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Wildcats' wrestling slamming stereotypes

MIKE STELLA
Sports Writer 2001

OCALA — One girl grew up with it. One girl switched from the manager of the boys team to a participant on the girls team. A third girl likes the physical aspect of the sport.

These three Forest High School students — Holly Peters, Jennifer Campbell and Jessy Kennedy — are members of the Wildcats' girls wrestling team.

Girls wrestling? Don't be so surprised.

"I think these are a special breed of girls," Forest's assistant boys coach Allen Hisey said. "Not every girl could do it. Just because they are special doesn't make them weird. We even have one girl on here who is a junior varsity cheerleader.

"So the femininity remains. They are just women that you don't want to mess with," Hisey added. "And they use that avenue to — not so much be like guys — but express that aggressiveness in a healthy way."

These girls fit that mold — especially Peters. The sophomore, who runs track, cross country and has even been a cheerleader, has been around wrestling her whole life.

Her father, Scott Peters, is head coach of the boys team.

Last year, she and a group of 10 other girls wanted to wrestle. Due to the response, the administration supported the formation of a girls team.

"I love it," Peters said about wrestling. "And it gets you in the best shape of your whole entire life."

This is the first season wrestling for Kennedy, a sophomore. She knew a couple of girls last season who wrestled and thought it would be fun to try.

"I like to be real athletic," Kennedy said. "It just seemed like something I would be interested to do ... I like the physical and mental aspect of it. It's a mental sport too. You have to be aware of what's going on."

The girls used to practice opposite the guys — the girls at night and the boys during the afternoon. But now they wrestle in the same room and sometimes wrestle each other.

"I wrestle guys every day," Kennedy said. "I think it makes you a stronger wrestler. I don't think it is weird. It's just practice."

Kennedy said the students around school are getting used to the idea of female wrestlers and now think it is cool.

"They joke around and stuff," Kennedy said about some of the boys around school. "They think it should be some big, bulky girl and then they see us. They are kind of like 'whoa.'"

Campbell agreed with Kennedy.

"I think if somebody looked at our team altogether, they would never guess that we were a bunch of wrestlers. We're all pretty girls, I guess you could say ... Most of us have our nails painted and all that."

Campbell, the manager of the boys team last year, wanted to jump into the action.

"I got addicted to it," Campbell said.

Campbell, a senior, originally started in the sport to strengthen her back after she had injured it.

"As I went along, I decided it was definitely for me," Campbell said. "I like whooping up on other guys."

"It's real unique," Hisey added. "It's not real popular (yet). The girls that do wrestle, for the most part, have only had the opportunity to do so on boys teams."

Across the state, there are approximately 15-20 girls teams, and only one in Marion County. The popularity of girls wrestling has grown nationwide over the past couple of years.

In a 1998-99 survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations, there were 661 schools with girls wrestling teams and 2,361 girls overall participating on those teams.

In a 1999-2000 survey, the number grew to 734 schools and 2,474 girls nationwide — and that doesn't include girls that are still wrestling on boys teams.

"This is a big move forward to start a girls wrestling program," boys Forest head coach Scott Peters said. "There are a lot of fears out there to have girls working out in the same wrestling room."

But the Wildcats boys team don't have a problem with the girls team.

"The guys on the team are totally for the girls wrestling team," Hisey said. "It is a mutualistic relationship. They both feed off of each other."

"I think it's great," said senior Ryan Clark, who is the 189-pound wrestler for the varsity boys team. "I like working with them. They are great motivators. It's real good to have them along with our program."

It did take some getting used to last year for girls to be in the wrestling room.

"When I first found out that they were coming out, it was definitely different," Clark said. "There was definitely some adjusting that had to be done. I was just glad to have them out and that we had something we could offer them."

How do the parents feel about their girls wrestling? Lisa Kennedy, Jessy's mother and special education teacher at Forest High School doesn't mind at all.

In fact, she likes it so much, she is an assistant coach for the girls team.

"In the beginning, I was a little leery of it," said Lisa Kennedy about her daughter wrestling. "Being in the boys room and doing a lot of wrestling with them, then you start to really wonder if I should have second-guessed that. But she really likes it and I like it too."

Before Jessy wrestled, she danced for 11 years in the Marion County Ballet Company.

"We've gone from a unitard to a singlet," Lisa Kennedy said. "I like the sport. I like the discipline. I like the leadership. I like the whole team aspect."

As for Jessy's father, Lisa said "he was not happy at all in the beginning. She pretty much had to beg him. I had to do some convincing also."

The girls are in action Saturday at the state meet in Oviedo. Last season, the Wildcats (5-1 this season) placed second in the state.

"I think it will be close for first (place) this year," said Peters, who is 6-3 this season and has a 15-4 career record. "I think our team has the mentality and the strength to pull it together and win."

The one obstacle the girls face is out of the 11 girls on the team, they are bunched up into five weight classes. There are 10 weight classes in the tournament, which will make scoring team points tough.

"We have the horsepower and the talent to win state," girls head coach Chris Scaglione said.

Individually, Peters was injury defaulted last year, but she has her sights set on a title.

Campbell finished second at 119 pounds last season. She is fighting an injured knee this season and is only 2-1, but hopes to go out a champion.

"I haven't had a lot of mat time, being out," Campbell said. "But I'm going to try my hardest and I'd like to go away from Forest wrestling by winning states."

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Girls' wrestling debate resurfaces as regular season begins

By Brandon Bartell
iHigh.com Student Correspondent

As many of us return to the mats this winter season and we look around at our teammates whose pain, happiness and often blood we will share, we notice something different. Throughout the room there are many girls.

This has been a huge debate in schools across the state as to the ethics and morality of a girl wrestling on a boys team. In my school alone, there have been some class periods where nothing more than this very subject has been discussed, though the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association has decided the legality of it for us. It is not the strengths nor weaknesses of girls that is really causing the controversy over girls wrestling. It is that throughout our lives, we have been taught the fundamental basics on appropriate and inappropriate touching. "This is where it is OK or not OK to touch." From birth these things have been drilled into our minds. Now, put girls on a wrestling mat with boys, and what is to be done? Many wrestling moves don't fall into the area of what we have been taught is appropriate touching.

Are we to say that under certain conditions it is OK to touch wherever necessary, but in others it is not? Are there now exceptions to the rule? Can we tell children that it is wrong to touch a girl somewhere during class, but as soon as school gets out and they step into the wrestling room, social standards stay outside the door? Imagine the confusion for the younger generation of wrestlers. Another point that makes one stop and think is the question of whether or not the social impact is all right on the boys. Socially, if they win a match, they lose; if they lose the match, they lose. In other words, if they lose they just got "beat by a girl" and will be made fun of indefinitely. If they win, they are no better off; they just "beat up" a girl. What happens to the wrestler whose morals forbid this type of behavior? They must forfeit.

This all leads to another point we have also been taught: it is wrong to hit girls. Once again, does this stop the second they enter the wrestling room? Many would say that wrestling isn't hitting, but those people must have never seen a cross face. Others would argue that in our great country, we have a thing called assumption of risk. If they want to get hit, let them. But that is not the point. What about the guys who are morally opposed to it? Punish them by giving them a loss?

I am writing not to condone or promote this issue. This is being written to give voice to some issues that are of concern to many. Maybe it will even help bring rise to such questions and the push for an all-girls wrestling team will receive momentum. I am not so ignorant as to believe that it is a simple black and white issue; I just challenge people to think about it for themselves and not say, "If WIAA says it is all right, then it must be." If hitting girls is advancement in the issue of equal rights, then I do not want to be a part of it.

Note: iHigh.com Student Correspondent Brandon Bartell, senior, is a varsity wrestler at Eastmont High School in East Wenatchee, WA. Bartell was the 1999 wrestling champion in the 178-pound division, as well as an academic state champion the same year.

So what do you think? Should girls be allowed to wrestle with guys or does that send a mixed message? Send us your comments!

Read what others have to say about this issue:
"I think if girls want to wrestle, then they are going to have to put up with the touching in those areas because I know a lot of the moves are in the upper body in the chest area. I don't think it should be co-ed, but if there was a girls team there probably wouldn't be enough to do it. I know of a kid that had to wrestle a female last year and she was complaining about where his hands were during moves. I think it just comes with the sport of wrestling and if girls can't deal with it then they shouldn't be doing it."
--Patrick, Indiana


"I just don't get this big fuss about coed this and coed that. If girls want to do what boys do or vice versa, let them. They're perfectly capable. The only thing is don't make a big fuss or complain about it - the boys OR the girls. The rules of the sport aren't going to change because a member of a different sex comes in."
--Sandy Hokanson

"I have asked the question about girls wrestling in my mind over and over. At my school many girls have tried to wrestle, but all but one quit before the end of the season. I am all for equal rights, but girls should not be allowed to wrestle guys. If they want to wrestle, then make a girl wrestling team. It is an unfair advantage for a guy to wrestle a girl because of muscle, but it is also unfair for a guy to be scared where to put his hands. In the end, wrestling is a losing proposition for both sides."
--Nick Zuccarello

"I wrestled for two years and supported the team for another two in my high school career. Personally I think coed wrestling is a bad idea. I once wrestled a girl that wanted to try out for the team. The whole time I had to watch wear I placed my hands, not only that but I didn't want to hurt her. In wrestling we get broken everything. From fingers, ankles and up to legs. My sophomore year I blew a kid's knee out. I don't know how I would take it if I knew I crippled a girl."
--Marcus Galindo

"If there are not enough girls choosing to wrestle to form a girls' team, then the girls have the right afforded to them by Title IX to wrestle on the boys' team. There is nothing wrong with the contact on the mat. It is a sport, not a sex act. Is it sexual for boys to touch each other while wrestling? My daughter wrestled varsity all four years of high school and has been on the USA National Team ever since. The competition with the boys helped her become more competitive on the women's circuit."
--Gail S. Wolfe, DVM

"I think that it is cool that girls are being allowed to wrestle now, but girls also have to understand that guys may be touching them in what may be considered inappropriate ways off the wrestling mat, and guys need to understand that they only get to touch the girls in this manner because of the nature of the sport."
--Dean Kinzer

"Here is the bottom line. All our lives, those of us who have been raised to be gentlemen have been taught that it is wrong to assault a woman in any way. We have been raised to nurture our natural inborn instincts to protect the opposite sex. What I'm getting at is that wrestling is, by all definitions, a violent sport where two people grapple, slam, dominate and spill blood with each other, all in an attempt to get the count. In order for boys to effectively wrestle girls, a coach would have to 'teach' his young men to deny what comes naturally and basically attack a young lady with the same zeal he would attack a young man. But the lack of comfort that a boy may feel when in the ring with a girl is not chauvinistic, nor patronizing. Put simply, it is natural. Do we really want to start teaching young men to ignore that?"
--Beau Sizemore

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Girls are taking to the wrestling mats

By SETH ROWE - TeenStar
Date: 07/06/00

Richmond French teacher Susan Rose was curious. A referee was signaling that a Richmond Spartan had just won the wrestling match, but she didn't recognize this wrestler. Watching the wrestler take off the headgear, Rose was startled to find out that the winner was a girl.

"I had no idea it was Ashley," Rose said. "I just thought that it was a very little boy. I thought it was so exciting to see this little tiny Spartan win."

This "little tiny Spartan" was Ashley Harrison, who already has two wrestling seasons behind her as she goes into her sophomore year. She started practicing in eighth grade with the all-male high school team.

"I've wanted to wrestle ever since I was real little," she said. "I like the hard work and the fact that it's a tough sport."

Harrison is part of a growing trend. Seven years ago, only 94 girl wrestlers were reported to the National Federation of State High School Associations. In the 1998-1999 season, there were 2,300 female competitors. In some high schools and colleges, teams composed entirely of females have been organized.

But not all schools allow girls to wrestle. Although a 1972 law called Title IX requires public high schools to offer equivalent sporting opportunities to both sexes, schools are not required to allow girls to participate in contact sports like football or wrestling. Even if a school does allow girls to participate in wrestling, there is no guarantee they will compete.

But Harrison made the team and went on to win about half her matches.

"My teammates and friends and coaches and parents are all cheering for me, and that really helps," she said.

Harrison is one of a handful of girls taught by Richmond's head wrestling coach Don Schreimann. Tonya Evinger, his most successful pupil, became an All-American, joined the U.S. wrestling team and hopes to wrestle in the 2004 Olympics -- the first year for women's wrestling.

Schreimann conducted an informational wrestling meeting for the Richmond community earlier this year and pointed out then that women's wrestling in Europe is just as big as men's. He predicted that women's wrestling in America will rival Europe's in 15 years.

"It's a great thing!" he proclaimed, to the audience's enthusiastic applause. "We can't stop it."

Some coaches, though, are not as enthusiastic.

Randy Lowe, head wrestling coach at Bonner Springs High School, said he would let a girl wrestle because of changing public sentiment. But he would make sure she knew what she was getting herself into.

"It's OK when they're young, but at the high school level they have disadvantages," Lowe said. "Most girls are not as strong as guys; that's the simple truth."

Schreimann admitted that girls must rely on leg strength more than arm strength. However, he said he thinks much of the controversy simply comes from people not being used to seeing girls wrestle.

"Once they've seen them, it's not a problem," he said. "There is a controversy until a girl beats a boy."

So what about the boy who gets beat?

"I wouldn't want to wrestle a girl," said Brock Peterson, a junior at Bonner Springs. "If I got beat by one, I would feel like a (wimp)."

On the other hand, some wrestlers might feel inclined to let a girl win.

"It's an unfair feeling because men get stronger, faster and are more intense sometimes," said Richmond freshman Ryan White. "You don't put all your strength into it because you don't want to hurt them."

Junior Jimmy Vogel of Bonner Springs had a different viewpoint.

"When I was younger I did feel uncomfortable," he said. "You get taught not to beat up on girls, then you're expected to beat them on the mat. Now it's different. If they want to wrestle in a male-dominated sport, then they should expect to be treated like a guy."

Harrison agreed with Vogel's sentiment.

"I don't think of myself as a `girl' when I wrestle," she said. "It's sometimes awkward and there are probably some guys that are bothered, but others might be OK with it."

Harrison doesn't let critics bother her.

"There are probably a few people who don't agree with it, but who cares what they think?"

-- To reach Seth Rose, who will be a freshman at Northwestern College, send e-mail to srowe@kansascity.com.

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Ledford's Blake blazes trail as female wrestler

By Will Sullivan 1/18/2001

High Point Enterprise

Some are in her heart and some are in her head. Some are neatly typed on a folded white slip of paper and some are scribbled on the back. Wherever Christi Blake goes, she carries the cherished bible verses and the inspirational quotes of celebrated authors with her.

Every little bit helps when you’re the first female wrestler in Ledford High School history.

“It’s been tough,” Blake said during a break in a recent practice. “But I’ve grown a lot since I’ve been on the team. It takes a lot of self-discipline and self-control to be a wrestler. This has helped strengthen my faith.”

It’s been more than enough to test the junior’s faith. Blake, who competes in the 103-pound class, has met with obstacle after obstacle since breaking into the male-dominated sport Dec. 18. Her coach discouraged her participation. Many of her teammates didn’t want anything to do with a girl wrestler. Some still don’t.

That’s made the going rough for this Panther pioneer, forced to spend most of her time wrestling for respect.

“Some of the guys refuse to wrestle me and I respect that,” said Blake, who became interested in the sport partly because her father, George Blake, was a high school wrestler at High Point Andrews. “I’m a girl, but I consider myself one of the guys.”

As one of the guys, Blake is subjected to the same rigorous drills as the rest of the team. Her initial workout with the team is one she won’t soon forget.

“My first day we had three laps around the track, 25 bleachers (running up and down the football bleachers), two more laps around the track, came back here, did up-downs, push-ups, sit-ups,” said Blake, looking exhausted just from recounting the practice. “Someone told me that was the hardest day they’ve had all season.”

All last season – and the first part of this one – Blake served as a wrestlerette for the Panthers. Her duties were to clean the mats, keep score and videotape the matches. Little did she know she’d soon be appearing in one of those matches.

Blake may have stayed behind the camera if Ledford hadn’t been in such dire straits at the sport’s lightest weight class.

“One of the coaches told me that they tried to recruit some guys at 103,” Blake said. “Out of 15 guys, only one of them came for the first week. They ended up saying it just wasn’t for them. But I’ve stuck with it. I’m still here.”

Blake parlayed her persistence into a spot with the Panthers.

“I’ve discouraged girls from joining the team in the past,” said Ledford coach David Reed, who was concerned about the possibility of an injury and the distraction a female could have on his team. “But she kept asking and asking, so we finally gave her a chance.”

Blake knows she has not won her coach’s full confidence yet.

“The first day (of practice), Coach Reed was like ‘Well, how did you like your first day?’” Blake said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I like, I love it, I want some more of it.’ I don’t know if he liked my comment or not. He’s not 100 percent for it. But he’s come around some. (Assistant) coach (Chris) Watford has helped me. He’s backed me up from the beginning. He said, ‘I want to see you make history.’”

After joining the team a week before Christmas, Blake made her historical varsity debut last Tuesday as Ledford traveled to North Stanly. It lasted all of 19 seconds.

“We locked up and I got slammed,” Blake said. “My back was sore for a couple of days.”

She lost the match, but Blake gained some much-needed support from her hard-to-please teammates.

“She was slammed pretty hard, and she came back,” said senior 112-pounder Nick Paul. “A lot of people wouldn’t come back after that.”

Blake did, and two days later played a key role in the Panthers’ upset victory at Salisbury, then the fifth-ranked 2A team in the state. Blake made weight at 103, and recorded a forfeit win in the Panthers’ narrow 42-36 triumph. Her six points turned out to be the difference in the match.

“Nobody expects her to win, but the forfeit she got against Salisbury won the match for us,” Paul said. “I give her credit for trying. She’s working hard every day. She really wants to do it and she’s trying to get better.”

Paul admits he wasn’t thrilled about the idea of having a female on the team.

“At first, I wasn’t too happy about it,” he said. “But I respect her for wanting to do it. She hasn’t complained and she’s been blending in with everyone else and working as hard as everybody else.”

But Paul, who admits he won’t wrestle Blake in practice, isn’t sold on the notion of females competing in a traditionally all-male sport.

“I think it’s good to get girls started in sports like this,” Paul said. “Somebody had to start it. I believe it will bring girls into other sports and get them involved. But I don’t really agree with a girl being on a guys’ team because they could get hurt and their bodies are made different. If there was a girls’ wrestling team, I’d say go for it.”

The trail-blazing Blake said she hopes her involvement will one day lead to that.

“Others girls have said they wanted to wrestle,” she said, “but I’m the only one right now. Hopefully, it will open the doors for other girls later. I would like to see an all-girls wrestling team.”

For now, though, just trying to be one of the guys will have to do.

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Lock Haven female junior wrestler No. 1 in country

By Dustin Dopirak
For the Collegian 12/28/2000

All-Americans, NCAA qualifiers and a horde of other talented major college wrestlers matched up on the mats Sunday.

Ironically, however, the most memorable of all of the matches was a first round bout between a relatively unknown and a wrestler ranked first in the nation, which the top ranked grappler won easily in a 10-4 decision. Doesn't sound too interesting? Well, maybe this will help, that top-ranked wrestler was female.

Sara McMann, a junior at Lock Haven, is the No. 1 wrestler in the country at the women's 138-pound weight class. She can't actually wrestle for Lock Haven, because she receives a monthly stipend from USA Wrestling, and is considered a professional athlete. She does train with the men, however, and she travels with the Bald Eagles to a number of open meets, and along with fellow female wrestler Jennifer Wong, she wrestles unattached.

On occasion she pulls one out against the men as she did Sunday in that 10-4 decision over Lehigh's Anthony Shave, in which she nearly registered a pin.

"I didn't really expect to win one today," she said. "I'm more excited about this win than I have been in a while. It's actually more exciting than winning women's meets, because I'm used to winning those, and it doesn't feel as good to beat someone you're used to beating.

"It feels a lot better when I surprise myself by winning."

Though she was surprised to get a win at a college meet, McMann is definitely used to beating the men. She began her wrestling career at McDowell High School in Marion, North Carolina. Despite having to deal with the conservative ideals of the South, the snickering at meets, and one woman in the stands actually saying:

"She should be cooking for those boys instead of wrestling them," McMann let her deep love for the sport drive her forward. She defeated a man for the first time in her freshman year at an open tournament. The boy was also in his first year of the sport, and was deeply upset by the loss.

"I just went over and told him that he did good," she said. "I know how bad first-year wrestlers get it in the first place, and losing to a girl would just make it a lot worse. That's the type of thing that can make a kid quit, and I just hoped he'd learn from it and realize that losing is part of wrestling."

By her junior year, she had broken the starting lineup, and in her senior year she actually had a winning record, earning the respect of the fans and her male teammates.

"It was a little disheartening that people weren't open-minded at first," she said. "But after a while, people just realized that I really must love the sport to be out there. My teammates started looking at me like any other teammate, and as a contributor to the team."

McMann went to the University of Minnesota-Morris, where there is a women's wrestling program, for her first year of college, but didn't like the training she was getting. She placed a call to Lock Haven coach Carl Poff, whose camp she had attended a number of years earlier, and Poff was glad to have her in the wrestling room.

"What she's done in getting to the top of her weight class is such a tribute to her desire and work ethic," Poff said. "She's willing to do absolutely anything to get better. She's really made this work. The guys see how hard she works, and they've accepted her as part of the team."

McMann's day ended shortly after her victory. Penn State's own Scott Moore, who would win the 133 pound weight class, pinned her just 1:10 into their match, and in the wrestleback, she was eliminated by Navy's Jason Humbstead, who pinned her in 1:59. Though Moore never really had any trouble with her, her strength and desire impressed him.

"She's stronger than a lot of guys I've wrestled," Moore said. "She fought off her back pretty well."

"I knew not to take her lightly because she's been in a lot of other tournaments we've wrestled in. It just says a lot about how hard she works and how much guts she has for her to come out and wrestle."

Though McMann says she originally came out for wrestling with a sense of rebellion, her point is not to make a revolution in wrestling.

"I don't go out there trying to prove that women can wrestle," she said. "There was never a doubt in my mind about that. If no women ever wrestled after me, it wouldn't matter to me.

"I just do it because it's what I love to do."

PHOTO: Bethany Boarts Lock Haven’s Sara McMann attempts to escape Penn State’s Scott Moore Sunday in the Penn State Open at Rec Hall. This was Moore’s second match of the day and he won the match by fall.

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Winside assistant coach comfortable being a woman in a “Guys” sport

By MICHAEL J. CARNES
NWI E-Publisher\

LINCOLN — One of the most-covered stories of this year's Nebraska State High School Wrestling Championships has been the efforts of the first female wrestler to make it to "Bob's House."

Elaine Blessen of Malcolm finished fourth in her district and qualified for the Class D, 103-pound portion of the tournament. Her stay was brief, as she lost a pair of matches to bow out of the tournament.

Blessen may have been the first female wrestler, but she wasn't the first female on the mats.

Rachelle Rogers is in her third year as an assistant coach to Paul Sok at Winside High School. Rogers has wrestling in her blood, going back to her father's days as an assistant coach in Iowa and the fact that she babysat Dan Gable's daughter as a youngster. Rogers said Sok approached her four years ago to see if she would help drive JV wrestlers to tournaments. A year later, Sok promoted her to an assistant's position.

"The year after I started, he asked if I would want to be an assistant coach because of the wrestling I had in my background," she said. "I felt pretty comfortable with going into the wrestling room, since I was a manager in high school."

Rogers said she experienced some unusual looks early on, but she says she's comfortable with her role and has reached a level of acceptance with the Winside wrestling faithful.

"I was a female in a male-dominated sport, and I was a little leery about it at first," she said. "But it's gone really well and the community has really accepted me and supported me."

Rogers said she caught Blessen's match Friday with Andy Lundstrom of Amherst, who pinned Blessen in the third period.

"I noticed she chose up and got the legs in on him right away," she said. "She's definitely legitimate and it's obvious she likes to wrestle."

Rogers said she understands the apprehension with having a girl compete in a sport dominated by boys. But in Nebraska, there is no other choice for the girl who wants to wrestle.

"Until there's enough interest where you can have a girls wrestling team, this is her only opportunity," she said. "A lot of things have changed in the way people look at things, and these kids are just out there to compete."

Rogers said Winside had a girl come out for the football team, and she said a potential girl wrestler would likely be welcomed if one presented herself at Winside.

"The guys on the football team were just fine with her and didn't harrass her," she said. "I don't think the wrestlers would be tickled pink at first, but if there was a girl who wanted to go out and stuck with it, they'd accept her."

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Jessica Pulaski proves girls can wrestle, too

Nikki Rinderknecht/Record Sports Writer

Wrestling: It's not just for males anymore, and Jessica Pulaski is proving it, one match at a time.

Pulaski, who was on the Coyotes wrestling team as a freshman and a sophomore, has grappled against guys and done fairly well. She's wrestled against girls and done even better.

Pulaski, a 16-year-old junior at Roswell High School, has won back-to-back titles in the two years that New Mexico has had a girls state wrestling tournament.

Now, she is preparing to wrestle in national tournaments.

Pulaski was invited to attend the U.S. Girls High School National Championships this Saturday and Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich. The double-elimination tournament, for girls in grades 7-12, was expected to draw more than 200 entries.

"She really wants to go," said Pulaski's mom, Kathy Vega. "But we just got the invitation not too long ago, so we'll have to see if we can get everything ready in time."

Pulaski is definitely planning on going to the girls national tournament in Kansas this June. Rusty Davidson, who coaches and officiates wrestling in Albuquerque, will be taking several girls from New Mexico, said Vega.

"We've already gotten some sponsorships for that one," said Vega. "The businesses around Roswell have been very supportive."

And they're not the only ones. Fortunately for Pulaski, she's received an overwhelming amount of support from just about everyone.

It all began with her older brother, Pete Pulaski.

"Our family has always been big on wrestling," said Pete, who wrestled at Roswell High for five years. "I used to always pick on her at home. We'd wrestle around, and I noticed she started learning the moves. Once in a while, after my practices, she'd go in and wrestle some of the guys - and she'd beat some of them... We were joking around one day about her joining the team, and then we thought, 'Why not?'."

Jessica was comforted by the fact that she wouldn't be alone.

"At the time, there was another girl out there, so I decided to give it a try," she said. "But the other girl quit shortly thereafter. I was scared to be the only girl at first, but coach (Billy Gallagher) helped me through it all. If he wasn't there for me, I probably would've quit."

Pulaski said Gallagher never had a problem with coaching a girl. Of course, the more burning question is, did the guys have a problem with wrestling a girl?

According to Pulaski, her teammates never did.