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Johnston can hold her own in the world of wrestling
By Tom Shanahan
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 11, 2001
As Crawford High's Myloan Banh won a match en route to her title in the Mt. Carmel girls wrestling tournament, her coach shouted instructions.
"Inside control! . . . Lift and drive! . . . Drive the elbow!"
Banh's coach, a Crawford assistant, boasts a résumé that includes silver and bronze medals from the World Championships and four USA Wrestling national titles.
Quincey Clark, the 2000 Olympian from Lincoln?
No.
Stephen Neal, the 1999 heavyweight world champion from San Diego High?
No.
Afsoon Johnston is her name, and USA Wrestling officials believe she is only the nation's second woman high school assistant coach, instructing boys on the team as well as girls.
"It's been great, but I'm still learning about coaching," said Johnston, 28, in her first season. "I found out you can know all the techniques, but coaching is also teaching heart and motivation."
In some matches, Johnston found herself opposite the first woman assistant, Shannon Yancey. As Shannon Williams, the former high school cheerleader won four silver medals in World Championships and four national titles.
Yancey, 29, brought 22 girls from Thousand Oaks to join a field of 16 teams and 85 girls. Only 20 girls entered in 1999 when Mt. Carmel coach Jose Campo started the event.
Johnston, who has founded a San Diego girls freestyle wrestling club, coached her three Crawford girls as well as six University City girls.
"Here we are, old women, and we're coaching all these girls," Johnston said. "I never imagined when I started (competing) 10 years ago it would be this big. It's something that will keep growing."
USA Wrestling officials are following girls wrestling's growth. Women's wrestling may become an Olympic sport in 2004. There is also the hope women's wrestling at the college level could be a means to prevent more cuts to men's wrestling programs for gender equity reasons.
"This is what it's going to take -- more girl wrestlers moving into coaching," said Campo, who presented Johnston with a "Coaches Award" at the tournament. "Let's give girls more opportunities instead of cutting men's sports."
Not all male coaches have Campo's enlightened view, though.
There was grumbling from some male coaches that the girls matches were making the boys freshman tournament that Campo was running concurrently last too long into the night. Campo said next year he will find a separate date for the girls event.
"It's going to take time," Johnston said. "When I started competing 10 years ago, nine out of 10 men were against it. Now it's maybe only one out of 10. It's going to happen. We just have to wait for the older, conservative coaches to retire and be replaced by younger coaches."
But today's attitudes aren't as bad as they were before girls had a chance to compete against girls, which is what they want.
There's one infamous story from the mid-1990s when a North County male coach didn't shake the hand of a girl who defeated his boy wrestler (it's customary in wrestling that both athletes shake the opposing coach's hand after a match). The crowd booed the offending coach, and women working the concession stand refused to sell him a cup of coffee.
But attitudes change. Since the dawn of Title IX, most girls sports were resisted in some fashion by men. By the 2000 Olympics, Mia Hamm and the U.S. women's soccer team and Marion Jones in women's track had become more popular and marketable than their male counterparts.
Crawford coach Trevor Keifer, whose team won the Harbor League title, said he hired Johnston for her knowledge and as a role model for boys and girls on campus. Crawford is a school with a wide array of ethnicities.
"Kids see what she's doing for us, and they can realize the doors aren't shut to anybody," Keifer said.
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MAT MADNESS!
ANDREW SMITH, CALGARY SUN
February 14, 2001
They're off and rasslin'.
Jack James high school was filled to the brim yesterday with the city's
best young wrestlers, who are hitting the mat at the 2001 Calgary High
School Wrestling Championships.
While the winners will be crowned this afternoon, the meet is an important
one as the top-five boys and top-four girls in each weight category move on
to represent Calgary at next week's provincial championships, an event that
becomes tougher every year, says Jack James coach Tony Allen.
"The calibre outside of Calgary is really improving, especially the rural
communities like Pincher Creek and places north of Edmonton," said Allen.
"Calgary has won the provincial title for years, but now the rest of the
province is coming after us."
Allen says the popularity of the sport is growing because unlike some team
sports that require certain physical attributes, wrestling is designed for
athletes of the same size and shape.
"In wrestling, you wrestle against guys your own size," says Allen.
"It is not like you can't go on because you're too short or not heavy
enough."
Calgary is home to several of the province's top wrestlers, including
William Aberhart's Joe Bentley and Lester B. Pearson's Katelyn Braidberg.
A former provincial and reigning city champion, Braidberg is hoping a bout
with scarlett fever doesn't stand between her, the title and a chance at
provincial glory.
"I've dropped a lot of weight and have been perma-sick for so long," said
Braidberg, who slipped from 78 kg to 67 kg.
"And because of the change in weight class, I've had to change my
wrestling style and after six years, it is tough to change.
"In the new weight class, I don't know the competition,
"And then some girls who dropped out of my weight class see my name and go
'great, now you're here.' They don't like it, I guess."
The only wrestler representing Pearson, Braidberg travels daily to Jack
James to practise with Allen's team.
Although she's not concerned about qualifying for provincials, Braidberg
says she would like to see another gold medal hanging around her neck before
she says 'so long' to the high school scene.
The city championships wrap up today at 4 p.m. at Jack James.