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8-year-old wrestler from Milan Wrestling Club captures national title

The Milan-News Leader 4/24/03
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Taylor Cooley, a second-grader at Chelsea’s North Creek Elementary School who wrestles with Milan Wolverine Wrestling Club, captured a girls’ national wrestling title at Lake Orion High School March 29-30.

The 8-year-old won the 53-pound division in the kindergarten through fifth-grade bracket. The national meet draws competitors from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.

Cooley, who has been wrestling since she was 3 years old, was understandably excited after winning the national title.

"It feels like I’m the best," she said. "It was very exciting (standing at the top of the podium)."

Cooley, who also participates in gymnastics, cheerleading and softball, has an overall record of 30-8 this year.

Cooley, who became interested in the sport by watching her older brother, Dakota, participate, said she mainly wrestles against boys.

"In fact during the (regular season), I never wrestled a girl," she said. "I am the only girl on the Hartland Wrestling team. I just finished with that league, and now wrestle with the Milan Wrestling Club."

Cooley, whose favorite wrestlers are Chiane of Hawaii and Katrina Betts, of Milan, said she’s fared pretty well against boys on the mats.

"I won many matches and lost some, too," she said.

Dakota Cooley, who is 11 and has been wrestling since he was six, placed second at the K-5 national meet in Virginia Beach, Va., April 5 and 6.

Dakota has been selected to Team Michigan. The elite squad participated in the National Elementary Duals in Kingsport, Tenn., the weekend of April 12.

He wrestles for both the Hartland Wrestling Club in Hartland, coached by Jerry Bommarito, and the Wolverine Wrestling Club in Milan, coached by Mike Betts. He will be vying for a state title in May.

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It's Not Hard To Pin Down
Trinity's Fuqua At Head Of Her Class

April 27, 2003
By WOODY ANDERSON / Courant Staff Writer

It was growing up on a farm with llamas, shoveling manure and tossing hundreds of 50- to 70-pound bales of hay up to the second floor of the barn that gave Melyssa Fuqua the strength. And it was watching a TV commercial for the World Wrestling Federation that ignited the passion.

Fuqua, a Trinity College freshman, last month finished second in the USA Wrestling North American Freestyle Wrestling Championships in Lake Orion, Mich. That earned a tryout for a possible trip to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. In the meantime, Fuqua has an expense-free invitation to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

One day as an eighth-grader in Westfield, Mass., Fuqua and a friend went to the basement and threw each other around, pretending to be WWF characters. Fuqua's mother, Janice, a physical education major in college who never wrestled, showed the girls some moves and how to pin. Janice encouraged Melyssa to wrestle in high school.

"If she had the opportunity she would have tried it," Melyssa said. "She's living vicariously."

Her father, Bill, had to be convinced to let Melyssa wrestle.

"He was afraid I'd get hurt, that fatherly instinct type of thing," Melyssa said. "He hates wrestling, but he's come a long way. When I talk moves, he understands."

A Difficutl Start

Fuqua began wrestling in ninth grade. Westfield High didn't have a girls team so she wrestled the boys.

"I didn't like it the first year," Fuqua said. "The coach wanted me to quit and most of the guys weren't supportive. I stayed with it out of spite to show I could do it."

Along the way, she took a beating, winning one match in her high school career.

"I beat one guy, I was so happy, but I felt kind of bad for him," she said of the pin, her only victory in about 70 matches.

"I'd get excited if I reached the second period or made it to the end of a match or if I had a takedown or a reversal," she said.

Fuqua's success came against girls. When she was a junior, she won the 144-pound national high school championship and the Cadet Nationals in freestyle, earning a trip to Poland where she trained for a month.

"When you go to nationals you can tell which girls are on girls teams and which are on boys," Fuqua said.

She missed her senior season because she injured a hip. She was limping for eight months.

Fuqua, 5 feet 6, 165 pounds, began practicing with the Trinity men's team last fall because there is no women's wrestling. She worked out every day with different varsity and junior varsity wrestlers.

"They were beating me up all the time," Fuqua said.

One of the wrestlers she practiced with was Michael Doros of East Hartford. Doros, co-captain of the team, wrestled at 184. He was 27-4 last season and is 66-19 in his career. He has been All-New England three times. A tough customer.

"He didn't give me anything," Fuqua said. "I had to work for it. It took time to get used to it."

Doros noticed how serious Fuqua was after throwing her several times.

"She got up, no complaints," Doros said. "She takes it all."

Doros would show her moves and Fuqua would ask questions.

"She has potential," Doros said.

Fuqua also made gains in the weight room. She can bench 95 pounds 24 times. She runs and lifts every day.

A Growing Sport

Gary Abbott is USA Wrestling's director of special projects, including the development of women's wrestling. He said only seven U.S.colleges have women's wrestling.

"Women's wrestling does not have emerging sports status with the NCAA," he said.

That means there are not enough teams to be an official NCAA sport.

But the sport is growing. Dozens like Fuqua practice on men's teams. Abbott said there are at least 5,000 women wrestlers in high school and college and many more in youth programs.

"That's a pretty good number for a sport people don't know exists," Abbott said.

Texas and Hawaii have high school girls wrestling tournaments. California has 1,000 girls high school female wrestlers.

"Women's wrestling has been growing on the world level since the 1980s," Abbott said.

Abbott estimates there are tens of thousands of women's wrestlers in 80 countries. Canada has 16 colleges that offer women's wrestling and there is girls wrestling in high school.

"The U.S. has competed in world championships every year since 1989," Abbott said. "Many countries have been holding national championships for 15 years."

There are seven weight classes in women's wrestling but there were only four tentatively planned at the 2004 Olympics: 105, 121, 138, 158.

Fuqua said it will be no problem dropping seven pounds to wrestle at 158. The problem will be to wade through all the competition.

"We'll have thousands of girls fighting for four spots," Abbott said. "It's very elite."

Fuqua knows Toccara Montgomey is ahead of her. Montgomery, a sophomore at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Ky., was the top wrestler in the world two years ago. Montgomery beat Fuqua when they were both in high school.

"I was the only one to score points off her," Fuqua said.

Also, Samantha Lang, a high school junior in Oregon, has defeated Montgomery twice this year and has beaten Christine Nordhagen, a five-time Canadian champion.

"There will be others coming out of the woodwork," Fuqua said.

Maybe even someone from a llama farm.