News Page

Dear Fellow Wrestler,

I wanted to follow up with you on your email, and bring you
up-to-date on the newly released wrestling movie: the film called
"Reversal." It's a love story between a father and a son; a true
story based around a father who is his son's coach. The father trains
his son in the sport of wrestling from the time the son is 7 years
old until he is 17. Finally his son becomes a state wrestling champion.
This film has touched anyone who has ever a sacrificed in any sport,
or for something they loved; any father who has a son, and mothers, universally.
Coach Jack Spates of the University of Oklahoma flew out to our
opening and loved the film. In fact, it touched him so deeply he cried.
Kurt Angle, WWF star and Olympic gold medalist, calls this film a
"must see," and says, "It makes you want to hug your dad." If you go
to our Web site you can see our new trailer featuring Kurt and
others' reactions to the opening of the film.
Myron Cope, the legendary "Voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers," gives
the film "two thumbs up."
What's also interesting is that we deliberately chose to find
charismatic "unknowns" to play the principle roles. Six of the
principle actors in our film went to the state championship in
Pennsylvania. One of them won outstanding wrestler for the year, and
was ranked number one in the United States at 119 pounds.
Hollywood studios and distributors admittedly feel we have a good
film with a strong story and a lot of heart. But because there is no
violence, buildings getting blown up, car chases or sex scenes, they
don't feel it will sell to the American people. Can you believe that!
In the meetings I have with them, they assure me that a movie with
positive values won't sell.
They are also telling me that there is no market for wrestling. That
no one cares about the sport. That no one's interested in the life of
a boy from a small town, whose working class father pushes him -- out
of love -- to be the best. So that the son can get a college
scholarship through the sport, which means sacrifices, starving, hard
work, tenacity and motivation.
Well I think they're wrong! And so far the American people who have
seen the film agree.Because wrestling is a fraternity and you are part of that
brotherhood, we need to have you become part of promoting this film.
Please go to the Web site and read the reviews from the first theater
the movie was shown at in Pennsylvania. Not only did we break a box
office record -- we did it 3 weeks in a row! But before you go to the
site let me tell you how you can help.
We want to continue rolling the film in theaters across the world. In
every city and town there are several theaters -- many of them
showing the same movie on several screens in the same complex for
weeks at a time. We want to bring the film to your town! What you
need to do is contact your local theater and have them give us a
call. Better yet, go down to the theater and put the owner in a
guillotine and squeeze as hard as you can. (Just kidding!) If you
can't, then send your son in there to do it, until the theater owner
agrees to bring the film to your town.
Actually, from my end I will send the theater a print (copy of the
movie), and also advertise in the local area through newspapers,
schools, colleges and churches. With your help we'll pack the theater
and have a great time as well. I can also arrange to have some of the
best wrestlers in the nation fly in and make public appearances at
some of the cities -- including talking at local high schools and
churches. By the way, so far we have booked the film in several
theaters this way.
One of the other ways you can help is to spread the word to as many
people as you can that like films like "Rudy" and "Rocky" but with
wrestling as the backdrop. Give them our Web site so they can hear
what people are saying about this film.
Get the word out to friends, relatives, moms, dads, newsgroups, chat
rooms, people into sports, theater owners who use to wrestle or who
are business men now, people who play any sport for that matter,
former coaches, wrestlers, wrestling publications, etc. With your
help we can show Hollywood that the American people want to see a
heartfelt family sports film with good values. I know first-hand as
many of you do how wrestling shaped me as a youth to become
successful in many other things in my life as a grown man.
If you are interested and want to talk, shoot me an email at:
petulla@reversalthemovie.com
Better yet, give me a call. I'm in Malibu, California at (310) 780-0791.
But first check out our new Web site for reviews and our new trailer at:

http://www.reversalthemovie.com

Keep in mind that we want to do a theatrical run first to help
promote the sport of wrestling worldwide. After we hit as many cities
as we can we will be releasing a special-edition DVD and video. It
will feature not only the film but also interviews with several
Olympic gold medal winners. So far confirmed and on that list are Dan
Gable, Kurt Angle, Kendell Cross, Tommy Brands and Brandon Slay. They
will be talking about the movie and the similarities it has to the
truth of sacrificing for this wonderful sport. We will also send
anyone who ever won "States" a free-signed complimentary edition.
Okay, if you place I'll throw it in!

Warm regards,

Jimi PetullaWriter/Producer, Reversal

--------------------------------------------

'Game Face' authors in town;Photo essay offers portraits of women in athletics

Kansas City Star 11/14/2001

Think sports is big enough to belong to everyone? Both genders,
all ages, every race, any body type?
Then Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like? is a book
you should examine. It provides, in pictures and text, an eclectic
history of women and girls in athletics.
It's not just a book for your daughter. It's for anyone who has
felt the joy sports can bring, both from competing and watching
others compete. And anyone who believes sports can be a shared
experience among all cultures. Journalist Jane Gottesman wrote Game Face in
collaboration with
photographer Geoffrey Biddle. They will be at the Unity Temple on the
Plaza at 7:30 tonight for a book signing, sponsored by the Women's
Intersport Network for Kansas City.
Also present will be former Kansas basketball star and Olympian
Lynette Woodard, who is pictured in Game Face.
Many of the photographs in the Random House-published book have
been chosen for an exhibit that's been at the Smithsonian's Arts and
Industries Building in Washington, D.C., since June.
Starting next year, the exhibit will travel across the country,
including a stop in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games. Win For
KC hopes to bring it to Union Station in 2003.
Media outlets from USA Today to NBC's "Today Show" have done
features on the book and exhibit - an irony considering it was the
media's neglect of women in sports that prompted Gottesman to begin
the research that led to her project.
"People have asked me, 'Did you expect this to be so big?' "
said Gottesman, who secured sponsorship from MassMutual Financial
Group for the exhibit. "I did feel like there was definitely an
audience. There was a lot of discontent about coverage, a lot of
truths that were being subverted. I thought people are going torespond to this.
"I couldn't stay with newspapers, magazines or TV to do this.
The art world was the arena that really had its finger on the pulse
of society. But who would think it was so cutting-edge to show women
playing sports and having athletic abilities?"
Gottesman spent several years searching through and selecting the
book's photographs, some of which date back to the late 1800s.
The cover is of Brandi Chastain celebrating her winning penalty
kick in the 1999 Women's World Cup final. And there are other
well-known athletes in the book, including the photo Gottesman calls
one of her favorites, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova playfully
arm-wrestling.But this is unlike any collection you've ever seen, because so
many of the pictures are not of the famous but the commonplace.
People who look like the girl next door, your grandmother, even you.
"The book can be kind of a shield for girls, a protection for
them," Gottesman said. "A girl who likes sports can look at it and
see there have always been a lot of people like her."
While women's athletics does indeed have a much longer and richer
history than is commonly thought, the fact that so much of it has not
been chronicled bothered Gottesman and fueled her desire to do GameFace.
A young sportswriter at the San Francisco Chronicle in the early
1990s, she was puzzled and dismayed by both the lack of coverage of
women's sports and the way they were presented when they werecovered.
"Some of it was 'benign neglect,' some of it was more deliberate
than that," she said. "Whatever the reason, it was not reflecting
the reality of women."
Game Face- from an elderly woman taking off her roller skates to
a daredevil girl flying high on a swing - provides a differentreflection.

----------------------------------

Sam Houston High School sports notebook

RICK KRETZSCHMAR /11/17/2001

Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

The good news for Sam Houston is in the girls program. The girls team is ranked No. 2 in preseason rankings by TexasWrestler.com. Glory Dalton is ranked No. 2 in the state at 138 pounds and Ember Brettman is No. 2 at 185 pounds, although Brettman will be wrestling at 165 or lower weight classes.

However, the girls team has only six members. One wrestler who is not with the team currently is Kim Bui, who is ranked No. 1 in the state at 95 pounds. Menard said Bui is concentrating on academics.

"All the rankings are based on is how we did in last year's state tournament," Menard said. "I think they need a little more investigating."