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Frisco has firm grasp
07/13/2003
The Frisco girls wrestling program is only one year old, but it will
have five wrestlers competing for Team Texas at the National Greco/Freestyle
Wrestling Tournament in Fargo, N.D.
Admittedly, it helps that Frisco girls wrestling coach Chuck Brown is
also the leader of Team Texas. But the Frisco wrestlers have earned the trip
to the July 24-26 event, according to the coach.
"I've just seen tremendous improvement from them," he said.
The five Frisco wrestlers include recent graduate Allison Hooper and
seniors-to-be Jasmine Flores, Katherine Barreda and Jamie Odom.
Brittany Kimball, who will be a junior, is also on the team, as well as recent
Plano East graduate Alecia McCoy, the Panthers' only female wrestler last
season.
"They've all shown the interest and drive to win a national
championship," Brown said.
The Team Texas girls squad finished fourth at last year's national
tournament, but it only had 10 team members. This year, Brown hopes to
have 20 team members to have more depth in weight classes. Last year's
winner was California, which had the maximum allotment of 27.
Women's wrestling, by the way, will make its debut as an Olympic sport
next year in Athens.
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Taking a flier has big payoff
Frisco wrestler heads to elite event after pinning down a calling
07/24/2003
By DAVID HINOJOSA / The Dallas Morning News
FRISCO – Brittany Kimball knew she had found her calling last fall when
she saw a flier about the search for prospects for Frisco High School's
first girls wrestling team.
"Be a part of history," the flier read.
For Kimball, 16, who had never competed in any sport or participated in
an extracurricular activity, it was perfect.
"I've always been a tomboy, beating up on guys," said Kimball, who will
be a junior this fall. "I thought it would be a lot of fun."
Kimball had no idea. In her first season of wrestling, Kimball finished
fourth in the 95-pound division at February's UIL state championships.
Kimball was 14-6 on the season and earned SportsDay's All-Area Newcomer
of the Year award for those efforts. On Thursday, she'll be one of 17
girls who will represent the state when USA Wrestling's Junior Girls Nationals
begin in Fargo, N.D.
Chuck Brown, the head coach of Team Texas and Frisco's girls team, saw
right away that Kimball had potential. Basically, Kimball is a quick learner,
and that helped her march up the ranks.
"There are times when you see people with potential, but they never
reach it," said Brown, who was SportsDay's All-Area Girls Coach of the Year.
"Brittany is not one of them."
Kimball didn't need much time to realize that wrestling was the perfect
activity for her.
"I definitely loved it right away," Kimball said. "You can take all
that aggressive, pent-up energy and release it legally. It's great."
A year ago at this time, Kimball was working on piling up credits in
summer school in hopes of graduating from high school early. Her new endeavor
has changed those plans, and that's just fine with her. She doesn't want to
leave high school early anymore.
She has two more years of high school competition remaining, and
college wrestling has emerged as a possibility.
On Sunday, Kimball finished a four-day camp with Team Texas in Frisco,
where the team received some high-level instruction. Sara McMann, a national
team member, served as one of the camp instructors.
"Sara's been teaching us a lot of technique," Kimball said. "It's been
a big learning experience for everybody."
Kimball's nerves are usually frayed before a meet, and Brown has had to
work on calming her down. Brown believes this summer's experience will help
Kimball deal with her nerves for the high school season.
"There shouldn't be one person she wrestles next year that she should
be nervous about," Brown said.
Wrestling's biggest contribution goes beyond the mat for Kimball. "It
feels really cool to belong," Kimball said.
BRITTANY KIMBALL
Age: 16
School: Frisco High School
Grade: Junior (this fall)
Family: Mother Shannon Kimball, stepfather Brett Kimball, sister
Cheyenne, 12, and stepsister Keisha, 12.
Notable: SportsDay's All-Area Newcomer of the Year. ... Finished fourth
in the 95-pound division at the UIL state championships. ... In May,
sister Cheyenne won the America's Most Talented Kid competition, which was
televised by NBC.
----------------------------------------
Team Texas girls set for this week's wrestling nationals
Camp wrapping up preparation
07/20/2003 DAVID HINOJOSA / The Dallas Morning News
FRISCO – Chuck Brown is optimistic about the state of girls wrestling
in Texas. Based on the quality of this year's Team Texas participants, he
should be.
Brown has been head coach of Team Texas in both years of its existence.
The 17-member squad has trained in the Frisco High gym since Thursday to
prepare for USA Wrestling's Junior Girls Nationals that begin Thursday in
Fargo, N.D.
"The biggest thing is to get the girls ready for this type of
[national] competition," said Brown, who is also Frisco High's girls coach. "We're
just perfecting technique right now. It's not like we want to change what
they already know."
Brown wouldn't want to do that because the squad includes two UIL state
champions and 10 others who placed at state. Last year, there were no
state champions, and only three earned places at state. Nine of the girls are
from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and six are from the Houston area.
"The camp is really intense this year," said Suekoilya Shelly, a 2003
Hurst L.D. Bell graduate. "Last year we all worked hard, but this year we
have some top-quality people."
Shelly, SportsDay's All-Area Girls Wrestler of the Year, earned high
school All-America honors following last year's nationals. That experience
helped her go 21-0 this UIL season and win state in the 138-pound weight
class.
"After going to nationals, every other meet was pretty small," said
Shelly, who will wrestle for Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Ky. "It gives
you a lot of confidence."
Brown has been able to import high-quality talent to serve as camp
coaches. They include Sara McMann, a women's national team member, and Lisa
Whitsett, a Grapevine resident and former wrestler who has authored a sports
psychology book. Whitsett serves as assistant coach.
The team has been receptive to both. McMann is perfecting techniques,
and Whitsett works on mental preparation.
"A lot of the girls are picking up the moves pretty quickly," said
McMann, 22, who will compete in September's World Championship of Freestyle
Wrestling in New York. "I wish I got exposed to that kind of coaching
when I was in high school. They are lucky because they have coaches that
really care about their development."
In addition to providing exposure to high-level training, the camp gets
the girls used to freestyle wrestling, which is used at the college,
national and international levels. In high school, the girls wrestle folkstyle,
which emphasizes mat wrestling. Freestyle wrestling emphasizes takedowns.
"If they want to wrestle in college, then this is where it all starts
for them," Brown said.
Shelly and Pflugerville's Rachel Billerbeck, the UIL state champion at
128 pounds, are the team's most accomplished wrestlers. The camp includes
some first-year wrestlers, including Frisco's Allison Hooper and Brittany
Kimball.
"I feel lucky to be here because I know there are tons of people who
would like to be in my position," said Hooper, a 2003 Frisco graduate who
also will wrestle for Cumberland. "The camp has pushed us so hard. We're
learning what we have to know in order to represent Texas to the best of our
abilities."
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Training Notebook from the Women’s Junior World Championships Team - updated August 12
8/12/2003
Rusty Davidson/Women's Junior World Team head coach
Editor’s note: Women’s Junior World Head Coach Rusty Davidson is keeping a notebook concerning the preparation and competition activities of the 2003 Women’s Junior World Team, which will compete in Turkey this summer.
We will update the entries with the most recent postings at the top of the article.
Monday, August 11th notebook entry
Today we hit a low spot… had to dig ourselves back out. We were successful.
One of the goals of our split camp was to get exhausted in Lake Placid. We’re on track for that. The girls are tired, but not exhausted.
We’ll keep going quite a few match pace minutes until we fly, Thursday. Once we get to the acclimation portion of our camp, in Bulgaria, we’ll taper off.
What we’re looking to do is heal up and get hungry for the violence! That’s why the demanding pace in Lake Placid. We want the girls to get used to this pace so that they’ll miss it after the five days we have in Bulgaria. Then we can return to Istanbul and beat some people up.
We accomplished one of our big team goals today, in the process of cheering up. Jared, who works at our OTC, is native to the area. He showed us one of his secret places along the Au Sable River. We went cliff diving!
One of our team goals is to create stories people will ask to hear again. We created one in the river. The lowest jumping point is probably 20 feet above the water. Two more are about 35 or 40 feet, but the higher one forces you to clear another ledge. Then, there’s the granddaddy… 60 feet above the water, over a tree, and right next to the falls.
Everyone, except Coach Rusty and Mary jumped the granddaddy! Both of the “sissies” at least jumped the 40 though. Juanita Russell was the MVP of insanity. This girl will jump off of anything!
We gave the evening practice to creative cross training. Our Hawaiian connection (Cathy and Debbi) drilled hard. Several of the others snagged the opportunity to go ice skating in the Olympic Arena (Miracle on Ice 1980).
So, we enter day six with a reborn enthusiasm. We’re still hoping to ride passenger with our USA Bobsleds team. We also plan to participate in the Ski-Jumping Team’s “Wet Wednesday” activities.
We’re also planning on polishing up our technique and wrestling harder than most people would ever want to. Oh, and winning the World Championship… yeah, we’re planning on doing that, too.
Sunday, August 10th notebook entry
Things are going well. Everyone’s pretty close to fighting shape. Weight management is on target. We are two weeks out. Our plan is, if we’re going to beat each other up, it’ll be while we’re in the states.
Once we get to our final camp, in Bulgaria, all we want to do is fine tune and create a hunger for the violence. All of our workouts mirror the times of the scheduled sessions in the World Championships. We believe the psychological routine will pay off for us in Istanbul.
A big part of our psychological preparation is a ‘Quote of the Day’. We use a hand-picked a series of quotes, appropriate for what’s on our plate each day during our camps. Here are samples from the early days of our Lake Placid Camp.
Thursday, August 7th… from Coach Gable… “You can’t ever work too much because there’s no such thing as being in too good condition. You can’t ever lift too much because you can’t ever get too strong. You can’t ever wrestle too much because you can always get better.”
Friday, August 8th quote from actor, Jimmy Stewart… “You have to develop a style that suits you and pursue it, not just develop a bag of tricks. Always be yourself.”
Saturday, August 9th quote from Muhammad Ali… “I sought advice and cooperation from all those around me… but not permission.”
Sunday, August 10th quote from NFL Coach Dick Vermeil… “If you don’t invest very much, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much and winning is not very exciting.”
It should be easy for all wrestling people to identify with these quotes. We’ll share our others, as camp progresses, so that you can tell what we’re working on.
Saturday, August 9th Notebook entry
Settling into a productive routine. Coach Kip (Flanik) is fired up. Wait… Coach Kip is always fired up!
One of the tools we’re using is a training log. Modified for use by the Women’s Junior World Team, specifically, this log is pattered after one created by Coach Mike Hagerty (Blue Springs, MO).
We’ve made a commitment to Coach (Terry) Steiner that we will do more than win this tournament. We will add a block or two to the development of our future elite women.
The goals we have set for this group are listed here. Notice we put several goals above the priority of winning medals and trophies. Don’t take this wrong. We intend to put all eight on the podium. It is simply our philosophy that, if developing athletes pour out the discipline it takes to achieve our prioritized goals… winning just kind of takes care of itself.
GOALS FOR THE 2003
WOMEN’S JUNIOR WORLD TEAM
* Represent the United States of America with Dignity
* Put the Well Being of the Group Before Any Individual
* Develop Positive Routines for Preparation
* Stay Healthy
* Make New American Friends for Life
* Make New Foreign Friends for Life
* Create Stories People Will Ask to Hear Again
* Laugh A Lot
* Win the World Championship
Friday, August 8th Notebook entry
Off to a great start! Seven of the eight are in camp. Mary Kelly arrives tonight (she had a summer school final, last night).
The girls look great. We asked ‘em to come in ready to rock… and they responded. Coach Kip (Flanik, Cumberland College) thinks I’m over the edge. He may be right.
Last night we had an easy, roll-around practice. This gave both coaches a chance to see what we’ve got. This morning… the test. We wrestled three live, nine minute bouts with 15 minutes drilling rest between.
These kids are tough, mentally and physically. I know they get the credit, but I believe there are people named “Coach” back home who deserve to know how much we appreciate them.
Tonight, we focus on par terre defense. With that work, automatically comes par terre offense. We believe we will win, or lose, in par terre. That doesn’t mean we won’t be savage on our feet. We intend to put ourselves on top.
Before signing off, another note of thanks. The staff at Lake Placid OTC are treating us like royalty! Everyone seems thrilled we are here. What a feeling! We are all pretty thrilled ourselves.
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8/12/2003
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
It is exactly one month from the opening whistle of the 2003 World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling, which will be held in Madison Square Garden in New York City, September 12-14.
The tournament will feature the world’s best men and women freestyle wrestlers, competing in the world’s most famous sports arena, Madison Square Garden. The World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling is also a qualifying event for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Women’s wrestling will be contested in the Olympics for the first time ever in Athens.
The world’s best wrestlers have begun their final training preparations for the competition, getting ready for the opportunity to win World titles and medals in seven weight classes for men and seven weight classes for women. The defending World Freestyle Team Champions are Japan in women’s wrestling and Iran in men’s wrestling.
At this time, based upon registration materials provided by each national federation, there are 305 men freestyle wrestlers and 174 women freestyle wrestlers expected to compete at the World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling.
These 479 athletes represent 71 nations: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guam, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Phillippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Chinese Taipei, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Uzbekistan.
The teams for the United States have been determined, and the coaching staffs are preparing for the final training camps. The U.S. freestyle teams are coming off a tremendous performance at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where they both won the unofficial team titles. The women’s freestyle team swept all four individual gold medals available, and the men’s freestyle team won four gold medals and seven medals total.
The New York community is also getting ready to host the championships, with final planning underway for all aspects of the event presentation. The Metropolitan Wrestling Association is among the leaders of the local organizers for the event. The tournament is expected to be a huge success, with special credit to the volunteers from the region who have worked very hard to prepare for the competition.
"We are honored to have the world's best freestyle wrestlers coming to New York for these championships," said Ken Podziba, Commissioner of the New York City Sports Commission. "With New York's large ethnic diversity, we are confident that the World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling will stir national passions and demonstrate why New York is such an extraordinary home for great international sports competitions."
New York's Korean and Russian communities, as examples, are full of enthusiastic sports fans that will come out to support wrestlers from their national teams, which have already named rosters for these Championships. "This event will show that New York is truly the World's Second Home(tm), " he continued.
Fans who wish to purchase reserved seats must act soon, as they are expected to be all sold prior to the first day of the competition. Premier seats remain available throughout the arena for the event, but fans should order them right away. Call today to order tickets at 1-877-NYC-2003.
“The 30-day countdown has begun, as the organizing committee prepares from what will be the greatest World Championships ever conducted,” said Mark Scott, competition director for the 2003 World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling. “The organizing committee is excited about the brisk ticket sales, and anticipates a total sellout of the championship finals. USA Wrestling is pleased to host the world’s wrestling federations in this important Olympic qualifying event. Fans will witness the most exciting wrestling action on earth. It will be a tremendous event.”
Fans who have not yet booked hotels still have a limited time frame to get them through the organizers at the special event rate. A variety of hotel options are available. To see the list of hotel options, visit the World Championships web page at www.nyc2012.com/wrestlingworlds. Handling hotel accommodations for the event is Total Travel Management at 516-222-9229 or via e-mail at ttmny@ix.netcom.com.
Media interest worldwide for this event has been strong, with over 250 media accreditation forms already received. There is still time for journalists to apply for credentials, as well as available space for these journalists to be accommodated at the competition. The deadline for media accreditation is 25 August. For information, contact Press Chief Gary Abbott at 719-598-8181, ext. 641 or via e-mail at gabbott@usawrestling.org
Just one month to go! Make plans to attend the World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling today.