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Female wrestler aims to pin down an Olympic invite
4/10/02
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SFSU junior Grace Magnussen recently took home the silver medal for female wrestling's Team USA at the Pan American Women's Wrestling Championships in Venezuela.
Magnussen, a 23-year-old dance major, placed second in the 63 kg (138.5 lb) category for all of North and South America and contributed to Team USA's overall first place standing in the competition. Her strong showing means that she'll have the opportunity to compete for a spot on the U.S. Olympics team, as her sport will be featured for the first time in the 2004 summer games in Athens.
A native of Concord, Calif., Magnussen joined the Ygnacio Valley High School wrestling the team at 14 and has been wrestling ever since. Her goal after completing her degree in May 2003 is to coach other wrestlers at the Olympic training center in Colorado.
SFSU only has a men's wrestling team, and Magnussen usually works out at other campuses where she may be more likely to spar with women. Training has become even more important to her now since Olympic competition will be stiff.
To include women's freestyle wrestling in the summer Olympic games, already crowded with a growing number of events, participation had to be sharply limited. Instead of the typical 10 wrestling weight classes, the Olympics will only feature five. Wrestlers are moving to other groups, swelling the ranks and heightening competition. Magnussen, for example, had to move up a weight class, going from 129 to 138 pounds, to be considered a viable athlete.
To make the Olympic team, each wrestler must rank first in her weight class nationwide. That allows her to join the World Team Trials, which determines what countries may attend the Olympics.
And Magnussen isn't the only SFSU student and female wrestler with her eyes on the 2004 Olympics. This month, senior Julie Gonzales will compete to regain her ranking among the top three 47 kg (101 lb) female wrestlers in the country, putting her in a position to rejoin Team USA, where she had been for four years until last spring.
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GIRL WRESTLER
Like most 14-year-old girls in this country, Tara Neal wrestles. She wrestles with the usual stressful issues that make junior high years the scourge of youth: the subtle, inscrutable rules of popularity and fashion and coolness. And, as if treading that ice weren’t difficult enough, fate has chosen this moment of supreme self-consciousness and sensitivity for puberty to strike.
And so it is that Tara Neal, a pert, wide-eyed girl finds herself inside the body of a woman. “Old age is not for sissies,” goes the glib expression of those who are graying and ailing, but perhaps it is more apt for those just crossing the threshold of adulthood. No one gets through the upheavals of adolescence completely unscathed.
Tara Neal is anything but a sissy, however. She has placed herself, in fact, at the center of a world that not only scrutinizes her behavior, but her body, as well—her womanly curves, in particular. That is because Tara Neal is also a wrestler in the most physical sense of the word. She is a girl wrestler in a sport that will tolerate her presence for only one more year. According to a 1996 Interscholastic League rule, a girl may not wrestle a boy beyond junior high. Next year, if she continues to wrestle—and there’s every indication that she will—she will have to join the boy’s team, and wait and hope for a meet with another team who also happens to have a girl wrestler in her weight class. The prospects of that happening in Texas are slim.
So slim that documentary filmmaker Diane Zander believed at first that she might have to go out of state to find a female wrestler. That was in 1999, the year she finally heard about Neal and got in touch with her coach. She started work then, and in 2001 received a grant from the Texas Council for the Humanities to produce a 60-minute documentary on the girl wrestler. She has now nearly completed the primary shooting, and has moved into the editing phase of the project.
Zander, a graduate student and assistant instructor in the Radio/Television/Film Department at the University of Texas in Austin, sees Neal as an access point into a realm of gender issues. “She’s a foil in literary terms,” says Zander, “She’s the opposite of everything around her, undermining our preconceptions of femininity. Through her eyes we get to see the masculine in culture and how that affects her and maybe changes her.”
Neal chose wrestling over other sports when she was 10 because she thought her parents, who are now divorced, could better afford it. Little girls often choose wrestling, though most abandon it by junior high. Neal excelled in it, however, and saw no reason to quit.
But, according to Zander, Neal’s presence now “remakes” the event by unwittingly introducing the idea of sex into the sport. She says that thinking about sex is not what the kids are doing, however. “They’re out there to win and to use the body as a tool of the sport.” It’s a point that the video brings home clearly. And yet, while a latent sexuality or homo-eroticism might be inferred from the very nature of the sport, which has maneuvers with names like, “the Saturday night ride” and “the crotch grab,” it takes the presence of a young girl to bring a match to a standstill. “When a girl wrestles a boy,” says Zander, “everything stops.”
Zander calls Neal a “wise child,” because, in Zander’s words, “she understands human nature and what’s going on.” Such maturity, however, does not undermine Neal’s vulnerability, which the camera reveals with candor and a certain tenderness born of the rapport between filmmaker and subject. For instance, one scene in the documentary shows Neal in tears because she wants to leave a meet before it is over. Opening up to the off-screen Zander, Neal describes a fall-out she has just had with her father who has told her that if she quit, she wouldn’t be able to wrestle anymore because he would stop taking her to meets. “I feel bad that I broke his expectations for me,” she is saying, “but they’re just too high. I never went up against my Dad because I didn’t want to hurt him. If he stops taking me to practice then I won’t see him ever.”
Zander stayed with Neal as she made the transition from her father’s active participation to that of her mother. As a filmmaker, says Zander “you have to remain flexible. The video has a narrative progression. You have to stay with it to see what will happen.”
Beyond the video, what will happen for Neal? With her ambitions undiminished by hardships—she once had to give up a first place trophy because she was a girl—she dreams of a time when female wrestling might be added to the list of Olympic sports, and she could try out.
Says Zander, “Tara is making change in her world the best way she knows how, by action not by words. . . It’s by her presence, by not giving up and by sticking it out. And that’s the strongest kind of feminism there is.”
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Girls drawn to the mat
S.J. wrestler among growing ranks in once-male sport
By Jessica Portner
Mercury News 3/5/02
Renee Green, the sole girl on Silver Creek High School's wrestling team, is accustomed to putting boys in their place: The 130-pound powerhouse pins male competitors in bout after bout, and is among the top-ranked female wrestlers in the state.
Girls like Renee are knocking the formerly boys-only sport off balance.
Their numbers are small but rising as schools throughout the nation recruit female wrestlers in anticipation of the 2004 Olympics, when female athletes will compete on the mats for the first time.
Many cheer the increasing popularity of girls' wrestling as a victory for women in a male-dominated arena. The roster of girls wrestling on high school teams nationally has swelled quietly from 100 to 4,000 in the past decade, and coaches estimate that about 200 girls wrestle on teams in the Bay Area.
But because so few girls compete in high school, all-girl squads are rare, and female wrestlers frequently must tangle with boys on their teams. Some coaches and parents worry, however, that such close physical contact between the sexes can lead to unwanted advances and can be physically hazardous to girls.
In her three years on San Jose's Silver Creek squad, Renee, 17, has endured a litany of pain: a sprained wrist, jammed fingers and an injured elbow. She's sacrificed dating time to work out every day and has starved herself with strict diets of noodles and fruit to keep within the weight limits of her class.
Last year, she contracted ringworm, a skin disease spread by person-to-person contact, at practice. But she's had to confront more than nasty dermatological afflictions on the mat. Prejudice, she said, is rampant.
``Some boys say they don't want to wrestle a girl because their egos get hurt,'' Renee said, or they'll forfeit a match rather than compete with her.
Jimmy Hughes, a Silver Creek coach, said many boys see wrestling a girl as a losing proposition.
``It's a no-win situation for a guy,'' he said, ``If they beat the girl, they are already expected to win. If they lose, they've lost to a girl.''
Other local girls say they routinely suffer verbal jabs and worse from boys.
Amy Horowitz, a 160-pound wrestler at Westmont High School in Campbell, said one boy intentionally slammed her, breaking her collarbone during a competition. ``I'm constantly getting hit,'' she said.
In the locker room before a recent practice, Renee transformed herself from schoolgirl to formidable opponent. She shed her size 7 jeans, slipped into sweats and twisted her long brown tresses into a braid. Then she joined the ring of runners jogging around the gym.
When the coach signaled for practice to start, the players scattered across the floor with their partners. Renee was matched with Rudy Herrera, a lanky 16-year-old boy with spiked hair. At the whistle, she sprang forward, he jerked her down, and they both crashed onto the mat. The two rocked back and forth in a long tight hold until Renee finally thumped his shoulders flat on the ground.
``Ah, I gotcha,'' she said, smiling.
On the mat, even if her teammates seem like pals, the sexual tension is hard to miss. Wrestling moves often look more like a mating ritual than an athletic contest. Many are illegal: the knee lock, neck wrench and full nelson. And then there's the out-of-bounds crotch grab.
``A lot of guys are afraid of touching the wrong spot,'' said a sheepish Ronnie Lopez, one of Renee's teammates.
Rudy, her wrestling partner, agreed. ``At first it was awkward like I was afraid of doing some moves cause I'd have to put my face in her chest,'' he said. ``But now it's like wrestling anybody else.''
``Except,'' Renee said, ``I have boobs.''
While Renee's mother, Helen Perales, applauds her daughter's drive and talent, she admits to feeling queasy early on.
``At first we thought that the idea of girls and boys wrestling so close together was too hands on,'' Perales said. ``But none of that comes up at the matches. It's just about winning.''
Leticia Rico is not so sure. She won't let her son Joseph, one of the team's star wrestlers, practice with Renee.
``I'm against it,'' said Rico. ``Boys' hormones at this age are raging, Renee is a beautiful girl, and I don't think they are blind to that.''
Rico also sees coed wrestling as disrespectful to women. ``We teach boys to treat girls like ladies and then we let them pound girls' faces to the ground,'' she said.
Mary Joe Kane, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, said girls' wrestling long has been a trial for the male-dominated sports establishment because it upsets traditional gender stereotypes.
``Wrestling,'' she said, ``is about subduing one's opponent through force -- the antithesis of the definition of femininity.''
Still, Gary Abbott, who directs the women's program at the USA Wrestling Association, predicts women's wrestling will be a hot draw at the Athens Olympics in two years.
``Look at all the noise'' people made about the women's bobsled team at the Olympics, he said. ``That's what it's going to be like for wrestling in 2004.''
Abbott hopes enough girls eventually will be drawn to the sport that they can demand school teams of their own.
Currently, only Hawaii and Texas have separate high school wrestling teams for girls. In California, girls compete on coed teams but can choose to compete against boys or girls, who also have their own tournaments.
On the Silver Creek team, assistant wrestling coach Anthony Barajas said he would put Renee ``up against a guy any day.'' But if he had enough female athletes, he would form a separate team for girls.
``They'd get more one-on-one attention with less hormonal distractions,'' he said.
Renee, however, has no problem confronting boys on the mat.
``I want to let it be known,'' she said, ``that this sport is not just for guys.''
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Patricia Miranda and Chris Horpel Head to Pan-American Championships
Stanford Wrestling represented in Caracas, Venezuela.
Patricia Miranda will be competing at the Pan-American Championships in Venezuela this weekend. |
March 13, 2002
Caracas, Venezuela - Stanford senior Patricia Miranda and Director of Wrestling Chris Horpel are in Caracas, Venezuela for the 2002 Pan-American Championships this week. Miranda will compete in at 112.25 pounds in Women's Freestyle and Horpel will be coaching the Men's Freestyle team. There is also a Men's Greco-Roman field.
Miranda (Saratoga, CA/Saratoga) placed third at the 2001 National Open and was the first alternate on the 2001 World Team. She earned a silver medal at the 2000 Women's World Championships. In 2002, Miranda notched three wins in collegiate competition for the Cardinal and is one of America's best female wrestlers. Earlier this season, TheMat.com named Miranda its preseason No. 1 at 112.25 pounds and she is currently ranked second in North America.
Horpel served as the Stanford head coach for 23 years before assuming the role of Director of Wrestling this year. He is also the head coach of the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club, which is based at Stanford. Horpel has coached seven NCAA Division I All-Americans and ten Pacific-10 Conference champions. This is Horpel's third appearance as a coach of the Pan-American freestyle team.
The championships will be held from March 14-17 in Venezuela.
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Local Female Wrestlers Blow Away Competition at Regional Championships
Jake Cormier , March 03, 2002
The Central Algoma Secondary School wrestling team competed in the NOSSA
championships in Sudbury last week after a 9-year absence. The CASS women's
team finished second behind Sir James Dunn SS from Sault Ste. Marie, and
four of them are headed to the OFSAA provincial championships in Thunder
Bay. Three of the four participants are from the Island. Elysia Gignac
captured Gold at OFSAA while Megan Cormier and Diane Gardner earned a silver
medal. Megan Sweetnam, from the mainland, also captured a silver, while
Brittany Manley of the Island captured bronze. Sara Henderson and Katarina
Rupp finished in 4th place.
The men's team also did well. Ben Rupp and Woody Maguire captured bronze
medals. Ryan MacLeod and Tim Lambert (of the Island) finished 5th while
Kaleb Kirby, Josh McClelland and Roger Fremlin finished 6th. The CASS team
is coached by Mr. Ray Gowlett, a math teacher at the high school, which is
located in Desbarats.
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washingtonstatewrestling.com/ 4/1/02
Amberle Montgomery wins her 8th consecutive Female wrestling National Championship by winning the AAU’s Folkstyle and Freestyle Female High School Wrestling National Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Easter week-end. Amberle will travel to Chattanooga, Tenn on 16-20 May to compete in the Fila’s Freestyle Nationals Championship and hopefully add to her Nationals Title count. - April 1st, 2002
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