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By JON KASPER of the Missoulian
Rocky Mountain ClassicJanuary 15, 1999
It all started when she was seven.
Sheena Kubas brought home a Little Guy wrestling pamphlet and asked her dad
what it was all about.
The self-styled tomboy decided wrestling was something she wanted to try.
Now the 16-year-old Missoula Big Sky freshman is a pioneer of sorts. Friday,
she'll become the first female to wrestle in the 22-year history of Jug Beck
Rocky Mountain Classic at Sentinel gym.
She's also believed to be the first female varsity wrestler at the Class AA
level in Montana.
Kubas isn't trying to make a statement or ruffle feathers. She's just
participating in a sport that she likes and that she's good at. She plans on
wrestling her entire prep career and believes she can place at the state
tournament before it's all over.
"I think there is more of a drive on my side,'' Kubas said. "I know people
are watching me and I know they are going to think bad if I don't give it my
all. They are going to say I'm weak. If I don't give it all I've got, they
are going to think girls aren't cut out for it.''
Kubas beat a sophomore in a wrestle-off to earn her varsity spot. She has
won three matches, including two by pin, and lost four times. She also took
fourth at the Corvallis Invitational as a member of the Eagles' JV squad.
"I wouldn't say she's the best freshman we've had coming in or anything like
that,'' said Big Sky coach Ed Norman. "She's got a lot of experience and
we've had freshmen who haven't had near that much experience. She's way
ahead in knowing what to do. She's one of the hardest workers we have in the
room. I really believe she wants to make a go of this. I can see her making
it for four years in high school.''
Any doubts about her ability were put to rest in the second week of the
season when Kubas pinned an opponent from Lake City, Idaho, in 57 seconds.
"He was shocked that I got him and pinned him right away,'' Kubas said.
"After that, I watched him from my side of the bench to the other and he
sagged his head the whole time. He sat there looking pretty mad.''
She made quite an impression at the Corvallis tournament too.
"People there were pretty shocked,'' she said. "I had people I didn't know
coming up to me, asking me if I was going to be at other tournaments. They
were saying, 'I want to watch you, it's so awesome to see a girl wrestler.'
I've gotten a lot of support from people. Others have a big problem with
it.''
At a dual in Kalispell last week, Kubas was pinned in the second period by
Jared Eystad, the second-ranked 112-pounder in the state. She suffered an
injured shoulder and a bloody nose. On her way to the training room, she
said the Kalispell student body hooted at her.
"I had blood on my lips, blood on my nose and blood on my teeth,'' she said.
"It was pretty embarrassing. It hurt my feelings, cause I'm out there trying
the best I can and people are putting me down. It was hard. I know people
are saying things behind my back, because people overhear it and tell me
about it.''
On most road trips, she's had to change in public bathrooms and in Corvallis
Kubas wasn't able to shower. She also said some of her opponents have been a
little tentative before the matches.
"At first they come out and they look nervous,'' she said. "But once you
lock up or push them, they are right back at it with you. They don't want to
lose, just like I don't want to lose.''
Her teammates and coaches, though, have been big supporters. Members of the
team encouraged her to give it a try. Her boyfriend is senior wrestler Kris
May, who asked her out before the season started.
"We've got a great bunch of guys,'' Kubas said. "Everyone in that room is
great. They treat me like one of the guys. They protect me and look out for
me in a way. I think it makes them proud that they've got a girl on the
team.
"Kris is proud that his girlfriend is on the varsity wrestling team. He has
no problem with it. No one gives him crap about his girlfriend being on the
varsity wrestling team.''
"She was accepted,'' Norman said. "I talked to everyone the first day and
said how it was going to be. We aren't going to treat anyone different.''
Kubas said her older sister thinks she's crazy, and her mother worries about
her getting injured.
"My mom doesn't like it too much,'' Kubas said. "She's proud of me and she's
glad that I get out there and I'm working so hard. She's always afraid of
her little girl getting hurt. My dad always tells me how proud he is of me
and that makes my day so much better.''
Girls wrestling on boys' teams is becoming common across the United States.
Last year, 200 girls in Michigan completed the varsity season and 272 girls
from 36 states competed in the first U.S. Girls' Wrestling Association
national championship meet. This year, organizers expect between 350-500
girls to compete at the championships.
The recent edition of Wrestling USA Magazine featured a spread of the
top-ranked high school girls in the nation. Kubas isn't ranked, yet.
She'd like to make a strong showing at the Rocky, but faces a stiff
first-round challenge on Friday. She'll face Great Falls High senior Aaron
Hartnell, the top-seed at 112. Hartnell is a two-time Rocky champion and is
22-0 this season.
"If I don't place, I'll feel bad,'' Kubas said. "But you always have to look
for what's coming tomorrow and keep pushing yourself. If you worry about
what happened today, you'll forget about what you want to do tomorrow.''
Jim Leitner
Blair Young had experienced nothing quite like it in her brief, yet interrupted wrestling career .
Everywhere she looked, competitors exchanged smiles, friendly
chit-chat, wrestling tips and promises to keep in touch.
But this was no ordinary wrestling tournament. Young, a 16-year-old junior from Waukon, Iowa, earned all-Amerian status in the inaugural United States High School
Girls National Wrestling Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., the
last weekend in March. Despite a three-year break from the
sport, she won three of five matches to finish fourth in her 19-girl bracket.
"Everybody was just happy to be there and to have the
opportunity to wrestle in a big tournament," Young said of the
meet, which drew a total of 272 girls from 38 states. "It was a lot
of fun. It was a lot different than the tournaments I'd been used to
going to. Guys usually don't want to make friends with the competition."
The camaraderie stemmed from an extreme gender barrier all
female wrestlers must face. Because of relatively low interest in
the sport, girls must compete with and against boys in a sport
known for its machismo.
Young became interested in the sport in fourth grade, when her
older brother, Brandon, started practicing the moves he learned at
school workouts on her.
"Brandon would say, 'Mom, you should let her wrestle. She's so
wirey, and she's such a worm, she'd be good at it,'" Young's
mother, Sheryl, said. "I love the fact that she wrestles. It's a good
sport, and she's always been so good at it."
Young immediately showed a high aptitude for wrestling. In sixth
grade, she participated in a Pee Wee tournament at Decorah,
Iowa, and earned Most Valuable Wrestler honors after pinning all
three of her opponents.
A year later, she compiled an 11-2 record for her junior-high
team. Young joined the eighth-grade team after the basketball
season and went 6-1 despite having only three practices.
"She more than held her own against the boys, and a lot of times
she'd beat them," junior high coach Bob Jenkins said. "She was a
very good athlete, she was strong and had good balance.
"We really didn't have any problems with her wrestling boys,
because people respected her as an athlete and as a person. The
problem we ran into was nobody wanted to get beat by a girl.At
that age, it's a big ego thing with boys."
So, Young focused on excelling in other sports and put wrestling
out of her mind in high school. An all-state softball player, she
was preparing for the track and field season when Waukon
wrestling coach Tom Chiles told her about the national
tournament. She worked her way into wrestling shape in about a
month.
Young hopes the exposure of the first national meet will create a
more-accepting attitude toward a growing sport. She said more
than 1,500 girls participate in wrestling nation-wide, but just two
from Iowa went to nationals.
"This tournament could be a real stepping stone," Young said. "I
think it could become a real popular sport. A lot of girls would go
out for it if they had teams, but we really don't have the opportunity."
Sheryl Young said Iowa lags behind the rest of the nation in terms
of opportunities for girls. The national meet included all-girl teams
from Hawaii and North Pole, Alaska.
"A lot of people out there think Iowa is a backwards state for
wrestling," she said. "They know it has great guys wrestling, but
they just can't figure out why there are so few girls wrestling in Iowa."
