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One match at a time
Liz Martindale isn't looking too far ahead in bid to defend her Ontario high school title

Bernie Puchalski, The Standard
stcatharines 2/16/03

The zone wrestling meet is becoming old mat for Beamsville's Liz Martindale.

The 17-year-old Grade 12 student has won zone titles the past three years, including defending her 51-kilogram title Thursday at St. Catharines Collegiate.

"It's kind of neat. I get more excited about watching my teammates wrestle. But my final will be fun," she said, prior to winning the zone title over teammate Emily Filmore.

Martindale will now go for her third straight SOSSA title next Thursday in Thorold. A win there and she's off to defend her Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association title.

And given her successes this season, it wouldn't be wise to bet against her. Heading into zones, she had already won provincial junior and juvenile crowns.

"It's never something you expect but I have worked hard," she said.

"She's a super, conscientious worker. She watches videotape, she analyzes what she had to do, and she keeps a diary on what she needs to work on -- all the things you need to do to be a high-level wrestler," Beamsville coach Dave Collie said.

Collie has no doubt Martindale can become an elite wrestler.

"I don't think there's any limits on what she can do because she's such a hard worker. It wouldn't surprise me to see her go on and be on a national team some day."

"You take it one match at a time. I want to wrestle in university and see where it takes me. Everyone's dream is to go to the Olympics," she said.

Martindale is on the wrestling mat five to six times a week, including a couple of nights a week at the Brock Wrestling Club.

"There's a lot of people up there who have really helped me out and showed me what I need to work on. They're like big brothers and sisters up there."

And they share the same passion as Martindale.

"It's an exciting sport. It's something you can work hard at and everyone around you is working just as hard.

"You take time off the mat and you're burning to get back at it. It's done so much for me."

And it has paid dividends off the mat as well.

"It has toughened me up and it has strengthened my faith. You have to put everything in God's hands and whatever happens, happens."

And a lot of good has happened.

"When she started wrestling, I don't think a lot of people thought she could do as well as she has," Collie said.

Beamsville won five girls divisions Thursday to win the girls team title over runner-up Thorold.

Among the wrestlers advancing to SOSSA were: Thorold's Sasha Smith, 2002 OFSAA silver medallist, who won the 54-kilogram division; defending OFSAA 64-kilogram champion Jody Dykstra of Beamsville, who won her division; and, Laura Secord's Stephanie Harding, 2002 OFSAA silver medallist, who won the 77-kilogram division.

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Wrestling With Angels

Felicia Rael , Nicole Darrow , Casey Odell , Matmen United Wrestling Club

By STACI MATLOCK | The New Mexican 02/16/2003

Mel Rael held his shriveled, dying father in his arms. It was Dec. 19, and Felix Rael'sNicole DarrowCasey OdellMatmen United Wrestling Club 14-month battle with multiple myeloma, a bone-marrow cancer, was almost over.

A few weeks before, when he could still talk, Felix Rael asked how his son's Pecos wrestlers were faring. He was always asking. He was always cheering. The former West Las Vegas football player was still a sports fan, and more, a vital support to his son's patiently nurtured dream of a Pecos High School wrestling team. "He was always there. Until the day he died, he supported us," Mel Rael, 35, said.

On that December day, the sport where Mel Rael and his family have focused so much of their lives the last few years, seemed a long way away.

Two weeks later, Mel Rael was back coaching his teams. The 10-foot diameter wrestling circles on padded mats became the refuge where he sought focused solace.

"It was hard. I'm glad he had wrestling to keep him occupied," says Bernadette Rael, his wife and the Pecos High School counselor.

Mel Rael has turned to the wrestling circle through bad times and good, through controversy and triumph in the last several years.

His greatest triumph came this year when the Pecos school district added wrestling to its sports program and renovated an old shop into a wrestling room. It was a glimmer of the five-year dream coming true.

Now, beside 10-foot circles outlined in white paint on new padded mats, Rael teaches Pecos boys and girls the ancient art of wrestling and something more: how to succeed off the mat.

On the wall near the entrance to the Pecos wrestling room, Rael hung this sign: "Wrestling is ... teaching values, building character, developing leaders, changing lives, molding champions."

His philosophy embraces defeat on the road to victory. "I think they learn more from losing than from winning," Rael said.

Jesse Armijo, 11, has wrestled in Rael's program the last four years. "He's told us it takes a man to stand on the mat, but more of a man to do good off the mat and in school," the fifth-grader says.

Saul Saenz, a 189-pound wrestler and junior at Pecos High School, chose wrestling as an alternative to school-yard fisticuffs. "I said I need to find something to keep me out of trouble," Saenz, 17, said, sweating from an afternoon practice. "(Wrestling) showed me how to back away from fights and not cause them."

Now Saenz brings his aggression to the mat, and the Pecos native is learning the moves to give his anger an accepted outlet.

Mel Rael has already produced a half dozen junior state wrestling champions and three national runners-up. His two children - Felicia and David - are among his top wrestlers.

With a new practice room, new mats and new attitude, he expects to produce more. "It is not a question of when we will produce more state champions; it is a question of how many," Rael said, as he watches the wrestlers warm up.

In 1998, he began a junior wrestling program with Pecos Elementary School students. The mats, the singlets, the headgear and the tournament fees were all paid with money raised from bake sales and raffles by Rael and parent volunteers. His ultimate goal was convincing the school administration to add wrestling to the district's sports program.

His dream was almost derailed.

Last spring, school administrators received a scathing anonymous letter and a letter from a former Pecos village mayor accusing Mel Rael of possible financial impropriety with wrestling funds and of giving preferential treatment on the mat to his own kids. Stunned, Mel Rael showed copies of wrestling accounts to a reporter. Parents were welcome to approach them with concerns and their books were always open for scrutiny, the Raels said later.

Bernadette Rael resigned as the Pecos High School counselor, and Mel Rael told the parents of the junior wrestlers he was leaving Pecos for Las Vegas, N.M. They pulled their children out of Pecos schools.

At an emotion-charged meeting absent the Raels, parents told the school board they couldn't let that happen. A couple of fathers fought back tears as they described the difference Mel Rael had made, not only in the lives of their children, but in their own.

Bobby Chavez Sr. was one of those fathers. "Everything Mel has done has been voluntary, on his own time," Chavez said. "We can't afford to lose someone who's willing to give up that time and has the knowledge of the sport. Someone at that meeting said Mel is replaceable. That's simply not true."

Weeks after the meeting, the school board voted to support a wrestling program for the middle and high school.

"(The controversy) was a blessing in disguise," Mel Rael says. "They set out to discredit us, and it had the opposite affect."

Mel Rael wrestled in the early 1980s at Robertson High School under coach Gerald Baca, now a Las Vegas attorney. Rael joined the New Mexico Highlands University team in 1986, a year before the wrestling program was nixed. The University of New Mexico followed suit a year later.

"Right now, we do not have one college with a wrestling program," Rael says.

He was watching the sport he loved die in New Mexico. "After that happened, I decided to get into coaching. I wanted to keep the sport alive in New Mexico. I know other coaches who feel the way I do," he says. "Even now some people say it is a dying sport."

Rael's plan to keep the sport alive involved a town that knew next to nothing about the sport. That didn't stop him. He started with the little kids he was sure could one day be champions. "I needed to start it there to prove it would work," he said. "I needed to start at the bottom."

Only a handful of middle- and high-school kids turned out for the secondary program's first season. It was a beginning.

And in a basketball-crazy town like Pecos, the new program was just short of a miracle.

Mel Rael still has the build of a lightweight wrestler. He still practices with a men's club in Las Vegas and wrestles in adult tournaments. At 5 feet, 7½ inches and 132 pounds, he's smaller than some of his high-school wrestlers. "All summer I was hiking, lifting and running to get in shape cause I knew they were going to want to wrestle the coach," he said.

Mel Rael has only a short walk from the Pecos High School classroom, where he teaches special education, to the wrestling room.

After school, the Rael family world is wrestling. They travel to tournaments practically every weekend. On Sunday afternoons, they put wrestling videos in the VCR to analyze moves. A full-size wrestling mat is stored in their garage, and practice mats are stored in David Rael's bedroom.

Bernadette Rael, 34, didn't picture herself as a wrestling fan when she married Mel Rael, her college sweetheart. She knew he was a wrestler. She just didn't expect it to become the family avocation.

She resented it at first. When Mel Rael put their son David in his first matches at age 4, she almost lost it. "I was livid. I was so mad," she recalls. "When they would pin him, I'd be watching with tears streaming down my face."

"She thought I was cruel," Mel Rael admits with a grin.

Now, Bernadette Rael can't imagine family life without wrestling. She obtained her coaching certificate so she could help Mel in a pinch. Whatever the cost has been in a loss of free time for other things, the sport has brought the family together in a rare way.

She's seen the benefits of devotion to wrestling in her own kids. "It has taught them discipline and respect for others," she says.

When they travel to national tournaments, they pack up the camper and make home on the road. Even the kids like the long road trips. "It's like camping and wrestling at the same time," says 9-year-old David Rael.

David Rael is accustomed to pairing off with older kids. It is hard to find anyone his age he hasn't beaten. "The biggest challenge is when a stronger guy gets on your back," David Rael said. "You have to have proper technique to get them off."

The couple's daughter, Felicia, is an anomaly among her friends in Pecos Middle School and girls in general. She is as devoted to wrestling as her father and brother. "(My friends) like it that I'm a wrestler. They think I'm tough," says the sixth-grader.

At 12, Felicia Rael has been wrestling for six years. She placed third in both Greco and freestyle wrestling at last year's AAU Nationals, beating two boys and a three-time California female champ along the way. Her sights are set on a wrestling with a high-school girl's team, then the Olympics, then a coaching position. "I wish they would bring a girls' wrestling program in. I'd like to wrestle in high school," she says.

Her dad is all for the idea, and his teams are open to girls. The problem is convincing more girls to try the sport and getting all-girl tournaments in the state. It might finally be happening. On Feb. 22, the first all-girls wrestling tournament will be held at Valley High School in Albuquerque. Felicia Rael plans on competing.

Mel Rael greets the younger wrestlers as hito and hita as they arrive for practice after school. He is patient with novice wrestlers, but firm when they are on the mat. He hears older wrestlers giving novices the same advice they've heard from him.

Mel Rael is back in the painted white circle of his 10-foot diameter world - a world he'll keep introducing to kids as long as he can.

Even his wife admits it with a smile, "Wrestling is his true love."

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Just one of the Guys

February 08, 2002

By Scott Barrett
North Adams Transcript

WILLIAMSTOWN -- Like any 13-year old girl, Mount Greylock's Nikki Darrow likes the pop group Destiny's Child and shopping at the mall, but it is her love of putting opponents into a three-quarter nelson that makes her a standout for the Mounties' wrestling team.

"Because I can watch them being pinned," said the eighth-grade grappler.

Darrow has gone from 'that girl wrestler' to 'just one of the boys' for Greylock this season, and has been nothing but sensational posting a 24-5 record in just her second season on the mat. It is her hard work ethic that makes the rest of the team stand up and take notice of her accomplishments.

"The guys can look past her being a girl," said older brother Shaun, who was also a standout Mountie wrestler from 1998-2001. "They know that she comes to every practice and works just as hard as they do. When she is on the mat, she is just like one of the guys."

It is when her opponents aren't looking at her as being one of the boys that they are usually looking at ceiling -- on their backs.

In December, Darrow became the first girl to ever win the Berkshire Holiday Tournament at the 98-pound weight class. She placed fifth in the ever-tough Essex Classic in Vermont, and took home the crown at the Mountie Invitational two weeks ago.

"It is a lose-lose situation for them," Darrow said of her boy counterparts. "If they win, they only beat a girl, but if they lose, they lost to a girl."

It was her brother's success on the team that first introduced Darrow to the mat. Wanting to spend more time with her older brother, she took the giant step by going out for the wrestling team -- a team coming off a Western Mass. title and dominated by boys.

Things didn't come easy for the then seventh-grader who was still trying to learn the ins and outs of the physically and emotionally draining sport. But after the season had ended, and Shaun graduated, she made up her mind that she was going to stick with it.

"I worked hard with her all summer long and she decided that she wanted to do it," said Shaun. "Nikki has always been a hard worker, and when she wants to do something, she'll do it. Everyday after school we'd wrestle together and go over things, and you can really see her improve."

Tae Bo, running and lots of lifting weights and working on moves was on her agenda every day over the summer -- this after waking up late because she says "a girl needs her beauty sleep." But it was this dedication that made her stronger, quicker and more of a tactical wrestler.

"Last year I was just a girl, and this year I am more of a wrestler," admits Darrow. "I was shorter, I didn't have as much muscle, I didn't know as many moves, but this year it has all changed."

With the Mounties reeling from losses to graduation, head coach Ray Miro was looking for some rookies to step up and jump in the fire -- Darrow was ready and waiting. From her first match of the year, it was evident that her hard work was paying off not only for herself, but for team Greylock as well.

It was the Holiday Tournament that she really started turning heads. Beating Drury's Jimmy Hayes, the No. 4 seed in WMass at 103, in overtime, things really started to click for the youngster.

"The Holiday tournament is where I really started to become part of the team," said Darrow. "It was weird, I was seeded third so I didn't know how I was going to do. I thought that it was great when I finally won."

With a very supportive team and her brother always coaching from the sideline, Nikki is never in need of a cheering section. With Shaun never having won a WMass title, she feels it is up to her to complete the task.

"I would like to be a WMass champ," Darrow said. "I don't think that a girl has ever been a WMass champ, and my brother didn't win there so he would like to see me win."

But that will have to be a task for the future as she lost an overtime wrestle-off with No. 1 seed and teammate Jon Girard at the 103 slot and will go to sectionals at 112.

"At first I was disappointed, but I know that I can still do okay at 112," said of her loss to Girard. "Besides, I have four more years to win WMass."

And when she does, brother Shaun, who will be wrestling for the University of Maine, like always, will be there.

"I don't care where I am, whether it be five hours away in Maine, I am going to be right there," he said.

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MM third, MG fourth at WMass. D-3 meet

By Tom Ryan 2/16/03
Berkshire Eagle Staff

Nikki Darrow of Mount Greylock put herself in a position to become the
first female to ever win a Western Mass. title when she pinned Tim Rouselle
of Granby in :25. Wolfe advanced with a pin of Andy Allard of Hoosac
Valley in 2:11. The Mounties Fran Derby advanced when he pinned Mat Masi of
Northampton in 5:27. Quagliano pinned Will Ryan of Taconic

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Grapplers looking for glory at WMass

By Scott Barrett 2/14/03
North Adams Transcript

NORTHFIELD -- This weekend, Mount Greylock's Nicole Darrow may wrestle her way to where no other girl has been before -- a Western Mass title.

The freshman standout is seeded second at the 103-pound weight class and is one of five Mounties who could win individual titles. Tony Quagliano (215), Fran Derby (125), Jon Girard (112) and Jeff Brodeur (130) will also try to help Greylock win its third WMass title in the past four years.

Although the Red and White will clearly be underdogs when the competition begins today at Pioneer Valley High School, head coach Ray Miro says his team is going for the gold.

"We're going there to win," Miro said. "We've been an underdog all season long, and yet these kids just keep fooling everyone. Anything can happen, and we're not too far back of everyone else that if something does happen, we can sneak right in there."

Gateway, Monument Mountain and Southwick are the top three favorites to win the title. The Spartans finished second at the prestigious Mountie Invitational in January while the Rams are the defending WMass champs.

But like any wrestling tournament, it eventually comes down to how deep you go. Miro is hoping that wrestlers like Kevin O'Connor (140), Dan Onorato (135), Shane Miro (189), Al Castro (275), Jon LaCasse (152), Matt Clement (119) and Justin Rancourt (160) can win their first few matches and wrestle back in the consolation rounds.

"As far as points in a tournament goes, those guys can make a difference," Miro said.

Hoosac Valley also intends on making a splash at the event as well. Head coach Frank Field says his team -- which is full of contenders -- is starting to peak at the right time.

"The guys are wrestling better than ever," Field said. "We don't really have the numbers to contend for a title, but the guys we do have are starting to come together -- we will be in the top 10 and maybe in the top five."

Darrow's biggest competition will be the top seed -- Greenfield's Josh Alamed. Alamed provides an unknown factor as no one in the county has seen or wrestled him. Darrow, 10-1 on the season, convincingly defeated the former No. 1 seed, Mount Everett's Jeremy Wolfe, last week at Berkshire Duals.

Derby (31-3), the No. 2 seed, could meet up with Southwick's Evan Hart, the top seed, in the finals. At the Mountie Invitational, these two hooked up, with Hart coming away with a 12-4 victory.

Quagliano (29-6) is Greylock's third and final No. 2 seed, and could provide the most exciting match for a Northern Berkshire wrestling fan. Hurricane senior Dan Goodman is the top seed in the weight class. In their only other match, Goodman (18-4) defeated the Greylock sophomore, 5-2.

Coming out of the third seed, Girard will have a hard time getting to the finals. Monument's Tim Mack is the top seed, and Andrew Hawley of Gateway is seeded No. 2. Girard lost to Mack earlier this season and was pinned by Hawley in last year's WMass final.

Although he is the sixth seed, Brodeur is in a wide-open weight class. According to Miro, any of the top six seeds could come away with the title. Everett's Randy Datollo is the top seed, and Taconic's Ben Kuni is seeded second.

Along with Goodman, Tom Oxton, Ryan Thomann, Craig Field and Andy Allard will be trying to bring home Hoosac's first ever WMass title. Thomann (171) is the only other No. 1 seed, and has defeated the third seed, Dan Evangelist of Taconic. He is 18-6 on the season.

Oxton (17-4) is seeded second in a tough weight class but should meet up with Gateway's Mike Sweet in the finals at 145.

Field is the No. 3 seed at 152 and Allard holds down the No. 4 seed at 103.

Drury has two wrestlers seeded. Dan and Ed Cote, at 145 and 160, respectively, are both seeded third.

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Matmen awarded wrestling crown
Better late than never

TheBramptonGuardian.com 2/16/03

Photo by GEORGE BESHIRI Members of the Matmen United Wrestling Club junior girls team captured the recent Ontario title. From left are Kim Noakes, Alana King, Jennifer Beedham, Jillian Wiltshire, Lindsay MacDonald and Katie Wycoff.

The junior girls team from Matmen United Wrestling Club did not get much of an opportunity to celebrate their recent team title at the Ontario Provincials at the Brampton Centre for Sports and Entertainment.
While the host Matmen club claimed the title at the event held last month at the time it was announced the Brampton/Mississauga club was actually second.

However, a review of the results last week resulted in the Matmen being declared the team champion so the club received its championship plaque well after the event.

Team members included Stephanie Howorun, who won gold at the 72 kilograms division and Ellie Travis with gold at 80 kgs.

Sophie Mancini earned the silver at 55 kgs, while Alana King was second at 51 kgs. Jillian Wiltshire finished third at 44 kgs.

Others who placed included Katie Wycoff, fourth at 44 kgs, Leah Wyght fourth at 58 kgs, Kim Noakes fifth at 63 kgs and Lindsay MacDonald fifth at 58 kgs and Jennifer Beedham sixth at 48 kgs.

The Matmen also earned another individual gold medal at the recent Ontario cadet championship with Wesley Jones, 16 earning the gold medal at 76 kgs. Jones was also the Ontario Winter Games silver medallist.

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IHS Cheerleader turns to wrestling

February 14, 2003

By Gregory Moore
Herald Sports Writer

Last year Casey Odell had a great view of Ignacio High School wrestling.

As a freshman, she was a wrestling cheerleader, and was right at the edge of the mat for most of the Bobcats’ meets.

But this year she decided to improve the view as a member of the team. Though not the first girl to try out for a high school wrestling squad in Colorado, and not even the first at IHS, the diminutive sophomore – who competes at 103 pounds – is the first female Bobcat wrestler to stay with it and complete a season on the junior varsity squad.

"It’s pretty fun," said Odell before a dual meet against Pagosa Springs in January.

"Last year as a wrestling cheerleader I attended all the matches. It looked like a lot of fun so I asked coach (Chris de Kay) if he’d coach me. He said, ‘Absolutely,’ so I decided to try."

While she didn’t exactly do it on a dare, Odell said two friends at IHS, Rachael and Ross Melton, doubted her drive and that helped her take the plunge.

"They said, ‘No way, you don’t have the cajones,’ and I said, ‘Oh yeah?’"

While success on the mats has been fleeting this season, Odell has proved to herself, her coach and her teammates that she didn’t try out on a whim.

After a full season, she’s every bit a part of the team as any other Bobcat.

"She’s just one of the squad," said de Kay. "I treat her just like any other wrestler, and like any other wrestler, she’s taking her lumps out there."

De Kay added that Odell improved steadily over the course of the season, and credits the rest of the team for part of her progress.

"This is a good bunch of guys for her to jump in with," he said. "For a few practices, they went easy on her, but that didn’t last long."

"Believe me, she’s taken her share of hard falls this year in practice."

Odell is also quick to credit her teammates with helping her this season: "At first, some of the guys were skeptical, wondering if I would last more than a couple of weeks.

"But now they’re supportive. They’re proud of me. I’ve learned a lot from them, and now they treat me like anybody else."

And for Odell, being just like anybody else on the squad in the eyes of her coach and her peers is a sure sign she’s completed that trip from cheering to being cheered.

"Even though she’s pretty new to the sport," said de Kay, "I wouldn’t hesitate to throw her into any situation."

Others in Odell’s life were not so eager to see her on the mat.

"At first my parents weren’t going to let me do it," she said. "But they got used to the idea, and now they say, "I’m so proud of you.’"

Odell, the daughter of Stephanie and Jeff Odell, is direct when asked to rate her performance this season.

"I’m not very good," she said, adding that while she had some close matches this season, she won only one, and that came when her opponent was disqualified.

"He kept locking his hands, so the referee disqualified him."

She added that since she is a girl, she doesn’t always know what to expect in a match.

"Some guys are nice to me, and they’ll talk to me afterwards," she said. "Some are mean and some have really taken it easy on me."

In her last meet, in Aztec on Feb. 8, Odell wrestled two matches. Though she lost them both, she enjoyed the competition, and racked up a couple of highlights she can always look back on.

"In the first match, I got a big takedown in the first period. Coach was really pleased about that. But then I got pinned.

"In my second match, I don’t want to talk about it," she said, still angry over the result of the match days later.

"I wrestled him before and I felt like I could have done better," she added after a moment. "He put me over on my shoulder, and I rolled through the move, but the ref called me pinned."

There was one high point of that match, however.

"I made that kid bleed," she said, smiling.

Odell is undecided about returning for another year as a junior, saying it is way too early to decide.

"This year has been fun, but being in an all-male sport has its drawbacks. Sometimes the guys warm up too much, and they get so sweaty, and they really stink," she said, adding that "it took a long time to get used to the smells in the wrestling room."

But whether she returns or not, she’s established that she belongs.

This girl just thinks like a wrestler.

A few days before the Aztec meet, she said she couldn’t wait to get out there and mix it up.

"I’m really hoping to get cross-faced in Aztec," she said bluntly. "I want a black eye for team pictures this week."

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