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Cumberland College, Williamsburg, KY, announces the hiring of the first collegiate women's wrestling coach. Stephanie Murata from San Mateo, CA, will head the women's wrestling program at Cumberland College. Murata, a 1994 graduate of the University of California, Davis, is the United States number one hopeful for the gold at the 2004 Olympics in the 51kg division. The 2004 Olympics will be the inaugural year for women's wrestling. Murata is currently ranked 4th in the world.
Murata has a long list of accomplishments which include the 1999 U.S. Nationals - gold, U.S. World Team Trials - gold, World Championships - 4th place, and the Sunkist International - gold. Murata was the 1999 Clansman International Outstanding Wrestler and the 1999 U.S. Nationals Outstanding Wrestler. She has been a member of the U.S. National Team for six years.
Murata has been traveling around the country working camps and clinics on freestyle wrestling for girls participating in wrestling. Murata is excited about the opportunity to work on the collegiate level. She commented, "Women's wrestling has seen exponential growth within a short period of time. The commitment Cumberland College has made to women's wrestling demonstrates this, I look forward to making an immediate impact on the collegiate scene." Cumberland College is only one of three colleges in the country supporting women's wrestling as a team sport. "Our men's wrestling team has grown dramatically and so has their success, we hope that we can have the same success with our women's program," commented assistant athletic director Julie Hill. "We are very excited to have the best of the best on our campus in Stephanie Murata, it shows the wrestling community that we are serious about our women's wrestling program," Hill continued.
Head men's wrestling coach Jess Wilder was instrumental in bringing Murata to Cumberland's campus. Wilder has been coaching the women this year and has seen first hand the growth and excitement of women's wrestling across the country. Wilder commented on hiring Murata to work with the women, "Stephanie has been trained by some of the best coaches in the U.S. through her successful international competition. She has retained various coaching techniques and strategies, which she plans to instill in our women. She will make an immediate impact in our young program's success."
Cumberland College currently has nine women wrestlers and look to have a team of 25 next year. The women's schedule includes the Sunkist Open, Keystone Women's Open, Missouri Valley Open, U.S. Collegiate Nationals, University Nationals, and the U.S. Women's Nationals. The women also have dual meets with Minnesota-Morris and Missouri Valley.
Cumberland College is a four-year liberal arts college located in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky. Cumberland College offers 22 sports for men and women. Cumberland College has some of the finest facilities for a school their size and is very proud of their successful athletic program.
For more information about Cumberland College Women's Wrestling or Cumberland College, please contact sports information director Bill Sergent at 606-539-4389 or head women's wrestling coach Stephanie Murata at 606-539-4051.
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Wrestler no ordinary competitor
By: BERTO LEMUS
Date: April 23, 1999
J.C. Harmon High School's wrestling team has something not every school has: Senior Chatina Crawford.
What makes this special is that she's the only female wrestler in the district. Being a wrestler is not an easy task for any person. Wrestlers go though a very rough, long and tiring practice that not just any person can endure.
And just because she's a female, Crawford says she has had no special privileges and has had to do everything that the male wrestlers have to do.
"They told me if I was going to wrestle, I had to do all the exercises everyone else did... no short-cuts," she said.
This was not Crawford's first year wrestling. She also wrestled her eighth-grade year at Argentine Middle School. So she had some idea of what she was getting into when she joined the team this season. Crawford decided not to wrestle her freshmen and sophomore years because she wanted to concentrate on her school work.
Her parents are supportive, but her grandmother doesn't approve. However, this isn't going to stop her from wrestling.
When asked if other females should participate in wrestling, Crawford replied, "It's not a sport to play around with."
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Girl wrestlers help inspire high-school team's success
by Craig Smith
Seattle Times staff reporter
"Wing it, Emily, wing it!"
Roosevelt's Alexis Stuart and Rani Khan scream support for teammate Emily Fissel as she wrestles an Eastside Catholic boy. They yell for her to try a certain arm maneuver.
One minute later:
"Crossface, Emily, crossface!" (Translation: Use a particular move to prevent an escape.)
Forty seconds Later:
"Break him down, Emily!" (Translation: Get him flat on the mat.)
Finally:
"Yes!!!! (Translation: Emily has won 10-6).
She gets mobbed by happy teammates. It isn't that girl-beat-boy thing. What seems to matter is that Roughrider beat Crusader in the 115-pound weight division.
Roosevelt went on to win the match, which was no surprise because the Roughriders have been a force in Metro wrestling the past five years.
Coach Len Jacobson isn't exactly sure how much of a factor it has been, but the five-year span coincides with the time girls have been on the team.
"Since we've had girls, we've been wildly successful," the eight-year coach said. "We've been the top or second-best team in the city."
It isn't that Roughrider girls have won a lot of varsity matches. They have won some, but usually wrestle junior-varsity because boys tend to earn the varsity spots.
But the girls supply grit, add occasional points and create a team-oriented atmosphere.
This season, six girls are among the three dozen athletes out for the team. Roosevelt enters this week 10-0 in Metro AAA and AA matches.
"The girls add to the atmosphere," Jacobson said. "They probably facilitate a little more togetherness."
Heavyweight Thomas Schienbein added: "The girls make us work a little harder. No one wants to look bad in front of the girls."
The girls formed a sisterhood and support group within the team.
When Fissel needed to lose 3 1/2 pounds last Tuesday afternoon to make weight for the match against Eastside Catholic, Khan and Stuart ran to keep her company while she dropped the weight.
Fissel is Roosevelt's only varsity girl wrestler and was 4-3-1 after the Eastside Catholic victory. Two of the victories were in an all-girls tournament at Mariner High School in Mukilteo.
The Mariner tournament drew about 15 girls from schools around Puget Sound. The school plans to make it an annual event.
Girls are finding their way on more and more wrestling teams. Roosevelt and Evergreen High School in White Center appear to lead the state with six girls on their teams. Evergreen recently hired a woman assistant coach, Gloria Hartle.
Roosevelt's Fissel said she enjoys the team atmosphere.
"Everyone is real positive," she said. "It's fun to be around. . . . The guys are real nice and they cheer you on. They have a good attitude toward the sport and the girls."
Fissel, who also plays varsity volleyball and softball, turned out for wrestling last year because "I like the physical competition and the challenges it brings."
Her brother, Ben, wrestled for Ballard but she joked that he wasn't much help.
"He just beat me up," she said.
Ben was in the stands hollering encouragement last Tuesday when his sister won her match against Eastside Catholic.
Her father, Stephen, admits he and his wife were "a little worried starting out" about his daughter wrestling. One concern was injury risk, which came true last year when she suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
This year she has stayed healthy and wrestled well. She outscored a Garfield boy 17-1 recently but the match technically was a forfeit because she was over the weight limit.
Fissel scores many of her points with leg moves. The girls admit boys have stronger upper bodies.
And while girl wrestlers aren't the novelty they once were, the bridge to total acceptance hasn't been crossed.
"Boys don't really want to wrestle girls," said Fissel's father. "If they win, they've `just' beat a girl. If they lose, they've lost to a girl. It's an onus on them either way."
Fissel said only one opponent has refused to wrestle her.
Khan said, "They ask the boys if they want to wrestle you and that bothers me. It's kind of a putdown. You've worked so hard and you might not get to wrestle because you're female."
Sometimes, the girls are also the target of some jeers.
"Unfortunately, you can hear some things," Jacobson said. "It really is a sign of the girls' character that they are out for the sport and if they hear some things, they have the wherewithal not to let it bother them."
Fissel said there's really only one important thing in a match.
"We just want to win."
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Knox's first woman wrestler has great prospects
Tom Loewy, Peter Bailley; Office of College Communication
Vive la difference! Janelle Curtis has spent her brief but precedent- setting high school and collegiate wrestling career taking on guys bigger and stronger than she is -- and losing every tournament match.
In the end, however, all her struggles with "la difference" made her one of the toughest female wrestlers in the country, when she finished second at the University Nationals, a women's tournament held this spring at Northwestern University in Evanston. Wrestling at 51 kilos (112 pounds), she defeated every opponent except for one. It was the first time Curtis had wrestled freestyle and the first time she had participated in a women-only tournament.
"Guys are so solid," Curtis says. And the women are, well, soft. "The women are strong," she says, "but it's not like wrestling a solid hunk of muscle."
Training and competing against men in the 118-pound divison "helped immensely," says Curtis, who weighs 112 pounds and stands five-feet tall. "The minute I tied a girl up in the first match, I knew there was a strength difference. There was no comparison. Actually, I think I smiled when we first tied up."
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"Janelle is a terrific athlete and compared to other women her size she is just as strong and just as fast," says Knox head wrestling coach Frank McAndrew. "She has all the skills. She's just never had a chance at wrestling freestyle and wrestling women." Collegiate style wrestling--used at Knox--puts a premium on strength and positioning. Freestyle wrestling--used at the University Nationals--emphasizes quickness.
Curtis has noticed other differences -- ones that have probably occurred to everyone at one time or another. "When we were weighing in at Evanston, there was a lot of cameraderie and we started sharing stories. When guys weigh in, they usually try to stay far away from each other." She also has found that "all the guys have been extremely aggressive." Some male opponents, McAndrew suggests, were more aggressive because they were "worried about getting beaten by a girl." At the tournament, Curtis says "it was the first time I've ever had the upper hand."
Curtis got her start in wrestling as a junior at Shullsburg High School in Wisconsin. "I loved lifting weights and running," said Curtis, who came to wrestling after trying volleyball.
"There's a rule in my household that studies come first, so we could only do one sport per year." Curtis and her two sisters, both track athletes, live on a farm; their parents are veterinarians. Curtis plans to major in biology and chose Knox because she wanted to do pre-medical studies at a school with a strong liberal arts focus.
She raised a few eyebrows initially, but was eventually accepted by her high school teammates. "I had some friends on the team. Still, there was a little bit of friction at first." At Knox, both McAndrew and the other wrestlers encouraged her to join the team. At the tournament, she found some women had been wrestling for as long as five years, although she was the only one who had competed on an all-male team in college.
It won't get any easier for Knox's first woman wrestler. Starting next year, the NCAA has raised the lowest men's weight class to 125 pounds, which will put her twelve pounds--instead of just six pounds--lighter than her regular-season opponents. But, as her career proves, Curtis is not one to back away from a challenge.
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Wrestler calling on other females to take up sport
By David Grossman December 18, 1998
Toronto Star Sports Reporter
Erica Kelly won her opening high school wrestling match of the season, but she was less than pleased.
While Kelly needed overtime to defeat Carolyn Martin by a point, the 5-foot-5 Martingrove Collegiate grappler didn't like the idea that she was forced to square off against a teammate because there were no other female competitors entered.
``It's not right . . . you shouldn't have to go up against someone on your team,'' said the 16-year-old Kelly, who competed Tuesday at the Etobicoke mini-meet that involved wrestlers from four schools.
``Wrestling isn't like other sports in school where students have the automatic skills . . . but I was hoping more girls would have got involved in this sport. It's fun and is a great way to improve fitness and athleticism.''
While Kelly is off on a winning note and hopeful of making the league finals in February, she remembers her initiation to the sport last year, losing most of her matches and yet refusing to give up.
``It may be an obscure sport to many but on our team we compete to have fun and respect each other, win or lose,'' said Kelly, who also plays in the school band, is on the athletic and student councils and runs leadership programs for students.
