 170 college wrestling programs have vanished since 1972.
The NWCA filed a lawsuit last January in federal district court claiming Title IX violates the rights of male athletes by relying on enrollment figures rather than actual student interest in participating in various sports. The case is pending, and the future of Title IX may hang in the balance.
Even with Title IX, the issue of girls wrestling boys remains extremely controversial. According to "Girl Wrestler," a film by Diane Zander, Texas and Hawaii do not allow it. Those states have adopted a "separate but equal" policy, offering separate, single-sex teams for girls at public schools. Many believe it's inappropriate for opposite genders to compete in such close physical proximity. Others cite the devastating psychological impact it could have on a young boy losing to a girl. A few years ago, a young man from the Midwest reportedly took his own life after enduring vicious verbal abuse from teammates after getting pinned.
"I fully support the concept of Title IX," Pembroke High wrestling coach Dave Vining said. "But when I was an assistant at Carver, we would never allow a young man to compete with a girl unless we were confident he would win. It may not be politically correct to say this, but to a teenage boy, losing to a girl could absolutely destroy his confidence. When a boys wrestles a girl, it puts the boy in a no-win situation. If he wins he's a bully for beating a girl. If he loses, well, that could crush him, and his buddy would never let him hear the end of it."
Vining says he has no issue with girls wanting to be serious wrestlers.
"If a young woman is serious about the sport and trains to be the best she can be at it, I'd have her on my team in a minute," he said. "But it does bother me when a girl wants to be on a team because it brings her attention. When I was at Carver, we had some terrific wrestlers there, guys who were competing for the state championship. But reporters would always just want to talk to the girl. That wasn't fair to those boys who had been working there butts off."
Weymouth wrestling coach Kevin Mackin said he has no qualms about girls wrestling.
"It isn't a situation we've faced on our team very often," he said. "I think because we've had such a strong, successful program, some girls might be a little intimidated to try out for us. But they would be welcome if they did. I do think it would be a more positive experience for them if they had other girls to wrestle so they would be more equal in strength, but I have no issue with them wrestling at all."
Marlene Lopes, the field hockey coach at Silver Lake Regional High School, echoed many of Vining's sentiments and even took it a step further.
"Legally, I have to respect the right of any young man who wants to play for me," she said. "I would give him a fair tryout. But personally I don't support the idea of girls playing boys sports and boys playing girls sports. It fundamentally changes the nature of competition. Boys are just stronger than girls. A few years ago, Sandwich had a couple of boys on their team and we lost three players to injury in the first half after getting hit in the midsection by their shots. It just changes the game too much."
Lopes said many field hockey teams with boys on the roster have a hard time finding non-league opponents.
"If you have a boy, a lot of coaches won't want to play against you because they don't want to put their team in that kind of competitive disadvantage," she said. "I don't think boys should play field hockey and girls should wrestle against boys. When a boy wrestles a girl, what's he supposed to do? He's supposed to win. It doesn't seem fair to the boy."
Silver Lake wrestling coach Rob Cahill fully supports senior Casey Burton's decision to compete on his squad.
"There's this old boys' club way of thinking that says boys can't handle a challenge to their manhood," Cahill said. "I'm all for Casey being on this team. She works hard and deserves the chance to compete. If a boys loses to a girl, he lost because she was a better wrestler that day. If he can't handle that, he should be the one to stop wrestling, not her."
Burton says she's heard some snickering at times from the crowd. She could just as easily be a model as a wrestler, but Burton has no intention of being just a pretty face in the crowd.
"I like the competition, and my teammates have been great about it," she said. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to wrestle. If somebody doesn't like it, it's there problem."
Holbrook-Avon coach Kevin Coffey welcomed Katerina's decision to join his team, but he worries about her sometimes. He knows that she may become a target for verbal abuse, given her size and gender. But he, along with every member of the team, has been taken by her charm and courage.
"She's a great kid and she's earned the right to wrestle," he said. "She's trying really hard to get herself into good shape, and I admire her for what's she's doing."
Katerina's brother Alex, an eighth-grader, wrestles on the Holbrook-Avon squad as well. He isn't the least bit bothered having his sister on the team.
"I think it's awesome," he said. "She roots me on and I root her on. I don't worry about people making fun of her. She's awesome. Katerina can beat up just about anyone I know."
All things being equal, you probably don't want to stand in her way.