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Davison's Keristen LaBelle, scoring a takedown on Catholic Central's Stacey Adam, is 50-10 with 17 pins. |
Female wrestler vies for state title
Davison's LaBelle proves formidable in 103-pound class
By David Goricki / The Detroit News
3/9/2000
DETROIT -- No girl has ever been an all-state wrestler in Michigan. But Keristen LaBelle might be about to change that.
LaBelle, a trend-setting sophomore from Davison High School, will wrestle today in the first round of the state wrestling finals at Joe Louis Arena. If she finishes in the top eight of her 103-pound class this weekend, she will achieve all-state honors.
But some believe she will do even better than that.
"I think she can tear up the state at 103 this year," teammate Joe Whitman said. "I expected this (success) out of her."
Said Davison Coach Ron Hall: "Let's look at reality. She's one of the best in the state at wrestling ... boy or girl."
It has been a remarkable year for LaBelle. She has a 50-10 record, including 17 pins, and became the first female to win an individual regional championship two weeks ago. Last week, she helped her team win the Division I team state championship.
With success has come attention. Former tennis star Mary Carillo of HBO interviewed her at home Sunday and at school Monday for a story that will air April 10. A reporter and photographer from USA TODAY were at Davison High on Tuesday.
"It's been real busy. It's pretty cool, but it kind of gets annoying after a while," LaBelle said. "I've never had a point in the season when I said I'm having a great season.' It still won't be a great season if I fall on my face this weekend. I don't think that will happen, though. I have a lot of confidence in myself."
Until this year, only one girl had wrestled in the state finals. Cynthia Harrold of Saginaw Buena Vista competed last year but lost her two matches in the double-elimination format. Two other girls qualified for the finals this year: Caledonia freshman Lynde Baltrusaitis (44-12) and Mason County Central senior Sandra Padnon (23-9). They also will wrestle at 103 pounds, with Baltrusaitis in Division II and Padnon in Division IV.
Last year at Davison, LaBelle was behind two all-state wrestlers -- Shaun Newton and John Whitman -- on the depth chart at 103 so she wrestled at 119 pounds despite weighing just 100. She still finished a respectable 14-15.
"That was hard," said LaBelle, who is 5-foot-3. "I was wrestling people three times my size."
Newton, a senior, and Whitman, a sophomore, returned this season with Whitman being ranked the No. 1 wrestler in the state -- regardless of divisions -- at 103. But LaBelle defeated Whitman, 3-1, and Newton, 2-0, in the first wrestle challenge for the starting spot. Newton (45-7, 112) and Whitman (40-16, 119) also have qualified for the state finals.
LaBelle's older brothers wrestled, but she took a major interest in the sport when watching her father, Steve, help coach a Mid-Michigan Wrestling Association Youth team when she was 10.
"On the way home she said: Dad, I think I can beat those 9- and 10-year-olds. I'd like to give it a try,'" Steve said. "I told her girls don't wrestle against boys. Her mom told me to give her a chance, that she would just get killed and quit. She never quit. She always wanted to get better."
LaBelle was 1-24 competing as an 11-year-old. Steve, a former boxer, helped her get stronger through weightlifting. LaBelle became the first girl MMWA state champion the following year, earning the 11- and 12-year-old title. She has been making a name for herself in the sport ever since.
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Girls wrestle with the idea of a program of their own
DAVE WALTERS Tribune correspondent
Mar 7, 2000 - 03:56 PM
As interest grows in Florida and nationwide, Pasco County coaches agree to support girls' wrestling programs.
ZEPHYRHILLS - Two-year-old Tiahna Lowe knows her wrestling. With her toddler voice, she screams at Ridgewood High wrestlers to perform single- and double-leg takedowns.
Sure, being the daughter of Rams coach Vinnie Lowe sparked Tiahna's wrestling interest, but she has grown to love the sport.
Tiahna is no different than several high school girls in Pasco County, which has prompted coaches to propose the start of a girls high school wrestling program.
Coaches agreed Monday at the Sunshine Athletic Conference meeting there is a need to start a girls program in Pasco County.
But it won't happen overnight.
Gary Pigot, assistant director of athletics for the Florida High School Activities Association, said growing interest statewide has the FHSAA looking at girls wrestling going from a club sport to a sanctioned sport in the near future.
``Right now, the [FHSAA] board is in the process of setting up a timetable,'' Pigot said. ``I've seen it growing and I see it becoming a full-blown state series event.''
Ridgewood is starting a club-level program and other schools are allowing girls to participate in USA Freestyle club wrestling this spring.
``It would add another dimension to the sport,'' Lowe said. ``There are logistics to be looked at and we'll work them out on the club level.''
With the success of girls athletics at Ridgewood, Lowe is confident the Rams would be competitive.
``Girls are tough,'' he said. ``They don't like to lose. We have success in female athletics here and there are great athletes here to help get this off the ground.''
In a sport dominated by boys, girls have moved in. But only a few are willing to tangle with the boys.
``It's definitely an up-and-coming sport,'' Pasco High principal Pat Reedy said. ``I've heard girls in this school say they'd like to start a girls team.''
Reedy said the stumbling blocks for girls wrestling or any new sport are scheduling, uniforms, coaching supplements and facilities.
Pasco County Athletic Director Kit Broadbelt said his phone hasn't rung once about girls wrestling. But if the community expresses interest and the FHSAA sanctions the sport, he'll look into getting programs started.
``It's an interesting subject,'' Broadbelt said. ``Some people don't have a problem with girls wrestling guys and others feel they should have their own program.
``I wouldn't say the interest isn't out there. We made sure that our wrestling coaches can't turn down a girl who wants to participate based on the fact that she's a female. We have made that very clear.''
NICOLE RATHBURN OF Zephyrhills and Dana Kearney of Land O' Lakes were the only girls in the county to join boys teams this year.
Rathburn said an all-girls team would be inviting.
``I think I'd be interested in it,'' Rathburn said. ``It will open up other opportunities for girls who don't think they can wrestle with the guys.''
Being the only girl on a boys team is a double-edged sword. Rathburn is segregated from the team during weigh-ins and is sometimes left feeling like she doesn't belong. But she keeps coming back.
``A girls program will knock down that wall I face,'' Rathburn said. ``I come back year after year because I like the challenge of beating a guy. I like it for the rush.''
In her third year of wrestling, Rathburn won a varsity match and a JV match for the Bulldogs. Kearney, a freshman, was a regional qualifier for the Gators.
Is it appropriate for guys and girls to be rolling on the mat together? Whispers and giggles are heard from the bleachers.
There are moves where wrestlers reach across the chest or flatten out an opponent by pushing forward on the butt.
One move, called a ``Saturday Night Ride,'' features a pinned wrestler flat on his back with the opponent directly on top with the legs intertwined. The move certainly would not look attractive done by a male wrestler to a female or vice versa.
Many fathers would be upset to see their little girl in that position in front of a gym full of fans. However, Nicole's father, Mike Rathburn, has another view.
``I see her as a wrestler out there,'' Rathburn said. ``I know they aren't doing it in a promiscuous way.
``I'd be quite offended if someone did it to her in the hall at school. When she's on the mat, it's a different story.''
Cindy Thompson, daughter of former Zephyrhills and Pasco wrestling coach Joe Thompson, has always seen a need for a girls program. Thompson said she firmly believes girls and guys shouldn't wrestle each other.
``I would have done anything to be on a girls wreslting team,'' Thompson said. ``I would have given up cheerleading to wrestle, and I love cheerleading.''
Thompson, a math teacher and cheerleading coach at Zephyrhills, remembers the days when her dad showed her moves and when she practiced with some of the boys on the team.
She didn't wrestle on the team because she didn't want to be the reason a boy quit or didn't come back out for the team.
``I definitely knew there were guys I could beat,'' Thompson said. ``There were guys on my team I could take out of the lineup.''
Thompson is for the idea of a girls team and said she would be interested in coaching the sport.
``It will take a while to get a team going,'' Thompson said. ``The first couple years will be rough. It will take more than a lot of coaches may be willing to put into it to get it going.''
RIVER RIDGE WRESTLING coach Mike DeGenarro has watched girls weightlifting soar after its recent birth.
``Girls wrestling will be a reality as long as girls want it,'' said DeGenarro, who coaches the Royal Knights girls weightlifting team. ``Look at girls weightlifting. There are 30 to 40 girls on the team. Wrestling is another way to get involved.''
Some coaches have devoted a lot to women's wrestling. It has been such a mainstay on the international scene (the 12th world championship was held in September with almost 70 countries participating) that supporters believe it has a distinct chance of becoming a medal sport by the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
According to USA Wrestling, the governing body for amateur wrestling, there are more than 1,700 female members belonging to a trio of women's wrestling organizations (Women's Team USA, USA Wrestling and a U.S. Women's Wrestling Committee).
There were 661 girls high school teams across the country last season, according to figures from the National Federation of State High School Associations. That's up from 1997-98, when there were 619.
Last season, 2,361 female high school wrestlers competed, a 24 percent jump from the previous year and a substantial rise from the 112 girls who wrestled in 1990.
Two states - Texas and Hawaii - sponsor girls state championships, and Michigan hosts an unofficial national championship tournament in March. The event drew more 300 participants last year.
Lyman High School hosts the Florida Girls Invitational where 65 girls participated last year.
Despite the numbers and rising interest, there are only three university-sponsored women's wrestling programs, none sanctioned by the NCAA or NAIA.
Coach Doug Reese helped create the first women's team in 1995 at the University of Minnesota-Morris. In 1998, Missouri Valley College and Kentucky's Cumberland College added women's programs.
The birth of college and high school programs has helped with the Title IX gender equity issue. Several colleges have dropped male wrestling because of Title IX.
Though the number of female wrestlers is small, less than 1 percent of the 2.6 million girls participating in high school athletics last year, its higher than other sports such as crew (1,150), fencing (621) and rifle (927), which are all NCAA-sponsored sports.
Many of these varsity sports were created to bring athletic programs into compliance with Title IX.
``Who knows,'' Lowe said, ``by the time my little girl is old enough there may be [wrestling] scholarships for her.''
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Pinning their hopes on wrestling
Young female athletes are starting to embrace the sport, which is fast
losing its label as a last male bastion.
By BOB JAGOLINZER
Journal Staff Writer 3.7.2000
GLOCESTER -- At first blush, it might seem a little unusual -- two petite
girls in a sport known more for its brawn and boys than anything else.
But that was the case at Ponaganset High School this year as two
teenage girls competed on the school's wrestling team -- and won.
Sophomore Krysten Gormly competed in either the 112- or 103-pound
weight classes, and freshman Moriah King competed in the 103-pound
class.
The girls said they tried out for the sport simply because they liked it.
``My brother Josh is a senior and he wrestles,'' said Krysten. ``I used to
go to watch him.''
Krysten, a goalie on the girls' soccer team, said she played basketball last
year, but preferred wrestling.
``The wrestlers are my brothers' friends,'' which helped her gain
acceptance, she said.
Moriah said she tried wrestling last year for the first time while she was
in
gym class. ``I liked it, so I joined the team,'' she said.
But they get no breaks because they are girls.
Moriah and Krysten join their male teammates in such strengthening and
conditioning activities as running, pushups, sit-ups and weight-lifting.
And they have no qualms about matching up against boys, who are
normally considered to be stronger and might be tempted to try to show
them up during a match.
``I give it right back'' if they try that, said Moriah, who is also on the
Ponaganset girls' softball team.
Since this was their first year on the squad, the girls wrestled only in
junior varsity competition.
Coach Ken Lucia said he was very pleased with what they did.
Lucia said that while this is not the first season the Ponaganset team has
had a female member, it is the first time that two girls have competed for
the school.
When Krysten and Moriah tried out for the team, their coach recalled,
Lucia wasn't sure they would be able to withstand the rigors of the sport
for the entire year.
But his fears were unfounded.
``They did everything the boys did,'' he said.
Lucia also said that when the girls first came out for the team, he warned
the boys not to get distracted. ``I told them to stay focused on the
wrestling,'' he said. He cautioned the boys that some other teams might
try to tease the Ponaganset team, because the girls are members.
WHILE IT MIGHT seem surprising that girls are allowed to
participate against boys in a contact sport, under long-standing
Rhode Island Interscholastic League rules, school officials have
no choice in the matter.
``If there isn't a girls' team [in a particular sport] then they have
to be allowed on the boys' team,'' said Ponaganset athletic
director Allen Huestis.
In fact, girls have been wrestling in Rhode Island for years, said
Richard Magarian, assistant executive director of the
Interscholastic League.
``A lot of girls wrestle in the kids' tournaments'' that are held for
the pre-high school age youngsters, he said.
But Magarian said that as girls get into the upper high school
grades, they seem to lose interest in the sport.
``The boys overtake them in strength,'' he said, and other
interests seem to become more important.
While strength is important, especially in a sport in which the
competitors ensnare each other with arms and legs and appear at
times to be like crabs fighting over food, technique is also
important.
"You can use your opponent's strength against him," and win a
match on points as well as by pinning a person to the mat, Lucia
said.
Krysten and Moriah said that before they started wrestling, they
had to overcome another hurdle -- their parents.
``I laughed the first time she told me,'' said Moriah's mother,
Virginia. ``But she's taken martial arts, so it doesn't bother me.''
Krysten's mother opposed her daughter's desire to join the
wrestling team. But with help from her brother Josh, Krysten
convinced her that it was all right.
Lucia said having girls on the wrestling team can be an advantage. Often,
bigger boys go out for wrestling, so it can be difficult to find competitors
in the lower weight classes, he said. Having the female team members
helps fill the lower weight classes.
``It meant we didn't have to forfeit'' in those weight classes, he said.
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Three down, fourth to go;
After winning her third consecutive state wrestling title, Angela Martinez
is already looking for a fourth.
March 4, 2000, Saturday
ARLINGTON EDITION
Angela Martinez stands 5 feet tall. She weighs 102 pounds.
But when she steps onto the wrestling mat, her power goes way
beyond anything those measurements might suggest.
For the third consecutive season, Martinez, a junior, established
her dominance in wrestling, becoming the first wrestler in
Arlington history - boys or girls - to earn three state titles,
after she won the 102-pound division at the state meet last week in
Austin.
And she already has her eyes on the fourth.
"After you get one, and then you get the next, you just want to
go all the way," Martinez said. "It's on my mind all the time. Last
year after I won, the very next thing I was thinking about was
nationals. But for the long term, I was focused on my third state
title."
She got it, winning her third match with a pin against Jennifer
Znidarsic of Waller in the final. But what's even more impressive,
said Bowie coach David Mudgett, was the fact that Martinez
performed so well without having any practice matches for the
previous two weeks. Martinez's usual partner, teammate Jessica
Lopez, wrestles at 119 pounds but was out with an injury, leaving
Martinez to train on her own.
"That makes [her accomplishment] even nicer," Mudgett said. "Our
only workout was a day before state, and we worked out with Cathy
Cotter from Sam Houston. The last time was two weeks before that. I
don't think people realize that, when her competition had been
wrestling for two weeks."
That sort of determination has been the norm for Martinez for the
past three seasons. According to Mudgett's records, she has not
lost a match in the 102-pound division since her freshman season.
This season, her only two losses in a 14-2 record before state
competition came at 110 pounds.
For those matches, Martinez wrestled in a higher weight class
partially because of three pounds she couldn't drop at the start of
the season. She said her summer job at a fast-food restaurant -
where it was routine to eat fried food during breaks - was the
partial culprit.
"If you're bigger, sometimes depending on the person, it's easier
to lose weight," Martinez said. "But when you're smaller, you have
to work so much for a couple of pounds because you don't have many
places to lose it from."
But Martinez dropped the weight and returned to her usual
division of 102 pounds, where she plans to stay for the remainder
of her high school career. Although she has dominated the
competition there so far, she has kept a high level of motivation
for herself.
"I just keep a state title in my mind," she said. "I can lose if
I make mistakes. Even with a small mistake, someone can play off
that and beat me. I just don't want to lose. I want this for me and
for coach."
Martinez said Mudgett is perhaps her biggest source of motivation
in reaching her goals. A longtime friend of her father, Mudgett
began talking up the Volunteers' program and Martinez's potential
long before her arrival at Bowie as a freshman.
Martinez said her close relationship with the Biermann family,
including Wade, who won two state championships at Bowie, also
helped spark her interest in wrestling. By the time she could
compete, the notion that wrestling is primarily a sport for male
athletes simply didn't apply for her, she said.
"It's weird because I never gave it a second thought," Martinez
said. "A lot of girls that I tried to get interested in the program
were saying girls aren't supposed to wrestle. But that thought
never occurred to me.
"I'm just a physical person. Wrestling is my sport. It comes so
natural to me."
She has three state titles to prove it. And those accomplishments
already have set a strong precedent for Bowie's program as a whole.
"She's exactly what we want from our program," Mudgett said. "We
don't look at her as a girls wrestler, we look at her as a Bowie
wrestler. Our younger boys have to say, 'If I want to be a champion
I have to look up to her.' She works as hard as anybody I've ever
had."
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