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Girl wrestler to see Fargo

By John McReynolds - Staff Writer

7/1/02 "Wrestler"

What image does that word evoke?

The Rock, Ric Flair, Rakishi?

Try again. Real wrestling this time.

The Olympics' Rulon Gardner, undefeated NCAA champ Cael Sanderson?

Getting warmer.

"Female wrestler"

Chyna?

Cold, get off the stage.

Ever heard of Katie Downing? Of course not.

Downing is the US national champion in the 147-pound class in the not-yet-NCAA-recognized sport of women's wrestling.

The champ is the marquee sports personality at the University of Minnesota at Morris, the first NCAA institution to officially sponsor wrestling for women.

Because of Downing's example and that of her Cougar teammates, Jackie Figueroa,a pint-sized 108-pounder from Lompoc, wants to brave Minnesota winters and enroll there and wrestle.

To do that the jockey-sized Figueroa aims to show recruiters next month she can compete at the national level. She's already proven herself at Lompoc High.

Figueroa is the first and only girl on the Brave wrestling team.

Her record is pedestrian. There aren't many girls to wrestle on the Central Coast so she's often taken to the cleaners by stronger guys.

But she hasn't backed off.

"Her technique is above average," assesses LHS assistant coach Steve Greco.

"But her biggest thing is when she gets mad. She's not afraid to go in and get with it. She's always been real aggressive.

"We put her in with Jeff Sato of Arroyo Grande." Sato placed in state for the Eagles and is now wrestling at UC Davis.

"She went after his legs. It surprised him.

"She didn't win, but she didn't back up.

"If she doesn't back up from guys, she won't back up against girls."

In May Figueroa had one of her rare chances to wrestle girls.

She finished third in the 112-pound class at the state girls freestyle meet in Lemoore.

By placing third she qualified for the California delegation to the national Junior Olympic tournament.

That event, billed as the largest wrestling tournament in the world," will be held in Fargo, North Dakota, in July.

Fargo is only 85 miles up State Route 9 from Morris, Minnesota, so UMM scouts will know the way.

One could worry that Figueroa might get lost.

At only 5-foot-4 and 108 pounds she is not quite the size of The Rock. She's a pebble at best.

"I started out a matt mate, like a team manager," she remembers of her freshman year.

"I'm not necessarily a tomboy but I like competition.

"Wrestling seemed really interesting, plus no girl had ever done it."

"I asked the coach (Leroy Grijalva) if a girl could wrestle and he said 'ask your parents.'"

Figueroa's dad was not so excited about the prospect, but her mom said OK, sort of.

"I was for it because I support Jackie, says her mom, Linda. "She's very strongwilled. Even if I'd said no she would have done it anyhow."

Still, Linda showed up to watch every practice that first season.

"The guys my freshman year hated it that I was on the team," Jackie Figueroa remembers. "Especially the juniors and seniors."

There were two classes of male reponses, passive and aggressive, neither supported the new girl wrestler.

"I never had a problem with girls wrestling," says Grijalva.

"But I knew the guys would try to destroy her.

"It wasn't until she started beating up on the guys that she got respect. She won it but it was all uphill."

That whole freshman year Figueroa took a pounding.

If the guys didn't clobber her they walked off the mat.

"Parents told the coach 'I don't want my son wrestling her,'" Jackie recalls.

Not just parents, coaches too.

"Every other tournament they'd decline to wrestle me. Even if they had a wrestler in my weight class they'd forfeit the match.

"It made me really mad."

That's when she got dangerous.

Figueroa wrestled junior varsity her first two years, then varsity last winter until an injury wiped out most of her season.

Each spring and summer she wrestles freestyle for Greco at the Lompoc Academy of Wrestling.

And each summer she's gone to the state girls freestyle meet.

In 2000 she took fourth in 104's, in each of the last two years she took third in 112's.

"It's easy for me to wrestle girls," Figueroa says with glee. "Against girls I get really aggressive. I have no excuses."

That's when she pulls out her favorite move, the fireman's cradle, and dumps her opponent in a heap.

At least the girls.

The guys are tougher.

"The obstacle is the strength factor," Figueroa says. "I have the technique but they're stronger."

Though 661 U.S. high schools have girls wrestling teams, none of them are located near Lompoc.

"She's done a lot of wrestling against guys," says Greco. "That'll help her when she goes against girls. She's not afraid of any girl there is."

Grijalva agrees.

"She can take people down. She can turn people over. She can escape. She knows wrestling. Not only has her wrestling improved but her confidence. That's 90% of it."

Last year Figueroa qualified for nationals but declined to go. She didn't think she was ready.

Now, pumping iron and running daily, she's changed her mind.

"She's capable of doing anything she wants if she's willing to work hard," says Grijalva.

A barbecue is planned for Sunday, July 14 to help raise funds for Figueroa's trip to Fargo.

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The toughest gal in town

Dennis Taylor On Wrestling 7/24/02
dtaylor@montereyherald.com

And what have you learned about the male ego?

For Marcie Van Dusen, it may have been the Queen Mary of all interview questions. One got the feeling that she could have lectured on the subject for hours.

Instead, she offered a half-smile and a perplexed little shake of the head. "I'm still in awe about that. I don't think I'll ever understand," said Van Dusen, who just completed her second year at California State University at Monterey Bay. "Boys are funny."

Yep, boys can be the life of the party when they believe their macho reputation is on the line, which is how some of them feel when they step onto a mat with Van Dusen, the nation's third-ranked female wrestler at 121 pounds.

It's right there in the hunter-gatherer handbook, a decree dating all the way back to the stone age: Boys do not lose to girls in wrestling. It just isn't manly.

A few guys tried to send her that message when Van Dusen was the 119-pounder on the boys varsity squad at Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, where she was in the Class of 2000.

"There were at least two or three occasions when Marcie got slammed to the mat because the guy she was wrestling was trying to make a statement: This is a guy's sport - you don't belong out here with me," said Dave Chapman, Van Dusen's wrestling coach since she was 8 years old. "A few other times, she got beat up out there. But that's all part of the wrestling experience. You've got to get tough."

Tough is what she proved to be. While Van Dusen writhed on the mat, recovering from the latest cheap shot, the stud would strut. "Then, she'd get back on her feet, take control, and beat them," Chapman said. "She did that quite a few times."

Van Dusen doesn't recall her win-loss record as a senior at Rim of the World, but Chapman estimates it was something like 30-10 - all against guys. And one of her accomplishments is a part of California Interscholastic Federation history: She was the first girl ever to medal at a boys CIF sectional meet, taking fourth in the 2000 Southern Sectional, a notoriously tough tournament.

"She doesn't look all that tough - ponytail; real cute; probably looks more like a cross-country runner than a wrestler - but some of our younger, less-experienced guys won't even get on the mat with her," said Bill Grant, the former wrestling coach at Monterey who has welcomed Van Dusen to the Monterey High wrestling room for summer workouts. "We've had girls in our wrestling room before, but we hadn't seen one with this kind of technique. When she came in and started taking some of our better wrestlers down to the mat, they couldn't believe it."

Believe it. Van Dusen's wrestling skill has taken her all over the world. She's competed in New Zealand, Australia, England, Poland.

That international competition, combined with the physical toll her body absorbed from battling boys during high school, prompted her to take a hiatus from the sport during her two years at CSUMB. "She basically wanted to let her body heal up," Chapman said.

When she decided to return to the mats earlier this year, Monterey High's offseason wrestling program was the most logical avenue. Grant and Monterey High wrestling coach Roberto Dixon were happy to have a wrestler of her advanced skill level in the room.

This fall, she'll transfer to the University of Minnesota at Morris, home of the most-respected women's wrestling program in the nation.

And thanks to a third-place finish last month at the World Team Trials in St. Paul, Minn., Van Dusen will be invited to wrestle for Team USA on an international tour sometime next year.

The long-term goal is to represent the United States at the Olympic Games, where women's wrestling now is an official sport, either in 2004 in Athens, Greece, or 2008 in Beijing, China.

To get there, she'll have to overcome the two women currently ranked above her - 31-year-old Stephanie Murata, the national champion, and 23-year-old Tina George-Wilson, whose four-year winning streak was broken by Murata at the World Team Trials. To accomplish that, she'll probably spend a lot of time doing what she's always done - wrestling guys.

"I really just look at them as opponents, and hopefully they look at me the same way," Van Dusen says. "At first, it's always a little weird - guys don't want to lose to a girl, don't want to wrestle me, try to avoid me. But after they realize I'm just like them, they're OK with it ... I think ... I hope."

Van Dusen says she originally began wrestling because, as an 8-year-old, she became bored during the long breaks at her older brother's wrestling tournaments. When she saw schoolboys grappling playfully on the mats during the intermissions, she joined in.

Chapman, her brother's coach, began offering tips and Van Dusen never went away. A dozen years later, he's still her wrestling mentor.

The early days sometimes were less than pleasant.

"A lot of the parents didn't like it at all. Why was this girl out there wrestling?" Chapman recalls. "More than a few times I'd hear one of them say, 'Just go out and beat her. She's just a girl.' And if Marcie won, it was a humiliation. It somehow diminished the parents' standing within the wrestling community - or, at least, that was the mentality."

Chapman gave Van Dusen the same instruction he gave all of his male wrestlers. He says he taught her to wrestle like a guy, because he knew that's who her competition would be.

"She does all the advanced techniques," Grant says. "And she has some outstanding freestyle moves. She's really good at turning her opponent onto his back. The guys in the wrestling room respect her as an equal."

For Van Dusen, that's precisely the satisfaction she's sought all along.

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'I'm one of the guys'
Girls join Warrior wrestlers

By MIKE BIALKA
Sports Editor 1/19/02

Mindy Finlay (left) tried to gain control of Samantha Watson at Brainerd High School wrestling practice last week. Finlay saw her first varsity action Thursday against Sartell while Watson has wrestled only junior varsity matches. The seniors are two of the few female wrestlers who compete at the high school level in Minnesota. (Dispatch Photo by Steve Kohls)

Mindy Finlay and Samantha Watson just want to be one of the guys.

The senior girls don't seek preferential treatment from coaches, opponents, fans or referees. They don't want opponents to take it easy on them.

They just want to be members of the Brainerd Warriors wrestling team.

Finlay and Watson are believed to be the first females to be with the Warriors' wrestling team for an entire season. A few other girls have considered the idea, or actually attempted to wrestle, but discontinued their quest when they discovered the rigors of a demanding sport.

Finlay made her varsity debut Thursday, getting pinned in 56 seconds by Jeff Stang of Sartell. Otherwise, she and Watson have been wrestling strictly for the junior varsity. Their only victories have been by forfeit or bye.

Their participation raises the usual eyebrows. Should girls compete against boys? Can girls withstand the pounding of a rough and tumble sport? What will boys feel like if they lose to girls?

Other concerns include where do the girls dress and how do they go through the weigh-in process?

Warriors head coach Bob Brakke said during weigh-ins, boys weigh-in first and leave the locker room before the girls enter to be weighed. Wrestlers wear shorts and/or shirts during weigh-ins.

"The girls have to change somewhere else," Brakke said. "Most of the time there has been a locker room for them but sometimes they end up in the ladies' room."

Brakke said the issue of touching should be a concern.

"You're grabbing another person," he said. "A lot of times there is contact, probably where contact shouldn't be made, but it's done in such a way that it's competitive. You're trying to win a wrestling match. You're not trying to get anything else out of it. I think once people get past that, and realize that's not a problem, it's not an issue."

Finlay said the contact between male and female wrestlers shouldn't be an issue.

"I don't have a problem with it," the 103-pound Finlay said, "just because I don't see wrestling as guy-girl. I don't see me as a girl and them as a guy. I see me as a wrestler and them as a wrestler. "I've had a lot of apprehension from some guys. The first few days of practice was kind of freaky for them, but the guys on the team have been great about it. They're just like me. I'm one of the guys. Some of the other wrestlers I go up against, you can see it in their eyes. They're like, 'Oh my gosh. It's a girl.' Then they're like, 'Well, I've got to wrestle her.' But I don't think I've ever had a forfeit (victory) because I was a girl."

Watson doesn't believe any of the boys she has wrestled have had a problem with her being a different gender.

"They see us as a couple of the guys," the 152-pound Watson said. "Losing to us is just like losing to anyone else. It's a chance to get better."

Finlay considered becoming a wrestler after hearing a sibling's friend discuss the sport.

"My sister's boyfriend was a wrestler," she said. "Every time he talked about it, I was like big eyeballs, or a puppy dog, like that sounds so cool. So last year I asked (assistant) coach (John) Spartz if it would be OK if I joined the wrestling team, and he said, 'Yeah, I guess.' He didn't know what to do about it. You can't exactly say no. That's kind of how I got started."

Watson's relatives influenced her to start wrestling.

"My uncles and cousins were all involved in wrestling," she said. "They taught me, and I decided I wanted to join."

Brakke conceded that he wondered why Finlay and Watson wanted to wrestle, particularly because they are seniors and hadn't participated in many other athletic activities.

"Why would they want to subject themselves to this?" he said. "Then, of course, you worry about how the guys are going to take it, how parents are going to take it, how the community is going to take it, but it's been a pleasant surprise.

"(The girls) are working hard. They're giving it their all. I think they will gain something positive out of this, and I think the guys in this room with them are going to get something positive out of this."

Junior Andy Pickar said the Warriors accepted the challenge.

"At the beginning, it was a lot different," Pickar said. "It was different having girls in the room. We had never really experienced that. But it hasn't changed things. We don't even notice them in here. They're just one of the guys. They're a big part of our team. It's great that they're on our team."

Watson and Finlay said being members of a team has been the most rewarding part of their experience.

"The guys have been a lot of fun," said Watson, who will enter the Navy in June. "Everybody is really cool.

"The fact they accepted us is really great. Usually, everybody is like, 'Girls can't be wrestlers, girls can't do this, girls cant do that.' These guys didn't seem shocked. They were like, 'Hey, it's more people to join."

Finlay described her experience as "awesome."

"I can't express how great it is to feel like part of the team," said Finlay, who plans to enter the Army after graduation. "This pushes me so hard. Before, I was like a quitter. If I faced something, I would quit. We had what we call red-flag day that teaches us to push ourselves past the limits that we set. Since then, I've been doing way better.

"The big thing is it's great to be part of this team. We work together. It's like a big family, but too many brothers."

To boys on the Warriors' wrestling team, Finlay and Watson are like their sisters.

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All-America honors for local wrestlers

Saturday, July 13, 2002

* Maika Watanabe, Christie Rafanan and Emilee Murphree have all been awarded honorable mention honors on the 2002 TheMat.com/Asics Girls High School All-American Wrestling Team.

Rafanan and Murphree both graduated from Vintage High School after compiling impressive records. Murphree was a two-time state champion and a two-time national place winner. Rafanan won state her senior year after a runner-up finish the year before. She also placed at this year's high school nationals.

Watanabe will be a senior in the fall at Vintage. She placed second at this year's state tournament and third at the high school nationals.

"All three wrestlers were a big reason for the success of the Vintage girls team winning back-to-back state titles," said Carl Murphree, a Vintage wrestling coach and director of the Napa Valley Wrestling Club.

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Nationals next for Gateway's Pellerin

By Frank Carroll and Shannon Shelton | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted July 26, 2002

OVIEDO -- Candice Pellerin's eye color and moods can change quickly.

Candice Pellerin (left) and Kayte Susse practice in Oviedo with Team Florida teammates in preparation for the Junior National Girls Freestyle Championships. (DENNIS WALL/ORLANDO SENTINEL) July 26, 2002

Eyes twinkled in hazel hues Wednesday, her 16th birthday, "but other days they're almost blue," said Pellerin between workouts with Team Florida's six-member contingent that jetted to Fargo, N.D., Thursday for USA Wrestling-sanctioned Junior National Girls Freestyle Championships.

Marge Carver, Oviedo High School's girls coach four years, remembers one of Pellerin's eyes being black after another tournament.

"Oh yeah! I remember," said Pellerin, a well-muscled 4-foot-10 Gateway High junior whose state title last spring as a sophomore helped the Panthers defend an "unofficial" state championship. The Florida High School Activities Association doesn't sanction a state tournament for girls wrestling.

Pellerin (119 pounds) and Carver protégé Amy Jinright (138), an Oviedo senior, are the only two Central Floridians to qualify. Dominique Molina of Lutz (101), Judy Malphurs of Jacksonville (110), Kayte Susse of High Springs (119) and Courtney Bush of Okeechobee (138) round out a team that qualified for nationals last March.

All six gathered in Oviedo this week for an intensive three-day training camp headed by Team Florida Coach Brett Penager, who doubles as Pellerin's coach with the Only One Wrestling Club.

Tough tournaments are not new, but this is different. This is the first time that one of the nation's most prestigious youth wrestling events is open to girls. It introduces the girls to freestyle wrestling, a difference from the folkstyle used in high school competitions. Freestyle allows more lifting and has a different scoring system. It's the style they'll have to use in college.

The girls know they'll be facing the country's best, which explains which they've labored long and hard to learn new moves. Then they have to repeat them. And repeat them again. So much that it hurts to move.

Pellerin, 22-1 as a high school sophomore, seeks to add to twin All-American honors received competing at 2001 and 2002 U.S. Girls Wrestling Association National Championships in Lake Orion, Mich. She placed 10th as a freshman, ninth this year, against respective 110- and 114-pound foes. To rate USA Wrestling All-American, she must be among the top eight in a 119-pound class that has 14 competitors.

"I want a new experience. . . . see how I match up in a different style of wrestling," she said. "But I'm going to have fun, too."

Pellerin boasts plenty of support. Her sister, Courtney, 17, wrestled for Gateway before graduating and her brother, John, 14, will compete as a freshman. Parents, Corey and Debbie Pellerin, support their daughter's interests.

"I play softball, dive for the swim team," she said. "I'm a pretty athletic person. All of us want to make All-American, but it's a new experience. We want to go to learn, and get our names out there."

With the growth of girls wrestling on the youth level, some colleges have begun fielding varsity teams and offering scholarships. Five schools offer varsity programs, according to the Amateur Wrestling Alliance, and others have wrestling clubs or women participating on men's teams.

Last September, the International Olympic Committee announced it would introduce women's freestyle wrestling to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, last year more than 3,000 high school girls were involved in the sport. But as Pellerin, Jinright and other elite female wrestlers have learned, numbers alone don't ensure quality competition. Most do not supplement their high school experience with summer wrestling.

Although the girls have been wrestling in various tournaments and practicing with their respective wrestling clubs this summer, the nearly eight-hour days inside a sweltering workout room can be trying. After an hour of drills, Penager sat weary athletes down for a break.

"It's supposed to be hard, it's supposed to hurt," he said. "If I don't make it hard on you, I'm not doing my job as a coach."

And, after a quick drink of water, it was time for 25 more minutes of uninterrupted wrestling.

The girls get up, muster what energy they have left, and prepare to tough it out.

Frank Carroll can be reached at 407-931-5936 or fcarroll@orlandosentinel.com. Shannon Shelton can be reached at 407-420-5478 or sshelton@orlandosentinel.com.

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Girls get fighting chance

By Shannon Shelton | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 25, 2002

The pain is etched on Candice Pellerin's face.

She and her five teammates on Team Florida have been through tough wrestling practices and competitions before, but this is different.

This is the first year that one of the most prestigious youth wrestling events in the nation is open to girls, and Pellerin has reached the final stage of preparation -- a three-day intensive training camp at Oviedo High School. The six girls there know they will be taking on the best in the country in a few days in freestyle competition, which requires learning new holds and moves.

Then they have to repeat them. And repeat them again. So much that it hurts to move.

Pellerin, a 114-pound state champion who will begin her junior year at Gateway High this fall, and Amy Jinright, a rising senior at Oviedo High, are the only two Central Florida residents to qualify for the team competing in the ASICS Junior National Championships. The tournament began July 20, and the girls' competition, which has about 100 entrants, takes place Friday through Sunday. The team is scheduled to leave for Fargo, N.D., this morning, and were practicing at Oviedo Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

"This is a great opportunity to meet college coaches and get visibility," said Jinright, who wrestles at 138 pounds. "I'd like to place first, but I want to at least make All-American status."

To become an All-American, one must finish in the top eight in her weight class.

"All of us want to make All-American, but it's a new experience for us," said Pellerin, who will compete at 119. "We want to go to learn, and get our names out there."

With the growth of girls wrestling on the youth level, some colleges have begun fielding varsity teams and offering scholarships. Five schools offer varsity programs, according to the Amateur Wrestling Alliance, and others have wrestling clubs or women participating on men's teams. Last September, the International Olympic Committee announced it would introduce women's freestyle wrestling to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The tournament will also introduce the girls to freestyle wrestling, a difference from the folkstyle used in high school competitions. Freestyle allows more lifting and has a different scoring system. It's the style they'll have to use in college.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, more than 3,000 high school girls were involved in the sport last year. But as Pellerin, Jinright and other elite girls wrestlers have learned, numbers alone don't ensure quality competition. Most girls do not wrestle all year and don't supplement their high school experience with summer wrestling.

The two are members of wrestling clubs -- Pellerin participates in Only One Wrestling and Jinright belongs to the Florida JETS, which practices at Oviedo. Their level of experience can make it difficult for them to find competitive matches.

Dominique Molina of Lutz (101), Judy Malphurs of Jacksonville (110), Kayte Susse of High Springs (119) and Courtney Bush of Okeechobee (138) are the others making the trip. All qualified during a tournament in March.

Although the girls have been wrestling all summer in various tournaments and practicing with their respective wrestling clubs, the nearly eight-hour days can be trying for even the best wrestlers. After an hour of drills the first day at Oviedo, team coach Brett Penager, who also coaches at Only One Wrestling Club, sat the weary athletes down for a brief break.

"It's supposed to be hard, it's supposed to hurt," Penager said. "If I don't make it hard on you, I'm not doing my job as a coach."

And after a quick drink of water, it was time for the next exercise. Twenty-five minutes of uninterrupted freestyle wrestling.

The girls get up, muster any energy they have left, and prepare to tough it out on the mat once more.

Shannon Shelton can be reached at 407-420-5478 or sshelton@orlandosentinel.com.