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Local stars help put girls wrestling on the mat
By Ken Silman STAFF WRITER 3/11/03
MAKE ALL the jokes about mud and oil that you want, just do it to the face of Madeleine Briones, because the San Leandro High senior is bound to send you home with a broken nose from an aggressive cross-face that she'll swing into a cradle to pin you.
Girls wrestling has arrived as a legitimate sport, and if you doubt it, then why are colleges dispensing scholarships, the training center enrolling athletes for next year's Olympics and the CIF holding exhibition matches at the state meet?
The next step is section championships and official state championships. The question is simply how long it will take for that to happen.
Briones' story is another clear message that girls wrestling has arrived. As a sophomore, Briones was the starting shortstop for the San Leandro softball team, which reached the North Coast Section title game
As her wrestling stock increased, with college scouts closely monitoring the freestyle season, Briones begrudgingly gave up softball -- one of the top three girls sports out there -- as a junior.
"She is very special," San Leandro girls coach Dylan Souza said. "She was one of the driving forces that really got this program going. She would have excelled in any sport she would have chose. I am just lucky she found wrestling in the eighth grade and chose it."
The move paid off for Briones, too, as she has won the past two unofficial state championships, is currently ranked No.2 in the nation at 130 pounds. She spent a week training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in 2002.
"She is gonna have her options," Souza said. "Almost all the schools are interested. And with the Olympic Training Center, we will wait and see. Every women with aspiration will apply with next year being an Olympic year."
Over the weekend, Briones wrestled the biggest high school girls match in the history of the state, moving up a weight class to face 138-pound state champion Renee Green of Silver Creek in the featured exhibition match at the boys CIF state meet.
The match was held moments before the boys state championships started Saturday night at the sold out Spanos Center on the campus of the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Briones improved to 22-0 on the high school season with an 11-7 victory over Green, giving the Pirates a 2-1 record in the exhibition. Fellow senior Alex Gonzalez pinned Ginger Taylor 44 seconds into the third round to win her match, and Juana Juarez fell to Megan Richardson of Santa Paula in the 158-plus division.
The Seats is lucky to being sitting in a hotbed for girls wrestling with three nationally ranked females within its coverage area.
Along with Briones, Castro Valley sophomore Sharlee Solis is ranked No.4 in the 105 weight class, and Tennyson senior April Pabilona is sixth at 122.
Part of the reason for increased interest and success in Northern California is thriving middle school programs.
Bancroft Middle School coach Dave D'Antonio always seems to get a lot of mention with the success of the San Leandro boys program, and the same can be said about the girls.
D'Antonio's program at Bancroft had 30 girls this season, outnumbering many of the Hayward Area Athletic League boys programs, which have four grades to choose from.
Such a large contingent at the middle schools is another reason to believe this thing isn't going away anytime soon. While the numbers won't all stand up as the girls get into high school, the increased work will definitely help out Souza, who has done a sterling job himself keeping the sport going at San Leandro High.
Next up for Briones and the other ranked wrestlers is the United States Girls Wrestling Association Nationals March 29-30 at Lake Orion High School in Michigan.
Those results could go a long way toward determining what Briones and the other seniors will do next season. Only six colleges in the country offer women's wrestling programs, so the spots and the scholarships are limited.
Expect that to change soon as women's wrestling cleans up nicely and takes more time in the athletic arena
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Women's wrestlers appear on Good Day Oregon
On Mar. 11, 2003, KPTV's Good Day Oregon spent the morning checking out the Pacific women's wrestling team. Reporter Drew Carney got a chance to learn about the Boxer program, tried out a few of the moves himself and had a few moves tried on him.
Click here to see more pics and story
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Second place (among the nominees) for female Athlete of the Month went
to wrestling's Patricia Miranda (Manteca, Calif.). Miranda won gold medals
at two international wrestling events, the Dave Schultz Memorial
tournament and the Kiev Grand Prix in Kiev, Ukraine. At the Dave Schultz
International. She won four matches, including two technical falls and an 11-6 decision
over three- time World Champion Miyu Inoue of Japan in the finals. At the
Kiev Grand Prix, Miranda outscored three of her opponents by a 27-1 margin.