Zoë Castaneda, 11, has been wrestling for four years.
News
Middle school girl shines in sport dominated by boys
By Corey Clark
Staff Writer 6/27/06
corey.clark@gwinnettdailypost.com
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Zoë Castaneda, 11, has been wrestling for four years. |
She notices the looks. How could she not?
Not many youth wrestlers, or their parents for that matter, are used to seeing a girl walk out on the mat to compete against boys.
They stare. Or do double-takes as she warms up before a match. But those long, skeptical glances never seem to bother 11-year-old Zoë Castaneda.
“I’m used to that,” she said. “But it usually goes away once they see me wrestle. I’m trying to wrestle out there for respect. So they don’t think of me as a girl wrestler, but just a wrestler.”
Said her father, and part-time coach, Frank: “We have encountered some interesting feedback from some wrestlers and parents about our decision to allow her to compete against boys. The beauty of the sport is that most of the questions can be answered on the mat.
“Once they see that she can hold her own everything works out.”
Zoë does more than hold her own. She holds a number of titles as well.
This is just a partial list of her accomplishments since she started wrestling four years ago:
• Two-time Girls Festival Champion at Southeast Regionals
• Fourth in Greco-Roman and Freestyle at Southeast Regionals in 2005
• Oconee River Rumble champion
• South Georgia Championships champion in 2006
• Second place at Missouri Valley Women’s Showcase
• Freestyle state champ in 2004
• Second place at state freestyle in 2006
• 2006 USA Wrestling Girls Freestyle national champion
Some of these high finishes were in girls tournaments. And some were in boys tournaments. It turns out Zoë doesn’t discriminate — she’s tough against everyone.
“There are people out there that have a problem with her wrestling their kids,” said one of her many coaches, Brandon Bentley. “Because she’s so good. It’s hard to keep anyone in wrestling anyway, and when someone gets introduced to the sport and then loses to a girl, it doesn’t bode too well for them.”
Zoë began wrestling at the age of 7 when her younger brother Ethan began competing in the sport as a 6-year-old. It didn’t take her long to get hooked.
“That February there was a (United States Girls Wrestling Association) state tournament at Riverwood High School and we decided to enter her in the tournament,” Frank said. “She placed second and after that the rest was history.”
But the question becomes: What is Zoë’s future in the sport?
There are no girls high school wrestling teams in Georgia, so when the rising sixth-grader gets to high school in three years, what will be her options? Will she be good enough, or strong enough, to compete against varsity boys?
She holds her own with the opposite gender right now, but three years is a long way away.
“It’s all up to Zoë and how she grows,” said Bentley, a former state champion at Parkview and current coach at the Parkview Wrestling Club. “She could be a big 103 (-pounder). Females hold their weight differently with muscle mass, so she could be a big 103 or even a 112.
“I definitely think she’ll be a part of the wrestling program, regardless if it’s varsity or JV. She just loves the sport.”
Said Zoë: “I’m going to keep loving the sport. I’m always going to be involved in it. Once I get older, it’s going to be hard for me to compete against boys, so I’m still trying to think of what I’m going to do with that. But I want to stay involved.
“There are not many girl wrestlers in Georgia, so instead I might just have to go to national tournaments.”
The sport of women’s wrestling did take a huge leap in 2004 when it was introduced as an Olympic event. So even though Zoë might not compete for her high school wrestling team, she has her sights set on a possible trip to the Olympic Games when she gets older.
“I want to try to wrestle in high school and college, but not a lot of colleges have girls wrestling,” she said. “But I still want to try for the Olympic team and the World Team. I just have a lot of goals.”
According to Bentley, these aren’t unrealistic ones.
“She is very good,” he said. “She is so technically sound ... She is extremely confident when she gets to wrestle other girls, and I definitely see that being one of her long-term goals.”
Zoë not only trains with Bentley at Parkview, she also works with Dustin Kawa and Francois McDaniel at The Wrestling Academy and with the Team Georgia national squad. On top of that, she trains at home with her father and two younger brothers on their mat in the family’s garage.
It seems evident that Zoë has become practically addicted to wrestling, even though it is arguably the most physically demanding sport available for kids.
But despite her dedication and accolades, it’s not all she’s interested in. According to her mother, Mercedes, Zoë is a straight-A student and will be playing the violin in the Sweetwater Middle orchestra next year.
So it turns out she’s just your typical wrestler/violinist/ honor roll student.
Nothing out of the ordinary there.
Then again, being a one of a kind is nothing new for Zoë Castaneda.
“It’s awesome when people come up to me and say how good I did,” she said, “and I don’t hear how I did good for a girl. It makes me feel good and it makes me think I’m another step closer to my goal.”
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Athletes often forced to compete for Olympic training venues
BY MERI-JO BORZILLERI
The Gazette6/27/06
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Elite athletes sometimes don't receive top priority for competition venues or beds at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
On Friday, the nation's best women wrestlers will use a local high school gym for the world team trials, one of the year's biggest domestic competitions.
A month later, the under-20 women's national basketball team, prepping for the world championships in the thin air of Mexico City, will train in California instead of at altitude in Colorado Springs.
Both teams were shut out because they made late requests for summer, the busiest time of the year for the training center.
The Olympic Training Center isn't just for Olympians, who might find playing space - or beds - filled by youths aiming for the 2012 Games, or beyond, rather than Beijing in 2008.
Shouldn't top teams receive first dibs? They do, under a system that allows Olympians and world teams to reserve spots up to a year in advance. National teams receive six months.
But USA Wrestling was forced to rent gym space from Colorado Springs Christian School after a World Cup event was moved, resulting in a conflict. By the time it requested space, it was given to the women's U-18 World Championship qualifying tournament.
Basketball didn't ask until April, a few weeks after the OTC committed to national and junior national volleyball camps.
"It's unfortunate and a little bit unusual," said Mike English, managing director of Olympic training centers. "We really make extra effort to try to build the process so things like this don't happen."
Summer occupancy rates hover at about 90percent in the 491-bed facility, compared with an annual rate of 72percent.
Training centers are the U.S. Olympic Committee's biggest expense, accounting for $22.9 million of the $116.7 million budget in 2005.
The center is one of three nationwide - Lake Placid, N.Y. and Chula Vista, Calif. are the others - that house, feed and provide training facilities for Olympic hopefuls and athletes further down the Olympic pipeline.
The facilities are central to a long-running debate at the USOC - with many Olympians training on their own or with clubs, are training centers worth the expense?
"There is no debate within our board or within our staff that we wish to get out of the training-center business," said Jim Scherr, USOC chief executive and one-time training-center resident during his Olympic wrestling career two decades ago. "We are looking and will continue to look for ways to make our centers more efficient."
The USOC has gotten more open-minded when it comes to where its athletes train. The organization has designated training sites in various cities and funded athletes who choose to work out at universities and private facilities.
Short-track speedskater Apolo Ohno, who won five medals in two Olympics, has been the most prominent athlete in residence here. But he's the exception among approximately 10,000 athletes who will use the training center in 2006.
"We're seeing more and more use of the training center in general," English said. "We're seeing worldwide trends on centralized training."
Wrestling will pay as much as $3,000 to hold its world team trials off-site. The training center would have been free.
Lots of people still don't know women's wrestling, which made its Olympic debut in 2004, is an Olympic sport, said Sally Roberts, national champion. A low-profile world team trials doesn't help.
"When we have it at a high school it's kind of a bummer deal," Roberts said. "At the same time, we'll take what we can get and make the best of it."
USA U-20 basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie has a similar take.
"It's not going to mess up our preparation in any way," she said. "Yes, we'd like to be there, but we're not disappointed we're not there. We'll take whatever we can."
USA Wrestling's Mitch Hull isn't complaining about the extra expense. The OTC will provide meal passes for wrestlers to eat at the center's popular cafeteria, and will help out with transportation and set-up.
"You have to recognize they can't take care of everybody all the time," Hull said. "We certainly use that training center extensively. When there are times it doesn't work exactly the way you want, you work with them."
Training centers provide little revenue if any, English said. But that's not the point.
"That's not the primary reason we have the training center. It's to train athletes."