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MORE THAN A MATCH
BOYS WRESTLE WITH NEW REALITY AT TOURNEY: A GIRL
Dayton Daily News
February 26, 1999,
SUBHEAD: * Sarah Van Skaik, a veteran grappler, is the first girl to qualify
for a district meet in Ohio.
Anyone fearing for Bobby McCall's well-being these days can relax. The
Clinton-Massie High School wrestler is not losing any sleep and he's not in
need of a
psychiatrist.
Just because he lost to St. Bernard-Elmwood Place High School's Sarah Van
Skaik in the 160-pound consolation semifinals of the Lakota Division III
Sectional last
week - making Van Skaik the first girl to qualify for a district tournament
in Ohio - McCall isn't convinced his life is over.
But being pinned by Van Skaik in two minutes and 30 seconds has made him
famous.
"That's what everybody's been telling me," said McCall, a junior. "She knew
what she was doing and she got me. That's life."
"But it makes me look at girls differently. I respect them."
It's not as though McCall is Van Skaik's first victim. She enters the
district meet, which begins at 3 p.m. today at Xenia High School, with a
7-14 record. And Van
Skaik, a senior, is more experienced than McCall, a second-year wrestler.
Van Skaik has wrestled since seventh grade.
"She wrestled him tough," Clinton-Massie coach Dan McSurley said. "I think
his nerves affected him, the fact everyone in the building was pulling for
her."
If Van Skaik places in the top three at district, she will qualify for the
state meet next week in Columbus. She will wrestle Sidney Lehman's Nate
Johnston, a 1997
state qualifier, in the first round.
Johnston and Lehman coach Robert Boller have no problem with Johnston
wrestling Van Skaik, but Springfield Catholic Central school officials held
a meeting
Thursday to decide if their 160-pound wrestler, Dave Lohrer, would forfeit a
match against her.
Van Skaik could meet Lohrer in the consolation round. Catholic Central
athletic director Kevin Kohls said officials decided to allow Lohrer to
wrestle Van Skaik.
"We're very realistic," St. Bernard coach Paul Finkes said. "Her chances are
not that great of going much farther, but she's going to give it her best
shot, no matter
what.
"Usually the boys are stronger than her, but she never gives up and she
(beat McCall) by sheer dedication."
Van Skaik's only goal all along was to qualify for district.
"I've wanted to go (to district) for four years and I finally get to go,"
Van Skaik said. "I was actually on my back and I just did whatever I could
do. I needed to
move my hips and I tried rolling.
"It worked and he ended up on his back." And that's when her popularity
skyrocketed. As of Wednesday, Van Skaik said, two newspaper stories had been
written
about her and she had been featured on television three times.
"It's been pretty overwhelming," Van Skaik said. "Our school is pretty
small. Anything that happens, everyone knows. They announced (the sectional
results) at
school and everybody was happy for me." Including her parents, who weren't
completely gung-ho about their daughter wrestling in the beginning.
They were fine with it - sort of," Van Skaik said. "Now they go to all my
meets and they're like the loudest people. I can hear my coach, but I hear
my parents
above him."
She might not hear McCall Friday, but he promises to be in attendance,
cheering for Van Skaik. The two have formed a bond, having wrestled three "I
wish her the
best of luck," McCall said. "People kind of joke with me about (losing to
her), especially my friends. I just tell them, 'She would have done the same
to you.''
(1) Sarah Van Skaik maneuvers teammate Mike Hooker onto his
back during a sparring match in preparation for today's district wrestling
tournament at Xenia High School. (2) Sarah Van Skaik, the only girl to
qualify for a district wrestling meet in Ohio, watches teammates practice.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Never mind the medals, she's a champ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
May 16, 1998
Sarah Van Skaik learned an important lesson early. Life is like a party.
Sometimes you have to wait to be invited. Sometimes you have to knock on the
door. And sometimes, you can walk right in.
Five years ago, as a seventh-grader at St. Bernard-Elmwood Place Junior-
Senior High School, she knew the morning announcement for wrestling team
tryouts was
not meant for her. She was a girl. Girls didn't wrestle.
But Sarah Van Skaik wanted to wrestle. There was something about the sport
she liked. It took guts and endurance. It took physical strength.
So Sarah, who wasn't invited to the meeting, went anyway. She didn't expect
an overly warm reception. She didn't expect to be kicked out either, but
just in case
she carried a petition signed by dozens of classmates, supporting her right
to participate. It was her mother's idea.
"I didn't even have to hold it up," she says with a grin. "I walked in and
said I wanted to wrestle and the coach said OK."
Good move.
Nail polish optional
Five years later, St. Bernard-Elmwood Place boasts the fourth-best female
high school wrestler in the nation. Sarah earned the title earlier this
spring at the first
national girls' high school wrestling tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich.
On May 30, she plans to compete in the Saunders Cup international wrestling
meet in Lansing, Mich.
This red-haired, 160-pound athlete doesn't really think of herself as a
pioneer, but she is. Like other girls and women across the nation, she is
opening doors that
never should have been closed to her. She loves a sport that never should
have been off limits.
Girls got sick and tired of watching from the sidelines a long time ago.
Only recently have they learned the rules of the playground.
Don't ask. Just play.
Learn to take your licks.
Which is perfectly acceptable to Sarah Van Skaik.
She wrestles in the same hot practice room for the same two grueling hours
as her teammates. She wears the same Spandex singlet and the same head gear.
She lifts
the same weights, runs the same laps, learns the same holds. She abides by
the same hair regulations and takes off her earrings just like the guys.
She was, however, the first wrestler on her team to find out that nail
polish is not illegal.
Forfeit? Never!
It was one of a number of lessons Sarah learned about her sport, herself,
and her opponents.
She found out some boys would rather forfeit than wrestle girls. She found
out that some girls would rather die than wrestle.
And she discovered that, personally, she would rather die than forfeit.
Her worst experience: "There's this guy from another school, and the whole
time we're wrestling, he had a smile on his face. He knew he was going to
beat me, and I
knew he was going to beat me. In the middle of the match, he looks over at
his coach and smiles."
Her best experience: "The first match I won, in eighth grade, I beat this
guy, and he starts crying. That was one of my best moments."
Sarah Van Skaik is the first to admit there have not been as many of those
moments as she'd like. She says, in sheer physical terms, most guys are
stronger.
"Sometimes if I see a guy and he's real big, my mouth drops open," she says.
Every season, she has considered quitting.
But Sarah Van Skaik has held on. Through sore muscles and sweaty matches.
Through opponents who smirked, and admirers who wondered. Through sprains,
spins, pins and Spandex.
Some people think Sarah will find out what a champion is two weeks from now,
in Lansing, Mich.
Others think she already knows.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GIRLS GETTING A DOSE OF IRON;
YEAH, THEY'RE OBSESSED WITH WEIGHTS, BUT THEY JUST WANT TO KEEP LIFTING MORE
The Plain Dealer
August 3, 1999
Sayward Glise knows how to put her boyfriend in check.
Leg-wrestle him.
"My boyfriend is a baseball player, and he can beat me at arm wrestling,"
said Glise, 15, a Georgia weightlifter in yesterday's AAU Junior Olympics,
sponsored by
University Hospitals Health System. "But when it comes to leg wrestling, I
can throw him across the room."
But even though Glise has the muscles to humble most boys, she is quick to
add the following: She, like most other female lifters, are ordinary girls.
They say there's
nothing manly about them, and they would like for narrow-minded folks to nix
the stereotypes.
What's wrong with being able to heave a lot of weight and still have the
grace to sashay across stage as an elegant actress?
"I do other things besides lift weights," Glise said. "I want to be on
Broadway when I get older. I'd love to be an actor. One of the reasons I
lift is because it helps
you stay in shape. I want to have legs like Tina Turner when I get older."
Counting yesterday's win in the 75-kilogram (165 pounds) weight class, Glise
has claimed two national titles. She's clearly one of the strongest young
women in the
country when it comes to clean-and-jerking (137 pounds) and snatching (99
pounds). But after winning yesterday's trophy, Glise vented more over
perceptions than
barbells.
Amanda Wilson, a 15-year-old lifter from Georgia and winner of her 63-kilo
(138 pounds) weight class, had plenty to say about the matter.
"I can't stand if a cheerleader comes up to me and says something about me
weightlifting," Wilson said. "Most cheerleaders are OK about it, but I have
had
somebody walk up to me and say something about it. When that happens, I look
at that person and ask 'What's seven times seven?' Sometimes they get the
answer
right, and sometimes they don't.'
Wilson and most other lifters in this steel sorority are in good shape, and
are toned and well-conditioned. And, like most girls, they get occasional
love letters and
phone calls.
Just listen to David Wilson, a Georgia coach at yesterday's event.
"You get any blue-eyed blond girl and she's going to float somebody's boat,
whether she's a national champion weightlifter or not," Wilson said. "These
are still
typical girls. The boys are still calling them and [teeing] the dads off."
This kind of stuff was taboo 10 years ago, Wilson said.
"Back then, when a girl was a weightlifter, you'd hear comments in the crowd
like 'She looks like a man,' Wilson said. "Now, the modern-day man seems to
appreciate all the hard work these women do to get to this level."
But some are still having a hard time with all this. Louisiana lifter Monica
Davis, a 13-year-old phenom who won her 75-plus-kilo weight class (over 164
pounds),
said boys sometimes are in-timidated by her.
"Some of the boys around school might sit back and just stare," she said.
"They won't say anything, just sit back and stare."
It's a new age, the girls say, and you can't put much stock in perceptions.
"Everybody says I'm too little to lift," said Maryland's Jennifer Forman,
15, who won her 43-kilo weight class (95 pounds). "When somebody says I'm
too little to
lift, I just tell them to come down and check me out."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrestler relishes chance
Jolene Garvin makes most of opportunity
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE)
February 12, 1997
BUCKSPORT - Mount View High School of Thorndike junior Jolene
Garvin didn't win either of her two matches at the Eastern Maine
Class B wrestling regional Saturday.
But the fact she even had a chance to wrestle represents a
major breakthrough for girls across the state this year.
This is the first season girls have been allowed to wrestle in
Maine and Garvin is thankful for the opportunity.
"It's fun. I've wanted to do it ever since junior high," said
the Jackson native. "So when I got the chance, I went for it.
"I've enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I enjoy the
excitement of it. "
She weighs 103 pounds and has two victories this year, both
pins. She has pinned a girl and a boy.
"I was really good in the middle of the year. I got to the
third period in three matches and that's a good accomplishment for
me. I felt really good about that," said Garvin, who became
intrigued with the sport of wrestling in gym class in junior high
and with her younger brother Spencer in the backyard.
She said her teammates have been great about accepting her.
"I think it's great," said Mount View junior 215-pounder Isaac
Ball. "She has showed that girls are capable of holding their own.
She has a lot of dedication. "
In the Eastern regional, Garvin was pinned by eventual winner
Paul Hussey of Winslow in 29 seconds and then extended Ellsworth's
Travis Hardison to the third period before being pinned at 4:11.
"It's different wrestling a girl," said Hardison. "She's
stronger than I thought she would be. She makes you work for it.
She isn't just out there to wrestle, she's out there to win. "
He said there is one distinct advantage to wrestling a girl.
"They smell better," grinned Hardison.
Hardison had heard Garvin had double-jointed shoulders.
"No. I'm just really flexible," chuckled Garvin.
"That's one of her big assets," said Mount View coach
Hamilton Richards. "She's got a good bridge. I'm trying to gether
to use it even more. "
Seeing his daughter wrestle has been an interesting
experience for her dad, Wayne Garvin Jr.
"When she first got introduced to it she was very
enthusiastic about it," said Wayne Garvin. "But I didn't think
she'd take it so seriously.
"I'm all for it," he added. "She has a good time. I've
enjoyed the season immensely. "
Referee Steve Swindells and Eastern B meet director Tom
Ackley said the addition of girls has been a positive development.
"It makes a good sport even better and I think the boys
have watched their sportsmanship more because they're in mixed
company," said Swindells.
"I used to be one of the people most against it but it
has worked very well," said Ackley.
He said the only negative aspect he has seen occurred
when a boy lost to a girl and his parents walked out of the meet.
"They did a disservice to their son. He lost to another
wrestler, not a girl," said Ackley.
Garvin's expectations for next year?
"I just want to get better and pin some more guys," she
said.
Camden-Rockport's Bill Murray, a freshman, took third
place in the 103-pound class and qualified for the state meet
despite wearing a full face covering. He is susceptible to bloody
noses and lost a match earlier this year because of it.
"I've worn it for three weeks. I'm fine with it now. It
took me about three days to get used to it," said Murray.
"He has adjusted real well to it. He's got one of the
biggest hearts on the team," said C-R coach John Kelly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
GENDER EQUITY TESTED
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
December 8, 1998,
Nikki Doyno, a 15-year-old Manatee freshman, is another example of how the
misguided high school sports world has gone haywire with gender equity.
All of 103 delicate pounds, Nikki is a junior varsity wrestler. She is her
school's first and Manatee County's third female in the sport.
Southeast sophomore Chelle Fields is scheduled to wrestle varsity at 112
pounds Wednesday for the first time against Riverview. Sophomore Sarah Dodge
wrestles at 160 pounds for Southeast's junior varsity.
Nikki was the only girl among 50 boys Monday afternoon in Manatee varsity
coach Andy Gugliemini's boot camp-style practice. He guides his wrestlers
through
dozens of pushups. Nikki crawled 60 feet across a mat on her hands while a
boy held her legs wheelbarrel style.
Part of the practice involved rolling around on the mat practicing wrestling
techniques with another boy.
''I'm just totally not believing this,'' said Rose Doyno, Nikki's mother,
who has been unsuccessful in discouraging her daughter.
''I was a little upset, outraged as matter of fact. It's very scary. She's
come home with quite a few bad bruises in not such good locations. I'm
concerned about having
a female wrestle with a male. It's not something I'm real thrilled about.''
''I can't say I'm happy, but I can't discriminate,'' Gugliemini said. ''If
she does everything the boys do, she's on the team. We condition like heck
and she's put up with
it.''
''I'm not going to run her off by any means,'' said Manatee junior varsity
coach Mike Kelly, who will send Nikki out to wrestle a boy Wednesday for the
first time in
a junior varsity match at Lakewood Ranch.
Nikki, 5-foot-2 with blonde hair all the way down her back, does not fit the
tomboy stereotype. She tucks her hair under a bathing-style cap for matches,
then
straps on a headgear.
''Everybody knows I'm feminine. I'm not 'butch' or whatever you want to call
it,'' Nikki said. ''I just like the sport, the technique, the individual
competition and how
much fun it looked. I've watched it for three or four years. I thought it
would be neat to see a girl actually try it and my dad encouraged me.''
Not according to Rose Doyno, who is divorced from Dev Doyno, Nikki's father.
Dev Doyno is an AAU Grand National age group champion wrestler, according to
Gugliemini. Doyno is also a part-time Manatee assistant coach, who works
with
the upper-weight wrestlers.
''I felt she was doing this for his attention and I still feel that's part
of it,'' Rose Doyno said. ''She doesn't see her dad too much other than in
wrestling.''
''That's not why I'm doing it,'' Nikki told her mother.
She does not worry about being touched inappropriately.
''I don't think it's kind of a sexual sport,'' Nikki said. ''If (boy
wrestlers) are doing what they're supposed to be doing and not fooling
around, it's fine.''
''It's a totally different thing. Boys don't have breasts,'' Rose Doyno
said. ''It's even weird to see guys with guys.''
Nikki wrestled a girl nine pounds heavier in her first match last week. She
was pinned by Lemon Bay junior 112-pounder Angela Hernandez in the first
period.
Sophomore 103-pounder Ryan Craig, who used to be Nikki's boyfriend, has
wrestled against her in practice.
''I worry about hurting her because she's a girl,'' Craig said. ''You want
to be gentle, not as rough. But she's strong for a girl, a smart, tough
wrestler for a girl.''
''The guys on her team are like big brothers,'' Rose Doyno said. ''With the
other teams, that's another story.''
Fields beat four boys last year, one by pin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
THE AREA'S FIRST GIRL-VS.-GIRL MATCH WAS JUST AS ROUGH AS
WRESTLING GETS
The Virginian-Pilot
(Norfolk) January 14, 1996, Sunday
Waiting to wrestle for Booker T. Washington High School on Saturday, Sherika
Sadler kept warm in a T-shirt that bore a portentous message.
On the back of her white shirt was a description of wrestling as ''The
All-American intense, legal pain sport.''
Soon enough, Sadler's opponent in the area's first all-female varsity
wrestling match, Dana Worthington of Wilson, found out for herself. Courtesy
of Sadler, all
5-foot-1, 104 pounds of her.
Worthington, 5-4 and 111, walked onto the competitive mat for the first
time, but had to be carried off. Sadler pinned Worthington in 1:08 of the
first period in a
112-pound match at the Oak Duals at Norfolk Collegiate, but that wasn't the
worst of it.
Worthington got up limping and sobbing, distraught over losing and letting
her team down, she said, but also racked with pain in her right knee.
At the mat's center, she lay on her back for 20 minutes as a trainer, her
coach, her mother, her sister and others offered treatment and solace.
Finally rescue squad
workers splinted her knee and rolled Worthington out of the gym on a
stretcher and into an ambulance, which took her to DePaul Medical Center for
X-rays.
Worthington was discharged three hours later and returned to Norfolk
Collegiate with two sprained ligaments, a pair of crutches she'll need for
two weeks and
bruised pride.
''Everybody made such a big deal out of (the match),'' said Worthington, a
16-year-old sophomore. ''The whole school knew about it. People I didn't
even know
were coming up to me and asking me what I thought about it. Now I have to
walk into school Tuesday on crutches.''
As Worthington talked, Sadler sat beside her on a bench and listened. They
didn't know each other until Saturday, and Sadler, a 17-year-old junior,
said she only
learned she'd wrestle Worthington at mid-week from a newspaper article.
''I thought, 'Oooh, that's gonna be fun,' '' Sadler said. ''I've never
wrestled a girl before.''
But she had wrestled, unlike Worthington. Sadler was 2-5 before Saturday,
including one forfeit and an 11-9 victory in her second match over a boy
from
Menchville.
''I don't know if (Worthington's) been working out, but she's in for it,''
Booker T. coach Rob Toran said before the match. ''Sherika's got a mean
streak in her. And
she's got a strong, strong desire to win.''
Sadler, an all-Eastern District field hockey player, was the aggressor,
taking down Worthington by the legs for two early points. She then was
penalized a point,
however, for clamping a full nelson, an illegal hold, on Worthington.
Thirty seconds into the match, referee Jerry Kirby stopped action to remove
a ring from Worthington's finger. When wrestling resumed, Sadler wrapped her
arms
around Worthington and threw her to the mat, the sequence in which
Worthington's injuries occurred. The pin quickly followed.
''She started to cry, and I asked the ref if I should stop and he said keep
wrestling,'' Sadler said.
''I started feeling sorry for her. I know it was her first match. I wanted
to try to take it easy on her from there.''
The bout, ironically, gave Sadler the chance to experience the no-win
pressure boys often feel when wrestling girls. Sadler's limited experience
made her the heavy
favorite over Worthington, which would have made losing to her difficult.
''Yes, a guy has to beat a girl,'' Sadler said. ''If he doesn't, the whole
school finds out. It's not a pretty sight. This was important to me.''
Thankfully for all concerned, Sadler noted, the bout was clean, in that
there was no outside-the-rules scrapping.
''Girls tend to go off a little bit,'' Sadler said. ''They have a tendency
to do girl things, like scratching and poking, biting sometimes. I've felt
myself start to do it in
practice, but I've stopped. Coach says those are just things girls do.''
More and more, wrestling boys is one of those things, too.
Sadler turned to wrestling because she doesn't like basketball and was a bad
swimmer last winter, she said.
Worthington saw it, tried it, liked it and pursued it, despite suffering
ridicule in some quarters and possessing what her mother, Donna, called a
low pain tolerance.
''I thought she handled it well, though,'' Donna Worthington said of her
daughter, who promised to return to wrestling as soon as she is able.
''If I cared about what people thought,'' Dana Worthington said, ''I'd be a
cheerleader.''
GRAPHIC: Photo, MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot, Sherika Sadler throws
Dana Worthington, above, in the area's first all-girl varsity wrestling
match, at the Oak Duals at Norfolk Collegiate. Booker T. Washington's Sadler
came into the match with a 2-5 record, but it was the first for Wilson's
Worthington.
It was also her last for a while: Worthington suffered injured two sprained
ligaments in the match. Her 2-year-old niece Brittany, left, comforts her as
she waits to be
taken to the hospital. Worthington will be on crutches for two weeks, but
she plans to return to wrestling as soon as she is able.
