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The Roanoke Times & World News
May 12, 2000
Andee Sears routinely gave up painting her toenails during wrestling season.
This wasn't a concession to superstition so much as a practical matter.
Weigh-ins were awkward enough as it was.
"And I wasn't going to get up on the scales with painted toes," she said.
In four years of varsity wrestling for Shawsville High, the weigh-ins never
did seem to go that smoothly. The worst was at the state Group A tournament
this year. It was pretty much an industrial assembly line kind of deal. Guys
from all the over the state lined up in their underwear and Andee in her
singlet.
"Hey, what's that girl doing here?" somebody wanted to know.
Making history, we think. The word was when Sears wrestled at state this
year, she was the first ever to do so in Virginia. Lacking evidence to the
contrary, it may certainly be said that that sounds plausible.
Which may really be the only occasion that adjective may be applied to
Sears' grappling career. Certainly there were more than a few who predicted
she'd soon enough be matkill regardless of how she chose to adorn her toes.
Although defeat was routine, her get-up-and-go yet lives.
"I just think she enjoyed wrestling," said Brett McPherson, one of the nine
coaches she had in five years (including the eighth grade). "Why else would
she do it? Wrestling is a tough sport. We have trouble getting guys to come
out. If she were just trying to grandstand, she could do it for a year then
she'd quit. But she stayed with it."
With no great success, mind you. She never won a high school bout, at least
not that she can remember. But as the lone senior on a team of five, she was
the team captain this year, wrestling in every meet, and doing the same
workouts as the fellows. And she did go to the state.
Actually, she thought about not going. She qualified through something of a
fluke related to the fact that not everybody in Region C has a team.
"It was just the way the brackets worked out," she said. "And I went to the
state and a guy from Radford who'd beaten me didn't get to go. I felt really
bad about that."
It seems such a long time ago that she first went out for the team as a
spur-of-the-moment, impulse buy kind of thing.
"I couldn't make the volleyball team," she said. "At the time, deciding on
wrestling just didn't seem to be that big a deal."
The strongest reaction to this bold decision to take to the mats came not
from any coach or wrestler but her own mother.
Rebecca Sears, an administrator in the Roanoke city school system, had
worked for a while at Narrows High, where she was acquainted with some
wrestlers. All of them, it must be pointed out, were boys.
"She thought she knew something about the sport," Andee Sears said. "'You'll
get your neck broken,' she said."
With that, her mother told her there would be no wrestling. Andee, who
aspires to a career in the law, adapted an effective strategy.
"Perseverance," she said.
All good jocks have it. An athletic strain runs strong through the Sears
family. Andee, the youngest of three girls, Vickie and Edie being the
others, hastens to point out that her own parents exceed her in the physical
arts.
Her father, Ed, retired from defense intelligence, and her mother both ran
track in college over in Kentucky. Both have run marathons since, she more
than he. Ed Sears coaches the Shawnees distance runners.
One trait Andee did get from her parents:
"She's tough," McPherson said.
Meaning no crying allowed, at least in public. A teammate older than she,
male of course, sniffled in action once and she about had a fit. Off the
mat, if you must, has been her creed.
Her toughest tilt with tears came just recently, in her last melancholy
match at state. Knowing it was over once and for all was difficult to handle
gracefully.
There were other trying times. Perhaps the worst was the decline and fall of
one of her coaches, Mike Blevins, jailed for felonies involving students.
She said she knew nothing until it appeared in print.
"The program crumbled," she said. "It is another reason to resent him."
Another backhand to the cheek came in an overheard conversation in the
ladies bathroom at a tournament in which Shawsville was entered.
"Did you see that team has a girl?" one woman said.
"Yeah," the other said, apparently not knowing the subject was nearby.
"What's she doing here?"
"I don't know, but I don't want my son wrestling her."
That hurt worse than being the helpless victim of a cradle move. For the
most part, though, Sears managed to stay away from negative people and
mean-spirited remarks. Ignored them is more like it.
It was a self-disciplinary issue and she certainly has some of that.
Although she describes herself as "a classic underachiever" in the
classroom, she'll still graduate among the top 10 in her class.
She'll do so without skimping on the extracurriculars, either. Along with
the forensics, the drama, the advanced classes and the wrestling, she also
ran cross country, track and played tennis.
She wasn't what you'd call dominating or particularly diligent in any of the
sports. In tennis, for example, she describes herself as the team's
unskilled insurance policy, to be installed in the lineup only in the event
of catastrophe. The 800 is her only event in track.
Nothing, though, is going to get in the way of the fun. The kind that comes
only to those who stick with it.
"I hate quitting anything," she said. "People wouldn't understand. They
wouldn't say I quit because I had five other things going on or I was taking
hard classes. They'd say I quit because I was a girl."
Never gave them a chance.
The last giggle is her's, though. Her mother turned out to be the classic
wrestling mom, the distinguishing characteristic of which being overt public
displays of passion for the sport.
With Mother's Day at hand, you can't blame her. Motherly pride is indeed in
order. Nobody could ever say the youngest Sears daughter came up short in a
wrestling match while hampered by decorated toes.
Click here to go to Andee's Homepage
---------------------------------------
FEMALE WRESTLER SOARS
Apr 20, 2000;
EARL YOST; Manchester Extra Sports
Editor's Note: Jill Yost is not re lated to the writer. Earl Yost is retired
sports editor for the Manchester Herald.
Jill Yost thoroughly enjoyed the moment in the recent 2000 United States
Girls Wrestling Association Tournament when the referee raised her hand in
the 119-pound division as the winner of the national championship.
The Manchester High School senior, who turned 18 March 16, reached her
ultimate goal by winning all four matches in the Ann Arbor, Mich.,
competition which attracted 22 girls in her weight division from all over
the country.
Full Text:
(Copyright @ The Hartford Courant 2000)
Editor's Note: Jill Yost is not re lated to the writer. Earl Yost is retired
sports editor for the Manchester Herald.
Jill Yost thoroughly enjoyed the moment in the recent 2000 United States
Girls Wrestling Association Tournament when the referee raised her hand in
the 119-pound division as the winner of the national championship.
The Manchester High School senior, who turned 18 March 16, reached her
ultimate goal by winning all four matches in the Ann Arbor, Mich.,
competition which attracted 22 girls in her weight division from all over
the country.
The competition was open to all girls from grades seven through 12.
Interest in the sport for girls has climbed in the last decade. In 1991,
there were 200 wrestlers and 2,000 in 1999.
Yost was sixth in her class a year ago and attained All-America honors, a
tribute she repeated this year in addition to wearing the crown as the best
119-pound female wrestler among school girls in America.
The 5-foot-5 student has been a member of the Manchester High varsity
wrestling team for the last three years, competing against only boys, and
posted a 5-8 record.
Eager to become involved in sports as an eighth-grader at Illing Middle
School and judged too small to play basketball, Yost turned to wrestling as
an indoor winter sport.
Because of Nieves' interest and help, Yost is exploring the possibility of
enrolling at AIC in September, although she is sifting offers from several
southern colleges that feature women's wrestling programs.
Yost has captured four straight New England girls mat crowns, winning gold
medals in the first two years in competition when the meet was called the
Colonial States and the last two years when it officially became the New
Englands staged in Brookline, Mass.
In addition to winning her division last year, Yost was also judged the most
outstanding competitor.
Yost can't claim a .500 or better mark with the MHS varsity, as all foes
have been males, but against girls in overall competition she has a 39-4
career record.
Yost was all of 114 pounds at Illing, trimmed down to 103 pounds as a
freshman, wrestled at 112 pounds as a sophomore and 119 pounds the last two
years.
Future college plans, besides continuing wrestling, are to pursue a career
in health and science.
Yost will be featured in next month's Wrestling USA magazine.
Wrestling hasn't been her only varsity sport, she has also been active with
the MHS track and swimming teams.
----------------------------------------
Falcon females make mark at state wrestling tourney youth roundup
Published Saturday, May 13, 2000
Debra Devaggio (Falcon Wrestling): first in state tournament
Katie Marks (Falcon Wrestling): first in state tournament
Jamie McKay (Golden State Wrestling): third in state tournament
Melinda Ripley (Falcon Wrestling): first in state tournament
FRESNO -- The Falcon Wrestling Club won three individual championships in the Girls Freestyle State Championships and had one placewinner in the boys tournament at Selland Arena on the campus of Fresno State.
Melinda Ripley, who was Deer Valley High School's 105-pounder last winter, won the 108-pound class in the 15-16 Division, going 3-0. Debra Devaggio was the 160-pound champion in the 13-14 age group. Katie Marks won the 100-pound title in the 9-10 group.
Amanda Smith (11-12, 100) and Michelle Goss (11-12, 80) each placed second.
Nicolas Carmona took third at 160 pounds in the 13-14 boys division. Others who wrestled well but did not place were Frankie Laniohan (3-1), Brandon Turnage (2-2), Craig Pollock (2-2) and Anthony Thurgood (0-2).
"It was the first time most of them had wrestled at the state tournament, so they did pretty well," Falcon coach Fidel Garcia said.
Golden State Wrestling youth members Nick Waldrop and Jamie McKay finished in third place of the California USA Freestyle State Championships.
Waldrop, a 70-pounder in the Midget division, won seven matches and lost one. He lost to Brentwood's Taylor Kuryla of Delta Wrestling Club, 10-1 in the semifinals. Earlier, he pinned Rocklin's Aaron Pickard and Southern California's Orsy Calderoh.
Waldrop and Kukla qualified for the West Regionals in Pocatello, Idaho.
McKay, in the women's Cadet division, was sent into the consolation bracket with a decision loss to San Leandro's Madeleine Briones. McKay came back to pin Erica Montoya, and then defeat Teresa Ayala of Pacific Grappler 6-3 for third place.
Three other Golden State wrestlers, Steve Cress, Jonathan Pau and Johnny Unpingco, were all 1-2 over the weekend, while David Mendoza was 0-2.
Vince Delgado took third in his weight class and Delta Wrestling teammate Taylor Kuryla was fourth last weekend at the Kids State wrestling championships in Fresno.
Kuryla was fourth in the 70-pound bracket of the Midget Division, while Delgado was third at 220 in the Schoolboy Division.
------------------------------------------------
18 May 2000
Artie:
Given the work load that our Sports Information Director has right now, that
probably won't happen until we get into next season. We are in the
beginning stages. Our administration is very interested, but we have not
been given any numbers to work with yet. It's going to work something like
this-- we will have a handful of girls next season, then follow that with a
full team the following year. There is no guarantee, but we are hopeful
enough that we're recruiting girls for next year.
We had one girl this year, and she won the USGWA National Collegiate
Championship. As for the web site, hopefully this summer or next fall, we
will be able to do a feature. I am going to ask him (our SID) to put a
feature on the web about the girl--as a link with a whole story.
Thanks for the interest,
Frank Johnson
Pacific University
-----------------------------------
NU wrestler finishes sixth at girls nationals
By Scott Wilson ,
18 May 2000
Lindsay Torrance hopes she can go to Europe this summer for her senior trip.
The Nevada Union High wrestler may not have time to enjoy all of the sights and sounds of France if she has it her way. She'll be busy battling world-class women wrestlers on her visit.
Torrance, who wrestles at 101 1/4 pounds, recently finished sixth at the Women's National Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nev.
She finished 3-3 in the Open Senior Division for wrestlers 20 years and older. Torrance, 18, is a junior wrestler who wanted to gain experience wrestling in the tougher division, which featured some 150 women.
"I decided it was worth seeing what the top competition was like," Torrance said.
Torrance, in her third year of wrestling, enjoyed success despite being outweighed at 97 pounds.
Torrance gained the confidence to compete in the nationals after taking first place at the State Freestyle Championships in Fresno May 6, ending a run of two-straight second-place finishes at the state finals. She also competed at 101 1/4 pounds.
"That was fun," she said. "It was like a big sigh of relief winning."
She hopes to parlay her success into a chance to travel overseas. She'll head to Michigan for the World Team Trials June 1-4.
Torrance will compete at 43 kilograms, around 95 pounds, and she'll have to take first place in order to make the U.S. team. Even if she does win, she must pay her own way to France and continue to train on her own.
Last year she was second at 94 3/4 pounds at the World Team Trials in the cadet division. But she's a year older, stronger and wiser on the mat.
Torrance relies on technique rather than pure strength because of her size, and she noticed herself improving during the winter with the Miners' team, where she wrestled mostly against boys.
"Towards the end of the high-school season I could feel myself getting better," she said. "I'm more confident."
Miners' wrestling coach Steve Pilcher said Torrance is very competitive but needs to put on more weight.
"We're going to convince her she can wrestle in college," Pilcher said. "I know some schools have been looking at her."
She's been talking with Missouri Valley College, University of Minnesota-Morris and Pacific University in Oregon.
Torrance is leaning towards Pacific University, based on its close location to home and the media arts program it offers.
Torrance may have chosen the perfect time to begin wrestling, especially with the improved opportunities for women in the sport. She likes being part of that growth.
Torrance never gave wrestling a thought until a friend decided to join the team. She didn't want to go it alone so she kept coaxing Torrance.
"She bullied me into it." Torrance said, smiling.
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