|
|
News Page
Mar. 25, 2000 11:13 a.m. ET
By Jane Allison Havsy
FOXSports.com
Two national wrestling championships are taking place this weekend — about 300 miles and a universe apart.
The National High School Coaches Association hosts its national boys tournament at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. This tournament, which matches the best senior wrestlers against each other, is in its 11th year.
At Lake Orion High in Michigan, the United States Girls Wrestling Association will hold its national championship. About 400 competitors from 40 states are expected, including seven returning champions.
A wrestling referee for 35 years, Kent Bailo founded the event three years ago because he "got tired of seeing the girls getting beat up by the boys."
Bailo also launched Michigan's state tournament for girls wrestling. More than 100 girls participated this year. Michigan is also home to the nation's largest boys state wrestling tournament, with 896 wrestlers this year.
Keristen LaBelle, Lyde Baltrusaitis and Sandra Padron also qualified for Michigan's boys state tournament.
"The girls have a much better chance to be successful [here] than they do in a boys tournament," he said. "The girls who are successful against boys are usually at 103 [pounds], because competing against the smaller boys, mature girls have a chance. Here, technically skilled girls who are bigger can get their due."
The national meet drew 272 girls from 38 states in its first year.
"Only wrestling people come to watch," Bailo said. "If they were skeptical to begin with, they leave as believers. When you see the intensity and technique, and understand the enthusiasm they compete with, there's no more skepticism."
-----------------------------------------------
At The Top of Her Game
Holly Haritan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello, my name is Holly Haritan. I am a senior at Lyman H.S. and a female wrestler!! A female wrestler??? Yep, that's me, I am literally in love with it, it's my life! In fact, it started 3 years ago, my sophomore year.At this time in my life I felt very confused. My mom died Jan. 14, 1996, about a year and a half before I started wrestling, seven years before that, my dad had died. It seemed as if my whole world had fallen apart, I was left without parents.I guess I was finally accepting that I had to make a decision about my life. I knew I had to grow up and make the right choices. I felt like everyone was watching me, anything I did people would notice me, weather it was good or bad didn't matter,if it was bad it would be excepted, I had no parents,my mom had just died so there was always an excuse.So, instead of feeling sorry for myself or making excuses. I decided to go out for the 1st girls wrestling team.Maybe in a way it helped me deal with my pain, I had to hold my head up high and be a role model for my younger brother and sister and also let everyone see that no struggle would slow me down.So this is how it started,all my guy friends wrestled and told me to try it.I think it's because I am exceptionally strong for a girl. Anyway, after a lot of thought I gave it a chance! The practices were so hard and we worked with the guys team so it was even more intense.We had a months worth of practice then finally I had my 1st. I remember walking on the mat and looking at the girl i would wrestle.....she seemed so much bigger than me, i was so scared and nervous, i thought i'd be sick! It turns out i won that match and the girl was 20 lbs heavier than me, it was a very big accomplishment and i was proud! Now, after 3 years my wrestling career has come to an end. I ended the season with an undeafeted record of 50-0, 48 of them pins. At the state tournament i was voted most outstanding wrestler and overall i'm a 12x most outstanding wrestler. I cried after my last match because I knew my high school season was over. I hope to attend college and wrestle, although theres only 3 schools offering womens wrestling. i'm also going to the national tournament in Michigan where i placed 7th, this is my last chance to wrestle in high school so i have full intentions on placing 1st. It definitly won't be easy, but i'm confident in myself!!!
------------------------------------------
GHS wrestler wins state girls tournament
Grayling High School senior Marianne Vollmer took first place at the
Michigan Girls Wrestling State Championship tournament, winning the
120-pound weight division with three consecutive pins.
The win qualified Vollmer for the Nationals, at which she took second.
Vollmer, a member of the GHS wrestling team, competed in the Girls State
Wrestling Tournament for the fourth straight year in 2000, winning her third
tourney championship.
(She took first place in her freshman and junior seasons, and took fifth in
her sophomore year.)
Both the state and national girls tournaments were held at Lake Orion,
Michigan, this year.
At State, Vollmer pinned her first opponent at 5:19, her second in 3:33, and
her third in 3:19, winning the championship.
At Nationals, held this past weekend, Vollmer won her first match against a
girl from Idaho with a pin at 5:10. She then pinned an opponent from
California at 4:52, and won her third match of the tourney with a 7-5
decision against a wrestler from Texas.
Vollmer lost the championship bout to a girl from Connecticut by decision,
11-5, finishing the tournament in second place.
Over 400 girls from all over the U.S. competed in Nationals this year.
-------------------------------------
Girls' wrestling gets serious At George School, girls no longer take on boys. The sport is expanding in the state.
By Ira Josephs 2/14/2000
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
It's no longer a fad. It's a sport with a future for girls.
Girls interested in wrestling finally have a chance, and an arena in which to excel.
In the second annual Pennsylvania girls' high school wrestling championships on Feb. 5 at J.P. McCaskey High in Lancaster, Harry S Truman freshman Aquilla Hills won a state title at 100 pounds, and George School junior Sara Dohle finished second at 130.
Placing fourth from George School were juniors Sara Ryan (130 pounds) and Alyse Williams (114), and freshman Robin Stewart (107). Freshman Claire Matturro also competed at 107.
This weekend, George hosted a team from Brookline, Mass. They tied.
"It was spontaneous; it just came together in two days," George School boys' athletic director Dave Satterthwaite said.
"I see this sport growing," said George School coach Renay Eleuteri, 24, a successful youth wrestler before she stopped competing after sixth grade. "Basically, it started out as a question of where it would go and what would happen. The girls are dedicated, and it's not a joke. It's a sport where you have to be dedicated."
Over the years, a few girls joined the high school boys' wrestling team, but social and safety issues often made things uncomfortable.
"We had girls on our team for five or six years," Satterthwaite said. "Every once in a while, one got into a match if there was nobody in the lower weights. But [the boys didn't like] the idea. It's a lose-lose situation for the guy. If a guy wins, it's expected. If he loses, he has hell to pay when he gets back to the dorm.
"There are safety issues and general discomfort with girls wrestling guys. It was all right when there were one or two, and we had all sorts of parental consent. We had to make sure parents were aware of what was going on."
What's going on now at George School is a girls' wrestling team. After a girl was injured last year, the Friends Schools League decided that it would no longer allow girls to wrestle against boys. That left a void at George School, which had several girls on the squad.
Junior Kate Stewart, a resident of Quakertown, wanted to continue competing in the sport she loved. With the support of Satterthwaite, George School girls' athletic director Nancy Bernardini, and the school administration, Stewart got the sport going at George School.
"Basically, I wasn't about to quit wrestling," said Stewart, who began wrestling as a freshman to keep in shape. Unfortunately for her, she has been unable to wrestle the last few weeks because of a stress fracture in her left shin.
Stewart spoke to Satterthwaite, her academic adviser, and he told her that at least 10 members were necessary to get school approval for a girls' team. While Stewart did the recruiting, Satterthwaite made sure they would have a coach and a place to practice.
The school rented mats from Bucks County Community College and set them up in the basement of the George School science building. Eleuteri was hired. From an original list of 30, 14 wrestlers have stayed with the squad.
A special education teacher in the Neshaminy School District, Eleuteri wrestled for the Penndel Wildcats. Her father, Ron, coached the Wildcats, and her brothers - Randy, Ronnie and Ryan - all wrestled.
"The flexibility helps with girls," said Eleuteri, a 1993 Neshaminy graduate. "When I was younger, the girls were stronger than boys at that age."
Competing against boys over the years, Eleuteri went to the Amateur Athletic Union state tournament at both 40 pounds and 75 pounds before leaving the sport. She played field hockey and softball at Neshaminy but never lost interest in wrestling.
Satterthwaite contacted Maple Point Middle School athletic director Dick Keefe during his search, and Keefe recommended Eleuteri.
"They are really backing us up," Eleuteri said. "Everybody is supportive, and Dave has helped us a lot with equipment and uniforms and mats. The program is taking off."
Said Satterthwaite, "We're trying to do for them what we can. It's still more of a club. If interest stays there, it's two or three years down the road before it becomes a competitive team. Right now, we're trying to dovetail with other teams that have girls."
There aren't many. Germantown Friends has four girls, and Truman has two. In addition to Hills, Truman sophomore Regina Inigo competed at the state meet. She went 1-1 at 122 pounds.
Inigo also plays junior varsity basketball at Truman, but Hills' primary sport is wrestling.
"It was exciting. I never wrestled girls before this year," Hills said. "I thought I could do well. It was a lot different than wrestling in boys' tournaments. The girls are much friendlier. They ask you how long you've been wrestling."
"She's been wrestling for five years and has won 50 to 60 matches over the years against boys," Truman coach Steve Givens said of Hills. "She's like a noodle. She's very wiry and tough to turn."
Givens' primary responsibility is the Truman boys' team, but he says he is interested in seeing the girls achieve success.
"I'm trying to get some meets set up," he said. "I'm trying to help Renay as much as possible. I remember watching Renay wrestle, and she won over 100 matches. She was very successful at it."
