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GRAPPLING FOR EQUALITY;
TEEN GOES TO THE MAT TO COMPETE WITH BOYS
The Record
December 18, 1991;
The blood gushed from Amy Perlmutter's nose as her
face was slammed
to the ground. But Perlmutter, all 5 feet and 103 pounds
of her, didn't
give up. She spun free and took down her attacker with a
lunge that
buckled his legs.
This is a story not of a mugging, but of a wrestling
match at
Manchester Regional High School in Haledon.
Perlmutter, a 14-year-old freshman, is the only female
high school
wrestler in Passaic County. She made history Tuesday
when she challenged
senior Mark Francisco, 17, for a spot on the varsity
squad.
She lost, 12-0, but coach Buster Pellegrino predicted
she'll make
the varsity "sooner or later."
"She's an outstanding athlete, and I am proud of her
effort,"
Pellegrino said after the match. "We've scrimmaged other
teams, and the
coaches couldn't believe how good she is. She's a
legitimate 103-pounder
and bench-presses 115 pounds."
Perlmutter, a Haledon resident who has been wrestling
since the
age of 8, was not shaken by the loss. Wiping blood from
her nose, she
said calmly: "There will be other matches. I'm just
happy that I was
allowed to compete on an equal level."
It was obvious that her teammates on the junior varsity,
and her
potential teammates on the varsity, admire Perlmutter,
who trains as
hard as the boys.
"Hey, she has guts," said assistant coach Ron Jones,
noting that
she had been weakened by a bout with the flu. "Just last
week, she was
flat on her back. If she hadn't been sick, it would have
been a closer
contest today."
There was also praise for Francisco, who said he wasn't
intimidated by wrestling a female. "A lot of guys would
not have
consented to wrestle a girl for macho reasons, just in
case they lost,"
said Tim Stinson, an 18-year-old senior.
Pellegrino made just that point before the 3 p.m. match.
"I want
to commend Mark Francisco, who could have turned down
the match and
could have asked us not to have the press here," the
coach said. "He is
a class person." Perlmutter, who changes in the
trainer's room at Manchester, is
no stranger to the world of male athletics. She also has
played the
infield on boys baseball teams in Haledon.
"I never felt there was any competition playing softball
with
girls," she said. "I just like the competition."
Her parents, Paula and Meyer, have encouraged her zeal
for
wrestling, she said. She has two brothers and one
sister, "none of whom
like to wrestle."
Pellegrino said there have been times when some members
of the
varsity squad turned down a chance to compete against
Perlmutter.
"I told my kids that there's nothing to be embarrassed
about,
because she's a wrestler," the coach said. "She is that
good. She just
happens to be a girl."
September 21, 1995
------------------------------------
Woodbridge girl pins down chance to wrestle boys
Asbury Park Press
(Neptune, NJ.)
October 2, 1996, Wednesday
With six older brothers, Meghan Hendriksen's childhood
was full of headlocks and hand-to-hand combat.
Now that she's a sophomore at Woodbridge High School,
she wants to join the boy's wrestling team.
Legally, the school must give her a chance to try out.
But the way she tells it, wrestling coach Robert Zega balked when she first
approached him.
"Coach refused to tell me where the tryouts were going
to be and he said, "No girls on the team,'" said Hendriksen.
School officials say that any misunderstandings have
been straightened out. Hendriksen is welcome to try out, and, if she makes
the cut, to
wrestle against boys.
Principal Lee Warren strongly denied that Zega had
refused to tell Hendriksen about the practices.
"Coach wanted to make sure she was serious," he said.
"There is no way she is going to be stopped or prohibited from going out for
the
team."
Zega could not be reached for comment.
If Hendriksen succeeds - tryouts are next month - she'll
be the first girl on the Woodbridge squad, and one of about 10 girls in the
state
who wrestle on boys teams.
At first, explained Meghan, she wanted to try out for
the cheerleading squad, but her boyfriend, a wrestler, encouraged her to try
his sport.
"I wanted to do something with contact," she said. After
trying it, she said, "I loved it, it's lots of fun."
And yes, she said, her older brothers used to wrestle
her - when she weighed considerably less than her current 135 pounds.
While still a sport that attracts few females, the past
10 years have seen girls joining high school wrestling teams in greater
numbers.
If Meghan doesn't make the Woodbridge team, she could
compete against girls in meets, many of which are sponsored by USA
Wrestling, the governing body for amateur wrestlers and
a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Some of the boy wrestlers, however, don't seem too
thrilled with the prospect of a female teammate.
According to Hendriksen, a group of five threw her
against a locker Monday. She said there were rumors that the boys want to
scare her
from trying out.
And that, the teen-ager made clear, is wasted effort.
"They're not getting me off the team. I'm not going to
give up...they've never even see me wrestle yet," she said.
But the thought of losing to a girl makes some boy
wrestlers shudder.
Weldon Huff, 20, a former regional champion who now
works as an assistant coach at Svetlitski's Russian School of Wrestling,
said he
doesn't mind competing against girls, but he wagered
that teen-age boys might see it as an ego thing.
"If you lose to a girl, it's like, hang up your
wrestling shoes," said Huff.
But a male wrestler who thinks too much about the gender
of his opponent will fail, he added.
"If you're thinking about that, you're losing," he said.
Ed Gutnik, 13, a promising wrestler from the Iselin
section, said wrestling girls is "fine with me. You can't think about it as
you are wrestling
a girl, it's just 'the enemy."
On Friday, Hendriksen said, Coach Zega relented and told
her when tryouts would be held, but said as part of trying out she'd have to
weigh in with the boys, a process that would have forced
her to strip to her underwear in front of them.
But Warren said she will not have to weigh in with the
boys. Under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1972, female athletes in
schools that
receive federal funding must get the same opportunities
as males.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------
STATE RIGHTS PANEL CLEARS WAY FOR GIRL TO
WRESTLE BOYS;
THE COMMISSION VOTES TO AMEND A CLAUSE IN THE EQUAL
EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY;
ACT.
Portland
Press Herald
May 21, 1996,
A female freshman at Mount Ararat School won the right
Monday to wrestle against the boys.
The change, adopted unanimously by the Maine Human
Rights Commission, pleased Lisa Nowak. But she doesn't expect it to cause a
significant increase in the number of girls involved in
high school wrestling.
''There actually were other girls in junior high, but
they all quit when they got to high school,'' said Nowak, who lives in
Topsham. ''It's a
lot harder in high school. The practices are about five
times harder. It's not fun at all.''
Fun or not, the Human Rights Commission decided Nowak
and other girls have every right to take part. The panel cleared the way by
amending a clause in the state's Equal Education
Opportunity Act that allowed high schools to prohibit girls from wrestling
on boys teams.
''If a boy refuses to wrestle a girl, it's the boy who
will forfeit,'' said Patricia Ryan, the commission's executive director.
Until Monday, the opposite occurred. A girl's team could
be penalized if a boy refused to wrestle her and her team didn't put a boy
out on
the mat to wrestle in her place.
From now on, the boy's team will lose points if he
refuses to wrestle a girl in a high school meet.
''It was a pretty long process, but I think they made
the right decision,'' said Mark Nowak, Lisa's father.
The Nowaks petitioned the Human Rights Commission to
make the change after their daughter was prevented from wrestling in a
Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference junior varsity meet
at Oxford Hills High School in January.
A 1984 amendment to the state's 24-year-old human rights
law had listed wrestling as one of two sports for which schools may sponsor
single-sex teams. Boxing is the other sport.
Guidelines for the Maine Principals' Association, which
are based on that law, allowed boys to refuse to wrestle girls in high
school meets
without penalty. However, MPA officials told the
commission last month the statewide sanctioning organization would amend its
guidelines
to adhere to changes made by the commission.
With Monday's ruling, Maine became the 20th state to
approve wrestling as a coed sport. All of the other New England states allow
girls
to compete for positions on boys teams if separate girls
teams are not available.
Michael Feldman, an attorney representing the Nowaks,
had asked the commission to adopt a rule prohibiting schools from setting
out
separate wrestling teams for girls unless there was
meaningful competition. The commission took no action on that issue.
''Right now, you can put up a sign that says, 'Girls who
want to wrestle sign here,' '' he said. ''Nobody signs and they can say, 'We
gave
them the opportunity, but no one signed up, so now we
can (form) a single-sex team.' ''
Feldman said it is unlikely Nowak will have difficulty
finding someone to wrestle.
''All along, it's not been the kids who have been the
problem, anyhow,'' he said. ''The kids have always been willing to wrestle
with Lisa.
It's always been some adult who has taken wrestling and
made it into a sexual act rather than a sport.''
Nowak attended the commission meeting with her parents
and brother, a sophomore who also is on the Mount Ararat wrestling team. She
intends to wrestle for the Mount Ararat varsity team in
the 112-pound weight class next season.
The new rule, Nowak said, changes the atmosphere.
''Now,'' she said, ''everybody knows there's a girl
wrestler out there and she's pretty good. . . . I really feel a lot of
pressure.''
This past season, Nowak lost all three of her matches
against boys while wrestling in junior varsity exhibitions. The outcomes of
junior
varsity matches do not count toward a high school
varsity team's score, so forfeits don't mean anything.
Nowak said wrestling against boys will help prepare her
to wrestle in college.
''The girls I wrestled with last year (in junior high
school) weren't serious about it,'' she said. ''Wrestling guys is a lot
different. Their body
weight is more muscle than the girls, and I found boys
have longer arms.''
No one spoke in opposition to amending the law at last
month's public hearing. However, the commission did receive three letters
opposing such a change.
One of the letter writers, Marty Ryan, athletic director
at Wells High School, said he opposes allowing girls to wrestle against
boys, but
that he will abide by any change in the guidelines.
''We will follow the recommendations'' of the MPA, he
said. ''We have no choice.''
: May 22, 1996
------------------------
A YOUNG GIRL GRAPPLES WITH SUCCESS;
WRESTLING'S A BOY'S WORLD? DON'T TELL AMY PERLMUTTER
The
Record
March 12, 1989;
You're an 11-year-old boy, and pumped up more than
usual for your
wrestling bout. The cheers for your rival make the
situation clear: "C'mon, Amy."
"Go for the legs, Amy."
"Atta girl, Amy."
You know you're competing against an opponent unlike any
other.
You're going head-to-head with Amy Perlmutter, a
70-pounder in the
junior class for the Manchester junior wrestling
program.
And she's very good.
"Everybody that wrestles against Manchester knows they
have the
girl," Manchester assistant coach Bill Magna said. "It
freaks guys
out."
Amy, 11, began competing three years ago. In her first
match, she
admitted to being nervous.
Then, as if in a hurry to get off the mat, she pinned
her opponent.
In 10 seconds.
Surprised? "Yeah," Amy said. "I thought I'd do it in
three
periods."
She recorded four more falls en route to a district
title that
season. A year later, she captured the districts before
winning a
regional title.
Despite a rib injury, she placed fourth in the districts
this year.
"It was too bad," said Magna, "because she would've
placed
higher."
"Everybody I know who wrestles against her says she's
good," says
Billy Magna, the coach's son and a 100-pound
intermediate in the
Manchester program. Billy says he has several friends
who've lost to Amy
in the past.
Amy doesn't compete to make any grand statement about
equality. She
doesn't wish to be a pioneer in the sport.
She simply loves wrestling.
Her appreciation of it came by accident. One afternoon
three years
ago, she was with a friend who happened to be on his way
to sign up for
Manchester's wrestling program. She accompanied him and
decided to join.
If her friend hadn't gone that day, Amy says she would
not be
wrestling today.
In the beginning, there were skeptics. One of the
biggest was Jeff
Zona, her coach.
"Yeah, three years ago I was," Zona said. "Having a girl
on the
team made me frown. But after three weeks of working
with her, she
totally changed my attitude.
"She's really a coach's dream. No matter what it takes
to improve,
she does it. She's a quick learner. She gives 100
percent in practice.
She's a very good competitor. The word losing doesn't
seem to be in her
vocabulary."
How far does she intend to advance in the sport? "A
couple more
years," said Amy, a sixth-grader at Haledon Public
School.
High school wrestling? "Maybe," she said. "I don't know.
I think
about it."
"If she wants to.. I just don't know if that's
possible," said
Paula Perlmutter, Amy's mother. "I hear that girls are
discouraged. But
if that's the way she wants it..."
"I'll be honest with you," said Manchester Regional
varsity coach
Jules Pelligrino. "I wouldn't stop her. There are
coaches who say that a
girl doesn't belong. But if she came out, I wouldn't
stop her.
"I'm telling you, she's an athlete; she's an extremely
talented
wrestler. I know that girls are more mature at that age,
but as a
wrestler she's physical and aggressive. She's a joy to
watch.
"If she was a guy, she'd have a heckuva career ahead of
her. She
has the ability. But I think the boys' maturity will
eventually catch up
with her."
Amy can bench-press 95 pounds, according to her mother.
"Whenever I need furniture moved, I rely on her," she
said. "She
can pick up furniture with no trouble; it's amazing."
Amy also fared well when she took karate classes as a
6-year-old.
"I felt so sorry for the little boys," her mother said.
"It was no
contest. Some boys were crying."
She gave up karate because her friends abandoned the
sport and
began playing in the Haledon PAL baseball league. She
joined soon
afterward.
As an 8-year-old, she played football for the Manchester
Junior
Falcons. But she quit after two games because "she hated
wearing the
uniforms in the summer," according to her mother, who
was never
athletically inclined.
"I didn't encourage it, but if she was interested, I
wasn't going
to stop her," she said of her daughter. "She was always
very athletic
and into sports."
Now, three years after becoming a wrestler, Amy has even
begun
instructing her less-experienced teammates.
"The kids seem to look up to Amy," said Zona. "There's
no
animosity. She even teaches the young kids moves. There
are no feelings
like, Oh no! She's a girl!' They cheer for her loudly
when she's
competing."
