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Senior Karissa Testa records two pins in her debut

Testa-ment: First female Wolf wrestler

By HANK VERESCHZAGIN - Democrat Sports Writer 12/2/03

Senior Karissa Testa might be slight in stature but she was more than willing to shoulder the responsibility of becoming the first girl to wrestle for the Woodland High School varsity team.

Friday night during the alumni matches, Wolves coach Oscar Romero asked Testa if she would be ready to go despite her cold.

Short and sweet was Testa's answer.

"Yep."

Some measly cold wasn't going to keep her off the mat with a chance at history.

"A lot of people look up to her," teammate Kelly Nardiello said. "It's mostly guys."

Standing 5-foot and weighing just 98 pounds, 6 ounces, Testa wrestled in the Woodland Duals Tournament on Saturday in the 103-pound division.

Before her first bout, Testa was so weakened by her cold that she didn't even warm up.

No problem.

Her first opponent was Sim McCarter of Rio Americano. She took a 5-0 lead in the first period, completely dominating the action.

Testa pinned McCarter 3 minutes, 9 seconds into match. The official asked that the match was marked at 11 a.m.

"She's really aggressive against the guys," Nardiello said. "It helps because she's really strong in her upper body."

Rio Americano coach Brady Yount wouldn't allow McCarter to be interviewed.

"He's just a first-year guy," Yount said. "I'd say to her, 'Great job. Way to work tough. Way to execute all your moves.

"Is that what you want? That's all there is."

Testa understood.

Ever since taking up wrestling in seventh grade while weighing 66 pounds, Testa is accustomed to seeing boys take losses to her badly.

"Some of them even cry," Testa said. "They shouldn't feel that way, though."

She couldn't help but let out a smile.

After winning her first bout ever in seventh grade, Testa remembered her eighth grade season wasn't as much fun. She took her lumps from the boys.

"It's a hard sport to stay in when you're losing," Testa said. "I considered it when I was in eighth grade. Kelly and I talked. She said, 'You can't give up on what you love.'"

California Girls Wrestling website has Testa ranked No. 5 in the state for the 103 division. Nardiello is ranked No. 8 for 132 pounds. The CIF has yet to sanction girls wrestling, but they both can vie for a state title in club wrestling this spring.

Testa was pinned by Dixon's Danny Williams and Franklin's Mike Stephens.

"Even when she lost, I know no one outwrestled her technically," Wolves coach Oscar Romero said. "They just overpowered her physically. That was her only problem. Karissa is one of our most technically fundamental wrestlers."

Williams, a freshman, was tenative in his first bout with a girl. It cost him as Testa took a 5-3 lead in the first period. Williams rebounded and pinned her at the 3:09 mark.

"It's hard wrestling a girl," Williams said. "You're always afraid you'll grab something you shouldn't."

Testa giggled when she heard about Williams' comment.

"Hey, I don't think about that," she said. "I'm out there to wrestle. It's not like I'm going to take offense if their hand slips. It happens all the time."

Still, Testa admitted that some boys have a difficult time rolling around the mat with her until she puts a good move and them.

"She's a lot stronger than you would think," Stephens said. "I wrestled against her just like I would any other boy."

As Woodland met Rio Americano in a rematch for the championship match, Testa faced McCarter again.

One coach joked, "Even his dad was in the stands rooting for Karissa so everyone in the stands wouldn't know it was his son losing to a girl for the second time."

Testa pinned McCarter in 2:35, drawing a groan from the Raiders' bench.

"I understand the stereotype. A lot of teams are going to rag on the guy for losing to a girl," Testa said. "They really shouldn't. That guy, if he was a first-year wrestler, shouldn't feel bad. If he sticks with it, he could be a pretty good."

Not once did Testa even allow a smile to crack after pinning McCarter twice.

But she savored the moment.

"It's fun beating boys because girls aren't supposed to beat the boys. There's always been that stigma," Testa said. "(When you pin one) then it doubles the fun."

Her smile glowed.

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Spartans put out welcome mat for four girl grapplers

CHAD BAALMAN , The Telegraph 12/02/2003

WHITE HALL - The North Greene Spartans were able to get one win out of a lopsided - but memorable - wrestling dual with Jersey on Monday.

After a double forfeit in the 103-pound weight division, freshman Mandi Cunningham stepped up to the scorer’s table, went out to the center of the mat and then had her arm raised by the referee.

Yes, the Spartans’ first boys win of 2003 came from a girl, courtesy of a Jersey forfeit at 112.

Cunningham is one of four girls wrestlers competing for North Greene this season. Dan Van Meter, the Spartans coach, says they are the first girls to ever wrestle at North Greene.

So the first girl ever to wrestle at North Greene was victorious. "I wish I had 14 boys like those girls because they work hard in practice," said Van Meter, whose team lost 40-6 to Jersey.

Cunningham said, "I’ve always liked wrestling. I always wanted to be in wrestling."

North Greene nearly had its first girl wrestler last year. Van Meter’s daughter, sophomore Alyssa, wanted to go out for the sport as a freshman but her father didn’t want her to be the only one to try it.

This fall, Cunningham, Kyla Cheek and Kate Sitton decided to take the plunge. And since Dan Van Meter couldn’t tell them no, Alyssa Van Meter was finally able to wrestle.

"A couple of my friends decided to do it and they called after that first night and told me how fun it was," Sitton said. "I said I had to try it and it’s fun."

The girls didn’t come out for wrestling on the first day. "They weren’t out for the first week of practice," Dan Van Meter said. "But when they came out, I said, ‘Oh, boy."

While Cunningham was able to get a forfeit win, the other girls wrestled. Since there was a double forfeit at 140, Alyssa Van Meter and Cheek wrestled each other in an exhibition. Van Meter pinned her teammate in 1 minute, 50 seconds.

"It’s hurtful," Alyssa Van Meter said of wrestling guys in practice. "It’s very intense because everything is happening so rapidly and you can’t think of what you’re going to do next. I’m looking forward to wrestling some people from other schools and being in the big tournaments."

Sitton, meanwhile, had it a lot tougher than the others. She had to wrestle Jersey’s Curtis Winder at 171. Winder pinned Sitton in 29 seconds.

"It was hard," said Sitton, a freshman. "He’s been wrestling for six years (counting junior high) and this is my first year. I was just trying to make it out of the first period, but I didn’t. It’s pretty painful, but it’s really fun. I won’t be so nervous the next time. I’ll be prepared."

Alyssa Van Meter says she takes some ribbing from boys at the high school. "Some of the guys say that we can’t handle it," she said. "But I’m still here."

Dan Van Meter has been impressed with the girls’ eagerness despite having to wrestle much stronger foes.

"A lot of times the girls are weaker than the guys but as far as pain, these girls can take it," he said. "They’re not afraid. I was a little concerned with them at first, but in practice I’ve worked with them that way. I told them that in a match they’re not going to go easy on you and they’ll be out there to win. They put up with it."

As far as goals for this season, Alyssa Van Meter said, "Hopefully to win and maybe get some new moves out of them."

When asked whether she thinks she can win by pinfall over a boy, Sitton offered a long pause before saying: "I’m going to try."

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Monson: Sports world can't escape gender bias

By Gordon Monson 12/2/03
Salt Lake Tribune Columnist

One day, we'll get past the gender hang-ups we have in society, in a comprehensive sense, and in sports in particular, right?
No way in hell.
No way in sports, especially, where those fixed ideas are too ingrained, too complicated, too uncomfortable, too threatening for some people to sort through.
Girls compete against boys? Women against men? Pah! The unwilling cannot seem to grasp, on the one hand, the practical reasons females have their own separate competitions in those sports commonly offered to both sexes; but on the other hand, that on occasion, when sports are either not traditionally available to women or when a girl or woman truly excels within that female realm, that they should cross over to compete with men.
Examples of so much confusion -- or in some cases, chauvinism and sexism -- abound, from golf courses to football fields. The latest comes from the wrestling mat, from a recent junior tournament in Orem, where the event operator, Cole Kelley, disallowed, at least initially, two girls from competing against boys.
The parents of the girls say their daughters were discriminated against at the Rocky Mountain Wrestling Invitational at Orem High School and that Kelley was the driving force.

Jessica Vellinga, the mother of 6-year-old Jet, says she registered her daughter for the tournament, showing up with Jet, as well as with her son, 8-year-old Ike, same as all of the other parents and wrestlers. But after waiting for two hours, Vellinga was told by Kelley that he wasn't going to have girls wrestle boys at his tournament, that Jet would have to "wait for another girl about her same age to wrestle, and he said, 'If you're not OK with that, it's my tournament, I have the right to run it my way.' "
Adds Vellinga: "He said he had to wrestle a girl when he was young and that it was a negative experience that he had never forgotten. I just felt bad that Jet didn't get to wrestle. He said she could wrestle this other girl, and then, he would give her a first-place medal. He was very condescending."
Kelley says he was merely misunderstood.
He says he was matching like-sized and, as it turned out, like-gendered competitors into brackets as part of a round-robin format, in order to accommodate the girls and the parents of young male wrestlers who, as Kelley puts it, "aren't comfortable with boys wrestling girls." Problem was, only three girls registered, two of whom were 6, and one was 9.
"I thought by creating a female bracket, that that would be a positive for the girls," he says. "That blew up in my face."
Kristi Jones, the mother of 9-year-old Courtney Jackson, subsequently pulled her daughter out of the competition, and was joined by Courtney's entire junior team, made up otherwise of boys, coached by Brad McKee.
"[Kelley] completely took the word 'fun' out of wrestling and completely interjected his own, and that was discrimination," McKee told The Associated Press. "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."
Although the coach's choice of words in that last sentence may not have been perfect, his reasoning was. Does anybody really think a wrestler is going to cop a feel on the mat? If anybody does think that way, in our conservative community, wouldn't it disturb him or her more that two boys are grabbing each other's body parts rather than a boy and a girl?
Come on.
Let the boys compete, let the girls compete, even together if need be at some events. Maybe the insecurities of men, and the freakish prudishness of some men and women, would diminish if it happened more frequently.

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Liz Ashley (Calf.)

12/2/03

While most wrestling coaches are kneeling on the
mat barking out instructions, Ledesma can be seen sitting calmly in his
coaching chair, talking with his wrestlers in between periods and flashing codes
during pauses in a match.

"He knows that we know how to wrestle and what to do," said 215-pound
senior Travis Ewart. "He may give us tips and stuff, but basically he trusts
us and he has confidence in us."

His confidence allowed current 112-pound senior Liz Ashley to wrestle
at the CIF dual meet last season. With a berth in the Division 2 semifinals on
the line, she came through with a pin in the final match, allowing La
Sierra to advance.

"We knew she had the abilities," Ledesma said. "We knew she was above
average than all the girls out there and she was beating guys after
guys out there."