Coming to grips

Hoebeika wrestling with new passion

By Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff, 5/29/2002

It was probably an indication that Danielle Hobeika wanted more out of high school sports when she was doing push-ups on the court after tennis practice.

Hobeika captained the swimming and tennis teams while at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School five years ago, but neither sport seemed to satisfy her.

''I really liked swimmimg, but got burnt out. And I love tennis, but it just wasn't as intense,'' said Hobeika.

So when a friend invited her to watch him wrestle, her eyes lit up. This sport definitely grabbed her.

''I thought it was the coolest sport,'' Hobeika said. ''I tried it, and just kind of fell in love with the sport.''

Hobeika and three other girls started practicing with the boys' team, although they never competed in meets.

''I did it mostly for fun,'' Hobeika said.

But when she started attending Harvard, it became a passion. She trained with Lauralee Summer, who was practicing with the men, and maintained her regimen through graduation last year.

Last month Hobeika, 23, took second at 112 pounds at the US Women's National Championships in Las Vegas, and earlier this month won the University National Championships in Chicago. Now she's training for the World Team Trials June 21 in St. Paul to qualify for the World Championships.

Hobeika works at Harvard Divinity School, and wrestles five or six days a week with whoever is willing.

That might be someone on the Harvard team, or Tina Pihl, a graduate student at MIT, or Yen Truong, a sophomore at Quincy High School.

The 5-foot-4-inch Hobeika never desired to compete with men, but it's not easy finding female training partners.

''I probably know all the woman wrestlers within a 100-mile radius,'' she said. ''Training with men, I think I got more injured, but I also learned a lot from them, too. It's not just the experience, but the strength difference and the technique difference. There are always exceptions, but the women aren't as strong or as fast.

''I think the ideal situation for me is training with elite women as well as high school boys because that way I can get the speed, the strength, and the technique.''

Hobeika wasn't officially on Harvard's varsity roster, but often went to dual meets to take photographs and cheer the team, which was like a ''family'' of 30 brothers.

''At first I thought, `What am I getting into?''' Hobeika said. ''I'd been wrestling two months, and these guys had been doing it since they were, like, 5. And it was really tough at first, but [coach] Jay [Weiss] and all the men here have been really supportive, and helped me a lot with my training.''

Weiss said both Hobeika and Summer fit in from the beginning.

''They did everything the guys did, and from the start, the guys have been accepting,'' Weiss said.

Female wrestlers are gradually making progress. The sport has been added to the Summer Olympics in 2004, but the weight classes are down from seven to four. And even though the sport is gaining popularity, Gary Abbott, spokesman for USA Wrestling, said he doesn't have much encouragement for women who want to pursue it after high school.

''We get calls from high school girls, and I tell them there are five colleges with teams and 10 with clubs, unless you want to wrestle with the men,'' he said. ''It's still not going to be what it could be until we have more programs.''

Abbott said there are about 2,500 females registered with USA Wrestling, compared with 750,000 males.

''So you compete against whatever competition there is,'' he said.

Tom Bartosek, wrestling coach at Canton High School, has had a half-dozen girls on his squad in the past five years.

Stories like Hobeika's, and the addition of women's wrestling to the Olympics, he said, are positive examples.

''It's good to know there's somewhere you can go after high school,'' he said.

Pihl, like Hobeika, didn't find wrestling until later in her athletic career. She played soccer in high school and as a Yale undergraduate. Two years ago she played for the New England Storm in the Women's Professional Football League, and was named to the US Handball Team last year, although an eye injury has kept her off the squad.

Pihl, 31, started wrestling ''to see what my potential will be'' in a new sport.

''I want to compete,'' she said. ''That's my motivation, to come to the gym five days week and train.''

Hobeika talks about the constant challenge wrestling offers as she tries to break an opponent's hold.

''It's not just the physicality of wrestling, but I like the mental challenge,'' she said.

Her mother, though, knows all too well about the physical toll.

''This is not an easy sport for parents,'' said Ruth Hobeika, who has seen her daughter come home with bruised eyes, cauliflower ears, and a broken wrist. But she never doubted her daughter's passion for the sport.

''I didn't think it was just a stage. You can see when something connects. I saw the light in her eyes,'' said Ruth Hobeika. ''She has always been a study in motion. I can see how this sport stirs her energy.''

Not to mention her self-defense skills.

''Well, I don't have to worry about her in a dark alley,'' she said.

This story ran on page F9 of the Boston Globe on 5/29/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

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