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Gassman Works For National Title

By Christopher B. Jenkins
Observer Staff Writer 4/6/2001

Growing up, Firen Gassman played with dolls, took gymnastics lessons and led cheers during Reston Youth Football games as a cheerleader.
But today, standing at 4-foot-5 with bright blond hair and a skinny 67-pound frame, Firen, an 11-year-old girl from Reston, has thrown away her pom-poms and set her sights on becoming a national champion wrestler.
On March 25 in Michigan, Firen finished in second place at the United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championships. Firen lost two of her six matches in Michigan and both losses came against the eventual champion, Emily Smith of Ohio. Emily narrowly defeated Firen 2-1 in the championship match.
"I wouldn't mind having her on my team in a couple of years," Bill Bono said with a smile. Bono is Firen's coach with the Loudoun County Matmen and head coach at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
More than 500 girls participated in the USGWA Nationals, including 10 girls in the elementary school 70-pound weight class. Firen was also among the 40 wrestlers in the Virginia girls state tournament, where she finished in first place in her division, and was awarded the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler award.
The only daughter of Duane Gassman and Jenni Brown-Gassman, Firen began wrestling after her older brother Kelby, 13, and younger brother Reid, 9, signed up for the Herndon Rattlers organization after the family moved to Viginia from Colorado in 1999. For the past two years, Firen has wrestled with the Rattlers and has been coached by Hop Campbell and Bruce Hall.
"She has a sound foundation," said Bono of Firen's wrestling ability. "Her previous coaches did a great job."
Firen didn't wrestle her first girl until the Virginia State Tournament. During the winter season, wrestling with the Herndon Rattlers, Firen defeated a majority of the boys she wrestled. She has faced boys who use dirty tactics to gain an advantage and heard fathers taunt her while on the mat, but Firen is able to keep her focus on the task at hand: beating her opponent.
This year, she finished in second place in the Northern Virginia youth wrestling tournament. Over her career, she's only faced one wrestler who refused to wrestle her, according to Jenni Brown-Gassman.
A fifth grade student at Herndon's Crossfield Elementary School, Firen has the desire, intensity, talent and, most importantly, the drive to become a national champion wrestler.
"She acts and feels like a winner," said Bono.
Firen and her brothers often wrestle in the house, showing each other moves and trying to improve. At practice Firen sits with her eyes opened wide looking to learn a new takedown or escape maneuver. Firen says her goal is to become a national champion.
"Everything you teach, she absorbs it like a sponge," said Hall, a former college wrestler. "What separates her from other athletes I've coached is that she's got the heart of a champion." Hall has been coaching youth sports since 1974.
"She has her own self-motivation and drive," said Duane Gassman, who also serves as a volunteer coach for the Herndon Rattlers and the Loudoun County Matmen.
Wrestling is a sport that has united the Gassman family. If you would have asked Duane Gassman five years ago if he thought he would have been coaching his three children on a wrestling team, he may have laughed at you.
But he says that as long as his kids display the desire and motivation to keep participating in the sport, he'll support them in any way possible.
Firen has proved to her mother that she has the toughness and strength to compete in sport dominated by the opposite sex.
Firen's mother, Jenni Brown-Grossman, a former diver at the University of Pittsburgh, said that her daughter actually wanted to play football or wrestle. The Gassmans allowed her to wrestle because they figured that she would at least compete against athletes her own size. Jenni Brown-Gassman is confident that her daughter can handle herself on the mat.
"I'm a wrestler, not a girl," said Firen, about being judged by her gender rather than her wrestling ability.
To help Firen gain more wrestling experience, she'll go to the Oklahoma State Wrestling Camp this summer and compete with the Matmen until July.

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Whittier girl wrestler sports winning mark

By Dave Dyer 2/7/2001
Eagle-Tribune Writer

HAVERHILL -- At 103 pounds, soft-spoken and well-mannered, Whittier Vo-Tech's Vanessa Clark hardly seems like a pioneer.

But Clark, a senior for the Wildcats, has broken new ground for girls wrestling this winter as a starter for the Wildcats.

There have been a number of female wrestlers at Whittier, and indeed throughout the area, in the last five years, but none like Clark. She is the first regular and valuable varsity contributor.

When the season started, there were undoubtedly many throughout the Commonwealth Conference who made light of Clark. But no longer.

Through last week, with just the Division 1 North sectional remaining, Clark sported a winning record of 13-11 that included an impressive nine pins. Among the wins were several that were pivotal for the Wildcats, who were 13-7 in dual meets and won the State Vocational title.

"In the state Voke meet, she had two points for advancement and two points for a pin, and we won by three points," said Whittier coach Rich Durkin. "And her win helped us beat Minuteman."

With surprising strength for her size and solid technique, Clark not only has a high percentage of pins, but she rarely gets pinned herself, a trait that further helps the team.

"If she does lose, she's very difficult to pin," said Whittier assistant coach Alex Valhouli. "She's definitely a force. I tell other coaches that I guarantee she'll outrun and outwork anyone. She's in tremendous shape."

As a member of the cross country and spring track teams, Clark distinguishes herself from some girl wrestlers by being in outstanding condition. She's also more focused.

"At first, we had girls who just wanted to be part of the team," said Durkin. "I wasn't as favorable to it (girls wrestling) then. But Vanessa and some of the girls now are not there to flirt with the boys. She's really into the sport."

Clark started wrestling as a sophomore on the suggestion of teammate Amber Feole. She couldn't be happier that she tried it.

"I loved it right away," said Clark. "I'm very serious about it. It's a fun sport and I look at it as a great challenge. When I pin someone, I feel great."

Of Clark's varsity opponents, only two have been girls. She pinned one of them and lost a close decision to the other, something that still bothers her.

"I was really upset when I lost that match," said Clark. "I felt I should have won.

"I prefer wrestling guys. They're better wrestlers and I feel more pressure if I wrestle a girl. Everyone says that I should win against a girl."

And what do Clark's friends and parents think of her wrestling?

"I don't think my friends like it," she said. "They don't understand why I do it.

"My mom is not surprised. I used to wrestle my little brothers all the time and beat up on them. She supports me."

If anyone doubted Clark's love of wrestling, they should consider her plans for the end of the season. She has committed to joining a girls club team in Brookline, and may join a new local AAU club being started by former Pentucket coach Sean Kiley.

"I was giving out fliers about the club and was surprised when she wanted one," said Durkin. "As a senior, I didn't think she'd be interested."

As for next year, her competitive days on the mat will probably be over. She plans on attending Northern Essex Community College, where she will run cross country.

If that's the case, she's already gained a lot from the sport.

"I think I proved I can do whatever I set out to do," said Clark. "Even though everyone said I'd get beat all the time, I showed that wasn't true. I think I'll look back and be really proud of what I did."

For that, all she has to do is think back to that State Vocational title.

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Just a Girl

For Amantha Hordagoda, being on the boy's varsity wrestling team is no big deal

By Daniel Hindin 4/14/2001

California Sun

Fremont High School wrestling coach Bobby Soto looks at 100-pound Amantha Hordagoda differently than the other wrestlers on the team.

He singles her out because of her enviable work ethic--Hordagoda hasn't missed a practice since last year. Soto calls her the most consistent wrestler on his team.

Other people may single Hordagoda out because she's the only girl on the varsity team, but Soto says he's seen many female wrestlers. To him, it's no big deal.

"It's less of a shocker these days," says Soto. "Ten years ago we might have jumped up and celebrated [if a girl won a match], but nowadays it's just like, 'Congratulations, you won.' It's not a huge hurdle any more."

Soto admits that some people do make a fuss when they see Hordagoda on the mat. Opponents get nervous because they're afraid of losing to a girl. The crowd worries that she'll get hurt. Even her teammates were wary at first, he says.

"It was striking for the guys on the team at first," Soto says. "But when they found out she was actually serious, they gained respect for her."

Hordagoda says she confronted a lot of hostility when she first decided to wrestle.

"Some people thought I just wanted to do it to be with boys," Hordagoda says. "They said, 'Oh, she just wants to roll around with them.' I thought that was crazy. I said, 'No, they hurt me.' "

When she tried to wrestle in eighth grade, there was another girl on the team. The coaches' logic dictated that the two girls wrestle against each other. However, the coaches overlooked the fact that Hordagoda, who weighed in at 90 pounds back then, but weighed 40 pounds less than the other girl. She ended up badly injured.

Another coach, at a summer camp, told her she was a disgrace to the sport, and that she didn't belong on the mat.

"It gets to you when you hear those things a lot," she says. "Sometimes I'm treated differently. Sometimes I feel out of place. Sometimes I feel like I want to go home. I say, 'What are you doing here with these people?' "

But anyone who talks to Hordagoda knows that's just a passing thought. Only a junior, Hordagoda has already started researching college-wrestling programs.

Of her experiences in wrestling, she says, "It's tough. You can't go in there half-hearted--you have to go all the way. You have to keep working for it."

Hordagoda's hard work has already earned her the rank of fourth among female wrestlers in California. She failed to make it to the Central Coast Section finals by just one point this year. However, Coach Soto says he likes the possibilities for next year. He says he's confident Hordagoda will really make a splash.

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Here's to you, Tucker

By Jim Whitaker 2/23/2001
Courier-Post Production Director

Some lives are allowed to touch so many for only such a brief time. It is perhaps those lives, in actual time lasting the least, that endure for us the most.

Jessica Tucker's was such a life.

Tucker ­ as my family and many others called our 17-year-old friend ­ died Tuesday after fighting illness for several months. And a great deal of this community is in grief.

It is so difficult to watch a friend die. How much more so it must be to watch a child or sister leave your life. My own tears Wednesday morning when my daughter told me of Tucker were for my daughter and my wife who knew Tucker much better than me. They were for Tucker's family, the many friends the senior held at Hannibal High School, the many people in this community who rallied behind the family with prayer for comfort, personal understanding for the pain and fund-raising for medical expenses.

Mourning someone like Tucker will be a very difficult time for the many people who loved her. Fondly remembering someone like Tucker will be as easy as it was to get a grin from her.

Tucker to me was the high school wrestler. Pound for pound, move for move, spirit for spirit, that young woman ­ the first female wrestler at HHS ­ stood as tall as any competitor on the floor, taller than most. In one match, she was trailing her opponent. He was physically taller with a longer reach and was keeping her from getting inside. We saw in her face what we thought was frustration brewing.Yet when the second period began, that frustration was solidified into pure resolve and ­ boom ­ she outright whupped him. There couldn't have been a more surprised look on that boy's face if his uniform had fallen down around his ankles.

Yet she didn't gloat. She shook hands and went about her business ... with a grin she looked like she was trying to keep to herself but was spilling over just a little. We saw from Tucker that night what it means to be a gracious winner and how much a sense of determination and courage plays in creating your own success.

Tucker to me was the exuberant delight. Ask her friends if Elvis shot JFK or if a certain ritual will be remembered with great joy and perhaps runs around the band room. They will tell you that Tucker enjoyed herself and others and others enjoyed her. It's no cliche, no exaggeration to claim that her presence brightened a room.

Tucker to me was the comedian who challenged concepts and emotions with intelligent wit. She was always humorous in what she said to me, yet in her humor there was a certain truth and wisdom rare in someone so young.

Tucker to me was the artist who delighted the kids at DARE dances with her guitar as they naturally gathered about her.

And Tucker to me was someone who challenged me in some of the things I would say that she failed to understand or disagreed with. She challenged me, though, with respect.

These things about Tucker I know even though most of what I know of her came by way of my daughter and my wife. Hers was such a personality that it was felt by many people through other people and it was felt for a long time after just moments of an encounter.

Each person must decide how much their life will touch someone else. Each person must decide how much his or her life touches someone else.

I can never pretend to comprehend why someone so alive, so vibrant apparently had to die so very young. I refuse to dwell on that question when it comes to Tucker.

I instead immerse myself in the knowledge that Tucker immensely enjoyed touching lives in positive, heartfelt ways. I mourn because what she may have been able to personally accomplish later in life is something we don't know. Yet we can allow her to touch our own lives even now by celebrating her life.

We can acknowledge the pain and suffering she endured. Yet we can embrace and let ourselves be inspired by the strength she demonstrated.

We can acknowledge the sadness surrounding this time. Yet we can remember and retain the humor Tucker used to surround herself and those around her.

We can participate in mourning for there is no loss that deserves it more. Yet we must celebrate Tucker's life because there are few others that deserve it more.

Remember the angel who wrestled with Jacob all night long in the Bible? He'd better watch out 'cause there's a new champ in town.

Here's to you, Tucker. God love you, kid. Many of us do.