News
Fate pins top grappler
Badly broken arm denies her chance at provincial title
Now Newtonbrook wrestler cheers on, advises teammates
Mar. 1, 2006. 01:00 AM
DAVID GROSSMAN
SPORTS REPORTER
Her record of success on the wrestling mat the past four years has been impressive, but Mapleine Quizon still wasn't happy.
At 4-foot-10, she's the Canadian juvenile 40-kilo champion and a three-time Toronto high school gold medallist. But the grappler from the powerhouse program at Newtonbrook Secondary was still looking for her first Ontario school title.
Earlier this year, she beat Sudbury's Tina Lalonde, the defending provincial high school gold medallist, prompting coach Leonid Kilimnik to predict that this could be the year that his No.1 female wrestler would end a streak of disappointment and make her first trip to the podium for a medal.
But that cherished souvenir will have to wait.
Rather than compete today at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations finals in Sarnia, a frustrated Quizon will instead have to settle as Newtonbrook's No.1 cheerleader.
That's because the 18-year-old Grade 12 student broke her arm in a freak accident during the provincial juvenile finals in Hagersville three weeks ago, had surgery to correct the damage, and now she's stuck with a cast for the next two months.
Quizon, who lives with two older siblings after her parents moved to Israel with other family members, said she remembers putting her arm on the mat to prevent being thrown and her opponent rolled on it.
"I heard the snap, looked at the arm dangling and knew it was broken," recalled Quizon. "Once I got over the shock, I started wondering what I would tell my parents, thought about the school prom, my part-time job and then it hit me — no more wrestling this year."
Having won 30 of her 40 high school matches in the past four years, Quizon ran in to a slew of problems and never did reach the medal round at OFSAA. Her closest was last year finishing fifth.
"When the doctor said I was through (with) wrestling this year, I remember giving him this strange look hoping that he could come up with miracle to get me ready for OFSAA," she said. "Deep down, I knew it was over for now."
Kilimnik, a physical education teacher and former two-time Canadian wrestling champ while at Brock University, said he was just as devastated as Quizon.
"I remember when she came to me in Grade 9 and wanted to wrestle because her sister did," he said. "That same year, she won the regional title, then the city title and I knew she was destined for the big awards. She worked so hard, piled up the wins and her only goal was to win OFSAA."
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Cory Pytlarz
Wednesday March 01, 2006
Cochrane Times — Local competitors have returned from the Alberta Winter Games with some hardware hanging around their necks.
Competing Feb. 23 to 26 in Hinton, Edson and Jasper, 11 Cochrane athletes brought home a total of 14 medals at the Games.
“They were a great success,” says Kerry McAndrews, Zone 2 Chef de Mission. “The three communities did an excellent job of hosting everybody.
“Opening ceremonies were a hoot,” she adds, with Premier Ralph Klein also taking in the event in Hinton.“It was very snowy, but very good.”
Medal winners from the Cochrane area include: Channing Bowron, bronze, shooting (female air rifle individual); David Cote, silver, freestyle skiing (14-15 male jumping); Bryce Diggins, bronze, wrestling (all-around team); Kirsty Edwards, silver, shooting (female air pistol team), and bronze, shooting (female air pistol individual); Chantal Hall, bronze, wrestling (female 46 kg), and bronze, wrestling (all-around team); Michael Law, gold, alpine skiing (11-12 male giant slalom), and bronze, alpine skiing (male dual giant slalom team event); David Law, bronze, alpine skiing (male dual giant slalom team event); Leah Loeppky, bronze, wrestling (all-around team); Jivan Sekhon, silver, karate (female 12-14 kumite brown/black; Ashley Weiers, bronze, artistic gymnastics (all-around team provincial level 2).
Cochrane’s Heather Allan, competing for Zone 1, also took bronze in freestyle skiing (11-13 female jumping).
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Sonoma's driven Diaz seizes NCS girls' gold; seven Dragon boys wrestle NCS
By Steven Serafini
Monday, February 27, 2006 5:36 PM PST
2.28.06 -- It can't get any better than ending your high school career in any sport with your peak performance at the perfect time. This is the exact scenario that played out Saturday for Sonoma Valley High School's lone senior and female wrestler, Jasmine Diaz.
At the challenging North Coast Section girls' championship tournament at Freedom High School in Oakley, Diaz ended her prep career as NCS champion. Seven of Diaz's younger Dragon teammates wrestled in the prestigious NCS boys' championship tournament over the weekend at Newark High School in the East Bay.
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Jasmine Diaz makes her mark as female wrestler
Wins medals in all-girl tournaments — beats boys, too
Denise Fowler-Horsfall
Special to the Sun 2/9/06
The only senior on the Sonoma Valley High School wrestling team is 5 feet tall and weighs in at 105 pounds.
The only senior on the team has medaled in three tournaments this year.
The only senior wrestler has the longest hair of any member of the team — perhaps even the longest hair in the school.
The only senior on the Sonoma Valley High School wrestling team is a girl.
Jasmine Diaz is a petite, reserved young woman. Her quiet demeanor masks an intensity that thirsts for knowledge and a mind that processes wrestling moves much as a chess player intently studies a game. To look at her you would be hard-pressed to see a wrestler — a dancer, perhaps, but not a wrestler.
However, when she coils up her knee-length brown tresses, puts on ear guards, covers her head with a headnet and steps onto the wrestling mat, you know she means business.
From her opening stance she is calculating her moves. She changes the direction of her body in a split second, anticipating her opponent’s strategy. Her hands grasp and hold, her feet tangle and restrain. She exhibits a strength that is fierce with the desire to outmaneuver her adversary.
How did this beautiful girl become a sweaty wrestler?
Jasmine hasn’t always been an athlete. Her older brother, Jose, wrestled on the Dragons’ team a few years ago, so Jasmine tried wrestling as an eighth grader on the co-ed Altimira Middle School team. She liked it even though, as she puts it, “I didn’t have much success.”
Diaz was shy about trying out for the SVHS wrestling team her freshman and sophomore years, but last year found the courage to go to tryouts and join the boys.
Wrestling is still very much a male-dominated sport. Varsity wrestler Stephan Fitzpatrick admits that there was some surprise amongst the team last year when Jasmine tried out but that, “… the guys don’t mind.”
“She’s worked hard,” Fitzpatrick says.
Do her parents support her unique sports passion?
Jasmine says her mother, Eva, is still concerned — particularly when Jasmine came home with a black eye after being kneed by a male opponent. Her father, Miguel, offers her tougher encouragement; the kind you might hear a father give to his son.
Mostly, Jasmine faces male wrestlers. In league contests she has encountered only a handful of girls on Sonoma County teams. It is from these other female wrestlers that she learned about girl-only tournaments and determined to find a way to compete on that playing field.
Deets Winslow, the Dragon’s head wrestling coach, supported Jasmine’s desire. However, with 20 other wrestlers to oversee and a full schedule of meets to contend with, he couldn’t devote the time she needed. But he knew who could…
Deets’ father, Roger, was the high school wrestling coach before him. Roger Winslow brought home the League Championship pennant to the Dragon’s den four years running in the 1980s. Roger was a coach who could take the raw talent Jasmine showed and hone it into that of a contender.
One problem. Roger had always refused to coach girls.
His point was that, “Boys have everything to lose and nothing to gain by wrestling a girl.”
In other words, beat a girl and hear, “So what?” from teammates; lose to a girl and hear all sorts of other, unprintable comments.
Deets’ work was cut out for him to convince Roger to take Jasmine under his wing. Roger says Deets told him, “Just come down and take a look at her at one practice.”
Roger finally did and that’s all it took. He saw that she’d already won the respect of the boys on the team and that, “She’d earned her spurs.” During that one practice Jasmine was, “…like a sponge. You couldn’t give her information fast enough.”
With Roger able to devote one-to-one coaching time, Jasmine has been able to travel to girl-only wrestling tournaments. In addition to the Dragons’ league meets, she has wrestled in Stockton, Manteca, south San Francisco, and Rocklin with great success. She’s taken home gold and medaled in all but one of those meets.
What does Jasmine Diaz like best about wrestling?
“Obviously the wins,” she says.
But, she continues, “The atmosphere. It’s really fun and intense and hard work. When you see the results it’s the best feeling in the world.”
Although she enjoys the competitive atmosphere of girls’ wrestling, she still relishes her wins over boys. She exhibits a quiet joy in reporting her first “guy pin” at the Petaluma JV duals, and, even better, she has gotten a couple more since then.
Don’t get the idea that Jasmine is a hard-nosed girl. She is every inch a gentle young woman.
Even in the stinky, sweaty wrestling room during conditioning, her quick, lithe movements deceive you into seeing a girl who enjoys dancing at parties and weddings. Her circumspection in the midst of wrestling chaos shows you that she is a middle sister in a family of four girls and one older brother. Her quiet focus is where you see the student who reads fiction for pleasure.
No, she’s not hard-nosed in the least. But make no mistake… within the soft-spoken lovely girl lies the strength of a lion and the heart of a champion.
Traveling to Hanford this past weekend with coaches Roger Winslow and Marty Clein, Jasmine participated in the CIF Girls State Wrestling Championship. She suffered a first round loss against the number two seed wrestler from Whitney High School in Rocklin, which dropped her down into the consolation bracket. There she won her next two matches, beating opponents from Southern California.
Diaz notes that at the CIF tournament there was a “…more experienced bunch of girls. It was a lot harder.”
Coach Winslow reports her final match was a close one but that, “She made a mistake and got caught.” The match ended with the San Leandro wrestler pinning Jasmine.
Still to come in Jasmine Diaz’s season: The completion of Sonoma County League competition and the North Coast Sections tournament.
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Colton female earns victory, respect at state
By Alex Tam 3/1/06
SALEM — While Waldport’s Misty Corwin received much of the attention at the 2A/1A state wrestling championships after placing fifth in the 103-pound division, Colton’s Pam Burtis quietly made some noise herself.
Burtis, a 112-pounder, didn’t have quite the success that Corwin had, but she did score a victory, beating Lakeview’s Reed Steele by a 5-2 decision in the first round of the consolation bracket.
The Colton junior then fell to Harrisburg’s Levi Barden the following round by fall in 53 seconds Saturday at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem.
However, the thrill of reaching state for the first time and being one of two female competitors in a male-dominated sport proved to Burtis that she belonged.
“It kind of makes me feel good knowing that I’m one of the better wrestlers in the state out of all the guys,” she said.
In her first match, she squared off against Irrigon’s Frankie Torres, and hung tough before losing by pin in 5 minutes, 33 seconds.
“I was kind of nervous,” Burtis said. “The other guy was a lot bigger than me muscular wise.”
Burtis got her start in wrestling seven years ago after having to watch her two older brothers compete in middle school. She got tired of sitting around and wanted part of the action.
“So instead of sitting out at wrestling tournaments all weekend, I just thought I’d start,” she said. “A lot of the parents thought it wouldn’t be right for me to wrestle, so I had to deal with that myself.”
Proving her skeptics wrong each day, and winning matches is her motivation.
“(I enjoy) just going out there and beating the guys,” she said. “A lot of people don’t think girls are able to do that. ... I think a lot of (opponents) really look at me as a girl (at first), but once they wrestle me, they don’t see me as a girl.”
Colton coach Kerry Benthin said Burtis’ accomplishment is a “huge step for girls wrestling in the state.
“She put forth a lot of effort,” Benthin said. “... It’s a big thing for her to get here and I think for our program, too. She learned a lot about wrestling at this level. You get the top 12 in the state, you’ve got to pick it up a bit, and I think it was good for her going into her senior year.
“Hopefully, we can keep her interested, working out and getting a little stronger by next year.”
If there was any sign that Burtis might not return next season, she isn’t showing it as she’s set a higher goal for herself.
“I want to place next year at state,” she said.
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