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Girls and boys wrestle with idea of bringing fairness to co-ed team

By Katy Finley/Amp Staff Writer

It's been almost 30 years since the federal government gave us Title IX of the Education Act.

And we're still trying to figure out how to make it work.

The 1972 law said, in part, "No person shall...on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance."

Title IX made it possible for girls to participate in sports--including nine girls at Edison Middle School in Janesville, who are on the "boys" wrestling team.

Emily Gudeyon said she joined the team because she "liked the sport and wanted to try something new." Even though the school's assignment notebook lists wrestling as a boys' sport, she said, she'd heard of girls being allowed to participate.

Mallory Slaback said she joined the team because she thought it would be a challenge to see if she could do it.

Samantha Seales joined simply because she thought it would be fun--although she said her classmates have accused her of grabbing the chance to be with the guys.

The three girls, each 14 and from Janesville, are the only eighth-grade girls on the seventh- and eighth-grade team. Six seventh-grade girls also wrestle for Edison. About two dozen more girls tried out for the team but didn't make it past the first tournament.

"We have about 70 wrestlers on the team," said Edison coach Bob Krause. "All of them are of flesh and bone. The muscle we care most about is the heart."

Gudeyon said the coaches push the girls just as hard as they push the guys.

The coaches don't let you off the hook because you are a girl, but they don't push you harder either," Seales said. "We are the same as the boys."

Or are they? Do the girls have any advantages or disadvantages because of their sex?

Addison Bohannon, 14, of Janesville, said he thinks it is good the girls are doing a new sport and one that's not traditionally female. But, he added, the girls have advantages because "a male wrestler has to watch not to put his hands in any untouchable areas or hurt the girl."

Aaron Thompson, 14, of Janesville, agreed.

"I had to wrestle a girl," he said, "and I had to make sure I didn't hurt her."

Gudeyon said some guys that she wrestled at a scrimmage went easy on her so that she didn't get injured.

Seales had the opposite experience.

"Most guys went harder on me because they didn't want to lose to a girl," she said.

Slaback said some of the boys she wrestled were tough on her because they thought she should be able to "take it like a guy."

Travis Tyrer, 14, of Janesville, pointed out that it is probably just as uncomfortable for the girl to be wrestling guys as it is for the guys to wrestle a girl.

Other males on the team, however, said girls don't have advantages or disadvantages.

"I think it's kind of up to the guy whether or not he chooses to go easy on the girl," said Sean Casey-Schmidt, 13, of Janesville.

Jordan Forster, 13, of Janesville, said everyone on the team learns the same moves.

"How a wrestler chooses to use those moves is their decision," Forster said.

The boys on the team have mixed feelings about wrestling a female.

Casey-Schmidt, who is also a member of the Janesville Youth Wrestling Club, has wrestled members of the opposite sex and was OK with it.

Bohannon said it is inappropriate.

"I wouldn't want to touch them in bad places. Also, I was brought up being taught that you don't hit girls," he said.

Tyrer said he probably wouldn't be comfortable wrestling a girl, but it's OK if both wrestlers agreed and were mature about it.

For their part, both Gudeyon and Seales said it was more comfortable for them to wrestle boys than it was to wrestle girls.

And if the boys don't want to wrestle girls?

"If a school refuses to provide a wrestler, or if the wrestler refuses to compete against a girl, the school forfeits that match and the girl is declared a winner," Coach Krause said.

Is that fair?

Casey-Schmidt said it is because "it doesn't give the girls a chance to wrestle if a guy refuses."

If the boy didn't wrestle, then he didn't deserve to win, Forster said.

Forfeiting the match is fair, Tyrer said, because the boys joined knowing that they'd have to wrestle everyone.

Andrew Hamilton, 13, of Janesville, disagreed.

"Seeing as not everyone is comfortable wrestling someone of the opposite sex, it's not fair that the boy has to throw the match," Hamilton.

Hamilton and Tyrer both said the idea of boys and girls wrestling together is kind of weird. Thompson and Bohannon said there should be a separate women's wrestling team.

"I think it's a possibility that there may be a girls team in the Beloit-Janesville area someday at the middle school level," Coach Krause said. "It's a matter of sufficient interest.

"In my 19 years at Edison, I've coached one girl and that was about 15 years ago. For some reason there is more interest this year than in past years. If current interest is sustained and continues to show significant growth at other conference middle schools as well, having a girls team is something to be considered."

Should sports be co-ed and have boys and girls teams compete against each other?

Thompson said people play better when they compete against members of the same sex.

"I think it's better that sports aren't co-ed," said Tyrer, "because people don't feel pressured or uncomfortable."

Sports should be co-ed so that people can be in different sports that aren't traditionally male or female, Slaback said. Gudeyon agreed.

There are differences in the bodies of males and females that may make co-ed sports somewhat difficult--not impossible, just difficult. "The Complete Book of Running for Women," by Claire Kowalchik, cites these examples:

--On average, men are bigger and stronger than women, exceeding women in upper body strength by 40 percent to 50 percent and in lower body strength by 20 percent to 35 percent. This is because men have greater muscle mass than women.

If you were to isolate a woman's muscle tissue and a man's, they would be equal in strength. Think of a tug-of-war match. If you have one person tugging against five people of equal strength, the loner probably will be overpowered.

--Men have a higher proportion of muscle to fat than women do. The muscle does all of the work, and the fat is just along for the ride. In running, for example, the fat in women's bodies tends to slow them down.

--Women have looser joints and are generally more flexible than their male counterparts.

These factors may cancel each other out and make male and female competition equivalent. Who knows?

Even though the boys and girls don't agree on whether girls should be on the wrestling team, they all said having females wrestle benefits the team. With more people competing, there is a greater chance for the team to bag a tournament win.

For any girl who is interested in going out for wrestling, Gudeyon advised: "Winners never quit and quitters never win. Just stick with it."

Seales agreed.

"Never quit because you don't know what you could have done."

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La Femme:Taylor brings home the hardware

By Ed Greif
Chronicle sports editor

Cumberland County junior wrestler Jessica Taylor earned a national
championship in the AAU La Femme National Championships last weekend at
Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett High School.

Taylor won two gold medals - freestyle (118 pounds) and folkstyle (110
pounds) - and a silver medal in Greco-Roman (118 pounds).

"I couldn't have gotten as far as I did without the help of my coaches,"
said Taylor, who competed against 42 girls from Tennessee, Michigan,
Illinois and North Carolina.

"She has never wrestled in Greco-Roman before," said CCHS Coach Ron Cook.
"Jessica didn't want anyone to know about the championship. I had to beg her
to tell her mother. She has always been humble."

The junior heads to Michigan this weekend to compete in the United States
Girls Wrestling Association (USGWA) meet seeking another championship in the
high school division.

Taylor, who has wrestled since seventh grade, was the first female to
qualify for the state tournament as a junior and only the second female in
Tennessee history to compete in the state tournament.

She was Cumberland County's Most Improved Wrestler in 2000-'01, and earned a
varsity letter for the second straight year.

Taylor has posted a 26-20 career record with 12 pins for CCHS, and had a
fourth place finish in the region.
"Jessica has high goals and works hard for them," added Cook.

"I want to be region champion in 2001-'02, be the first female to place in
the state tournament and get a college scholarship," said Taylor. "My
ultimate goal is to be a member of the Olympic team in 2004. I want to come
back after college and start a girls wrestling team here. I want to be a
psychologist."

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11 Jet wrestlers grappling for state championships

By Ed Greif
Chronicle sports editor

The Cumberland County Jets wrestling team has 11 wrestlers competing in the
state tournament now under way through Saturday at the University of
Tennessee-Chattanooga, after competing in the Region 3 Tournament last
weekend at Cleveland High School.

"The most we ever had (to qualify) was eight," said Coach Ron Cook Tuesday
afternoon. "We are in company of some of the elite. Every top team in the
state will be there. We have 11 strong wrestlers in this tournament. They
have earned their stripes. We are going to surprise some people in this
tournament."

"Only about 12 other teams in the state qualified 11 or more wrestlers.
There are over 100 teams across the state," added Assistant Coach Brian
Parker.

Matt Armstrong (140), Jeremiah Wightman (152), Jake Boswell (215) and Jeremy
Foust (275) earned second-place finishes in their respective weight
divisions to qualify, while Jessica Taylor (103), John York (119), Dustin
Snow (125), Wes Hassler (130) and James Kimbrell (145) earned fourth-place
finishes to qualify for the state.

Qualifying with third-place finishes were Jim Donnelly (160) and Jimmy Dale
(171).

"Jessica is the first female to qualify for the state as a junior and the
second female to qualify in Tennessee history," said Parker.

"I am looking forward to it. I want to do my best and win my matches," said
Taylor, who started wrestling during eighth grade.

According to Cook, there will be "32 of the best wrestlers in every weight
division. There are no easy matches."

In every group of eight wrestlers, there are two number-one seeds, two
number twos, two number threes and two number fours, selected by a blind
draw.

"You could wrestle anyone from one of the other seven regions," Cook added.
"In each weight class, all four brackets are supposed to be equal. Past
tournament medal winners are automatically seeded."

A 5-0 mark earns a championship; however, if a wrestler loses one match, a
person could have to wrestle up to nine matches to earn third place.

If someone loses the first match, he must wait to see if that opponent wins
two more matches to continue in the competition.

Competition opened with the round of 32 (matches 1-224) Thursday afternoon,
with the round of 16, round of eight and consolation bouts (matches 225-392
and matches 421-476) beginning at 9 a.m. today.

The semi-finals (matches 393-420) and consolation bouts (477-560) are
tonight at 6.
Saturday at 9 a.m. are the consolations, third-, fourth-, fifth- and
sixth-place matches (matches 561-616) with the championship round at 3 p.m.
(matches 617-630).

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Pool Pairings and First Round Matches for Dave Schultz Memorial Wrestling Tournament

5/10/01
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling

WOMEN

46 kg/101.25 lbs.
Pool 1
1. Julie Gonzales (USA)
2. Miriam Jenkins (USA)
3. Audrey Carrasco (USA)

Round One
Julie Gonzales (USA) vs. Miriam Jenkins (USA)
Audrey Carrasco (USA), bye

51 kg/112.25 lbs.
Pool 1
1. Anne Whipple (USA)
2. Sandra Szendrey (USA)
3. Jenny Wong (USA)
4. Ida Hellstrom (Sweden)
5. Therese Ris (Sweden)

Round One
Anne Whipple (USA) vs. Sandra Szendrey (USA)
Jenny Wong (USA) vs. Ida Hellstrom (Sweden)
Therese Ris (Sweden), bye

56 kg/123.25 lbs.
Pool 1
1. Jamie Alvesteffer (USA)
2. Cheryl Wong (USA)
3. Erin Tomeo (USA)
4. Ida-Therese Karlsson (Sweden)

Round One
Jamie Alvesteffer (USA) vs. Cheryl Wong (USA)
Erin Tomeo (USA) vs. Ida-Therese Karlsson (Sweden)

62 kg/136.5 lbs.
Pool 1
1. Lisa Bethke (USA)
2. Lotta Andersson (Sweden)
3. Sara McMann (USA)
Pool 2
4. Sara Eriksson (Sweden)
5. K. Hyatt (USA)
6. Tori Adams (USA)

Round One
Lisa Bethke (USA) vs. Lotta Andersson (Sweden)
Sara McMann (USA), bye
Sara Eriksson (Sweden) vs. K. Hyatt (USA)
Tori Adams (USA), bye

68 kg/149.75 lbs.
Pool 1
1. Sandra Bacher (USA)

Champion - Sandra Bacher (USA)

75 kg/165.25 lbs.
Pool 1
1. Iris Smith (USA)
2. Cecelia Alenius (Sweden)

Gold-medal finals
Iris Smith (USA) vs. Cecelia Alenius (Sweden)