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WEST VIRGINIA MAT THOUGHTS
by Dr. Bill Welker
Amy Alvaro: Grappling toward Greatness

In 1998, Amy Alvaro accomplished the unimaginable by being the first female wrestler to qualify for the state championships in West Virginia. Many thought a girl had no place on the mats, especially against boys. Amy would hear none of it; not because she wanted to beat her male counterparts, but because she wanted to wrestle.
Alvaro's three-year career record was 31-42. At first glance that doesn't seem too impressive until you consider the fact that she beat 27 boys ... not bad. The other four wins were against female opponents at this year's 2nd Annual U.S. Girls Wrestling Association (USGWA) National Championships ... and Amy placed third!

The 1999 USGWA nationals were held at Lake Orion High School in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Amy Alvaro was in a field of nearly 25 outstanding female wrestlers from across the country at the 118-pound weight class. After winning her first round match, Alvaro's only defeat in the tourney came at the hands of Shelley Ann Tomita of Hawaii by an overtime decision of 4-2. Ironically, Amy Alvaro pinned Tomita in her final match of the competition to place third.

Throughout the three-day event, Alvaro wrestled opponents from California, Virginia, Hawaii, and Virginia. A senior at Weirton Madonna High School (Weirton, West Virginia), Amy's scholastic coach, Jamie Lesho, guided her throughout the competition. He considers Alvaro to be one of the most dedicated wrestlers he has ever had the privilege to mentor.

A National Honor Society student with a grade point average of 3.75, Amy Alvaro is set to attend West Virginia University. She plans to major in exercise physiology. As far as continuing to wrestle, she may compete in future collegiate women's open tournaments, but her freshman year at WVU will be dedicated completely to academics.

As one who had the pleasure of officiating a number of Amy Alvaro's matches during her high school tenure, yours truly was deeply impressed with her sportsmanship demeanor--win or lose--as well as her competitive intensity. She was highly respected by all her opponents, both male and female.

Amy Alvaro, the All-American wrestler, will succeed in life because of her "All-American" spirit to achieve. I am proud to have known her!

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Old Tappan girl pins down dream

Wednesday, December 31, 1997

By RON FOX
Staff Writer

It wasn't her intention to make history when Deirdre Mammano strode to the mat over the weekend.

"I think of myself as a wrestler; it never occurred to me that I'm a girl wrestler," says the Northern Valley at Old Tappan senior, who became the first female to compete in the Bergen County Coaches Holiday Wrestling Tournament in its 38-year history when she did battle in the 103-pound class Saturday.

To the surprise of the few who were at Paramus High School for the 10 a.m. preliminary-round bout, Mammano aggressively took a lead on Pascack Hills regular Eric Campagna before losing in the closing seconds, 16-15.

"She was winning by four [points] with 15 seconds left, but she's new to the sport and doesn't know the ins and outs yet," says Northern Valley coach Tom Lebovich, suggesting that wrestlers in the know will sit on a lead at that juncture. "Deirdre always goes 100 percent and she was still going for a headlock, looking to pin the kid when she got caught."

When Mammano decided to change sports two weeks prior to the winter season getting under way, many close to her were caught by surprise. She was an all-league and honorable mention All-Bergen County soccer player in the fall -- playing either center forward or center midfield -- and had run the distances in indoor and outdoor track.

"You're doing what?" friends asked.

"You want to try this? That's crazy," her father, Don, said as a reflex reaction before adding, "But if you do it, give it 100 percent [and don't quit]."

The rookie wrestler grins. "My dad didn't think it would get this far. But he's very supportive."

Her brother, Don, a freshman wrestler, was uncomfortable at first about having his sister as a teammate, but since has accepted it, the family says.

The pioneering 17-year-old began to feel hers was the right decision when she mentioned her intentions in the fall to male friends who are members of the wrestling team. They recognized Mammano as an accomplished athlete.

"You'll be great," was a typical reaction. "You'll kill everybody."

And Mammano quickly proved she belonged -- through her seriousness about the sport, a solid work ethic, and an ability to learn quickly. She has felt welcomed and encouraged from the start by the coaching staff and her teammates, and has heard no negative remarks from them.

Her decision was not of the overnight variety, the 5-foot-1 Mammano assures.

"My cousins and my older brother [Greg] wrestled, and just watching it always got my adrenalin pumping," she explains. "I always hated to see anybody getting pinned; I wanted to jump in there and help. I considered wrestling for a while last year, but this year I finally said, 'Yeah, I'll do it.'

"I have 10 varsity letters and I want to get 12, but I wanted to do something different instead of running indoors again."

It helped that she knew Lebovich as a junior varsity soccer coach and has known assistant wrestling coach Doug Kuizema since she was in kindergarten. Lebovich said he'd have no problem with her trying out for the team.

"You'd better not have a problem with it," he remembers her saying with her determined smile.

So before each practice or match, Mammano changes into her uniform in the girls locker room. She has so little trouble making weight, she steps on the scale for weigh-ins wearing a sweatsuit.

"The first practices were rough, but the coaches have been so supportive; they give me energy," she says. "And my teammates have plenty of patience with me as I learn."

Referring to herself as a tomboy who began playing soccer and softball as a tot, Mammano says wrestling has opened her eyes. "Every one of my muscles, including a lot of muscles I never knew I had, are in tone now. I felt in good shape in soccer, but wrestling puts you in the best shape."

Of her County loss, she says, "It's a nightmare, but I have to learn from it. I'm a senior in school, but a freshman in the sport."

"I told her she's our 103-pound varsity wrestler because she's the best we have, and for no other reason," Lebovich says. "She's a tough kid and she won wrestle-offs over our returning varsity 103. As far as I know, she's the only female wrestling in a varsity lineup in Bergen County, and she doesn't feel it's a big deal.

"This sport is not for every woman. But it's not for every man either."

She's 0-2 so far, and goes for her first win Jan. 7 at Ramapo.

Wrestling may prove to be a one-year experience for Mammano, who may have collegiate offers for track, having run a 5-minute 20-second mile last year. But between wrestling and college lies the spring season and probably another surprise, though not as dramatic as her winter change of pace.

"I've run outdoors three years, but actually, I want to try softball next," Mammano says with a laugh. "Something different."

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Female wrestlers give team a new look
by Jesse Cross-Call

This year's varsity wrestling team has a new look. It is not a new coach or new uniforms. Rather, the team has crossed the gender line, with senior Tina George starting as a varsity wrestler at 125 pounds.

Although she may have seemed like a novelty while wrestling at the junior varsity level last season, Tina has showed that she is committed to the sport. "Tina has never missed a day of practice; she never comes up with excuses. I'm proud to have her on the team," Assistant Coach Kip Flanik said.

Tina, who also runs track and cross country, became interested in the sport during her sophomore year when she dated Justin Turner, a senior at the time. Turner gained fame by having a perfect 30-0 regular season record.

The next year, Tina was the team's statistician for the first half of the season. "I sat there and thought that I could do this," she recalls. She said that she received strong support from both her family and the coaching staff after making her decision.

"I was a little uncomfortable at first, but because I knew her, it was easier to accept," Flanik said.

The support that Tina received from her family and coaches was generally lacking from her peers. Because she wears ties with the rest of the team on the days of matches, she has had people question her femininity and even her sexuality. "I just think it's goofy," Tina said of wearing a tie to school.

Her time on the JV squad was a rough one for Tina. She finished with an 0-12 record for the season and twice was put against opponents who refused to wrestle her because of her gender. She has shrugged off such obstacles, saying that most opponents think she does not belong in the sport.

This season, though, Tina worked herself into the starting varsity spot at 125. Flanik does not blame her current 1-15 record on her gender but on her inexperience. "Tina is a great wrestler. The reason she is losing matches is not because she's a girl; any first-year wrestler will be beat by a fourth-year wrestler," he said.

Tina did get a moment in the sun when she won her first varsity match, December 28, at the Brecksville Tournament. She trounced Josh Dopson of Akron Buchtel, 18-2. After the win, Tina was calm. "I didn't have any reaction; I just knew the work paid off," she said.

Tina's example has already inspired another girl to go out for the team. Sophomore Shanita Tartt is also wrestling at 125 for the JV squad. "I'm glad she's out," Tina said, "She's going to be good."

The road to being a varsity wrestler has been at times a rocky one for Tina but she has no regrets. "It has been more than what I thought; the physical [part of the sport] is incredible . . . the positives outweigh the negatives," she said.

"Tina is a great wrestler. The reason she is losing matches is not because she's a girl."

- Assistant Wrestling Coach Kip Flanik

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Wrestling: Milan's Betts is one of nation's top female wrestlers

By David Goricki / The Detroit News 2/1998

Katrina Betts of Milan is the nation's No. 1 girl wrestler for ages 13-16. And Betts has also displayed her ability and toughness against boys.
Betts, a freshman, was fourth at 112 pounds in the Southeastern Conference Meet on Saturday at Dexter. She is 13-6 at 112, but will drop down a class when the district tournament starts this week.
"She's having a great season," said Betts' father, Mike, who has been coaching her for the past nine years in freestyle. "She loves wrestling, and she's a tough kid. We're excited to see what she can do when she drops down a class. She could make it to state."
Betts took top-seeded Todd Pearsall of Chelsea to the limit in the SEC Tournament. She battled Pearsall to a tie at 7 before he took a two-minute time-out after suffering an injury. He then returned to the mat and won a 10-7 decision.
Betts not only took the league's No. 1-seeded wrestler to the final seconds, but she did it after returning from a monthlong layoff because of an injured left shoulder.
"I'm not doing as well as I'd like to be," Betts said. "The boys are a lot stronger than me. My goal was to have a winning season, and I am. I'm also going down to a lower weight class for districts. I want to make it at least to regionals. I'm going to have to place in the top four at districts to qualify."
Betts earned the Girls National Freestyle title at 108 pounds last year in New Orleans. After the high school season, she will compete in the Cadet World Team Trials April 10-11 in Lacrosse, Wis., and the National Freestyle Tournament in New Orleans in June. She could compete in the world championships in Great Britain by placing first in New Orleans.
"Her freestyle experience has probably hurt her for wrestling high school," Mike Betts says. "She works well on her feet, and her balance and technique is good, but she doesn't work a lot from the bottom."
Katrina agrees. "I'm more used to freestyle since that's where I'm more experienced. I don't like to work off the bottom, so I get called for stalling a lot."
While Betts is the No. 1 wrestler in the nation among 13-16-year-olds, she is eighth in the world in the 16-20 division.
"After coaching her for nine years, we were glad to see her go to another coach to have a break from me," Mike Betts said. "It's a good experience for her. The main thing is she's having fun."
Betts is coached by Matt Fallon, Milan's coach.

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Girls Getting a New Hold on an Old Sport

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 24, 1999

The two wrestlers took their places on the mat, crouched and, when the buzzer blew, sprang at each other, locking arms around necks, straddling legs, lying on top of one another, straining and sweating.

In six minutes, it was over. The loser, Howard County's champ in the 125-pound division last year, pulled off the protective head gear, letting a blond ponytail tumble down.

Dena Glisan, 17, of Oakland Mills High School, had been overpowered by Ben Hemler, 15, in a preliminary round of the county tournament Friday. But for Ben, it was a somewhat hollow victory.

"I can't really say I won, because I beat a girl," said Ben, a varsity wrestler at Howard's Centennial High. "But if I lost, I'd get a lot more heckling from people because she's a girl."

"It's a lose-lose situation," summed up one of Ben's teammates.

It's a situation being seen more often across the country as a small but growing number of girls is taking to the mats in high school wrestling – 1,900 at last count. Often the only girls on their teams, they're struggling to gain acceptance from coaches and other wrestlers and a shot at true competition in a sport still dominated by males.

They got into wrestling for the same reasons as boys: the opportunity for individual achievement in an intensely physical and mentally challenging sport. They train as hard as the boys, practicing diligently alongside them.

"It's just about the most competitive sport you can get into," Dena said. "It's not like you're using any equipment. It's your body. If you're the fittest, you'll come out on top."

But for many of the boys, the prospect of facing a girl grappler poses unavoidable teenage concerns about tangling with the opposite sex. Is it really okay to grab a girl in the heat of a match in a way that would by unacceptable under other circumstances?

"Thoughts will go through my head, like, whoa, I don't know if I should do this move with her," said Ben, a sculpted, wiry athlete who has beaten Dena twice this year.

Or consider Bryce Beckner, a 16-year-old from Patuxent High in Calvert County who lost to Dena in a tournament this year.

"I felt short," he said. "I felt dumb. Everybody razzed me. They said if they'd ever lost to a girl, they'd never wrestle again."

Coed wrestling is prohibited altogether in South Dakota and Wyoming, and the Lutheran High School Association of Greater Detroit, out of concern for decency, requires its boys to forfeit matches against girls.

"There are a lot of other sports that girls could participate in," said John Ferguson, wrestling coach at Moorcroft High School in Moorcroft, Wyo. "Wrestling is, I hate to say it, a mano-a-mano sport. . . . With today's society, we might be asking for more problems than we would want to get" by allowing girls to wrestle with boys.

Where girls are permitted to do so, coaches often have qualms, and many allow their players to forfeit if they're uncomfortable grappling with a girl.

"We were always conscientious about that because in wrestling normally you would be grabbing and using certain moves against males that would obviously graze against certain parts in females," said Fred Kim, who coaches wrestling at Montgomery's Quince Orchard High.

Kim said he doesn't hesitate to demonstrate with his male wrestlers such moves as a grapevine, where one wrestler wraps his legs around his opponent's legs. Other coaches say they refrain from demonstrating such techniques as a crotch lift. Kim said he'd never touch a girl on the team, for fear of invoking a harassment complaint.

"It's a hands-on sport," Kim said. "I'd hate to get in trouble just by coaching."

Despite their initial qualms, Kim said, male wrestlers often get past the sex issue once they see female teammates working hard to master the sport.

When he coached at Seneca Valley, Kim had to order the boys to practice with Elizabeth Bonnell, a 5-foot-2 grappler who tips the scales at just over 100 pounds.

But today, the 17-year-old junior practices single-leg takedowns and half nelsons with the rest of the guys. Elizabeth's own teammates rib her good-naturedly but have accepted her as an athlete.

"Like at a tournament, [a teammate] was sitting next to me and would say, 'Liz, you smell like a girl.' Or if I spit: 'You're not supposed to spit. Or burp.'"

A former football team water girl, she took up wrestling when her mother nixed the idea of her going out for football. Other girls she'd meet in the locker room, mostly basketball players, used to laugh at her for going out for wrestling. "This year, they're like, 'I give you mad props,' like 'You're really cool. I could never do that.'"

In real matches, however, the tone often changes. Guys in the crowd would heckle her opponent, screaming "Sexual harassment! Rape!"

"They'll call [her opponent] a sissy, a wuss, because they're losing to Liz, and she'll just be schooling them," said 18-year-old team captain Drew Fergus, feeling her left biceps as she popped him one in the abdomen.

Opponents don't cut her slack because she's a girl; they'd rather lose by default, said Elizabeth, who has three wins this year – all forfeits.

"This one kid my freshman year, he really didn't want to lose to a girl, so he just put me in headlock and, you know, smashed my head on the floor as hard as he possibly could," she said. "I'm sure he gave me a concussion my freshman year."

There are signs, though, that girl wrestlers are gaining ground. Last year, the first national all-girls tournament, in Michigan, gave girls a chance to extend their season and compete among themselves. Dena placed first in her weight class in that competition.

Hawaii, which has more female high school wrestlers per capita than any other state, created all-girl teams in 1993 and holds state tournaments for them, as does Texas. The University of Minnesota at Morris has the only all-women's college wrestling team in the country. And there are plans to include women's wrestling in the 2004 Olympics.

Olivia Ocampo, who has won a wrestling scholarship at the University of Minnesota at Morris, competes with her teammates and against other women from wrestling clubs in the United States and college teams in Canada.

A native of Oxnard, Calif., the 4-foot-10, 101-pound Ocampo won two national titles last year, one for high school wrestling and one junior title for freestyle wrestling.

She looks forward to the day when high school girls' teams are commonplace. Advocates say that's the only way the sport will really take off.

"If you want to promote girls' wrestling, you wrestle girls against girls," said Robert Frey, who started the country's first all-girl high school team at Hawaii's Radford High in 1993. "If you want to discourage girls' wrestling, you wrestle girls against boys."

Doug Reese, who runs the girls' wrestling program at the University of Minnesota, said girls compete on more equal ground when they wrestle each other because they cannot safely cut as much weight as boys and men.

A girl will start having irregular menstrual periods if she drops below 12 percent body fat, but boys can get down to 5 percent during the season without significant health impact. As boys get older, they also tend to be stronger than girls, since they have more muscle mass, he said.

But what girls lack in strength they can compensate for in technique and flexibility. Dena, for instance, is like a human Gumby, her opponents said.

"She's got a crazy Granby roll," said Ben, referring to a pretzel-like twist-and-roll move that is difficult to defend against. "She's impossible to pin."

Dena is disappointed with her 6-13 record this year, which included one forfeit. She had hoped to do better. But she's looking ahead to the second annual national girls' tournament, where she's hoping to repeat last year's feat.

And who knows, she said, maybe one day, the Olympics.