Coach Kent Bailo
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1st Annual Wrestling USA / Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic Dual Meet
2005 USA Women's Dream Team Coach3/11/05
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Coach Kent Bailo |
Kent Bailo was asked, and quickly accepted, the opportunity to serve as the Coach of the first ever Girl's Dream Team Classic USA All-Star Team.
Bailo started the United States Girls Wrestling Association in 1998, a year after organizing his first girls tournament, a Michigan Girls Wrestling State Champion-ship that he organized in 1997. That first
girls meet in Michigan had 116 entries. Now, the USGWA National Champinships has grown to 604 girl wrestlers in 2004, and Kent likes to tell everyone that it is "The Biggest Girls Wrestling Tournament in the WORLD".
Kent started coaching in 1973, serving a two year stint as a Graduate Assistant at Eastern Michigan University. Prior to Kent coming on board, EMU was 0-9. They forged a 5-11-1 record in 1974, and jumped to 12-9 in his second year. Kent took over as head coach at Alpena High School (MI) in 1975, a school with 2,600 students in grades 10-11-12. The Wildcats were 13-5 and 23-7 during Bailo's two year stint. Moving to Rochester Adams, Bailo inherited an 0-11 team that was last in their league. In the first season, his Highlanders finished 24-3, 5-0 in the league and were league tournament champs. The next five seasons were 27-4, 33-5-1, 20-1, 32-2, 29-3 (30-0 in the league). Kent stepped away from coaching for a few years to devote more time to family, school, and his job at General Motors. He's had three one year stints in the past twenty years; Burton Bentley (27-7-1) and rated as high as #4 in the state, the year before they were 3-17; Pontiac Catholic (16-6) after 1-17 the year before, and, most recently, Ortonville Brandon High School. All that woven around 11 refereeing assignments at the Michigan High School state finals, and 7 trips as a referee at the NCAA finals.
Kent started wrestling in 9th grade on a challenge from his older brother, Mike, who told Kent he wasn't tough enough. That was in November of 1964, and Bailo has been at it ever since, as a competitor (admittedly not very good), a referee, a coach, and a promoter/organizer. Kent is one of 10 children of Sam and Doris Bailo. All six boys wrestled at South Lyon (MI) High School and two of Kent's brothers, Clark and Sam Jr. were state tournament qualifiers. Kent's son, Brent, also referees. Brent has refereed two Michigan high school state finals, some Big Ten collegiate duals and several collegiate tournaments often working with dad.
Kent's hope for wrestling: that every high school in the country that has a boys wrestling team will have a girls wrestling team within 10 years. And, that every college that has a mens wrestling team will have a womens wrestling team within 10 years. Then we can say wrestling is truly back to its heyday.
April 9, 2005, will mark two firsts in the history of the Wrestling USA/Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic Dual Meet competition. It will be the first time that the competition will travel to TEXAS, the Lone Star State. It will also mark the first time the competition will feature female wrestlers. Both will contribute to showcasing the development of the sport in the state since the UIL (University Interscholastic League) decided to adopt wrestling as an official high school sport and also incorporate a girl's division.
The event will be a collaborative effort between Texas USA Wrestling and the Wrestling Association of Arlington (hosts of the Hilton Arlington / Cliff Keen Athletic Lone Star Duals). Dream Team members will travel to Dallas, Texas, and be housed in the Hilton Arlington (boys) and the Hawthorn Suites (girls) in Arlington, Texas. These hotels are next to each other and right across from the Ballpark in Arlington and Six Flags, 10 minutes from the Dallas Fort Worth airport. Twenty minutes west is the Stock Yard area of Ft. Worth and twenty minutes east is the West End area of Dallas. Team members will arrive on Friday the 8th and get an opportunity to absorb some of the local culture. Dinner will be held to allow the competitors to meet.
On Saturday, April 9th, two competitions will be held at the South Grand Prairie HS Warrior Coliseum (site of the Lone Star Duals), beginning with the first ever Girls Dream Team versus Texas' best at 5:30 PM. Hopes are high in Texas that the Lone Star girls will be very competitive. Since the UIL sanctioned the sport, the number of girls participating has skyrocketed and the enthusiastic support on the part of the coaches has resulted in a tremendous increase in the quality of the competition. Texas wrestlers have joined the girls teams at Neosho College, Cumberland College, Minnesota Morris, and Missouri Valley. With Bacone College and Pacific adding new programs, we expect to see even more.
At 7:00 PM, the best senior boys in Texas will take to the mat against the Dream Team. While Texas has had wrestlers on the Dream Team in the past (Buck McLamb and Danny Ruiz), there has never been a competition between Texas and the Dream Team. Will Rowe's matches with Mike Poeta last year, and the success of wrestlers like Brandon Slay (2000 Olympic Champion and 2x NCAA finalist), Ben Heizer (2x Div I NCAA All- American and Runner-up), Mohammad Lawal (NCAA Div II National Champion and Div I Runner-up), and JJ Holmes (NJCAA National Champ and current Eastern Michigan team member) demonstrate the depth of talent in the Lone Star State. Wrestlers like Matt Sansone, James Aston, and Justin Wren are likely Texas Team members and Texas native Olympic Champion Brandon Slay has offered to assist with coaching the Texas Team. Actual team members will be announced at a later date. We anticipate a great competition and a tremendous opportunity for Texas wrestlers to meet some of the best in the country. We are also looking forward to the opportunity to expose the Dream Team members to Texas hospitality and culture.
Many fans may have come to the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex for the 2000 Olympic Trials and discovered that there are many things to do in the area. The location is terrific and the hotels will be providing great rates, so come down and enjoy the wrestling and support the greatest sport in the world. Tickets will be available on the Hilton Arlington/ Cliff Keen Athletic Lone Star Duals website (www.lonestarduals.com) and at Texas USA Wrestling website (www.txusawrestling.com).
USA Dream Team (Boys)
Coach Virg Vagle
103 Matt McNaughton (Oak Lawn, IL)
112 Brian Moreno (Santa Ana Foothill, CA)
119 Brad Pataky (Clearfield, PA)
125 Troy Nickerson (Chenango Forks, NY)
130 Adam Frey (Blair Academy, NJ)
135 Angel Escobedo (Griffith, IN)
140 Cyler Sanderson (Wasatch, UT)
145 Brent Metcalf (Davison, MI)
152 Matt Coughlin (Mater Dei, IN)
160 David Erwin (St. Paris Graham, OH)
171 Alton Lucas (West Babylon, NY)
180 Ricky Scott (Valley Central, NY)
189 Patrick Bond (Great Bridge, VA)
215 Jared Rosholt (Ponca City, OK)
275 Drake McCoy (Fayette County, GA)
USA Dream Team (Girls)
Coach Kent Bailo
95 Vanity Vasquez, Kissimmee Osceola High School, Kissimmee, Florida
102 Joleen Oshiro, Iolani High School, Ewa Beach, Hawaii
119 Amnorina Porter, Standish-Sterling Central , Sterling, Michigan
125 Susan Levitt, Danbury High School, Danbury, Connecticut
128 Krisha Childres Goddard High School Goddard, Main
138 Shelby Brown, Monterey High School, Seaside, California
148 Elena Pirozhkov, Greenfield High School, Greenfield, Massachusetts
165 Jennifer Glover, Kissimmee High School, Kissimmee, Florida
185 Vanessa Gutierrez, Gilroy High School, Gilroy, California
215 Pounder Lizz Sanders, Newton High School, Newton, Iowa
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Gymnast also is pretty good as a wrestler
Friday, March 11, 2005
By Christopher M. Mackinder
Staff Writer
Trisha Kulas might be just a gymnast at Western High School, but she instills fear in people.
"I get a lot of people who are scared of me," she said. "They will say: 'You'll hurt me.' Other people will say: 'Trisha, beat them up -- you're strong.' "
Of course, people aren't afraid of Kulas' gymnastics ability. It's her wrestling that puts the scare in them.
Kulas disputes the contention that gymnastics and wrestling are polar opposites in the sporting world.
"They do go hand in hand, although you wouldn't think they would," she said. "You have to be strong to wrestle, and you have to be strong in gymnastics. Being flexible in gymnastics helps me in wrestling. You also have to be conditioned in both of them."
Kulas has been a gymnast since she was 5, and she began wrestling when she was 9. Since then, her love for both has grown so much that she can't decide which she likes more.
She is bypassing wrestling's Ohio State Championships this weekend for the gymnastics state finals at Plymouth High School in Canton. She won't be putting wrestling on hold for long, however. Next weekend, she will compete in a national tournament in Lake Orion. Last year, that tournament had more than 600 girls.
Kulas said Kent Bailo, the founder of the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association, which hosts more than 20 tournaments, is the main reason that she and other girls across the country have the ability to wrestle.
"She's tough, no doubt about it," Bailo said. "She works hard and is a good wrestler. So much of it is just desire. Like anything, if you're a natural athlete and you like sports, you can succeed."
While Kulas can't choose one over the other, she realizes there are more opportunities in women's wrestling than in gymnastics. Her father, Peter Kulas, jokingly said she's already too old to make a career out of gymnastics, noting many of the Olympic gymnasts are in their mid-teens.
While in middle school, Kulas practiced wrestling at Springport High School with some of the boys. But with her getting older and the boys getting stronger, she now only wrestles females and her brother Nathan, a sophomore on the Springport wrestling team.
At her residence in Parma, a green wrestling mat in the corner of a backroom in the basement is her practice arena. The mat, surrounded by white drywall that is protected by padding, is illuminated by only a single light and a few small windows.
"My brother is my practicing buddy," she said. "I gave him a run for his money when he was little. But not now. He's stronger and bigger."
Still, the challenge of wrestling her brother helps her grapple girls -- something she's planning on doing for a while. One of the colleges she is looking at is Coverland College in Kentucky -- a school that is highly touted for women's wrestling.
But before she graduates, she has some unfinished business in gymnastics. In making her first trip to the state meet, she is looking to end her career happily.
"It's my senior year,"she said. "I'm just going to go all out. I might be nervous, but I'm just going to go have fun."