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By Pete Panepento and Jeff Lemberg
February 6, 2000

To find the revolution, one must enter an unmarked building through a windowless door. Once inside, a tiled maze of halls leads to a dimly lit basement room where two dozen teenagers spend two hours each afternoon grabbing, pulling and throwing each other around.

This revolution is certainly not being televised — heck, it takes a lot of work just to find — but it is taking place nonetheless. And the unofficial headquarters is this out-of-the-way basement room in the Brookline High athletic building.

Brookline, a public high school in an upscale urban suburb of Boston, created the first girls-only wrestling team on the East Coast five years ago. Since that time, the school has hosted competitions that have included female wrestlers from as far away as Pennsylvania and Maryland. Brookline has produced All-Americans and state champions and has developed a youth wrestling program that attracts more girls than boys.

It has, in short, been leading a scholastic sports revolution.

“The only opportunity girls have in most places to wrestle is on a boys’ team,” says Gary Abbott, director of communication for USA Wrestling. “Brookline was not typical. But [this] way may be the future."

While Brookline has been blazing new trails in one of the nation’s hottest gender-equity battlegrounds, it is not fighting alone. The number of girls wrestling on the high school level has increased from a mere 112 in 1990 to more than 2,300 in 1999, according to USA Wrestling. Although most of those girls must compete against boys on boys’ teams, girls-only squads have been taking hold in some very unlikely places — like the George School in Philadelphia, a private high school with Quaker ties.

Still, as enthusiasts talk proudly about the explosion of girls’ wrestling, they are also grappling privately with questions of fairness, the issue of sexual stereotypes and the prospect of creating a blueprint for a sport that is changing before their eyes.

GIRLS ONLY

Kate Stewart is a fighter.

Stewart, a junior at the George School in Philadelphia, had been competing on her school’s boys’ wrestling team since her freshman year. That was until the Friends League decided after her sophomore season that it would no longer sanction events that featured girls wrestling against boys.

But rather than accepting the league’s response, Stewart found a solution: she rallied the student body to create a girls-only team.

“The interest and the enthusiasm that was met with our proposal to start this team was amazing and overwhelming,” says Stewart, who rounded up 13 other girls and persuaded school officials to recognize them as a team.

The George School girls’ squad now has its own coach and is seeking out meets and opponents, which isn’t exactly easy considering the sport’s fledgling stage. But one of the team’s likely destinations this winter will be Lancaster, Pa., where McCaskey High wrestling coach Jon Mitchell will host the second annual Pennsylvania State Girls’ High School Wrestling Championships on Feb. 5. Mitchell started the “unofficial” championship meet to provide high school girls in his area the opportunity to wrestle against each other. Although Mitchell says he supports the growth of girls’ wrestling, he also created the meet because he doesn’t like to see girls wrestle boys.

“It does make me uncomfortable when I put girls on the mat against boys,” says Mitchell, who hosted 47 girls at last year’s meet and expects more than 100 this year. “My feeling is, I’m not going to deny any girl an opportunity. But until we can provide a system where we can wrestle girls against girls, it’s the best we can do.”

Mitchell is part of a growing faction within the scholastic and collegiate wrestling community who believes that for girls’ wrestling to continue to grow, it will need to provide females the opportunity to wrestle against other females. The University Interscholastic League, the governing body of high school athletics in Texas, forbids boys and girls to wrestle against each other in sanctioned meets. Brookline High athletic director Walter Sargent takes it a step farther. He simply will not allow girls at his school to wrestle against boys — ever. No exceptions.

“You put a boy and a girl on a mat and they both lose,” says Sargent. “The girl is often at a competitive disadvantage. The boy will be either uncomfortable or will be too aggressive.”

Others, like Bridgewater-Raynham High (Bridgewater, Mass.) coach Stan Holmes, worry that boys are too worried about losing to girls when they take the mat.

“I think the boys are more aggressive when they wrestle the girls because they don’t want to get beaten,” says Holmes, who has coached high school wrestling for more than 20 years and has two girls on his boys’ team this season. “I’ve heard teammates laughing and saying, ‘You just got beat by a girl.’ When you wrestle a girl, a boy knows it’s on the line.”

“At first, they’re setting themselves up for failure because everything is stacked against them,” says McCaskey senior 171-pounder Mahfuz Meherzad. “On our team, I think we understand and we’re not uncomfortable. But on other teams, you see the looks and giggles and stares.”

There are others, however, who see mixed-gender wrestling as a blessing. Brenda Malott, a senior on the Arlington Sam Houston wrestling team, competes in varsity events against girls in her home state of Texas. But when she’s not wrestling girls, she’s honing her skills against some of the eight boys on her team during practice.

“It’s good because they’re faster and more muscular,” says Malott, 128 pounds, who won two straight state titles and earned Female Wrestler of the Year honors last year from The Dallas Morning News. “I get to train twice as hard as them.”

As much as the boys may help Malott get better, her coach, Roy Shultz, hints that the process may be reciprocal.

“Sometimes I wish my guys were more like her.”

TITLE IX

Doug Reese doesn’t like to think of himself as a pioneer. Trailblazer? Nope. Trendsetter? Get real. According to Doug Reese, he’s merely a wrestling coach who saw a need and filled it.

In 1994, Reese made a proposal to the athletic director of the University of Minnesota-Morris to start a women’s wrestling program at the school. His argument was simple and to the point.

“It was an affordable way to add another women’s sport,” says Reese, who, at the time, was in his fourth season as the men’s wrestling coach at Minnesota-Morris. “Because of Title IX, a lot of men’s wrestling programs were being cut. It was a no-brainer.”

But few colleges have followed Minnesota-Morris’ lead. Only two other American institutions, Missouri Valley State and Cumberland College (Kentucky), both members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, offer women’s wrestling. But few people are worried about the future of female wrestling; sooner or later, it will unquestionably grow. It’s the men’s sport that has emotions boiling over.

Twenty-seven years ago, the Educational Amendments, better known today as Title IX, went into law under President Richard Nixon. Its purpose was to require high schools and colleges that receive federal funds to not discriminate on the basis of gender in the provision of any educational activity - including athletics.

Few people have disagreed with the philosophy behind Title IX, which, simply put, requires equal opportunity for both males and females. What is causing great tension, however, is the system by which Title IX is being enforced.

In 1980, the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, under the direction of the Department of Education, created a three-pronged system to ensure that high schools and colleges meet Title IX standards.

First, educational institutions must show a history of increased opportunities for females in sports. Second, educational institutions must meet all unmet desires for females to compete in sports. Third, the number of male and female athletes within a school must mirror the student population.

There are few fans of prong No. 3.

“Instead of increasing the opportunities for females, it’s causing the elimination of men’s programs,” says Eric LeSher, who works for a non-profit group called Iowans Against Quotas. “Of the three prongs, two work to increase opportunities for women. The last works to eliminate opportunities for men.”

LeSher says the third prong of enforcement is nothing more than a gender quota. What his organization is trying to do is lobby the next President of the United States to eliminate gender quotas in scholastic and collegiate athletics. Iowans Against Quotas is working on a petition drive and has gathered more than 10,000 signatures in support of its cause. According to LeSher, his organization is hoping Republican frontrunner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush Jr., will make the cause part of his party platform.

Other groups, like the National Coalition for Athletics Equity (NCAE), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., are taking their fight to the people.

“It’s not about equality anymore, it’s about numbers,” says Leo Kocher, president of the NCAE as well as the head wrestling coach at the University of Chicago.

“As long as Title IX is effectively a quota law, every program in the country is in jeopardy,” he continues. “Today, Title IX is limiting the amount of boys who want to play sports to equal the number of girls who want to.”

According to a 1997-98 report published by the NCAA, 21 sports for men and 21 sports for women are offered by their membership schools — thanks in large part to the addition of new women’s sports such as ice hockey, squash, synchronized swimming and water polo.

The problem, however, is that women make up 55 percent of the American college population. And since large-roster sports such as football and wrestling have no comparable women’s teams, they often find themselves on the chopping block. Football has yet to feel any real heat due to the money many programs bring in due to ticket sales, merchandizing, concessions, alumni contributions and increased student applications. Those programs may not be turning profits, but they’re in a lot better shape than men’s wrestling.

“Did you know that for every 35 high school wrestling teams in this country, there is one college wrestling program?” says Kocher, who has coached at the University of Chicago for the past 20 years. “Did you know that for every 10 high school soccer teams in this country, there is one college soccer team? That is a huge difference. High school wrestlers are having to deal with unprecedented discrimination.”

So why not just change the fight and work to promote women’s wrestling so that boys’ and men’s teams have a comparable female squad?

“That may help alleviate the problem, but it won’t solve it,” says LeSher. “Because females make up 55 percent of colleges’ student population, it will only help postpone the elimination of men’s teams.”

“The numbers game is out of our control,” adds Greg Strobel, head wrestling coach at Lehigh University (Pa.) and co-head coach of the U.S. men’s wrestling team for the 2000 Olympic Games. “We agree with the law — no discrimination based on sex. The problem is with the systems of evaluating compliance.”

SIGNS OF GROWTH

So where does wrestling go from here? It’s unlikely the wrestling community will be coming together any time soon, as it is fighting two very different fights. Some are working to help women’s wrestling grow, while others are working to stave off the elimination of the men’s sport.

For now, the women’s battle appears far more winnable.

“I’d like to establish this program like track is now, with a boys’ and a girls’ team, but as one sport,” says Carl Murphee, co-head wrestling coach at Vintage High in Napa, Calif. “I want to introduce it not as boys’ wrestling, but just wrestling. It’s really a sport that needs to be separated.

“It’s the same as soccer was 25 years ago, with girls playing with guys,” Murphree continues. “You’d say, ‘She’s pretty good ... for a girl.’ But it wasn’t until they got their own team when they could really excel.”

Murphee has proven his theory to be true. On Jan. 22, his all-girls wrestling tournament, the Brute Napa Valley Girls’ Classic, had more than 120 schools represented, with wrestlers coming from California, Nevada and Oregon. This year’s tournament marked just its second year of existence and yet it has paved the way for other girls-only tournaments on the West Coast — such as the Williams Cup in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and the North Coast Girls’ Classic in San Jose, Calif.

According to Murphee, the sport’s growth won’t come from the collegiate or Olympic level. But those programs will most assuredly help speed up the process.

Three states, Michigan, Texas and Hawaii, sanction season-ending scholastic girls’ wrestling championships. According to the National Federation of High Schools, that number will likely double within the next five years. Starting in the fall, the University of Minnesota-Morris will offer its very first women’s wrestling scholarship. And, according to those within the inner circle of USA Wrestling, women’s wrestling will become a medal sport at the 2004 Olympic Games — which should open the same kinds of doors at the youth level as Olympic women’s ice hockey did in 1996.

But until the time comes when female wrestlers have a sport entirely unto themselves, the revolution will grind on.

“If you’re wrestling against boys, my advice is don’t listen to them,” says Olivia Ocampo, a sophomore on the University of Minnesota-Morris women’s wrestling team, who was the first female ever to complete a season as a member of the Channel Islands High boys’ wrestling team in Oxnard, Calif. “Oh my God, it’s horrible. They don’t want to wrestle a girl because they’re embarrassed or afraid they’ll lose. And sometimes, they’d laugh when they get to the mat and they’d laugh when they leave the mat. But you can’t let it get you down.

“There are a lot more opportunities now and I’m lovin’ it.”