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Women’s wrestling club being formed at Cleveland State
2/8/2002
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
James Martin, the Women’s Director for USA Wrestling/Ohio, is organizing a women’s wrestling club at Cleveland State University.
Practices will be held at the Physical Education Building on the CSU campus at 2451 Euclid Ave. All club rules will apply. Interested participants will be required to sign a waiver of liability.
Women’s wrestling has been added to the Olympic Games program. There are many opportunities for beginners to learn wrestling and receive benefits from the sport. Northern Ohio has produced a number of talented women wrestlers, including Toccara Montgomery, Tina George and Jessica Shirley.
The CSU Women’s Wrestling Club is providing female athletes an opportunity to train and compete in women’s freestyle wrestling.
For more information, contact James Martin at (440)647-1109, or via email at M60SemperFi@hotmail.com
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New faces fill in just fine in Bulldogs' dual-match wins Fresno State's individual victories include one over Stanford woman.
David White THE FRESNO BEE1/26/02
The Fresno State wrestling lineup was patched together Friday, but
there was nothing hodgepodge about the results.
The 25th-ranked Bulldogs used a combination of substitutions and weight
changes to stitch together a 38-5 win over Embry-Riddle and 25-9
victory over Stanford in dual meets at the North Gym.
With the winning additions of Darrick Duran, Justin McLelland and Ben
Martinez to the starting 10, Fresno State scored its first home
doubleheader sweep in its past three tries and improved to 9-6 in duals. "It was a
different lineup, all right," Bulldogs coach Dennis DeLiddo said. "That
Stanford match was a lot closer than the final score indicates. I was
nervous every match."
So were the new wrestlers.
Duran, a senior 165-pounder, made his season dual-meet debut in place
of Brian Spalliero. Duran, a Roosevelt High product, lost his first match
but rallied to beat Stanford's John Garfinkel 7-4.
"I was too nervous my first match," Duran said of his 4-3
double-overtime loss to David Rivera of Embry-Riddle. "I was nervous my second match,
too, but not as much. It was just really nice to be back out there again."
He scored two takedowns in the second period for a 4-3 edge over
Garfinkel, and secured his first dual victory in two years with a third takedown
with 32 seconds left in the bout.
"I knew what I was capable of doing once I got my chance," Duran said.
"This is my senior year, and I've been waiting for this."
So did McLelland, a senior who made his dual-meet debut at 125. He won
by forfeit against Embry-Riddle, and then faced Stanford's Patricia
Miranda --believed to be the only Division 1-A starting female wrestler -- in the
nightcap.
It was a "nerve-wracking" situation for McLelland, and he preserved a
2-0 lead after one period.
"Believe me, I love ladies, and I'm all for women wrestling," said
McLelland, who beat Miranda in previous open tournaments. "But I knew
if I didn't beat her big, my friends would give me a hard time. I got all
the respect in the world for her, but it was just a little awkward, you
know?"
McLelland built an 8-1 lead against Miranda, a silver medalist at the
2000 Women's World Championships, and won 13-2.
"It was cool just to wrestle at home my senior year," McLelland said.
"It at least gave me a chance to show my skills, and I got to hear [the
announcer] say my name a couple of times."
With Ralph Lopez out because of illness, Martinez wrestled at 141
against Embry-Riddle and beat Brian Love 9-5 in Martinez's North Gym debut.
Derrick Hayes, ranked 15th in the nation at 133, took a turn at 141
against tanford, and beat Brad Metzler 4-2.
Top-ranked Stephen Abas, a two-time NCAA champion at 125 pounds, bumped
up to 133.
He recorded a 16-3 win over Embry-Riddle's Tyler Moran and a narrow 5-4
victory over Stanford's Justin Walker.
Britt Mooney (174), Eddie Gifford (184) and Marcio Botelho (197) also
were double winners for Fresno State.
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First girls wrestling junior national championship set for July
The Plain Dealer 2/7/02
While girls wrestling has yet to catch fire in Ohio, it is catching on
nationally.
How so? The USA Wrestling Junior Olympic Committee has approved a girls
division at the 2002 ASICS Junior National Championships to be held
July in Fargo, N.D.
This will be the first time a girls division will be included in the
tournament, considered the largest and most prestigious youth wrestling
event in the world.
The Junior National Championships were created in 1971 with a freestyle
division for high school boys. In 1972, a Greco-Roman division was
added. There were nearly 2,000 participants in both divisions last year.
Girls from grades 9-12 will be eligible to compete, according to Rich
Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling in Boulder Springs, Colo.
Weight classes will be determined shortly.
Wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports for women. The National
Federation of State High School Associations said more than 3,000 high
school girls wrestled nationally last year. Bender also said youth
programs for girls have also increased.
Back in the USA?: Sandy Cageao, a Helms Hall of Fame Official who lives
in hagrin Falls, said the World Championships will likely come back to
New York City in 2003.
"Slovakia has just signed a release for the 2003 Freestyle World
Championships to the U.S.," Cageao said.
"Now there are still details to be worked out with FILA, but obviously
the largest hurdle has been overcome. FILA has said that if Slovakia
released the championships, it would be awarded to the U.S., but they needed to
do this formally."
Toccara a finalist: Cleveland native Toccara Montgomery is one of three
wrestlers who have been named as finalists for the AAU James E.
Sullivan Award, which is presented annually to America's best amateur athlete.
Montgomery, a silver medalist in the 2001 World Freestyle Wrestling
Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, is an East Tech High graduate and
becomes the first woman wrestler to be named a Sullivan Award finalist.
Wrestling is also the lone sport with three finalists. The other
wrestlers are Matt Lindland and Brandon Paulson, both silver medalists last year
at the World Greco-Roman Championships in Patras, Greece.
The other finalists are Tony Azvedo in water polo, Natalie Coughlin in
swimming, Michelle Kwan in figure skating, Stephen Lopez in taekwondo,
Ryan Miller in hockey, Mark Prior in baseball, Jason Reed in rowing, Sean
Townsend in gymnastics, Allen Webb and Angela Williams in track and
field, and Roy Williams in football.
The reigning Sullivan Award winner is Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon
Gardner.
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Parents: Boys’ privacy violated
A coach brought a female referee into a boys’ locker room at Cascade High.
DAN ITEL-Statesman Journal
February 7
TURNER — A female basketball referee was brought into a boys’ locker room at Cascade High School last week, angering parents and leading to a request for the Cascade School Board to take action.
Students and parents say Cascade athletic director Gary Thompson allowed referee Desiree Herrmann and a male referee to enter a locker room for a halftime meeting Jan. 29 while members of the Cascade wrestling team were using the facility after practice.
They say Thompson announced that a female would be entering but escorted the referees in before some wrestlers, who were changing and using the shower, could get to their clothes.
“(My son) felt like his privacy was invaded and was very uncomfortable,” Salem resident Judy Rush said of her son, Travis, a senior on the wrestling team. “He felt like he should be able to take a shower without a woman coming in.”
Judy Rush and other parents and students telephoned and wrote letters to the school board and to Cascade School District Superintendent James McBride requesting an investigation of the incident.
Rush said she wants Thompson fired and Herrmann prevented from working around children.
McBride said a school district personnel director is conducting interviews with those involved.
“My understanding is that the athletic director took the person into the locker room office,” he said. “At this point in time, it’s all conjecture.”
McBride would not comment on details of the incident, but he said it is district policy not to allow members of the opposite sex, including referees and sports reporters, into a locker room occupied by students.
“(Referees) may use that locker room for changing or dressing but not when students are in there,” he said. “This was just an unfortunate situation where the individual was taken into the office to have that meeting.”
Herrmann said that before Thompson brought her and the other official into the locker room, he made sure everyone knew a female was entering.
“It’s always kind of a hesitation, going into a situation like that,” she said. “But they don’t have anywhere else to put us.”
The office has windows that look into the locker room. Herrmann said she turned her back to the windows once it became clear that her presence was distracting the wrestlers.
Thompson referred all questions to McBride.
The parents also say that allowing females into male locker rooms is a double standard.
“If it had been a male going into a girls’ locker room … these people would have already lost their jobs,” Rush said.
Chris Kroker, a freshman wrestler, wrote a letter to the district office condemning the situation.
“(Thompson) could have had her in the team room or a classroom or the bleachers,” he said.
Kroker said he’s never seen even a male referee brought into the locker room while the wrestling team was changing.
Herrmann, who has been an official for 15 years, said it’s a situation that happens in boys’ and girls’ locker rooms with referees of both sexes frequently because of a lack of facilities at schools.
“I know if someone makes an accusation, I’m sure the school will check both sides of the facts and see that it doesn’t happen again,” she said. “Because we certainly don’t want to offend anyone. It’s just one of those situations that happens, and you have to deal with it.”
Dave White, commissioner of the Salem Basketball Officials Association, said it is typical for an officiating crew to meet during a game.
“The dressing room is the best place to (have a meeting),” White said. “But if you have a mixed crew, it doesn’t lend itself well.”
Dan Itel can be reached at (503) 399-6678.
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Wrestler's dad seized in assault
Whitley coach allegedly attacked during tournament
By Bill Estep 2/5/02
SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU
An upset father in Wayne County allegedly hit a high-school wrestling coach with a chair during a tournament over the weekend.
Monticello police arrested Thomas L. Day, 38, of Monticello, on a charge of fourth-degree assault, Chief Ralph Miniard said yesterday.
Day's 13-year-old son, Charles, wrestles on the Wayne County High School team, which is coached by Danny Upchurch. When it was time for the teen-ager to wrestle on Saturday, he told Upchurch he didn't feel well and the coach had him sit down, said Peggy Shearer, principal at the school.
Day allegedly came down from the stands and accosted Upchurch. The coach suggested they go outside the gym to talk, Shearer said.
As the two passed the ticket table on the way out, Day allegedly picked up a metal folding chair and swung it at Upchurch. The coach fended off the blow with his hand.
"He caught the chair and managed to take it away" from Day, Miniard said.
Shearer said she had Upchurch go to the hospital to be checked for injuries, but he was not hurt. She also called the police.
"We just can't allow that kind of thing to go on and do nothing," she said.
Monticello police got an arrest warrant for Day. He posted a $500 cash bond and was released.
As part of the bond, Trial Commissioner John Paul Jones also ordered Day to stay away from Upchurch and to stay off school grounds.
Day yesterday said his son had missed school most of last week with the flu and threw up after wrestling twice on Saturday. But when the son told Upchurch he didn't feel well, the coach said some inappropriate things to him and told him to wrestle anyway, Day said.
Day said that made him mad. He picked up a chair but did not swing it at Upchurch, Day said.
Upchurch's wife referred questions to school officials yesterday. Day said he has apologized to the coach, and also wants school officials and fans who were at the match to know he is sorry.
"I was wrong, totally wrong. It's not the caveman days," he said.
Assaults on coaches are rare. Larry Boucher, an assistant commissioner with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, said he couldn't recall another physical attack on a coach in his 11 years at the association.
There have been cases in which fans assaulted referees and other officials. In response, legislators in 1998 made Kentucky the 11th state in the country to enact a separate crime of assaulting a sports official, Boucher said.
Day said he will seek to have the charge, a misdemeanor, dismissed.
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Ex-Wrestler Says Coach Forced Him To Lose Weight
Teen, Family Files Lawsuit Against School District, Coach
EASTLAKE, Ohio, Posted 5:12 p.m. EST February 5, 2002 -- A former Eastlake North High School wrestler claims that he was forced to use dangerous dieting tactics to stay on the team.
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NewsChannel5's Joe Pagonakis reported that as a result, wrestler Henry "Hank" Danes IV (pictured, left) has filed a lawsuit. The suit asks for $25,000 in damages against the Willoughby-Eastlake School District and his former wrestling coach.
At 135 pounds, Danes was a star wrestler for his high school at one time, pinning 14 opponents in a row. Danes looked like an upcoming champion, but his parents said that they never knew about the dangerous dieting game that their son was playing behind the scenes.
"(He would) eat rice on Mondays, ice cubes and Juicy Fruit gum, and that was all, period," said his father, Henry Danes III.
Henry Danes IV claims that coach Mike Kokitka (pictured, below) forced him to use illegal dieting techniques, allegedly threatening to remove Danes from the team if he didn't wear a plastic sweat suit to lose weight.
"There (are) too many kids (who) can die," Henry Danes III said. "They are conned into (losing the weight -- coaches say) 'You can do it, you can do it.'"
But Henry Danes IV couldn't do it. His father said that his son got sick and passed out at practice, and that his performance dropped.
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The boy quit the team last year, and he then reported the extreme weight-loss tactics allegedly used by Kokitka to Willoughby-Eastlake Superintendent Keith Miller, who took action.
"We notified the Ohio High School Athletic Association, and then we asked the coach to step down, and he did," Miller said.
But Henry Danes IV said that the removal of the coach isn't enough, and said that the dieting tactics allegedly forced on him ruined his senior year of wrestling and his bid to wrestle in college this year.
He said that's why he has filed a lawsuit against the coach and the district. Meanwhile, his father has a warning for other parents.
"Don't let it happen," Henry Danes III said. "Protect your kids (and) see what's going on."
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Lake County Common Pleas Court.
