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Catching on: Female wrestling's growing popularity crosses gender barrier

By JAMES S. TYREE H&R Jul 29 2002

Petite Eisenhower student Hilary Helding is in Fargo, N.D., eager to compete in a girls wrestling national tournament.

One year ago, that scenario seemed as farfetched as bat-biting rocker Ozzy Osbourne having a hit TV sitcom and rubbing elbows with President Bush at a dinner party.

"I thought they were crazy," Helding said of friends asking her to wrestle.

"Some friends of mine are on the wrestling team, and they talked me into it," the 95-pound wrestler explained. "They needed someone to wrestle at 103, and I got drafted."

Helding had no wrestling experience, but "I went to one of the conditioning sessions. I caught on to it and ended up liking it."

The Eisenhower sophomore is not alone.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, more than 3,000 high school girls competed on wrestling teams last year. TheMat.com lists 48 high school girls wrestling teams in Hawaii and 34 in Texas. Both places have official state tournaments in girls wrestling.

On a larger scale, women's wrestling will become an Olympic sport beginning in 2004.

Due to the gradual growth of girls in the sport, USA Wrestling announced in January that it would start a women's division this year at its annual ASICS Junior National Championships -- where Helding finds herself today.

She broke her hand while training for the tournament but made the trip anyway to watch learn, and possibly get cleared to compete.

"I thought it was a golden opportunity for her," said Eisenhower coach Jan Roddis, a rare female head coach of a high school wrestling team. "She broke her hand in training camp, but she'll bring back a lot of knowledge and she was able to participate in camp for a day and a half.

There are no girls teams in Illinois, but girls are trickling onto boys teams. Last winter in Central Illinois, there was Helding, April Dick at Monticello and Mary Kelly at Mahomet-Seymour.

Of that trio, Kelly is the most accomplished.

The daughter of Monticello coach Jerry Kelly was a three-year varsity wrestler at Mahomet. In 2001, she was one of 14 members of TheMat.com/ASICS Girls High School All-America wrestling team.

In April, weeks before her high school graduation, Kelly reached the Challenge Tournament final at the World Team Trials and placed third overall in the 48-kilogram (105.5 pounds) division. She also competed in the U.S. National Championships and the university nationals.

Kelly practiced with the Illinois Junior National Freestyle boys team last week before it left for Fargo. Her next stop will be Chanute, Kan., where she will compete for Neosho Community College.

"Neosho has a women's wrestling team, and they have tournaments during the year that we'll go to," Kelly said. "Our season pretty much goes all year long. We'll have duals in the winter, and, in the summer, it will be more of World Team Trials and things like that."

Dick could have tried to qualify for the Junior Nationals but decided long ago to attend a church camp instead. The Monticello junior has, though, attended two wrestling camps this summer to prepare for her third season of competing for the Sages and seventh year overall in wrestling.

"I hope to be a varsity wrestler to where I'm always on varsity," Dick said. "And if I accomplish that, I hope to go to sectionals."

Individual and team challenges

Female wrestlers may have the skill and resolve to match their male counterparts, but physical strength is another matter. Kelly and Dick, who started in Kids Wrestling, said taking on the boys did not become a major challenge until they reached high school.

"I tried to lift as much as I could, but I still wasn't as strong as some of the guys I wrestled," Kelly said. "So I pretty much had to wrestle my match and not wrestle their style."

Dick performed well in Kids Wrestling and at junior high, and she had fun growing up wrestling with friends and her brother at home. But during her freshman year, "I couldn't beat guys at 103." Helding had the same experience last year because boys bigger than her often drop down to 103 pounds.

Sean Bormet, an Illinois Junior National assistant coach at owner of a wrestling school, in Naperville said it's difficult for a girl to succeed in high school wrestling, no matter how skilled she is.

"I think some of the dangers out there is their muscles are a little more pliable," said Bormet, a former two-time All-America at Michigan. "A couple of matches I've seen where the man will overpower the woman, and the women are so flexible they get in dangerous situations because of their flexibility.

"I think there's a certain age," he surmised, "where it's probably a little more appropriate -- and there's an even playing field -- when girls wrestle the girls."

Roddis agrees, though she doesn't see girls teams sprouting up soon anytime in Central Illinois. It's always hard for boys wrestling teams to receive support where basketball is king.

"We need more girls clubs, and it would be nice if they can offer it in high school, but I don't know if it's feasible," Roddis said "We have enough trouble fielding boys teams, much less girls.

"We run around the halls asking kids what they weigh," she said with a half-serious chuckle, "and drag them in."

Starting a girls team is even more unlikely now when school districts are scrounging to save money, not add expenses. And for most girls in this area, wrestling remains a foreign idea.

That has to change is girls wrestling is to prosper in Central Illinois.

"A lot of girls sports start at the grass-roots level with the younger girls," Bormet said. "Start when they're younger, and that's when you'll see the huge advancements. A lot of girls now start at the senior level and they do well, but if they started when they were 8 or 9, they (would be better)."

Worth the roadblocks

Despite their inherent disadvantages, Dick, Helding and Kelly all say they have benefited from wrestling. The sport keeps Helding and Dick in top shape for soccer, and even gave Dick a competitive edge.

"In (recreation) league (soccer), I was really shy," Dick recalled. "I wasn't going to risk myself for the ball; I just wasn't willing to do that. But in wrestling I got used to contact, and, now, (in soccer) I'm known as the aggressive one."

During her first outdoor soccer practice, Dick leveled two of her teammates because she was still in wrestling mode. She's getting a similar reputation in wrestling, especially in girls tournaments. Dick won girls tournaments this year in Charleston -- where she was named most valuable wrestler -- and in Danville.

Competing in high school helped Kelly become one of the nation's best female wrestlers. She also met her fiance, Hector Mendez, through the sport.

Helding and Dick are trying to reach Kelly's status. But when they do win against a boy, victories seem so much sweeter.

"I've won a couple of times, and it was awesome because I'm a minority in the sport," Helding said. "But I came out, and it was awesome."

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