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A girl among boys
At first, wrestling was strange to 17-year-old Erica Poe.

By ANDREA RANE and PARKER MICHELS-BOYCE

July 1, 2007 | 12:24 a.m. CST

A group of high school wrestlers with gym bags waits for the elevator in the fourth-floor lobby of MU’s Lathrop Hall.

As the doors open, “GIIRRLL!!” is all they can say when they see Erica Poe standing in the already crowded car. The doors close again before any more boys can squeeze in.

Poe, 17, has been wrestling for four years, and this is her second year attending the “Tiger Style” Wrestling Camp, which attracted more than 700 junior high and high school wrestlers from around the country. As the only female wrestler on her high school team, she’s had experience handling herself in these situations.

“Yeah, I deal with things like that a lot, but most of the time they are all pretty respectful,” Poe said. “Sometimes they follow me around and stare or just act normal.”

Since the introduction of Title IX, part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which was established to provide equal opportunities to men and women in sports, girls participating in predominantly male sports such as Poe are becoming more common.

Camp director and MU wrestling coach Brian Smith has seen a small but steady increase in the number of girls in his camps.

“Athletes get used to it. It’s part of the sport now,” he said. “Some of the girls are really good.”

As more girls join the sport, high schools in several states are working toward establishing separate teams. But it is a slow process.

The first time Poe tried wrestling was at Warsaw High School with the boys team. She recalls it being very different and confusing, but has grown to appreciate and enjoy its benefits.

“I like how it lets me get my anger out,” she said. “I always feel good after I wrestle and I always learn something new.”

Since she was 3, Poe has lived in Warsaw, Mo., with her grandmother, Ruth Kauffman.

“It bothered me a little when she told me she wanted to wrestle,” Kauffman said. “I said to her, ‘Why would someone as pretty as you want to wrestle boys?’”

Since seeing her granddaughter’s matches, Kauffman has become more comfortable with Poe wrestling. She feels it has given Poe a sense of discipline and is a constructive force in her life.

As a break from wrestling, Poe recently entered the Warsaw Jubilee Days beauty pageant. She got to showcase her sign-language talent and finished as second runner-up. She also participates in other sports and school activities, such as softball and the English Club.

Aside from her ponytail, eye shadow and bright shoes, Poe gets lost in the crowd on the wrestling mats.

“I like the reactions I get sometimes because I am girlie and people don’t expect me to be good,” Poe said. “But I also don’t like that — just because I am a girl, it does not mean I don’t like wrestling.”

Fifteen-year-old Jake Malcom, who attends East Side High School, has wrestled girls in competition.

“The way I see it, when they step on the mat, it’s just a wrestler and they want to beat you. … They didn’t step on the mat to have you go easy on them. They want to wrestle.”

The camp is divided into two one-week sessions, during which wrestlers learn and practice techniques for seven hours a day. For the first session of the camp, Erica Poe was the only female. She was joined by one other girl during the second week.

Smith and other members of the MU wrestling team and staff run the camp, including two-time NCAA national champion Ben Askren.

Poe has been a longtime fan of Askren, whom she got to sign her green-and-pink shoes.

“At school everyone knows I love him,” she said. “When I was nominated princess, we were asked who we would want to marry and I said him.”

At the wrestling camp, Poe intently watches the coaches’ demonstrations and practices new moves with fellow campers. After practice, Poe texts her friends on her pink Razr phone and hangs out with the boys in the residence hall.

“Camp has been really fun,” she said. “I have learned a lot of new stuff and met lots of people.”

Poe hopes to continue wrestling in college and is considering Missouri Valley College, one of five colleges in the country that has a women’s wrestling team.

The coach of that team, Carl Murphree, has noticed the lack of outlets for females entering the sport.

“I don’t see whole lot of support in the grassroots level,” he said. “The coach at Warsaw is very supportive, but girls elsewhere are getting buried and frustrated.”

Poe embraces the challenge and uses the opposition she encounters to fuel her.

“When people doubt me, I like to prove them wrong,” she said. “I take it out in my wrestling and they get it.”

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Former foster-care child ready to change system

Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 06/30/2007 03:06:45 AM PDT

NIETZSCHE SAID, "Whatever does not destroy me, makes me stronger."
Nobody embodies that maxim more than Lily Dorman-Colby of Berkeley. She was dealt a hand you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy -- in and out of foster homes since she was 12.

At one point she was in five different homes in just two years, and one of those foster "mothers" made Cruella De Vil look like Mary Poppins.

She forced Lily to make appointments to use the bathroom and refused to sign her tests to show that she'd seen them.

When Lily was 14 she persuaded the authorities to let her take care of herself. She wore hand-me-down clothes from her friends and learned to feed herself on only $100 a month.

Despite these obstacles, she graduated from Berkeley High in 2005 with a straight-A average and a perfect 800 on her math SAT. But she was much prouder of the 690 she got on the verbal section, because she's dyslexic.

She was also a star on the wrestling team and was named the sixth-best female wrestler in the country.

You'd think the other students would be jealous, but Lily is so sweet and down-to-earth, they just rooted for her instead. They elected her to represent them as the student member of the Berkeley School Board.

The adults on the board fell in love with her.

"State law forbade us from counting her vote," said board member Nancy Riddle. "But we had such respect for Lily's judgment, we listened very carefully to everything she said."

She got scholarship offers from the top schools in the country, including Harvard and Princeton. But she turned them down to go to Yale because the students there reminded her of her friends in Berkeley.
So how did she do it? Lily would say she had a lot of help along the way, including a loving woman named Zada Flowers, who runs a small church in East Oakland; a wise and generous foster mom named Melia Bosworth; and a kindly math teacher named Mr. Dozier, who offered to sign her tests when the bad foster mother wouldn't.

"Just call me Uncle Dozier," he said.

But the truth is that the person who rescued Lily was Lily herself. In fifth grade she was in danger of flunking out after missing 52 days of school. But during the summer she realized it was either sink or swim. So she decided to swim.

The next year she missed only two days and won an award for most improved student.

Now that she's finished her sophomore year at Yale, she's going to take a leave of absence for a year to help other youths in her situation. This summer, she's setting up a pilot project and writing a handbook to teach children in foster care how to apply to college. Only 3 percent of foster children ever go to college, and Lily intends to change that.

Then she'll return to Berkeley for a year to mentor disadvantaged students at Berkeley High. Only 600 of the 900 students in her high school class actually graduated, and she intends to change that, too.

She calls her foster-children project Children in Placement, under the aegis of an umbrella group called the City Wide Youth Coalition. If you'd like to help, tax-deductible donations can be sent to City Wide Youth Coalition, P.O. Box 354, New Haven, CT 06513. You can find out more by visiting http://www.cwyc.org.

Typically, Lily doesn't want any money for herself. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, she's one of those rare people whose own suffering has made them more sympathetic to the suffering of others.

The comparison is apt. Like FDR, she's a natural leader. After graduation, she intends to change the foster care system -- first in California and then throughout the county. And I wouldn't bet against her.

But the haunting question is: How many other Lilys are out there in foster care, falling through the cracks in the meantime?

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USA Wrestling notes 35th anniversary of Title IX with a look to the future

Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
06/30/2007

The ad-hoc Title IX Committee of USA Wrestling wishes to make special note of the 35th anniversary of Title IX, and encourages all involved in wrestling to become educated on this law, its enforcement and its affect on the sport.

On June 22, 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. According to the Office of Civil Rights website, Title IX prohibits discrimination based upon sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.

The Title IX legislation reads:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

This law is intended for all education programs, but has received considerable attention and application within college sports.

The committee applauds the original intent of Title IX and celebrates the growth in opportunity in sports for girls and women which have occurred during the last 35 years.

USA Wrestling is committed to expanding opportunities for girls and women to participate in wrestling, and continues to focus on developing programs for women on the youth, high school, college and international levels.

Although the NCAA has not recognized women’s wrestling as an emerging sport, USA Wrestling is actively working with colleges to develop more women’s varsity wrestling teams and club programs.

The committee also notes that over the last 35 years, college wrestling opportunities for men have decreased dramatically. It is estimated that there were approximately 750 college wrestling teams for men when the law was passed, to over 300 programs today. This dramatic loss of wrestling teams has been in spite of growth of wrestling on the youth and high school levels over time.

USA Wrestling is also aggressively working within the sport to assist efforts to entrench the current college wrestling programs and encourage the creation of new college wrestling teams for both men and women.

Throughout the history of Title IX, the federal government and the nation’s courts have developed enforcement regulations for the law. Currently, Title IX enforcement in college utilizes a three-part test, which includes 1. providing opportunities that are “substantially proportionate” to enrollment; 2. a “history and continuing practice of program expansion;” and 3. demonstration that the “interest and abilities” of the under-represented sex have been "fully and effectively accommodated."

The use of the first “prong” of the three-part test, proportionality, has been a reason that many colleges have decided to reduce opportunities for men’s sports in order to achieve a numerical ratio of athletes within their varsity sports programs.

The ‘unintended consequences’ of Title IX enforcement has affected opportunities in numerous sports besides wrestling, including swimming, track and field, gymnastics and many others.

To mark the 35th anniversary of this landmark legislation, the ad-hoc Title IX Committee encourages the entire wrestling community to learn more about this law and its enforcement. The committee also asks all involved in wrestling to work with USA Wrestling and other organizations to ensure that the future of all athletes, both women and men, are protected and nurtured.

USA Wrestling’s Board of Directors has approved an official position on Title IX, which is printed below:

Official USA Wrestling position concerning Title IX

CONSENSUS STATEMENT

As a national governing body of amateur sports, USA Wrestling is committed to equality for all to participate in athletics. We support Title IX, a law passed by Congress in 1972 to provide equal opportunity in educational programs. We believe that the positive benefits of athletic competition should be available to every person, regardless of gender. We strive to provide men and women athletes with the necessary resources, programs and support to achieve their dreams.

In this spirit of fairness, we oppose any and all interpretations and enforcement procedures that allow for the elimination of men’s athletic opportunities to achieve Title IX compliance. The elimination of men’s programs, as a method to reach a numerical quota, is wrong, and does nothing to develop sports opportunities for women or men. The original intent of Title IX was to provide athletic opportunities for all, not to deny opportunity from anybody.

CONSENSUS MISSION

As a national governing body of amateur sports, we are dedicated to preserve and promote opportunities for all to participate in athletics on the youth, high school, college and elite levels.

CONSENSUS GOALS

* To revise the current Title IX interpretation and enforcement, so all athletes receive fair opportunities to compete.
* To eliminate the use of quotas as a way to develop equal opportunity in sports.
* To protect and develop men’s and women’s Olympic sports programs on the college and high school level.
* To educate the public about the challenges faced by Olympic sports in colleges and high schools, and inform citizens how they can help affect change.
* To work directly with all sports facing similar challenges, in order to provide a more powerful and unified presence in the public forum.
* To publicize the positive values of Olympic sports in our society, and provide information about their powerful impact on America’s youth.
* To educate coaches in all Olympic sports, by developing administrative and public relations skills, to help strengthen and perpetuate the programs at their institutions.

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Title IX slowly changing sports

By Rachel George 6/24/07
rachel.george@starnewsonline.com

In a lunch line in a high school in Western New York seven years ago, that's where I learned about Title IX. No one was lecturing on the law in the cafeteria, but some green-frosted sugar cookies taught me anyway.

The football team was good then - undefeated in the regular season all four years I was there - but so was our field hockey team, on which I played defense. I stood behind the football team's defensive end as he received his cookie, with green frosting and his No. 68 iced in white, and realized what it meant to be a female athlete.

Our team had been as successful as the football team, winning our division too, but there were no sugar-filled thanks from the school for us.

Of course, this is not about the cookies. It is about a lesson I learned that day - when it comes to sports, boys and girls still aren't equal.

What Title IX has accomplished in 35 years, though, is nothing short of remarkable. Millions of women, myself included, are indebted to the law - one that was never intended to have such an effect on athletics.

Marcia Heady is one of those women who owes so much to Title IX. If girls had never taken to fields and courts, she could never have taken her position as athletic director at West Brunswick.

"I wouldn't be accepted at all if Title IX wouldn't have been in place," she said.

And you wouldn't be reading this if not for Title IX. The same change that gave Heady the opportunity to be an AD gave me the chance to be a sports reporter. Because of the law, women have slowly come to be accepted in the front office and the press box.

Girls playing today, ones who often don't know what the law is, are indebted to it, too.

Jamie Poling, who recently graduated from Trask after playing softball and volleyball there, can't imagine a world where sports would be off limits to her.

"I'd be competitive," she said, "but I wouldn't have anywhere to show it."

It is solely because of Title IX so many women have a chance to play. Many speculate whether this drastic change could have happened without it. In short, no.

Title IX has sparked a shift in our society, empowering girls who'd rather play soccer than with dolls. It's made sports deemed less ladylike, such as rugby and wrestling, more common. It has changed the goals to which girls can aspire to.

Title IX has put women in the game, and for that we are grateful.

But there's still more to be done. Greater acceptance doesn't mean we've reached the equity the law aims for.

Boys still have more than 1 million more opportunities to play sports in high school than girls do. In college, there are more than 60,000 more chances to play. Women's teams commonly receive less funding than men's teams, especially when football is thrown in the mix.

But this is not a boys-vs-girls thing. It's about providing for sons and daughters, about making the accomplishments of female athletes just as important as those of their male counterparts.

Title IX is complicated and vague. Many people, including ones in power, don't understand the law, and its misuse has led to cuts for men's sports. In many ways, it has created a battle between men's and women's sports over who gets money, facilities, uniforms and, often, who has a right to play.

None of that was Title IX's intent. It aims to correct past discrimination, to create a world in which sport is just as available to women as men. We're not there yet, but as Title IX embarks on its next 35 years, I hope that will change.

Maybe by the time Title IX turns 70, there will be cookies for all.