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Boy-girl wrestling banned; moms mad
The Associated Press 11/29/03
Courtney Jackson can wrestle. The 9-year-old proved it last year when she beat the boys on her way to first place at a tournament in Orem.
This year, the rules changed. This year, Courtney's mother said, girls were prohibited from grappling with the opposite sex.
Now the mother, Kristi Jones, and the mom of another young girl who wanted to wrestle in the tournament are asking the American Civil Liberties Union for advice.
Tournament director Cole Kelley said he was worried parents of some boys might be unwilling to have their sons wrestle against a girl.
"It happens frequently in the sport," Kelley said. "There are people that are uncomfortable with it, and I understand why they would be uncomfortable. "
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Young Wrestlers Ask ACLU for Help
Nov. 28, 2003
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) --
Courtney Jackson can wrestle. The 9-year-old proved it last year when she beat the boys on her way to first place at a tournament in Orem.
This year, the rules changed. This year, Courtney's mother said, girls were prohibited from grappling with the opposite sex.
Now the mother, Kristi Jones, and the mom of another young girl who wanted to wrestle in the tournament are asking the American Civil Liberties Union for advice.
Jones, of Santaquin, and Jessica Vellinga, of Provo, said their daughters faced gender discrimination during the Rocky Mountain Wrestling invitational Orem High School Nov. 22.
Tournament operator Cole Kelley "wasn't even discreet about it," said Vellinga, whose 6-year-old daughter, Jet, was denied a chance to wrestle boys. "He said 'I'm not going to have girls wrestle boys at my tournament.' He called my daughter 'honey."'
She said Kelley told her he once had to wrestle a girl at a national tournament, and he didn't want to put the boys through the same experience.
Kelley said he was trying to put wrestlers into similar groups for competition and put Jet and another girl into the same group but was unable to find a group for Courtney. He said he was planning to put Courtney in a group with boys but her mother pulled her out of the tournament before he could place her.
Jet ended up wrestling another 6-year-old girl, but only because Jet didn't want to disappoint her opponent, who had looked forward to the event.
The mothers say Kelley's registration forms asked for information on age, weight and experience and said nothing about gender-based groupings.
Kelley also blamed a blown fuse in the sound system for a failure to tell Jones and other parents about the grouping system.
"I do feel bad, and I want to apologize to Courtney for my error for the miscommunication," Kelley said. "I want to apologize to her mom for the miscommunication, and for the future, I want her to know I'll make more of an effort to make it a positive experience."
Kelley said he was worried parents of some boys might be unwilling to have their sons wrestle against a girl.
"It happens frequently in the sport," Kelley said. "There are people that are uncomfortable with it, and I understand why they would be uncomfortable. If they refuse to wrestle, then it's unfortunate for the boy. It's unfortunate for the girl. I was looking for kids her weight, her size."
Courtney's coach, Brad McKee, said he pulled the entire Santaquin junior wrestling team from the tournament because of Kelley's actions.
"He completely took the word 'fun' out of wrestling and completely interjected his own, and that was 'discrimination,"' McKee said. "It's unfortunate that they make this an issue of gender. It's a skill thing. If you don't want to wrestle a girl, then you should forfeit the match. If you think you can beat her, then put the gear on and let's get it on."
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11/27/03
Replacing Jim Heun, Fairview's head coach for 16 years, is Brian Young, who inherits a veteran squad.
"We have lots of kids coming back with varsity experience," Young said. "Most of that experience is around the same weight, so we have the chance to get more time for some of the new kids."
The Knights have 13 letterwinners returning, including state qualifiers Brian Cecil (Sr., 103) and Mike Rensberger (Sr., 189). The team also boasts sophomore Julianne Craft, who won the state title in girls wrestling in her weight division.
"I am really excited about this opportunity," Young said. "With a veteran team and a few wrestlers who can compete for state, I certainly look forward to it."
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Wolves wrestlers setting goals high
By DENNIS BOYER - Democrat Sports Writer 11/26/03
Woodland's Wolves return three wrestlers who have their eyes on this season's section meet at Folsom High.
A few other Woodland wrestlers could emerge as section qualifiers, but Metro League champions Josh Romero (125 pounds), Brent Gordon (140s) and Sub-Section champion Adam Rosales (103) will start with lofty ambitions.
Rosales came within one match of qualifying for the state meet last year as a junior.
"Technique-wise, he's getting better," Wolves coach Oscar Romero said of Rosales. "But his improvement is in his strength. He was lifting weights all summer. Adam should be in the section finals.
"It's mostly his technique (that makes him successful).That weight class is primarily freshmen and sophomores. So when you a throw a senior in there..."
Rosales wrestled in a National Qualifier in Washington last summer, along with the Asics Tournament in North Dakota, which boasts some of the toughest competition in the country.
"If you're in the top three there, there's recruiters talking to you," Romero said.
Gordon has been wrestling since the seventh grade. Romero said the talented Gordon needs to improve his consistency.
"I'd like to see him make it to the second day of sections," Romero said. "When he's off, he's off. He did his best wrestling last year at dual tournaments. He's got to get his confidence up for the tournaments. Last year he had an injury mid-season. He tweaked his ankle, and it got him out of shape."
Josh Romero, Oscar Romero's son and younger brother of Woodland wrestling great Oscar Romero Jr., has also gained strength since last season.
"Josh is a lot stronger," jayvee coach Ed Barrera said. "He's had a bad shoulder since eighth or ninth grade, but he seems to be able to wrestle through it. This year he's a lot more physical. He gets on these rolls sometimes. He may cut down on some moves this year and focus on certain things."
The Wolves also have some intriguing prospects, including Tyler Alves, a freshman who went 5-0 at the Wolves Takedown meet last weekend.
"His workout partner all year will be Adam Rosales," Oscar Romero said. "If you look at this guy without his shirt, he doesn't have a 15-year-old body. He just wants to be a good wrestler. He'll do everything he can. He's going to go to the state meet next year."
The Wolves also feature two girls, Karissa Testa and Kelly Nardiello.
"They don't make too many mistakes," Romero said. "They're pretty sound."
Testa, 98, is the first girl in the history of Woodland's varsity wrestling. Both Testa and Nardiello came within one match of medaling at the girls' state meet last year.
"She's been pretty consistent," Romero said. "The good thing about her is she's pretty much had just one coach. She hasn't been mixing styles. Lucky for her she's in the same position Adam is in, being a lower weight and an upper classman. She has more workout partners than she did last year. They should make her tougher."
Nardiello will wrestle at 126.
"She's super aggressive," Romero said of Nardiello. "Win or lose, whoever wrestles her knows he's getting in a match. A lot of her moves are borderline legal. That's just her style. She's real aggressive."
The Wolves will host the Woodland Duals Tournament this Saturday at 10 a.m.
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Can girls really play with boys?
How about croquet, bullfighting?
Many gloat as Wickenheiser bows out
OAKLAND ROSS 11/23/03
FEATURE WRITER
No sooner had Hayley Wickenheiser bade farewell to Finland then certain Canadian tongues started wagging.
The top woman hockey player in Canada — and the world — Wickenheiser said she wasn't satisfied with her role this season with Salamat, the Finnish men's professional team she joined last year.
The club won Finland's third-division championship in the spring and Wickenheiser was a not-inconsiderable factor in its success, with two goals and nine assists in fewer than two dozen games.
But this season, Salamat was promoted to Finland's second division, where the level of play is both faster and more physical.
Wickenheiser ventured on to the ice for no more than a few minutes per game and had no goals or assists this season so far.
"I wasn't happy," the 25-year-old native of Shaunovon, Sask., said the other day before boarding a plane in Helsinki and heading home to Calgary. "I missed my family a lot. I finally came to this conclusion in the end, because I didn't get to show my skills in the kind of role that I wanted."
On hearing about Wickenheiser's decision, some Canadians will no doubt be settling back into their Barcaloungers and smiling with satisfaction — "gloating" might not be too strong a term.
I told you so, they might be thinking. Girls just cannot play hockey with boys.
Some might go even further: Girls cannot play sports with boys. Period.
And maybe they are right.
Or just maybe the issue is a tad more complicated.
Just ask Gail Greenough.
Among the finest equestrians in Canada, the 43-year-old Edmontonian excels in show jumping, one of the few Olympic disciplines in which men and women compete as equals.
"At this level, mentally, you have to be extremely tough, whether you're a woman or a man," says Greenough, who is the first woman in history to have won the individual world championships in her sport, competing against all comers, male or female.
That was back in 1986.
"Up to now, in sport, the difference between the sexes has been the focus," says Greg Malszecki, a professor of kinesiology at York University. "If skill level is the focus, then on any given day some women could be competitive against men."
In disciplines that require both stamina and endurance, not to mention the divine virtue of buoyancy, the distaff sex already fare extremely well.
Take long-distance swimming. Here, women rule.
Eighty years ago, Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel two hours faster than any man had ever done before.
The first human to swim Lake Ontario? Marilyn Bell, in 1954.
Back on dry land, men continue to outperform women in marathon running, but the gap is closing quickly.
Last April, British runner Paula Radcliffe ran the London marathon faster than any British male in the race.
In many other sports, the disparity in performance between men and women, while dwindling, remains considerable.
Still, an extraordinary female competitor — Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam, for example — will occasionally surge to the top of the women's field and come oh so close to joining the best of the men.
The Sorenstams and Wickenheisers of this world are the exceptions, certainly, but they are evidence that the barriers separating male and female athletes may not be as impermeable as some people may think.
Meet Conchita Cintron.
Born in Chile, she began fighting bulls in Mexico in 1937 at the age of 15. During a 13-year career, she flourished in the sandpit of machismo and bloodshed that is the bullring. Before her retirement in 1951, she slew some 800 of the beasts, the first woman ever to perform at the top professional level in that glorious, if grisly, sport.
She is just one example among many. There are others.
At the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Chinese sharpshooter Zhang Shan outshot a field of 40 men and five women to win the gold medal in skeet shooting, then a discipline open to both sexes. No doubt coincidentally, skeet shooting was reconfigured as a segregated sport by the time the 1996 Olympics rolled around in Atlanta.
"Tradition has a lot to do with these trends," says Helen Jefferson Lenskyj , a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.
In equestrian sports, tradition has favoured open competition for roughly half a century. As a result, at least two generations of female riders have grown up in a competitive atmosphere where equality with men is the rule, not the exception.
All of which inevitably raises the thorny and confounding question: What about croquet?
Here is another venerable sport that does not much depend upon physical strength and that has long featured direct competition between masculine and feminine representatives of the species. So far, however, croquet has yielded only one female competitor capable of whacking a wooden ball with the best of the men.
She is Debbie Cornelius of Britain, who reached the finals of the world croquet championships in 1997, the only woman ever to have done so.
"As the level of play progresses, the proportion of women declines," says Louis Nel, president of Croquet Canada. "At the top level, women are few and far between. It is really quite noticeable."
Women, he says, do not seem to demonstrate the same drive to succeed that men often do.
"In a sport like croquet, what causes men to dominate is a mental thing," he says. "They are much more competitive. I suppose it is partly cultural."
One supposes that everything is partly cultural, but many experts speculate further that the cultural odds are stacked against women when it comes to sports.
In the first place, most of the athletic competitions now being contested anywhere in the world were originally devised by men, for men, with the purpose of testing physical and mental attributes that men possess and value. For the most part, female competitors have been obliged to adapt themselves to these sometimes awkward models.
In the second place, males still tend to begin acquiring basic athletic skills at an earlier age, giving them an advantage that lasts a lifetime.
"Getting one's identity as a boy and a man is closely connected to separating from your mother," says Lenskyj. "There's pressure on a boy to establish he's a boy and he's not gay."
From an early age, boys spend a disproportionate amount of their time running, jumping, tumbling, wrestling each other and throwing things.
Malszecki at York University cites a recent U.S. study of school-age children that measured their ability to throw a ball. On average, boys were able to throw twice as far as girls of the same age, if they were all using their dominant arms.
But the study also measured throwing ability when the children used their non-dominant arms, and here the performance of the two sexes was almost exactly equal.
Malszecki concludes from this that males aren't necessarily better equipped, physically, to fling a small round object through the air. They've just had more practice.
He believes that women might eventually be able to compete as equals with men in practically any sport.
Not everyone goes this far.
"I don't know if it's ever going to be the same because of the physical makeup," says Karen Lofstrom, executive director of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sports. Still, certain exceptional women athletes will inevitably want to test their skills against the best of the men.
For all Wickenheiser's talent, it's unlikely she'll ever be a legitimate NHLer either, but she does have a young son and he might one day have a daughter.
Time passes, things change, and you just never know.