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WRESTLING Graceffa makes her point
Copyright 1994 Boston Herald Inc.
The Boston Herald
March 27, 1994 Sunday
Laura Graceffa didn't join the Nashoba Regional boys varsity wrestling
team to prove a point.
Graceffa did end up proving something to herself. In yesterday's Brookline
Girls Wrestling Tournament at the Ed Schluntz Gymnasium at Brookline High
School, Graceffa won the 140-pound division.
'I consider myself a feminist, but I do this because I love to wrestle and
I'm not doing it just to the prove the point that girls can wrestle,' said
Graceffa.
'I've always been athletic but I wanted to get involved in a physical
aggressive sport,' she added. 'I'm a senior now and the only regret I have
is that I didn't start wrestling as a freshman.' Graceffa's lament was
shared by Lauralee Summer, who competes for the Quincy High School boys
wrestling team. Summer was involved in more traditional girls sports before
taking her athletic skills to the mat.
'I was into athletics like cross country but I needed to do something
different and I had an uncle that wrestled,' said Summer. 'I've been doing
it for two years now and I agree with Laura. I wish I had started as a
freshman.'
Graceffa and Summer are to scholastic wrestling what Joanna Foreman was to
track, Medina Dixon was to basketball and Kelly Dyer was to ice hockey. But
getting recognized as such took a lot of hard work.
'There were skeptics at first and there was one guy who was really skeptical
because we were both wrestling at 140,' said Graceffa. 'Then he got hurt and
I wrestled in his place. He became my biggest fan.
'But the coach and the team have been really supportive just as long as I do
as many pushups and as many situps as everyone else,' she added. 'I guess
you could say I'm a pioneer and I feel like it is something I could tell my
grandchildren about someday.' Graceffa, Summer and about 30 other girls were
able to -- compete against each other through the hard work and foresight of
Brookline Girls Wrestling Association coach Diane Carter. Carter's immediate
goal is to convince young female athletes that there's nothing wrong with
wrestling. Her long range objective is to convince the MIAA and the athletic
directors of its member schools that girls wrestling should be a varsity
sport with a state championship tournament like the one the boys enjoy.
'When the girls get together and try wrestling they shed themselves of the
image that this is a Hulk Hogan thing,' said Carter. 'Once they experience
it, they realize it is a lot of fun. 'It is very hard finding girls that
wrestle because they only place for them to wrestle is on the boys teams and
you can imagine the kind of pressure that involves,' said Carter. 'I think
it is time for the MIAA to let girls wrestle against girls and be recognized
for what they can do.'
LOAD-DATE: March 08, 1995
---------------------------------
Girls' wrestling match believed to be a first
December 19, 1991, Thursday, BC cycle
In what is believed to be a first in the United States, two girls
wrestled each other in a high school match.
Teresa Ribar of Gateway High School pinned Melissa Machesky of Thomas
Jefferson in the 112-pound match Wednesday night at Thomas Jefferson in
suburban Pittsburgh.
A few girls have been on wrestling teams in the Western Pennsylvania
Interscholastic Athletic League, but it was the first time in state history
two girls wrestled each other, officials said. It is also believed to be the
first time two girls have wrestled each other in the country.
''The only time I've heard of two females wrestling was a tag-team match in
the World Wrestling Federation, but that's out of our jurisdiction,'' said
Brad Cashman, executive director of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic
Athletic Association.
Gateway coach Dick Bane said he knew Machesky, a junior, was wrestling for
Thomas Jefferson, and he didn't have a 112-pound wrestler. Bane's wife,
Lynn, suggested he ask Ribar to wrestle for the match. Ribar, a junior is a
four-sport letter winner in cross country, girls' soccer, basketball and
track.
Despite never having wrestled competively before, Ribar accepted. Bane
telephoned Thomas Jefferson coach Wade Goslicky to see if he had any
objections, which he didn't.
''We wanted to get publicity because wrestling is kind of the poor sister to
basketball,'' Bane said. ''I hope people really enjoyed Teresa, but I hope
they enjoyed some of the other wrestlers, too.''
The match drew more than 300 fans.
''It was a bigger crowd thean normal,'' said Goslicky.
Both girls admitted they were nervous.
''Mostly because it was against a girl and I would feel stupid if I lost,''
said Machesky,'' who has lost by pin in all three of her matches this year.
Ribar practiced only four days for the match.
''She was stronger than the two boys I wrestled this year,'' said Machesky,
who also is a cheerleader for Thomas Jeffeson. ''I just want to ask their
coach why he did it. I came out for wrestling because I wanted to be on the
team. Then they have a girl come out just to wrestle against another girl. I
thought that was pretty weak, if you ask me.''
-----------------------------------
HIGH SCHOOL TELLS GIRL SHE CAN'T BE ON TEAM
December 18, 1994
Angel Vandegriff, a 112-pound high school wrestler who pinned two
boys last weekend, lost her place on the Kennedy-Kenrick High School
team during English class on Thursday.
Athletic director Richard Sliwinski summoned Vandegriff to his
office during eighth period and told her that Catholic League rules
prohibited girls from competing in wrestling.
Vandegriff was shocked that her participation would create any fuss
among administrators.
"They're blowing this way out of proportion," she said Thursday
night at Colonial Elementary School, where she watched her team's
tri-meet against Plymouth-Whitemarsh and Phoenixville. "It's no big
deal."
Her father, Ronald Vandegriff, said that he planned to consult an
attorney about possible legal action that would allow his daughter to
resume wrestling.
"The school, I think, is discriminating against my daughter because
of her sex," he said.
Sliwinski could not be reached for comment. But other athletic
directors in the Catholic League said the league established the rule
about four years ago. The athletic directors and principals agreed at
that time to designate several sports as single-sex, said Brother John
Kane, president of the board of athletic directors.
"I think it might have come up because a boy was playing with a
girls volleyball team," North Catholic athletic director Fran Dougherty
said.
Most other leagues in the area permit girls to wrestle.
Kane said he could not remember anyone else challenging the Catholic
League rule.
Vandegriff, a junior who transferred to Kennedy-Kenrick this fall,
began wrestling as a seventh-grader in Lancaster County, Pa., when her
former stepsister, Debbie, decided to try out for the team. Vandegriff
continued in eighth grade and then as a freshman at the county's Pequea
Valley High.
She moved to the Roxborough section of Philadelphia this June, and
wrestling team tri-captain Dan Scanlan talked her into trying out.
"We didn't have anyone in her weight class, and I thought she could
help us," Scanlan said. "Now, I sort of feel like all my hard work
talking her into it was wasted... I really don't think they have a
right to stop her, since so many other teams have girls."
The 112-pound weight class remained vacant on the Kennedy-Kenrick
lineup card Thursday night. So far this season, Vandegriff said, she has
won three of seven bouts. She pinned two boys at a tournament last
weekend at William Tennent High School, and she received a default
against St. Pius X on Tuesday night, when she first learned that her
presence on the team might be a problem.
So far, the Wolverines have wrestled only nonleague opponents. The
Catholic League season opens Jan. 4. Vandegriff apparently was able to
stick with the team through early meets because administrators were
unaware that she was wrestling.
December 20, 1994
---------------------------------------
PERLMUTTER WINS RESPECT FROM PEERS
The
Record
January 4,
1994; TUESDAY
Amy Perlmutter no longer is a novelty in North Jersey.
In her third year of high school wrestling against boys, the Manchester
Regional
junior has become a legitimate part of the mat scene.
Her success has inspired other girls to consider trying
to fit into the sport, and the 5-foot-1, 112-pounder smiles when she recalls
one such
attempt. Last year, a girl came to two practices, she
says. She really didn't do anything , but she tried to run with the team and
she got
tired.
Thus the candidacy of another Amy Perlmutter-wannabe
fell by the wayside. No other member of her gender has been able to fit that
mold. While some parents, coaches, and wrestlers railed
against girls wrestling in boys events, Perlmutter nurtured a dream in her
Haledon
home. First, she hoped merely to be allowed to engage in
the sport on the high-school level and, once she received the begrudging
approval, she dared to dream of winning a championship.
Her accomplishments stretched beyond those dreams last
week in the eight-team Fred Sharkey Memorial tournament at Wayne Hills.
Perlmutter was voted a share of the Most Outstanding
Wrestler award in a poll of the coaches. She is believed to be the first
girl to win
such an award in New Jersey high school history.
Perlmutter began wrestling as a fourth-grader, when she
joined present teammate John Vacca and a few other friends in a recreation
program in town. I didn't even know what wrestling was,
but I've always liked trying new things, she explains softly. " The kids on
my
block were going to sign up, and I always did what they
did.
She loved the sport and is still going strong six years
later as a 16-year-old who has proved that her foray into the sport is
neither a whim
nor a publicity stunt.
Among those she has impressed is Manchester assistant
coach Frank Pellegrino, who wrestled at Syracuse University, which was
ranked
in the National Division I Top 20 every year he
wrestled. " Amy's tough, he says. You have to ask her if she's hurt because
she'll never tell
you. She's shy, she doesn't say much, and the only way
you know she's there in practice is because you notice she's working harder
than
anybody.
Twice in the Sharkey tournament, Perlmutter was in
trouble. She broke out of a headlock to pin her second-round opponent, and
burst
out of a cradle to pin her title-round opponent. Her
off-season devotion to improving her strength and stamina paid off.
Her success might not have been possible if not for the
support Perlmutter received from several key people. From the moment she
decided to register for wrestling, Perlmutter's parents,
Meyer and Paula, provided unshakable support. She also is grateful for
timely
encouragement from two men. Bill Magna, a recreation
wrestling advisor, made sure she registered with the Manchester Junior
Falcons
program. And Jeff Zona, her first coach, smoothed the
way, Perlmutter says.
I think he felt a little uncomfortable having a girl on
the team at first, but then he saw I worked the hardest. John Vacca and I
used to go to
his home for extra lessons after school.
Once accepted in the program, Perlmutter still had to
face a skeptical public. No one has ever come up to me and told me not to
wrestle. I
know that so many coaches and wrestlers felt I couldn't
handle it, but then I won some matches.
Jules Pellegrino, Manchester's head coach, adds, No
matter how anyone feels about girls wrestling, Amy has won their respect.
She has beaten the odds and become an honored athlete in
a sport where she didn't seem to belong. Perlmutter speaks modestly and
softly and says her main hope is to go beyond the first
round of the district tournament, where her season ended last year. And she
says
that her wrestling career will last just one more
season. High school is it, she says. College wrestling is hard, even for
guys.
Runners-up for Athlete of the Week were Karen
Allmendinger of Passaic Valley, Raymond Dean of Don Bosco Tech, Brian
Phillips of
Lakeland, and Meghan Renna of West Milford, all for
basketball.
-------------------
SPORT: WRESTLING
WGT: 112-pounder CLASS: Junior AGE: 16
LATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Perlmutter won the 112-pound championship in the Fred
Sharkey Memorial Wrestling Tournament, and was named to share the Most
Outstanding Wrestler award with Bobby LaPaglia of Wayne
Hills. She is believed to be the first girl in New Jersey history to win
such an
award.
BACKGROUND
As a fourth-grader, she signed up for recreation-level
wrestling and enjoyed it. She has wrestled for six years, including two as a
full-time
varsity regular. Perlmutter also plays softball she hit
seven home runs for Manchester's junior varsity last year and played
baseball as a
child.
QUOTE
Girls like to watch me wrestle because they like to see
me beat up boys.
: April 25, 1994
-------------------------------------
MANCHESTER GIRL PINS HER CRITICS
The
Record
December 30, 1993;
THURSDAY
She still attracts a crowd and the scoffs and mumbles
still arise
from the bleachers on occasion. But every time she pins
an opponent, she
quiets the critics.
Manchester junior Amy Perlmutter may have gagged them
for good
Wednesday evening.
"I just try to hit all my moves and do my best,"
Perlmutter said
following her title victory at 112 pounds in the Fred
Sharkey Wrestling
tournament at Wayne Hills.
Perlmutter, who bounced back from 5-0 deficits in both
the
semifinals and final, came off her back to pin Don Bosco
Tech's Jason
Valente in one minute, 29 seconds in the title match.
In danger of losing by fall, the 5-foot-1 Perlmutter
escaped defeat
with a reversal and then immobilized Valente with a
headlock.
"He Valente took me down and cradled me and I just broke
out,"
said Perlmutter, who was named the tournament's Most
Outstanding
Wrestler with Bobby LaPaglia of Wayne Hills, a winner by
technical fall
at 130.
"She is a tough competitor," said Don Bosco coach Jaime
Rodriguez,
whose Rams won the team title with 107.9 points over St.
Peter's (94).
Manchester took third (89.5) and Wayne Hills (83.5)
fourth in an
eight-team field.
The Rams were paced by three victors, Monty Hug at 103,
Hilton
Cruz at 171, and heavyweight Victor Cruz , and four
finalists, Valente,
Pierre Bustos at 125, Mojahed Kandous at 145, and Donnie
Mantilla at
189.
"They're convinced they're better than people think they
are,"
Rodriguez said of his wrestlers, who were motivated by
their surprising
dual victory over Passaic Tech last week.
Perlmutter's inspiring showing, her first triumph in a
high school
tournament, did not overshadow the winning efforts of
her teammates,
namely Chris Gorga at 135, John Vacca at 145, and Jante
Tsay at 160.
Vacca won a hard-fought 16-8 decision over Kandous, who
had
quick-pinned Vacca in a dual meet last season.
"My kids wrestled up to their potential," Manchester
coach Jules
"Butch" Pellegrino said.
Despite the sideshow attraction of Perlmutter.
"I can't say enough about how my guys have always backed
her,"
Pellegrino said. "Not one time has there ever been a
problem."
Perlmutter appears to take all the fuss, be they
compliments or
catcalls, in stride.
"I think everybody's gotten used to it by now," she
said, alluding
to her status as the lone girl wrestler at the varsity
level in Passaic
County. "I've been doing it for three years."
The increase in weight from 103 to 112 has not slowed
her.
"With more weight I'm naturally stronger," said
Perlmutter, who
benches more than 150 pounds and can do a team-high 20
chin-ups. "Last
year I felt weaker because I was losing all that weight.
This year since
I'm not losing weight, I feel just as strong as any of
the guys."
"A lot of skeptics, maybe including myself, wondered
once she got
out of 103 class, if she'd be competitive," Pellegrino
said. "But she's
wrestled better this year than she's ever wrestled.
"You can't think of her as a female. You have to think
of her as an
outstanding wrestler. She can be in every match she's
in. She has to be
considered a threat because she's a pinner."
And a winner.
-------------------------------
MANCHESTER GIRL MAKES HISTORY
The
Record
February 1, 1992;
SATURDAY
In the rafters of the Manchester Regional High School
gym, a banner
honors former Falcons wrestling great Bruce Baumgartner,
who went on to
win a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics.
While Amy Perlmutter probably won't reach those heights,
her
performance Friday night will long be remembered at a
school rich in
wrestling tradition.
As a boisterous home crowd cheered her every move,
Perlmutter, a
5-foot-1 freshman, decisioned Midland Park's Scott
Agnello, 9-5, at 103
pounds to become the first Passaic County girl to win a
varsity
wrestling bout. Her Bergen County counterpart, Liliko
Ogasawara of
Pascack Hills, made her varsity debut on Jan. 21, 1989.
Ogasawara was
pinned in 59 seconds. She continued to wrestle that
season but lost four
varsity bouts at 145 pounds.
"I'm glad I won my first varsity match," said
Perlmutter. "The
crowd was rooting for me to do well. I didn't want to
let them down."
Perlmutter, who is 6-3 with five pins for the junior
varsity, got
her opportunity when Mark Francesco moved up to 112
pounds to fill the
weight class vacated by Rafael Ortiz, who is sidelined
with a neck
injury.
"I think she did a great job for her first varsity
match, and
obviously with a lot of publicity," said Manchester
coach Jules
Pellegrino, whose team dropped to 2-5 following the
33-27 loss. "I was
impressed with her aggressiveness and the way she
handled the
pressure."
At school Friday, Manchester's electronic message board
flashed the
big news: "Amy Perlmutter's varsity debut tonight at 7."
The largest
crowd of the season got a glimpse of history, and a
local television
crew and reporters followed Perlmutter as if she was a
celebrity.
"I'm a littler nervous," Perlmutter said before her
bout. "But I
just have to go out and do what I have to do."
She did. Until the final buzzer sounded, Perlmutter was
the clear
aggressor.
The Haledon resident grabbed a 2-0 lead 19 seconds into
the bout
with a takedown. She later gained two points for a
reversal with 17
seconds left in the period. The lead increased to 6-1
with two back
points in the closing seconds.
Agnello moved to within 7-3 on a reversal, but
Perlmutter scored on
an escape to lead 8-3.
"I said to myself, 'I can't quit, I can't give up',"
Perlmutter
said. "I said, 'I need the points. My team needs me to
do well'.
"I couldn't quit no matter how tired I got."
