Cheyenne Stokes (left) celebrates with her teammates after pinning her first high school boy at a match against the Tulsa School of Science and Technology on Dec. 18.
STEPHEN PINGRY / Tulsa World
News Page
By JASON COLLINGTON World Scene Writer
1/30/2005
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Cheyenne Stokes (left) celebrates with her teammates after pinning her first high school boy at a match against the Tulsa School of Science and Technology on Dec. 18. |
A Tulsa girl flips the wrestling world on its ear
The answer was no. Absolutely not. But Cheyenne Stokes wouldn't let it go.
When she made her first request, she was only 5. And when she asked, her dad, Robert, just didn't understand.
"Wrestling? My daughter wants to wrestle?" he thought to himself.
"I told her no," Robert Stokes said last week, with his daughter, now 15, smiling beside him as he told the story. "I said it was a boys' sport. It was a straight-up no. But she was persistent. She kept nagging. So we finally gave in."
Cheyenne Stokes is not only a wrestler on East Central High School's wrestling team, but also one of the top female wrestlers in the nation. And she's not the only girl from Oklahoma getting national attention. Her friend, Woodward High School freshman Joey Miller, is the No. 1-ranked girl at 100 pounds.
Stokes is ranked second in the nation at 126 pounds, according to the United States Girls' Wrestling Association. The group's director, Kent Bailo, said Tulsa's girl grappler isn't fooling around.
"I can tell you one thing," he said during a telephone interview from his home in Michigan, "she's the real deal. She's tough."
So tough that two boys quit East
Central's team last year. They got tired of her whipping them in practice.
But Cheyenne isn't trying to embarrass anyone. She's simply trying to win. Her goal is the Olympics, which introduced girls' wrestling as a sport last year. She wants to be ready by 2008. She wants to get on that plane to Beijing, China.
And she wants to win.
But until then, Cheyenne is doing everything she can as a sophomore girl competing in a boys' sport. And she's getting somewhere.
Just last month, she pinned her first high school boy during a match.
When Cheyenne first saw a girl out on the wrestling mat, she couldn't look away. She made up her mind right there. "I want to do that," she told her dad.
But Stokes just couldn't understand why his daughter, who looks so pretty in the photos hanging on the walls of the living room, wanted to throw down with a bunch of guys. Robert knew what the life of a wrestler was like. He could still feel it in his knees and ankles. He wrestled at Guthrie High.
"But you know, I think it's wonderful," he said. "Watching her train, working out, doing all the stuff you have to do to compete. She's always been that kid, I don't know how to explain it, who always goes to that higher level."
It's true in the classroom, and it's true on the mat.
But her journey on the way to that Olympic goal hasn't been easy. In her first tournament against girls, she didn't place. But then she placed in every tournament for the rest of the year. Her record at East Central against boys is 5-8.
She floats between the 125- and 130-pound weight classes. At those weights, the boys can sometimes just out muscle her. That's why some of the best coaches in Oklahoma, people like Leo Bailey, a three-time All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University, have helped her focus on technique.
"If they ease up on her they'll get hurt," said David Sizemore, an assistant coach for East Central, who's been around high school wrestling in Tulsa for 14 years. "We tell the boys to not treat her any differently. You might question why she's doing it, but don't doubt her for a second. I can tell you they don't have a mental edge on her."
Gary Roberts, the East Central head wrestling coach, can rattle off the highlights of his nine years with the team without a pause. Seven district titles. Nine conference titles. Six state champions. Fifteen All Staters. Four All Americans.
And one girl.
An NCAA All American during his college days at the University of New Mexico, Roberts said Cheyenne is the first girl he's coached. But she's just like everyone else on the team. She's following his philosophy: "Work as hard in the classroom as on the mat. Outwork everyone else."
"I think everyone is getting comfortable with her," he said. "She's got every opportunity the boys have. And she's done it most of her life. It just happens that she's a girl."
A few other girls have tried out for boy-dominated sports, said Stephanie Spring, athletic director of Tulsa Public Schools. Some have been in wrestling, but they didn't stay with it long.
"Edison High School had a female kicker a few years ago," she said. "We support Cheyenne. It's a very physical and demanding sport, but if she can compete, then we support her doing so."
The way Title IX reads, a girl can crossover to a boys' team but a boy can't, for example, try out for the girls' volleyball team. A boy can't take an athletic opportunity away from a girl, Spring said.
Changing minds
Although six colleges now offer girls' wrestling, including Bacone University in Muskogee, there are no high school girl wrestling teams in Oklahoma.
That could change.
"I started the USGWA in 1998 because I got tired of girls wrestling boys," said Bailo, the director of the United States Girls' Wrestling Association. "Ninety-five percent of the time the boys win in high school. And when the girls win, it's devastating to the boys. That's just not good for everyone."
Bailo, a wrestling referee since 1968 and a former coach, didn't think the sport should shut out half the population. Plus, other contact sports have ventured into women's leagues with success. Bailo mentioned that Michigan is home to a national women's tackle football team.
"And I think competitively, girls are a lot more fun to watch," he said before laughing. "Girls are meaner. Girls kick the crap out of you during the match and then they're nicer afterwards. It's almost refreshing."
Estimates say that 5,000 high school girls are wrestling competitively across the country. Texas alone has 108 high schools with at least one female wrestler on the team.
Bailo has 3,000 female wrestlers registered with this organization. And they are all athletes. Whenever Bailo tells someone he's involved in girls wrestling, he quickly shuts down anyone with mud and Jell-O jokes.
"This is an Olympic sport," he said. "These girls are not messing around."
God-given talent
"I just like the challenge," Cheyenne said while sitting in her living room. The boxed set of Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" movies sits right next to the television. "I look up to Patricia Miranda, who won the bronze medal in the Olympics. I got a chance to wrestle with her. She told me to stay focused and keep looking at the positive."
Her dad said he couldn't be any prouder of his daughter. But he said if she wants to quit, that won't bother him. Sure, the family has spent thousands sending her to tournaments and paying for everything a competitive athlete requires, but he insists this is her dream, not his.
Cheyenne's brother, Chance, had everything a college coach looks for in a football player. He had the size and strength, but he didn't want to play. Robert Stokes admits he would have gladly given a limb to see Chance on the field, but he finally came to terms with his son's decision.
Chance is now a freshman at OSU studying chemical engineering.
"He ended up with a 4.33 grade-point average or something and No. 2 in his class," Robert said. "I know that academics will take you farther than athletics. That is why if Cheyenne said, 'No more,' I can handle it. She's got straight A's. She's a good kid.
"But I tell you, she's also got all the God-given fight and drive."
Cheyenne said if she had to pick, "Rocky IV" would be her favorite movie of all time.
"I love it when he fights the Russian, Ivan Drago," she said before smiling. "I like the movie 'Miracle,' too. Coming from nothing to be a gold medalist -- that's where I want to be some day.
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WHS wrestlers whip Watonga
By Johnny McMahan/Senior Editor 2/2/05
Woodward recorded its first-ever dual wrestling victory over Watonga, 46-23 at Boomer Fieldhouse Tuesday night.
The Boomers also won the junior high dual, beating a depleted Watonga squad, 39-22. The win was also the first for the junior high team over the Eagles.
In the high school match the Boomers never trailed, and won without 160-pounder Matt Johnson, who was held out due to illness.
Watonga gave the Boomers a 6-0 lead in the 103-pound match by electing not to have Travis Parker face Class 4A's fifth-ranked Joey Miller. It was the second home dual in a row a coach elected not to send a competitor out to face the national age-group champion girl wrestler.
Instead the Eagle coach moved Parker up to 112, where Boomer wrestler Brent Bucher got the honor of recording the fall. Bucher pinned Parker in 4:53 for a 12-0 Woodward lead.
Watonga got a win from Cody Parker at 119, but it didn't slow the Boomers momentum.
Charlie Baeza recorded a fall at 125 and Ramon Marin did the same at 1:30 to put the Boomers up 24-3.
Kevin Branine then major decisioned Seth Scoville and Luis Baeza added another fall to virtually wrap up the dual after 140 pounds.
Watonga won five of the last seven matches, but in between the Boomers got falls from Michael Comstock and Derrek Branson to keep the Eagles from mounting a serious challenge in the team score.
The Boomer junior high team got wins from Matt White, Jon Thomas, Cooper Harrison and Zach White, plus three forfeits to beat the Eagles handily.
The junior high wrestlers will compete in the Junior High All-State Tournament this weekend.
Woodward closes out the dual season with a Senior Night match against Clinton next Tuesday.
Results
High School: Woodward 46, Watonga 23
103 - Miller, Woodward by forfeit; 112 - Bucher, Woodward pinned T. Parker, 4:53; 119 - C. Parker, Watonga, def. Davis, 9-2; 125 - C. Baeza, Woodward pinned Romannose, 3:45; 130 - Marin, Woodward pinned Mata, 5:16; 135 - Branine, Woodward def. Scoville, 13-2; 140 - Luis Baeza, Woodward pinned K. Goerke, 3:04; 145 - Hartfield, Watonga def. Schultz, 9-2; 152 - Wallace, Watonga, tech fall Cox, 15-0; 160 - Comstock, Woodward pinned Goff, 3:17; 171 - A. Goerke, Watonga pinned K. Simpson, 3:38; 189 - Scott, Watonga def. Pareja, 10-6; 215 - Armentrot, Watonga def. Morgan, 11-8; 275 - Branson, Woodward pinned Valediva, 2:55.
Junior High: Woodward 39, Watonga 22
78 - Edgar, Watonga by forfeit; 84 - M. White, Woodward def. Goin, 6-0; 96 - Canaday, Watonga by forfeit; 102 - Gowen, Watonga def. Ruble, 12-0; 110 - Thomas, Woodward def. Wright by injury default; 118 - Harrison, Woodward pinned Majors, 3:05; 125 - Z. White, Woodward pinned Roberson, 2:38; 152 - Patrick, Watonga by forfeit; 165 - Quintana, Woodward by forfeit; 185 - Blevins, Woodward by forfeit; 275 - Tapia, Woodward by forfeit.