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Growth of wrestling explodes for girls Many predicting separate programs
Monday, February 05, 2001
By BOB MIGRA
PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
Kip Flanik said he already knew how far girls wrestling had come. A remark by a coach in a recent tournament at Keystone High only solidified his opinion.
"Two years ago, I remember asking an opposing coach to have his wrestler take it easy on one of my girls," said Flanik, who coached several girls when he was coach of the East Tech boys team before that program folded.
"Before the last match, I had a coach come up to me and ask me if I could ask my girl to take it easy on his [boy] wrestler," Flanik said.
Flanik's girl was Toccara Montgomery, a senior at East Tech who is riding on the crest of what appears to be an unstoppable wave.
Montgomery is one of the nation's top amateur girl wrestlers, but she does not wrestle in varsity tournaments or matches because her school does not have a team. The relaxed rules of the Keystone junior varsity round-robin allowed her to compete in a tournament setting.
Montgomery, wrestling at 145 pounds, went 5-0 with four pins against the junior varsity boys.
Flanik said he has no doubt Montgomery would fare well against varsity boys as well. But Montgomery, and many girls like her across the country, have a dream beyond filling spots on boys teams.
They foresee girls wrestling becoming a separate sport, anticipating the day when they can compete on their own high school, college and Olympic teams.
"Once enough girls start coming out, they’ll give girls their own teams and leagues," Montgomery said. "I don’t think it’ll take too long."
Flanik is a volunteer assistant coach with the Cleveland Heights boys team and the director of USA Wrestling’s women’s program in Ohio. He said he also believes girls high school wrestling is inevitable.
Flanik cited the following examples of the sport’s growth:
Hawaii and Texas already have girls high school wrestling.
Three colleges - Morris College in Minnesota, Missouri Valley College in Missouri and Cumberland College in Kentucky - have women’s wrestling teams and offer scholarships.
The number of girls competing on boys high school teams nationally has grown from 112 in the 1989-1990 season to 2,475 last season.
A girls national high school tournament in Michigan has grown from less than 100 contestants to 400 in three years.
"If the growth in the sport continues, there will be no choice," Flanik said. "The states will have to have women’s wrestling programs."
Flanik said girls amateur wrestling is growing even faster.
"Five years ago, there were maybe 300 girls wrestling [in amateur programs]," Flanik said. "Now, there’s 5,000."
For now, at least in high school, girls will have to be content with spots on the boys teams. Bill Roll, the president of the Ohio High School Wrestling Association, said no one has ever approached his organization or the Ohio High School Athletic Association with a proposal for girls wrestling.
But Flanik said it is probably just a matter of time before some Ohio schools become pioneers in the sport.
In the meantime, Keystone’s Heather Martin said she has no problem wrestling against boys. But there are some issues that are hard to get around.
"I don’t like to put a guy on the spot," Martin said. "Boys are taught not to touch girls, then you have to go out [in a wrestling match] and beat up on her. I don’t like to force guys to wrestle, but right now, you have to deal with what you’ve got."
Keystone wrestler Chris Burrer said some boys would rather forfeit a match than wrestle against a girl. The issue of improper touching can be a difficult one to deal with.
"I just try to think that it’s like any other match," he said. "You have to go out and wrestle like it’s a guy or you’ll get in trouble. When you’re in a match, you don’t think about it. But after the match, you think, Wow, what was I thinking?’"
Flanik said none of those issues would be a problem if girls had their own wrestling teams.
"It’s a no-win situation for the guys," Flanik said. "I don’t think having girls wrestling guys is good for either side of the sport. We’re a little behind some other countries in that respect. It was a real eye-opener to go up to Canada, where they have a girls team for every boys team in high school and in college."
Martin, a runner-up at 142 pounds in last summer’s Cadet National Championships, recently made history when she and Oberlin’s Laura Burns wrestled in the first all-girls high school varsity match in Lorain County. Martin won the match by pin.
Martin, like Montgomery, said one of her goals is to wrestle in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. There has been no decision on whether female wrestling will be included, either as a medal sport or as an exhibition sport.
"That’s what we’re all waiting to hear," Montgomery said. "I get goosebumps just thinking about being there."
Even though she is just in her third year of wrestling, Montgomery has shown the ability to be on that first U.S. Olympic team if it happens.
Montgomery won the U.S. Junior National Championship in the 149.75-pound weight class last June and was named the outstanding wrestler in the tournament. She is the youngest member of the women’s senior national team.
Montgomery works out with the Cleveland Heights boys team. Tigers assistant coach David Range was a state champion in 1986 before he went on to wrestle at Ohio State. Range said he has no doubts that Montgomery will achieve great things.
"She’s an awesome wrestler," Range said. "I’m still real sore from working out with her the last few days. With a lot of the guys, I can coach them while I’m wrestling with them. But with her, I have to wrestle the whole time or I’ll end up on my head."
Which sounds a lot like what the girls have planned for the wrestling world.
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Healdsburg's Dietz scores girls state wrestling title
February 4, 2001
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A wrestler from Healdsburg High nailed down the school's first individual state title on Saturday at the girls state wrestling tournament at Vallejo High.
But the winner wasn't Kelly Rogers, one of the favorites at 104 pounds. Instead, the gold medal went to the Greyhound's 127-pounder Liz Dietz, who went 2-0 during the first sanctioned state meet for girls.
Dietz dominated her weight class, recording two pins en route to the title. She won the championship bout with a pin 44 seconds into the match.
"I wouldn't say it's a surprise -- she has never lost to a girl and had a winning junior varsity record against boys last season," said Healdsburg coach Scott Weidemier. "With the hard work she's put in, this is spectacular. It's a great accomplishment for her."
Two Empire wrestlers brought home bronze medals from the meet with their third-place finishes. Casa Grande's Adriana Cervantes took third at 119 pounds with her 3-1 record during the day and Rhianna Wilson (2-1) was third in the 131-pound division. Wilson lost her semifinal match to the eventual state champion.
Rogers did medal in the tourney, picking up fifth place at 104 pounds. She was 3-2 during the day, with both losses (2-0 and 5-0) coming to the eventual third-place finisher. Sara Grumsley of Rancho Cotate also participated in the tourney and placed seventh.
More than 115 female wrestlers from around the state participated in the tournament.
"All of the girls entered in this tournament were serious," Weidemier said. "There were no slouches."
At Oakland, Montgomery tuned up for its match on Wednesday at Ukiah which will decide the NBL dual meet championship by placing third at the Oakland Winter Classic.
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ROGERS STATES HER CASE FOUR FROM EMPIRE TO COMPETE IN INAUGURAL
ALL GIRLS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Feb 2, 2001; ERICK STUDENICKA THE
PRESS DEMOCRAT;
No wrestler from Healdsburg High has ever pinned down a state
championship.
But that long drought could end this weekend when Greyhound wrestler Kelly
Rogers goes for the 104-pound title on Saturday in the first-ever Girls
California State Wrestling Championships at Vallejo High School.
"I like the physical contact of wrestling," says the 15-year-old, who has
gone 9-10 against male competition this season. "It feels nice when you
throw someone and hear the `thump' on the mat."
Rogers is one of several Redwood Empire girls participating in the
tournament that will crown champions in 14 weight divisions. It begins at
9:30 a.m. According to tournament director Mike Minahen, the other local
girls registered in the tournament are Casa Grande's Adriana Cervantes (119
pounds), Montgomery's Rhianna Wilson (131 pounds) and Rogers' teammate Liz
Dietz of Healdsburg (127 pounds). Athletes may enter as late as Saturday
morning in the open tournament.
Based on Rogers' success as the Greyhounds' varsity 103-pounder, the
diminutive sophomore figures to be the most competitive of the Sonoma County
athletes.
"Kelly should do well," said Healdsburg coach Scott Weidemier. "She has
several years of experience, which is more than most girls. There will be
some tough programs with some tough gals there, though, so it's hard to tell
exactly how she will do."
Kelly is the daughter of Healdsburg Wrestling Club coach Wayne Rogers.She
first wrestled as a fifth grader against her younger brother Andrew, now 12,
mainly because she didn't want to sit around getting bored during her
father's training sessions with his wrestling club.
Rogers became hooked on the sport during those practices and now plans to
wrestle throughout high school.
"I love it -- having fun and rolling around the mat," said Rogers, who has
never faced a girl in a high school dual meet or tournament.
Weidemier said Rogers' has more wrestling knowledge and experience than most
wrestlers her age, boys included.
"Her biggest disadvantage is simply strength, but she makes up for that with
determination and skill," Weidemier said.
Rogers does not expect an easy time on Saturday.
"There will be some tough, skilled wrestlers there, especially one girl I've
seen from Vallejo," said Rogers, who also is one of the region's top
distance runners after her third-place finish in the state meet in November.
"I really don't have a lot of expectations but I'd like to medal, she said.
"I'm not doing it to make any history or set any records. I just want to go
out with no expectations, have fun and get some mat time in."
Although a state title would be an important accomplishment, Rogers said the
Sonoma County League tournament is more important.
"I've been setting my goal to do well at league and make it on to NCS,"
Rogers said. "Even though this is for state, it's a little different because
they're not that many girls. Wrestling against the boys is harder."
Healdsburg's other entrant in the state tournament, Dietz, should be
competitive in the 127-pound division. Dietz, 16, has been on the Greyhound
squad for three years and has a 9-10 record in junior varsity matches (0-1
varsity) this season.
Montgomery's Wilson has also done well in junior varsity competition,
compiling a 7-1 record this season.