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News Page
Fri, 10 Mar 2000
Waukon Senior High School senior Blair Young is once again returning to the
wrestling mat to compete in the 2nd Annual United States Girls Wrestling
Association National Championships soon. After finishing fourth and earning
All-American honors at last year's inaugural holding of the national
tournament, Young will again compete in the double-elimination event which
is open to all girls in grades seven through 12.
This year's tournament will be held at Lake Orion High School in Lake
Orion, Michigan and is once again being sponsored by the United States
Girls Wrestling Association. Last year's tournament involved 272 girls from
38 different states, with this year's event expected to be even larger.
Fourteen "block" weight classes will be contested at the tournament. The
January 15, 1999 issue of Wrestling USA magazine featured national rankings
of the top high school girl wrestlers in the nation, with Young being
ranked second in the 145-pound weight class behind Melanie Parachutz of
Chicago, IL. Parachutz defeated Young in the semi-final round of last
year's tournament and eventually finished second.
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First-Ever All Girls Wrestling Tournament (Check this out)
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Player of the Week
Heather Morris — Klein Oak High, Girls' Wrestling
3/10/2000
Klein Oak High's Heather Morris was just a youngster when she realized she
didn't like being picked on.
"I was always wrestling around with my brothers,'' says
Morris. "They would
pick on me, and we would end up in a wrestling match.''
Little did Morris know that those daily matches would
lead to a pair of state
wrestling championships. The 5-foot-8 junior recently
pinned Cathy Cotter in
1:51 to win the girls' 110-pound state wrestling title.
It was the second straight
year Morris has won the crown. As a sophomore, Morris
rallied from a 17-10
deficit in the final period to beat Cotter, 20-17, to
capture the championship.
"I pretty much knew it was going to be her again,'' says
Morris. "We have had
some great matches. I was ready for her.''
Morris, who is the only female wrestler in the Klein
Independent School District,
has compiled an impressive 47-1 record in two years of
scholastic grappling. Her
only loss came during a tournament her sophomore year.
"It was my very first match,'' she says. "I didn't know
that much. I got thrown
around a couple times. I ended up second in the
tournament, which wasn't that
bad. But it made me more determined. I realized right
then that finishing second
wasn't very cool.''
Morris, who also plays center field and catches for the
under-18 Pasadena
Panthers' softball team, hopes to earn a scholarship to
either Oklahoma
University or the Naval or Air Force Academy. But for
now, she's concentrating
on her scholastic career.
Today, she is trying to raise money to attend the
National Girls' Wrestling
Tournament in Michigan March 24-25.
"Cathy (Cotter) is ranked No. 3 in the nation,'' says
Morris of the girl she beat in
3:02 earlier this season. "I didn't go to nationals last
year, so I didn't get ranked.
But if she is No. 3, I would think I would have a good
chance to be No. 1. I am
looking forward to going. I just have to raise the
money.''
Morris, who makes A's and B's in school, recently scored
a 1050 on her PSAT.
She plans to attend Dan Gable's wrestling camp this
summer and eventually
train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
"I hope it becomes an Olympic sport,'' says Morris. "That
is one of my goals. I
plan to do everything I can to become a better
wrestler.''
— Todd Hveem
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NO HOLDS BARRED
3/10/2000
It was the mothers who would stare the most. As a
young
girl in Michigan, wrestler Lauren Wolfe didn't
know there
was something different, even bordering on
improper,
when she took to the mat to face off against
boys--often
beating them. But from the bleachers, the mothers
of her
opponents would often give her the most
challenging
looks. "Sometimes they would just look away,"
says
Wolfe, a Cornell senior who practices with the
varsity
men's squad and represents the U.S. against other
women
in international competition. "I guess they
didn't know
what to make of me wrestling their sons."
The 137-pound chemistry major is among a growing
number of women breaking into what has long been
an
all-male sport. In 1995 she competed in her first
Women's
World Competition, placing fifth in her weight
class. And
though she hasn't broken that mark yet, she's
been back
every year since, most recently the October 1998
matches in Pozan, Poland.
At thirteen years old and ninety-five pounds,
Wolfe was
the first wrestler in five years on her Kinawa
Middle
School squad to finish with a perfect 16-0
record. As the
only girl on her high school team, she racked up
winning
seasons her freshman and sophomore years against
a
slate of boys her size. But the disadvantage of
wrestling
against men, with their superior upper body
strength,
eventually became apparent. She ended her high
school
senior year in the 143-pound class and with a
losing
season. Not that she always got to compete: the
coach of
one opposing team forfeited every match against
her
rather than let a boy face her. "I guess they
felt it was a
no-win situation," she says. "If he won, he just
beat a girl.
And if he lost, well, he was humiliated because
he lost to
a girl."
According to the National Federation of State
High
School Athletic Associations, there were 112
girls
wrestling in boys' programs in high schools
throughout the
country in 1989. By 1998, the federation recorded
1,907--a seventeen-fold increase in less than ten
years.
But when Wolfe first approached Cornell wrestling
coach
Rob Koll three years ago, he had doubts about
letting her
into practice. "I was afraid she might not take
it seriously
enough," says Koll, himself ranked second on the
men's
national team. "But she works as hard as anyone
else.
This is real for her, and that's all I can ask."
Now, just as men are starting to get over the
embarrassment of being slammed to the mat by a
woman--or the fear of that awkward hold--women
are
starting to face each other regularly for the
first time. In
addition to the international competition, the
University of
Minnesota at Morris created the first all-woman
wrestling
program in 1995. A school in Brookline,
Massachusetts,
has the only all-girl high school squad.
Wolfe hopes opportunities will keep expanding for
her as
well. After college, she plans to teach chemistry
in high
school, and perhaps coach the wrestling team. But
old
stereotypes die hard. "There's often a negative
connotation to the word 'wrestling,'" she says.
"They think
of professional wrestling, or they hear about
women's
wrestling and think of mud wrestling. I can't
tell you how
tired I am of hearing that."
-- Kevin Harlin
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Lyle wins state title
Quigley Catholic senior Sissy Lyle needed just 1:19 to take first place in the 130-pound weight class at the second annual Pennsylvania Girls High School Wrestling Championships. That's not 1:19 for one match - that's 1:19 for all three of the matches it took her to win the state crown.
Lyle, who took home a trophy engraved with the words "Most Falls in Least Amount of Time," insisted that it was a lot harder than she made it look.
"Actually, I thought this year would be a little harder," said Lyle, who took first place at 135 a year ago in the inaugural event. "But I'm glad I got it. I was really working hard at it. I wanted that trophy."
Seven other wrestlers, out of approximately 50 girl wrestlers at J.P. McCaskey High School, competed in the 130-pound weight class.
In her preliminary match, Lyle pinned Solanco's Jamine McDowell in 42 seconds. In the semis, Lyle took George's Sara Ryan by fall in just 31 seconds. In the final, Lyle "struggled" with George's Sarah Dehle for 46 seconds before pinning her.
Next up for Lyle is the United States Girls' Wrestling Association national championships in March at Lake Orion, Mich.
"I'm going for it this year," said Lyle, who who finished second in '98 and third last year at 135. "I have it in my mind to win."
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One of the guys
On the Quigley High School wrestling team, Sissy Lyle is just
one of the guys. At the second annual Pennsylvania Girls
Wrestling Championships, she was the best of the gals.
Lyle, a senior at Ambridge High, won the
130-pound weight
class title at the championships Feb. 5 at J.P.
McCaskey High
School in Lancaster. She pinned Sarah Dohle of
George School
in 46 seconds in the final. All three of Lyle's
victories in the
tournament came on pins and she earned the
trophy for most
falls in the least time with a total of 1:59.
"She didn't break much of a sweat," Quigley
coach Ed Driscoll
said. "Technically, she's a very good wrestler."
It is Lyle's second girls state title. She won
the 135-pound
weight class last year. Lyle wrestles for
Quigley because it has a
co-operative agreement with Ambridge. Athletes
at Ambridge
who want to wrestle, practice at and compete for
Quigley.
Lyle has been a member of Quigley's team since
ninth grade.
She has won more than 30 matches during her
career, not
including the three victories at his year's
girls' championships.
She has been in wrestling since elementary
school. Lyle liked
the sport from the beginning.
"I would go from dance class to wrestling," she
said. "I'm just
one of the guys on the team because I came up
through junior
wrestling with most of them."
Lyle wants to continue wrestling in college.
There are some
colleges who are starting women's programs, but
Lyle wants to
continue to compete against the boys and is
considering Lock
Haven.
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Jesse Ventura, Look Out
Wrestler Melissa Moore hopes to be the first girl to make it to the state championships
By Sarah Gaffney 1/26/2000
In 2004, women's wrestling will make its official debut at the summer Olympics in Athens. You can bet that Del Mar High School sophomore and wrestling champ Melissa Moore will be vying for a spot on the team.
"That's one of my goals ... to be in the Olympics eventually," says the elfin Moore. "It's kinda big, but I also want to make it to the high-school state championships by my senior year. I want to be the first girl to do that."
Moore, who has been wrestling since the fifth grade, last month won first place in the 104-pound class at the North Coast Classic Girls Wrestling Tournament hosted by Del Mar. Prior to that, she placed second at the Bellarmine Junior Varsity Tournament, a guy's tournament, according to Moore, who is the lone female on the Del Mar team.
I mention to Moore that it's not every day one meets a female wrestler, much less one who has beat some boys at the sport.
"I know a lot," Moore says matter-of-factly. "... More than the average person, because I know who they are. I have friends from all over. I have a friend in Reno, a lot of friends in Napa, Vallejo and L.A."
Moore, who has a younger sister who also wrestles, fell in love with the wrestling mat at the tender age of 5. She tagged along with her father, John, who now coaches the Del Mar team, to meets at local high schools.
"I used to go to the practices and tournaments and meets just to watch," remembers Moore. "I liked them, and I wanted to wrestle, but my parents wouldn't let me because I was too little. They also thought it was like a phase that I was going through."
Under the tutelage of her father, Moore began wrestling in the fifth grade. She admits that she wasn't very good at first, and she suffered the teasing of other kids until a championship win in the eighth grade.
"They used to tease me, but not so much any more," Moore says. "Until like the eighth-grade year, then I started improving a lot and people came to know me as that 'good wrestler girl.' "
Moore became so good that she has traveled to various parts of the United States and as far away as England and Japan for wrestling tournaments and training.
"The farthest I've been for a tournament was England in the summer of '98," says Moore, who is contemplating a wrestling career at UCLA. "I was there for a Women's World Cadet Team Championships. I placed fifth there. It was the most important tournament that I've been in."
Watching Moore at afternoon practice with the Del Mar team, she seems to fit right in with the guys weighing in, skipping rope and running paces around the gym. So, I have to ask, "Do you like girlie kinds of things?"
"Like what?" asks Moore, as she unpacks head gear from her gym bag.
Like did you play with Barbies when you were growing up?
The gold medal girl blurts an emphatic "no" and runs off with the boys.
Takedown: Del Mar sophomore Melissa Moore has been wrestling since she was in the fifth grade.