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Ailene Voisin: This female collegian finds wrestling is a perfect match

Kierstin Hyatt sports medals from a Junior Miss pageant and the wrestling mat. Bee/Lezlie Sterling

(Published June 6, 2001)

While the issue festered over at UC Davis, El Camino High graduate Kierstin Hyatt -- Class of 2000 -- packed her belongings, bought a plane ticket and went away to college.
She went away to wrestle.

She left, mostly, because she had no choice, or because she had three choices: Missouri Valley College, Cumberland College (Ky.) and Minnesota-Morris, the only schools that offer women's wrestling teams, though Menlo College and Neosho Community College (Kan.) are introducing programs in the fall.

"I didn't even know you could get a scholarship until I heard it announced during a tournament two months before graduation," said Hyatt, 19, back home following her freshman year at Missouri Valley. "I felt so fortunate."

Girls/women's wrestling is one of those emerging sports that you've probably never heard of, though one-third of the nation's approximate 2,100 female wrestlers reside in California. According to the CIF, 752 girls competed in 2000-2001 -- against boys and girls -- virtually doubling the figures from 1997-98.

This relatively sudden swing has led to several developments, among them an increase in the number of statewide tournaments for girls; the gradual, if often grudging acceptance of female wrestling within athletic circles; and political pressure by those demanding inclusion at several institutions, including UC Davis.

Assemblywoman Helen Thomson, D-Davis, has submitted a proposal utilizing Missouri Valley and its 32-member squad as the prototype for a women's team at Davis -- and a solution to the protracted feud involving the removal of three women from the team roster and the impending dismissal of coach Mike Burch.

Hyatt, who grew up in Carmichael, is monitoring the Davis situation with renewed interest. She's been there. She knows the feeling. Her own background isn't unlike that of the three Aggies and other females who forced their way onto the mat.

She can't explain her motivation, other than her love of sport. Nor should she have to. "Kierstin was the type of soccer player who ran through people, not around them," says her father, Kevin, chuckling. "I tried to nudge her toward basketball, but she kept going back to wrestling."

Hyatt in many respects is your typical teen. Her blond hair is long and straight, and she has wide blue eyes and smooth, almost flawless features. She could be the conventional girl next door, and in fact has posters of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White on her bedroom doors. Even more revealing? To her family's great surprise, she entered Sacramento's Junior Miss pageant in 2000. And won.

But Kierstin has also been a rebel, and during what she calls her "punk phase" favored the following daily attire: Purple hair, 17 rings, seven necklaces, bracelets covering her arms, a dress, tights and combat boots.

Her parents rolled with it, rolled their eyes. She survived. And ultimately, Hyatt, who delights in the conflicting images of her youth, liked herself best in athletic tights.

She should. It fits.

Seated in the kitchen of her parents' house, the former prep All-American has the toned arms and legs of a finely tuned athlete. Though only 5-foot-4 and 123 pounds, she projects much taller, and definitely stronger. "People know me as TGW (The Girl Wrestler)," she says, laughing, "but just don't say I look like a cheerleader."

She wrinkles her nose.

She says it wasn't always fun.

Kierstin recalls days when she limped into the house, bruised and beaten, emotionally spent, times when her high school teammates were skeptical and opponents snickered and pointed. She absorbed a lot. She had a lot to learn. She still does.

"I had a pretty good year," she said. "I made it to the Junior National team and met Jory (her boyfriend). He's a wrestler, too, which is good. I don't think I could date someone who wasn't a wrestler. I don't think they'd understand."

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