News page
Ready to rumble
Why should men hold the monopoly on hard-hitting sports?
By Andrew Curry 2/11/2001
The cold, wind, and rain outside the Long Island field house were having little effect on New York Shark Missy Marmorale's enthusiasm. At 5 foot 4 and 140 pounds without her pads and helmet, the linebacker had other things on her mind as she got ready to take the field again after halftime: namely, the Miami Fury wide receiver limping out of the visitor's locker room.
"Which knee is she limping on?" Marmorale asked a teammate as they stood in the doorway, waiting to go back on the field. "Because that's the one I'm going for."
Marmorale and her teammates are some of the newest pro football players in America. The Women's Professional Football League, which finished its rocky inaugural season in Houston last month, is but one example of a growing trend: women playing "violent" sports once thought of as exclusively male–from football to ice hockey to boxing. "Women have explored sports that fit gender stereotypes, and a lot are asking 'why limit ourselves?' " says Thomas George, a kinesiology professor at the University of Michigan. As the number of women competing in sports grows across the board, spurred by heightened interest at the youth level and Title IX's promise of collegiate opportunities, even established sports for women are getting rougher. "This exploration and pushing the envelope is the natural evolution of women's participation in sport," says George.
While still relatively small, the recent increases in participation are dramatic. Women's ice hockey, which made its Olympic debut in 1998, had 6,336 women competing on high school, collegiate, and local teams in 1990. Today there are over 37,000. A decade ago, there were 132 girls wrestling in high school. Last year, there were 2,474–a jump that has led to a growing number of collegiate women's wrestling teams and the possibility that women will wrestle in the 2004 Olympics. Boxing, too, has seen a huge increase; there are 1,900 women registered with USA Boxing, representing the sport's fastest-growing segment. And women's rugby, which has been around since the early 1970s, has 11,200 women playing in collegiate and amateur clubs around the country.
Toughing it. Growing up near Allentown, Pa., Julie Boyle played soccer for most of her childhood, at one point playing on five different teams in a single year. By the time she got to the University of Colorado, however, she was sick of soccer. So Boyle joined the women's rugby team–and found a brand of punishment that brought her to a whole different level. "After a rugby game you feel so good–you sacrificed your body, sacrificed everything. It makes you feel completely different," says Boyle, now a junior and the rugby team's president. "Sometimes you walk around and feel tougher than everybody else because you play rugby. . . . As long as my body holds up, I'll be playing."
Women's rugby has long flown under the radar; rugby has never been a sport Americans fully embraced. But football, the quintessential American male sport, is a whole different ballgame. The number of girls playing at the high school level has actually decreased in the past few years, though the 658 girls who played high school football last year still represent a huge increase over the 114 playing in 1990. The few women still playing by college are relegated to placekicking, though even that level of participation has come under attack recently (box, Page 52).
But a lot of women just want their own games. "I'd sell my soul to play football, but I wouldn't want to compare myself to men," Marmorale says. "We don't want to be out there playing with the Jets." WPFL players and execs point to the tremendous physical difficulties women face when competing with men in a game where a 140-pound linebacker would be cleat-stamped roadkill even at the high school level. While wrestlers and boxers compete in rigidly defined weight categories, allowing more parity between genders, to play football, they say, women need a league of their own.
Hence the early turnout for the WPFL, whose headquarters gets hundreds of calls a week from women interested in trying out for the league. Attendance and interest have been high enough to attract new investors and expansion teams–though the "professional" designation is almost honorary. The first season, players were promised $100 a game plus travel costs (though low revenue meant that there was no pay this year), and a few games were canceled because players couldn't get enough time off from their day jobs to travel.
"My players fall into three categories–the first just love football, the second want to contribute to history and pave the way for more women getting into the sport, and the third category is there because they just want to hit something," says Sharks owner–and quarterback–Andra Douglas. "So many women have the same aggression and same desire to pound someone, they just aren't allowed to grow up that way."
The barriers begin early, when boys and girls are separated in many elementary school gym classes. Experts say segregation and playing different sports reinforce the idea that girls are weaker, when in reality girls and boys are capable of about the same levels of physical achievement until puberty. "They start out with the notion that boys their own age are stronger, when there really isn't any difference," says Colette Dowling, author of The Frailty Myth. "Girls grow up thinking that physical effort, for them, is futile."
Such socialization plays a large part in persuading women to stay out of contact sports. "You've got thousands of years of women not being able to participate in physical activities, and that's deeply ingrained in what people think women can do," George says. "If more girls grow up seeing sport as a viable way of living, they won't see those limits."
Barriers. The process is further hampered by the skeptical view many take toward women playing contact sports, most of whom are seen as oddities more than athletes. Women have been boxing for at least a century–women's boxing was a demonstration sport in the 1904 Olympics–but even today the public image of women in the ring remains closer to the bearded lady than to Rocky Marciano or Sonny Liston. "As a fighter, I have to overcome barriers that aren't there for a man who trains next to me in the gym," says amateur boxer Kina Elyassi of Bethesda, Md. "Society as a whole . . . is still somewhat leery of the concept."
But the socialization process works the other way, too. "It's very much a question of exposure, and that starts with the family," says Dowling. "A lot of fathers and brothers have been involved in pulling along daughters in the family. . . . There's definitely a kind of education process going on." Popular culture has also helped: Recent films like The Matrix; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and Charlie's Angels show violently physical women who are nonetheless fully feminine, and one of last year's most acclaimed indie hits was Girlfight, about an angry teenager who channels her energy into the boxing ring.
Despite the increasing acceptance, women entering competition find that pushing gender barriers can come at a high cost. Women competing in contact sports say they have their motivations questioned in a way male athletes never do. Katie Downing, now a wrestler at the University of Minnesota-Morris, had to struggle when she started wrestling in high school in Pendleton, Ind. "People didn't see me as just another wrestler. They wanted to know if I was there to hit on guys or get attention. Fathers would say, 'We didn't raise our sons to hurt girls,' and then there were guys who wanted to hurt me to show me the mat wasn't my place," she says. "But people found out really quickly that when I was on the mat it didn't matter."
For the hundred or so fans who braved the Long Island drizzle to watch the Sharks beat Miami 19-12, watching women play represented a welcome change from the hype and commercialization of men's pro football. For some, the game represented something more: opportunity. Standing in the bleachers with her mother, clutching a football to her chest, 12-year-old Christina Boykin was entranced by the action on the field. "I think it should be on television," she said softly. "When I turn 18 I want to play football."
---------------------------------------
Fulp-Allen, Day first girl wrestlers to claim crowns
February 07, 2001
By Richard Motroni
CORRESPONDENT
Over the past few years, both Sarah Fulp-Allen of Half Moon Bay and San Mateo's Helaina Day have built impressive high school wrestling careers.
Recently, these two standouts achieved a special milestone that few other female wrestlers will ever touch.
Competing in the first ever CIF sanctioned Girls State Tournament, Fulp-Allen captured the 104-pound championship and Day grabbed the 140-pound title, which gave both wrestlers the distinction of being the first girls California state champions in their weight classes.
The achievements capped off a tournament where 11 San Mateo county wrestlers placed within the top six.
Along with the state championship, Fulp-Allen was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler, which was in tribute to the way she dominated her opponents. Having won three matches, two by pin-fall, Fulp-Allen cruised to the championship match against Del Mar's Melissa Moore.
From the start, Fulp-Allen was in complete control, scoring four takedowns, a reversal and a near-fall for a convincing 12-4 victory.
Also placing for Half Moon Bay was Alisa Gammon taking third at 109 pounds and Brie Freeman (119) finishing sixth. Before entering the tournament, Day had compiled an impressive 15-4 record with all six losses against male competitors.
Undefeated against female wrestlers, Day retained that mark by dominating all four matches to claim the 140-pound championship. Day and Fulp-Allen are both ranked third nationally. Day's teammate, Nicole Williams, took an impressive second at 135 pounds and Lauren Yee (112) placed sixth. Burlingame was the county's highest-ranked team, finishing fourth overall.
Katie Isola was one win away from capturing the heavyweight division crown and took second. Elisa Tapia (121) and Adele Beaudreau (147) both placed third for the Bearcats, while Summer Bailey (125) finished fourth and Sarah McCune (132) took fifth.
-------------------------------------
Lady Vikings win international meet
By Chris Allen/Sports Editor 1/29/2001
The first Missouri Valley College Women's International Open on Saturday in Volney Ashford Gymnasium was a coming-out party for the second-year host team.
With champions in three of the six weight classes, the Lady Vikings dominated the team competition with 104 points - outdistancing the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club's 39 points and 22 points of Cumberland College (Ky.). Nine Valley wrestlers made it to the medal rounds.
"I think they performed well. They were definitely in better shape than any team there," remarked MVC assistant women's coach Angela Hesener, who had to fill in for head coach Kent Sherrow for much of the day. Sherrow had to leave early for Columbia, where wife Angie delivered a son, Avery.
Sherrow's other baby, the mat meet, provided just as much excitement - especially those watching the Orange and Purple's Clarissa Chun. The sophomore from Kapolei, Hawaii - ranked second in the USA Wrestling/TheMat.com poll - ripped through the 46-kilogram class with a pin, technical fall and decision to reach the finals. Chun - who avenged two previous losses to El Salvador's Ingrid Cuellar - stopped fourth-rated Julie Gonzalez of the Peninsula Grapplers during the championship match to earn the "outstanding wrestler" award.
"She usually doesn't get thrown and can get throws," Hesener described Chun's attributed. "Those help a lot because throws give you a lot of points."
One of the newcomers to Valley's squad, No. 1 junior Satrinina Vernon of Rodeo, California, had to go through the nation's second- and third-ranked wrestlers to win the 75 Kg gold medal. Vernon smashed junior teammate Dominique Smalley, 12-1, in pool play and then took a 3-2 decision over the Sunkist Kids' Iris Smith in the finals.
The championship contest at 68 Kg pitted a pair of Lady Vikings from California, fourth-ranked sophomore Melanie Macari of Fremont against No. 6 freshman Kaci Lyle of Eureka. Macari took a 7-2 lead before recording a fall.
The country's top two 62-kilogram contestants hooked up in the finals, with Sara McMann of the Sunkist Kids defending her No. 1 status with a 12-2 technical fall victory over MVC freshman Tonya Evinger of Bates City. Evinger had earlier eliminated another Viking, sophomore Tina Arnds, with a 12-5 semifinal decision. Arnds went on to beat Cumberland's Joy Warren for third place, 11-3.
Also taking third for Valley was sophomore Carrie Birge at 56 Kg. She scored a pin over sophomore teammate Cheryl New to do so. The top-ranked Tina Wilson of the Sunkist Kids controlled the weight class, beating fifth-rated Tela O'Donnell of the Alaska Wrestling Club in the finals, 6-2.
The Lady Vikings got a fourth-place showing from sophomore Shelley-Ann Tomita (51 Kg) and five fifth places: Smalley, sophomore Aimee McNab (56) and freshmen Sandra Padron (46), Marianne Vollmer (51), Tori Adams (62). It was a solid display considering that the meet, according to Hesener, "had most of the national team turning out."
"That made for tough competition and increased the level of quality of the tournament," she explained. "It was a good turnout; definitely what we hoped."
As was the start to the second semester for Missouri Valley, which will be back in action this weekend at the Manitoba Open in Winnepeg.
------------------------------------------