CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Laurel Ramiro, 17, practiced her moves on Lisa Katsura, 18, at the Moanalua gym. The school's girls wrestling program has come a long way since its inception in 1998.
News Page
HHS girls win Elma Invitational
By the Daily World staff
Saturday, January 7, 2006 11:49 PM PST
ELMA — Winning three individual titles, Hoquiam captured team honors in the Elma Invitational Girls Wrestling Tournament on Saturday.
A 10-girl Grizzly team totaled 29 points, eight points ahead of runner-up Mount Baker.
Hoquiam’s Alex White, Becky Sauer and Kyra Butler won their classifications. White, who pinned all three of her opponents, received the tourney’s Outstanding Wrestler Award.
“That’s the best we’ve wrestled all year as a group,” said Grizzly assistant coach Todd Hoiness.
Elma’s Mackenzie Glerup won her group as well by pinning all four of her opponents.
“Mack had a great day,” said Elma coach Kevin Pine. “She does everything — (she’s) aggressive, physical and very coachable.”
The top four in each group in the round-robin tournament.
Group 1: 1. Becky Sauer (Hoq). 2. Jenna Lamb (Hoq). Sophie Locostello (Mt. Baker). 4. Ashley Kroll (Hoq). Group 2: 1. Lucky Saenachini (River Ridge). 2. Sarah Brownstein (Shelton). 3. Tess Grannemann (Hoq). 4. Kendra Wilson (Sedro-Woolley). Group 3: 1. Mackenzie Glerup (Elma). 2. Brittany Caoile (Rochester). 3. Lisa Tinney (Clover Park). 4. Teri Norris (Hoq).
Group 4: 1. Kyra Butler (Hoq). 2. Alicia Potts (Roch). 3. Aubrey Owada (RR). 4. Cindy Johnson (S-W). Group 5: 1. Rachel Hubbard (Peninsula). 2. Christina Crow (Raymond). 3. Canay Richards (North Thurson). 4. Katie Newgard (MB). Group 6: 1. Megan Arnold (North Mason). 2. Angelica Brown (MB). 3. Megan Thorn (Vashon). 4. Cheyan Davis (Tahoma).,
Group 7: 1. Areca Phy (MB). 2. Nakita Calica (Hoq). 3. Alex Lepper (MB). 4. Katelyn Coran (MB). Group 8: 1. Chelsea Wallace (NT). 2. Cassie Virgil (Rainier). 3. Alyssa Lee (Hoq). 4. Emily Dyer (S-W). Group 9: 1. Alex White (Hoq). 2. Kelsey Segawa (Oly). 3. Melissa Crowe (Clover Park). 4. Lauren Buchan (NM).
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Pacific's Torres among top athletes in Oregon
By Leila Wai 1/11/06
Advertiser Staff Writer
Pacific (Forest Grove, Ore.) junior wrestler Kapua Torres was named as a finalist for the 2006 Ad Rutschman Award, which recognizes the top male and female small-college athlete in Oregon.
Torres, a Kahuku graduate, is the school's first double national wrestling champion, earning collegiate and junior national titles. She finished last season with a Pacific-record 22 wins and 12 pins. She is the first Pacific women's wrestler to capture 20 or more victories in a season. Torres has not competed this season to nurse a nerve injury.
The awards presentation will be Jan. 29, at Nike's Tiger Woods Center in Beaverton, Ore.
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Kingston girl ranks No. 7 nationally in wrestling
Times Herald-Record 1/10/06
Wrestling is for boys. Shorna Brown didn't actually believe that but thought enough people did that it kept her from trying the sport for five years.
Then, when she thought society was ready last year, she had her own slight reservations. Brown was 14, after all, and didn't know how comfortable she would be wrestling boys.
She was a Kingston freshman, and her father, Phil, was the varsity coach and needed wrestlers. Phil Brown was the reason his daughter was around the sport most of her life, so she decided to give it a try.
Brown wrestled varsity if somebody didn't make weight. She improved as the year went on, but didn't win a varsity match. She had more success at the jayvee level, where her father admitted she belonged.
She returned this year to the program, which had more varsity-caliber kids. So she's wrestling jayvee and has a 3-5 record at 130 pounds.
Against boys.
"It's always been difficult," Brown said, "because the boys are a lot stronger than me."
But this isn't 1995, so Brown doesn't always have to wrestle boys. And when she's been getting on the mat with girls, it's been a whole different story.
So much so that she is ranked No. 7 nationally at 130 pounds by the United States Girls' Wrestling Association.
Two strong performances under a pretty glaring spotlight led to the ranking. Brown placed 11th in the USGWA national tournament in Lake Orion, Michigan, and she finished second at the USGWA New York state championships near Syracuse.
Competing as a member of the all-girl Dark Corner travel team, coached by her father, Brown will wrestle in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts over the next few months.
"Wrestling just continues to grow for girls," Phil Brown said. "Our kids take it very seriously."
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Village people
The Moanalua community spawned a girls wrestling power
By Brendan Sagara 1/11/06
Special to the Star-Bulletin
|
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM |
AN OLD African proverb states that "it takes a village to raise a child." At Moanalua High School, an appropriate statement would follow that it takes a community to build a program.
Since girls wrestling became a sanctioned sport by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association in 1998, Moanalua has been at the front of the pack, winning three team state championships and finishing as state runner-up three other times in the eight years the girls have had their own statewide showcase.
In those eight years, Moanalua wrestlers have claimed 11 individual state championships, including four from Caylene Valdez, the only Hawaii female grappler to win the HHSAA title in each of her seasons in high school
On the national level, seven Moanalua wrestlers have earned All-American distinction, with three -- Shani Alvarado ('02), Stephany Lee ('02) and Valdez ('03) -- winning national titles.
Lee, who now wrestles in the 72-kg weight class, has quickly become one of the most successful prep wrestlers to come out of Hawaii. Currently a junior at Missouri Valley College, Lee is the top-ranked college wrestler in North America in her weight class by USA Wrestling.
A veteran of international meets, Lee won gold at both the University Women's World Championships in Poland and the Pan Am Championships in Guatemala City last year. This year, Lee again earned the top spot on the winner's podium, taking the prestigious Sunkist Kids/Arizona State International Open in October.
Fellow Moanalua alum and Missouri Valley teammate Clarissa Calibuso has also emerged as one of the nation's best, opening this year among the top-ranked athletes at 55 kg.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM |
As unbelievable as it may seem, the only thing more astounding than the meteoric rise of the Menehune girls wrestling program to national prominence is trying to find someone who takes much credit for the construction of the prep power.
AS WOULD BE expected, starting a program involving so much physical contact and injury concerns took a little creativity and a lot of convincing.
"The hard part was convincing the girls and their parents that it was a viable sport," said former coach and current Moanalua athletic director Joel Kawachi. "But we had to get the parents to trust us, and ensure the girls that you could get a real sense of accomplishment in wrestling. Once we started having success, more girls started coming out."
Kawachi, who coached all three Menehune state championship squads, is quick to credit George Goto, who helped the girls program get a quick leg up.
"It certainly was not all because of one person, we were lucky," Kawachi said. "Our AD at the time was George Goto, our former wrestling coach, and he really believed in the sport and pushed for it and gender equity in the sport throughout the state. His support really allowed me to go out into the school and the community and recruit and break the stereotypes that people had about the sport.
"We actually started our recruiting in the National Honor Society and Student Government. We pursued some of the best academic kids because we knew they weren't quitters. In this sport, it's too easy to get frustrated and give up. We had to get the ones that knew what it took to succeed."
Current Menehune senior Alicia Fu began wrestling after a simple trip to Kawachi's office to inquire about joining a school club.
"I actually went in to see Mr. Kawachi about joining the Leo Club," Fu said. "He heard that I was in judo, so he started calling my parents about wrestling and talking to me about it, so I came out."
For senior co-captain Ku'ulei Nitta, joining wrestling came about in a very different way.
"My older sister Maile wrestled at Kamehameha and would pull all these painful moves on me, so I wanted to learn how to combat them," Nitta said. "I came out for the team here and just fell in love with it. I think all girls should wrestle."
Kawachi noted that different kinds of athletes can excel on the mat.
"We've always had success with all types of girls," he said. "Some of our state placers and runners-up had never played a sport before, and, of course, we've had the naturally talented types like the Caylene Valdez's and Stephany Lee's."
Kawachi, a former collegiate wrestler at Chico State in California, pointed to the high level of competition and cooperation within the state for helping groom many Menehunes for wrestling at the national level.
"There are several really outstanding wrestling programs here in Hawaii," Kawachi said. "Kahuku, Farrington, McKinley, they all have really strong programs as well as some of the private schools. It really helped with national exposure early on that we were all on the same page. We as coaches talked and tried to get the girls from all of the schools noticed, so we took mixed teams to national tournaments and the girls did well, and it's all grown from there."
WITH A SEASONED roster returning, the 2006 edition of Moanalua wrestling is looking to compete on the state level once again.
Sophomore Danica Kamakana is back a year after sweeping both the state and OIA championships at 125 pounds as a freshman, as is two-time state tournament runner-up Fu. Lisa Katsura, who finished fifth in the HHSAA championships at 108 pounds last year and was second in the state as a sophomore, is also back, as is Nitta, who missed all of last season due to a concussion after placing third in the OIA the previous year.
The emergence of junior Ariella Ing has also been a boost for the squad. Ing won her weight division in a preseason tournament on Maui and was also named the event's outstanding wrestler.
All are aware of the prestige of the Moanalua girls program and aim to keep the tradition alive.
"I think it's great that Moanalua has such a great name, but people expect a lot," Nitta said. "Our program has such a good reputation that we don't wanna mess it up, we just wanna keep it going."
Kamakana, who also won an OIA judo championship last year, feels fortunate to be a part of something special.
"It's kind of awesome to know that people will remember you for what you did as a wrestler," Kamakana said. "It's pretty awesome to be a part of your school's history, but it's not just us. A lot of our success comes from the boys team. We practice with them and we know how hard they have to work and they really push us. We try to do well for them, too."
Head coach Eddie Gudoy is a Moanalua alum, who logged over 20 years as an assistant coach with the Menehunes program before taking over for the 2004 season. He attributes much of the program's success to many past and current assistant coaches.
"We've always had some talent here, but a lot of people put in a lot of time here," Gudoy said. "Coach Goto, who was my coach here, Joel (Kawachi), Dean Casupang, and even now we have Al Chee as an assistant coach. He won two boys state championships as head coach at Kamehameha and he's been with us for the past couple years.
"The work of all of those other coaches makes my job a lot easier."
THE FUTURE OF girls wrestling at Moanalua and in the state of Hawaii in general seems bright. With 34 schoolgirls from Hawaii having earned All-America distinction from Wrestling Magazine and The Mat.com/ASICS since 1999, Hawaii has received more than its fair share of national recognition.
Five more Hawaii grapplers are ranked among the top 10 in the nation in their respective weight classes in the United States Girls Wrestling Association preseason rankings this year, including Kara Takasaki of Punahou, who holds the top spot in the 130-pound class.
Nearly a dozen local products are currently wrestling at the collegiate level.
"It's bigger than just Moanalua," Kawachi said. "It is the whole state of Hawaii. We all help each other out. When we go to nationals, we take girls from other schools with us to give them a chance to get exposure, and we work together and help the wrestlers out. The entire state of Hawaii benefits from it."
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Mac girls wrestling team hits the mat
By ALLEN MOODY
Of the News-Register Published: January 10, 2006
McMinnville's Jessica Hamilton, bottom, wrestles in a tournament on Sunday. |
One of the problems in being a pioneer in the world of sports is that often you have to take on opponents whenever the situation presents itself, even if it means driving to Portland on a Sunday afternoon, which is exactly what the McMinnville girls wrestling team did. The Mac girls joined several girls from other high schools for a two-hour workout, followed by several matches with the girls from the USA Cobra Wrestling Team based out of Nelson's Nautilus in Portland.
"This was an exhibition, like a preseason match, before we have our first tournament," said the girls head coach Marshall Roache. "It was an opportunity for the girls to practice in a live, match setting and for us coaches, as well, to understand how our girls are going to react. Now we have to go back to work and do some coaching."
To say that the Mac girls faced some tough competition would be a bit of an understatement.
"The reason we came here first is because the girls on this (Cobra) team, most of them are on some kind of national team," Roache said. "They don't have anybody in this room who hasn't competed at a national level. We knew these girls had a lot more experience than we did but that's the best way. If you're going to be the best, you have to beat the best. So this is a way for us to really work on our skills."
Still, the Mac girls didn't fare too badly, winning two of the eight matches, plus getting some pretty good instruction.
"I actually learned a couple new moves that I can use," said Mac's Malia Unrath, one of the four girls on the team. "It's fun wrestling other people because you can learn more from people you haven't wrestled before. On a team, you already know what you're going to do when you practice together. But when you wrestle someone from another team, it's all new."
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This is the second year that McMinnville has fielded a girls wrestling team and the Grizzlies are hopeful that other schools will follow suit.
"In a couple years, I hope the team stays and becomes an all-girl team and they can wrestle other schools who have teams too," Unrath said. "That'd be really great to see after I graduate. Girls are probably going to be afraid to come out for the boys teams, and if we have a girls team that would be easier for them."
When the girls made their debut last year the concept appeared to be well received by some other schools, but so far none of the other schools have really stepped forward, making it difficult for McMinnville.
Even the Grizzlies have had a more difficult time fielding a team this year, with 16 girls on the team at one time last year, and are now down to four members this year.
"Our goal, in the next three-four years, is to see bigger numbers come out for the team," Roache said. "I truly believe that our freshmen could do something on a state level by then, but we need more bodies. We are the first team in the state that is a high school team.
"Recruiting is the biggest thing that we need to do right now. The more girls we get, the better. I'm hoping that we can get some of the middle school kids up and coming. There's quite a few who wrestle in the kids club so we're hoping those girls will want to wrestle at the high school level."
Unrath, one of two girls back from last year's team, said it's more fun wrestling this year.
"Last year we were kind of just pushed into a corner and we were told just to work on certain things, but this year we have more instruction on what to do and we learn more moves than we did last year," she said. "It's a lot more intensive practice than it was before. This year it's really easy because we got to learn a lot more and we got to grow as a team together instead of not being a team and not learning as much."
Luisa Reyes is the other wrestler back from last year and they have been joined by Jessica Hamilton and Rachel Holbrook.
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The girls will compete in the Oregon Women's Classic in Redmond on Saturday, where nearly 120 wrestlers competed last year, making Sunday's training session and matches especially important.
"I learned a lot," Reyes said. "They were good. This last girl I wrestled, I didn't have a chance. First thing I knew I was on the floor. It was pretty crazy."
The McMinnville coaches were hopeful that their girls saw some of what is needed to step things up a notch by spending time with the Cobra team.
"The intensity is what I hope they learned today," said Mark Haig, one of the McMinnville coaches. "When they get out on the mat, they need to crank it up. The drilling is one thing but I think they learned when they were drilling with these girls and then when they got out on the mat they got a little bit of a different impression. These girls turn it up on the mat."
Roache was quick to agree with that assessment and admits to being surprised how quickly the Cobra team was able to raise the intensity.
"When I saw them drilling, I was thinking that we're going to be right with some of these girls," he said. "But then when they got on the mat, their girls kind of took it to another level and that's what we want to teach our girls. That's what we need to work on."
Marlea Roache is the third member of the coaching staff, all of whom are volunteers, and she also handles the duties of being the team's manager.
"I'd like to thank the coaches," Reyes said. "Without them this wouldn't be happening."
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Boys, girls caught in a headlock
Published: January 10, 2006
By KATE ROWLAND
Of the News-Register
At a recent tournament, McMinnville boys wrestling coach Trent Rollins forfeited every match in which members of his squad came up against girls — an increasingly common pairing as more and more teams go coed.
He said he was doing it in support of Mac High's separate girls team, but not everyone is convinced.
McMinnville athletics director Sean Burke said, "In the future, we will wrestle our opponents regardless of who's across the mat. We don't discriminate.
"We've had guys wrestle girls before. I couldn't tell you how many times we've had wrestlers wrestle girls from other programs."
Rollins admits to harboring reservations.
He said, "I've dealt with several boys who lost to girls and they had to deal with that loss. They got picked on by all of their friends. They're young and it crushes them emotionally.
"I've had boys tell me, ‘I felt like I couldn't touch that girl without touching her breasts.' Wrestling is just never going to be equal between a boy and a girl."
But Burke said, "There was a girl (Sammi Lang) a couple of years ago from Tualatin who was tough. She was fun to watch wrestle. And it wasn't a male/female thing, she was just an athlete."
He said, "I never heard an issue from any of our kids who wrestled her. She was kicking the crap out of everyone in the league."
It's not unusual for girls to be on a boys wrestling team any more. The Mac girls wrestling squad held a dual meet with the all-girl Cobra Club out of Portland on Sunday, and most of the girls in the Cobra Club also wrestle on the boys teams at their respective high schools.
But Rollins favors keeping the teams separate.
"We are the only school in Oregon who started a girls team, and I want to push girls wrestling," he said. "By having my boys wrestle the girls and say, ‘That's OK, we don't need to have separate girls wrestling teams,' that's not supporting the girls team.
"I told those girls I'd like to have them come down and wrestle our girls. I arranged to get their phone number. They said they'd talk about it. The boys were OK with it. They understood that we're trying to build girls wrestling."
Two of the wrestlers on Mac's developing girls team, Malia Unrath and Luisa Reyes, said they are pleased with the move because they didn't feel welcome when they tried to join the boys squad.
"I wanted to try out for the boys team, but we weren't allowed to," said Unrath. "Coach Rollins said that he didn't feel comfortable with girls wrestling on his team."
Reyes said, "The coaches said it would be inappropriate touching for us to be on the boys team. He gave us reasons but it was just little things like that. I'm there to wrestle, not flirt with guys."
Rollins denies having told the girls they couldn't join the boys team.
"(Unrath) might have talked to me, and I told her my opinion," he said. "I left it at that.
"I probably discouraged them. I told them to talk to their parents and that I would have to talk to the parents of my boys. It would be up to the boys as to whether they wrestled girls or not."
Burke supported that. He said the girls were given the opportunity to try out for the boys team.
"If a girl wants to go out for wrestling, then she can," he said. "If there are girls who want to play football, I'm fine with it."
He admitted, however, that in wrestling, there often is an issue with girls wrestling boys. "Some boys, and their parents, don't want them wrestling girls," he said.
Mac's girls wrestling team, coached by volunteer Marshall Roache, is in its second year.
Last year, the girls only saw action in one tournament. This year, they are wrestling club teams and getting more tournament play.
There are no other schools in the OSAA with girls wrestling teams, so scheduling meets is difficult.
"Last year we were kind of just pushed into a corner, and we were told just to work on certain things," Unrath said. "I was upset when I found out we couldn't wrestle on the boys team.
"When they started a girls team it made it better. I feel much more comfortable wrestling a girl than I would a guy."
At first, the sport was part of Mac's after-school program, funded by a grant. This year, it is operating on a club basis.
The school is not paying the coaches or covering the transportation costs. However, it is waiving the normal $120 participation fee, awarding varsity letters and enforcing the usual rules about passing physicals and attending classes.
"This year, Marshall Roache asked if there was something we could do," Burke said. "We didn't want to make it a team and ask the girls to pay $120 participation fee, and then have no one for them to wrestle. It gives them time to build the program up."
He said, "They're under less guidelines by being a club. They can wrestle other clubs.
"This way, they don't have to pay a bunch of money. And I funded them as much as I could."
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Published: January 10, 2006
Few people in McMinnville are as qualified as Mac wrestling coach Trent Rollins to speak on the positive attributes of high school wrestling. A two-time state champion during his days at Newberg High School in the early 90s, Rollins has been around the sport long enough to see the positive aspects that come from the sport, such as discipline, character development and work ethic.
He also realizes that girls could benefit from the sport just as much as the boys do and has been behind the concept of a girls-only team for the past two years, recognizing that more girls are likely to come out for the sport if they're competing against other girls, rather than against the boys.
While not everybody agrees with him that wrestling should be separated, Rollins certainly has the statistics to back up his case.
The two states that ban girls from wrestling boys in high school, Texas and Hawaii, have a much higher participation ratio for girls than do any other states, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Twenty-eight percent of high school wrestlers in Hawaii are females, while nearly 17 percent of those who take to the mat in Texas are girls. On the national level, only about 1.75 percent of all high school wrestlers are females, so it's fairly obvious how the majority of girls see it.
"I wanted to wrestle for a long time, but I didn't feel comfortable wrestling against guys," Malia Unrath, one of the four members of this year's Mac girls wrestling team said when interviewed about the girls team last year. "When I found out they were going to have a girls team I joined, because I really like wrestling."
More than 4,300 high school girls wrestled last year, a number that is steadily growing and should continue to do so, especially with female wrestling now part of the Olympic Games.
The key now is trying to find a platform for the girls to compete in a manner that is fair and equal for all involved. While some girls in the area, such as Dayton's Summer Mercier and Tualatin graduate Sammi Lang, have proven they can hold their own against the boys, most girls have problems going up against the guys and are at an unfair disadvantage when forced to do so.
If there's a villain to be found, it's certainly not Rollins, who is doing his best to make girls wrestling a more common occurrence. Instead, it would have to be the coaches and administrators from other schools, who have done nothing to try and promote girls wrestling.
When the Mac girls team went to last year's Westview Tournament, Rollins said that other coaches voiced their support and talked of having a girls team this year, but so far none of them have stepped up to the mat.
I'm sure McMinnville High School realizes that it won't be able to change the face of girls wrestling in the state alone, but the Grizzlies made a giant step in the right direction. Now all that's needed is for others to follow suit.
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Wrestling for respect: Women's sport making slow but steady progress
By KELLY BEATON, Courier Sports Writer1/10/06
Terry Steiner called the U.S.A. Wrestling offices seeking a letter of recommendation — no more, no less.
An eighth-year college assistant wrestling coach, Steiner simply wanted a piece of paper to help give him a new challenge — and maybe a higher tax bracket.
Yet, after a brief whirlwind of sweet-talking by the powers-that-be, the coach, a former all-American wrestler at Iowa, found himself standing before a squad of unlikely competitors.
It was June 2002 in New York City. Steiner, a former 150-pound bull chock full of testosterone, had just walked nervously into his first practice as coach of a U.S. National team barely two years away from the Athens Olympics.
Due to the unfamiliar nature of the group, Steiner felt like the new kid in class, wishing to slink silently to the back of the classroom.
The group was, after all, comprised solely of women.
“It was new territory for everyone,” he recalled recently.
“The first practice, I was demonstrating technique on a girl. ... I’m thinking, ‘Do I touch here? Do I touch there?’
“(But) I made a decision right there that they’re athletes, whether they’re men or women ... We sell wrestling as a sport for all sizes and all shapes, so why isn’t this a sport of women?”
With that, the now 36-year-old national coach got over his initial unease. And his U.S. women’s national squad has scaled many of its initial hurdles as a result.
Since Steiner’s maiden voyage with that first U.S. women’s Olympic team, women’s wrestling has taken significant strides toward legitimizing itself.
First, Steiner’s U.S. squad claimed a silver and a bronze at the 2004 Olympics. And this weekend, for the second time, three of the nearly half-dozen U.S. women’s collegiate teams will take to the mat at the UNI-Dome, for the NWCA National Duals.
“Having (women’s wrestling) at the national duals is a big thing,” Steiner said. “We have our foot in the door.”
Make no mistake, though. The sport of women’s wrestling still has a long way to travel. Many fans in Cedar Falls this weekend will be baring witness to their first bouts featuring females — if, that is, they grant their attention to the women’s grapplers at all.
WHERE WOMEN’S WRESTLING WORKS
If women’s wrestling is still little more than a novelty, side-show act, somebody forgot to tell Stephany Lee.
Lee, a junior from Missouri Valley College currently ranked No. 1 nationally at 158.5 pounds, wrestled for years in her native Hawaii without drawing so much as a second glance.
“People in Hawaii, they’re more open-minded,” noted Lee, who grew up in one of just two U.S. states to have their own sanctioned state wrestling tournaments for girls.
“If I were to wrestle a guy in practice and beat him,” she continued, “they wouldn’t really get mad.”
Lee, a former national judo champion, brings an unblemished mark to Cedar Falls this weekend. Of course, her wrestling upbringing featured luxuries few other female wrestlers enjoy. In her native Hawaii, where wrestling is simply thought of as another martial art, it’s not uncommon to walk into a wrestling room and find 30 boys countered by an even 30 girls.
That’s a decidedly uncommon occurrence in most of the U.S. For instance, according to USA Today, a 2003-04 survey by the National Federation of State Associations reported that at that time just 4,008 of America’s 242,708 high school wrestlers (1.7 percent) were female.
And the few girls who have enjoyed success competing against boys on the prep level often had fathers for coaches, thus widening their window of opportunity in a sport usually open only to those sporting ‘Y’ chromosomes.
What makes the U.S.’ lack of acceptance of women’s wrestling all the more irksome to those like Steiner is its popularity elsewhere around the globe, like in China and Canada.
ARE COACHES CLOSING DOORS?
The reasons why most male coaches look at women wrestlers with a skewed view are many: Some say the sport simply isn’t safe for girls.
Others state their distaste bluntly.
“It’s a no-win situation for the guy,” said Steve Knipp, a former longtime Waterloo East head coach who now runs youth tournaments. “If you go out and don’t win the match (against a girl), you’re belittled forever.
“And it’s not very safe for girls to wrestle at the high school level,” he added. “They can get hurt.”
Most of the relatively few females that have had success countering boys on the prep level have done so at light weights n like 103 pounds n where strength isn’t as much of a factor as the upper weights.
Steiner noted that the life-lessons wrestling can teach know no gender. So perhaps having girls wrestle alongside boys on the high school level isn’t such a wild idea, he argued.
“What high school boy couldn’t use a little more respect for the opposite sex?” Steiner pondered aloud. “Maybe (he’ll) appreciate her determination.”
To date, the U.S. women’s national squad has held its own n it won the 2003 world dual meet championships, for instance. But Steiner said his squad’s foothold near the mountaintop could be a shaky one if women’s wrestling doesn’t start getting more support on our nation’s lower levels.
“Now that we’re an Olympic sport, it brings credibility,” explained the former four-time all-American at Iowa (1989-93). “(But) if we don’t have high school coaches open their doors to girls, if we don’t have college coaches open their doors to girls, we’re not going to be here long.
“We have to get our development going.”
Steiner closed his case on why women’s wrestling should be made more mainstream with what would seem to be a question worth pondering.
“For a sport like wrestling, that struggles anyway for attention and struggles for respect, how can inviting another half of the population into the sport hurt us?” he asked.
For his final pieces of evidence, the coach could turn to exhibits ’A’ and ’B’: A pair of gleaming 2004 Olympic medals.
Contact Kelly Beaton at (319) 291-1456 or kelly.beaton@wcfcourier.com
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The following states have had female wrestlers advance to their state prep tournament against boys*:
n Alaska
n Illinois
n Maryland
n Nebraska
n Maine
n Oklahoma
n Virginia
n Washington
* n Texas and Hawaii have separate state sanctioned tournaments for girls
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By Jeremy Heath 1/11/06
jeremy.heath@amarillo.com
Quick Work: Caprock's Daphne Barbosa gains control against Palo Duro's Brandi Kenyon en route to a pin in 1 minute, 50 seconds, during their match in the 119-pound division of a dual Tuesday at PD. The Lady Longhorns won, 48-6. |
Wins against wrestling powerhouses such as Randall and Garden City, Kan., during the season had area wrestling coaches well aware that the girls weren't the only wrestling team at Caprock that would be making some noise at the state tournament this year.
One of those coaches, Palo Duro head coach Steve Nelson, said everything he suspected was confirmed when the Longhorns walked out of his gym with a 61-18 dual victory Tuesday night. The two-time defending state champion Lady Longhorns picked up a 48-6 win.
"Caprock is just that good," Nelson said. "They've been dominating 98 percent of their opponents this year. They've only got four seniors, so if they don't compete for a state title this year, they'll definitely compete for one next year.
''We've got a good team. That ought to show you just how good Caprock is."
The Caprock boys jumped out to a 37-0 lead before Palo Duro picked up its first points.
At 103 pounds, Ray Barbosa pinned Kevin Huynh in 1:02. At 112, Thomas Harris pinned Jacody Springs in 3:12.
At 119, a defending state champion squared off with a state qualifier in what was billed to be the best match of the night. Caprock's Harvey Suarez won the state title at 103 last year, and Palo Duro's Paz Acosta qualified at 112.
The match did not live up to its billing. Both wrestlers felt each other out for 1:40, both faking shots and waiting for an opening. At the 1:40 mark, Suarez got a leg and scored a takedown and quickly turned Acosta over for a three-point near-fall to take a 5-0 lead. Acosta scored a reversal at the 1:50 mark to make it 5-2 but would get no closer as Suarez methodically racked up a 15-4 major decision.
At 125, Caprock's Afgan Sherali scored six of his 11 points on three-point near-falls in an 11-1 win against Thomas Springs. At 130, Caprock's Rene Montoya ran up an 11-1 lead before pinning Michael Eddleman at the 3:42 mark. At 135, Caprock's Chris Brown pinned Auggie Arreola in 3:45, and at 140, Caprock's Emelio Perez cranked out a 16-1 technical-fall win.
Palo Duro got on the board with state hopeful Coy Grant at 145 against Michael Garnett.
After taking a 4-0 lead into the second period, Grant scored a quick reversal in the second period and turned that position into a pin at the 2:38 mark.
At 152, Caprock's Charlie Thompson wore down Stirling Sanchez for a 7-2 win, making the score 40-6 before Palo Duro went on a small run. At 160, PD's Travis Elliot pinned Chris Holmes in 38 seconds, and at 171, PD's Anthony Bichard took a 12-1 lead before pinning Thomas Dewald at the 4:12 mark.
Caprock's Devon Woods (180), Mark Mendez (189) and JJ Naranjo (275) scored pins, and Jeremiah Johnson (215) grinded out a 5-0 win against Htoo Aung to close out the win.
On the girls side, all five matches were decided by pins. Caprock's Daphne Barbosa (119), Cheslea Collareli (128), Stephanea Hignight (138) and Mercedes Gonzales (185) picked up pins, while Palo Duro's Silver Lewis (165) got the Lady Dons on the board with a pin.
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Women’s freestyle team gather for training
22:08' 08/01/2006 (GMT+7)
The national women’s wrestling team are gathering for training in the National Sports Training Centre No 1, Hanoi.
It was in preparation for the forthcoming 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, late this year.
Wrestlers called up for the team include Nguyen Thi Hang, Nguyen Thhi Hai Yen, Nguyen Thi Hong Nga, Nguyen Thi Quy, Trieu Thi Them and Dang Thi Van from Thai Nguyen, Pham Thi Phuong, Tran Thi Hoa, Le Thi trang, Nghiem Thi Thu, Nghiem Thi Giang and Bui Thi Lieu from Hanoi, Dao Thi Hien from Bac Ninh, Luong Thi Duyen, Nguyen Thi Thuy Van from Thanh Hoa, and Dang Thi Hanh from Ha Tay.
The team will be training with expert Byalent Benchet Kyamil from Bulgaria and coach Le Van Suc and Nguyen Hong Nam.
(Source: TTHN)