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It's easy to see that Heather Cash is grappling with a lot these days...
and we're not just talking about homework.
You see she's the first girl to ever hit the mat for James River High
School... and she's doing it to prove a point.
Heather has definitely made the cut.
In fact she's the STARTER in the 125 pound weight class.
((BACK TO YOUR BASE HEATHER. BACK TO YOUR BASE. HIPS UP. C'MON UP. GRAB THE
WRIST.))
At first, Coach Otis Timberlake wasn't thrilled with the idea of having a
girl on the team.
But now that she's proven that she belongs... the coach has reversed his way
of thinking.
((OTIS TIMBERLAKE/WRESTLING COACH: I'VE GOT A LITTLE MORE ADMIRATION FOR HER
FOR COMING OUT AND GIVING IT A TRY-- ESPECIALLY, SHE'S A SENIOR BY DOING
THAT-- THAN I HAVE FOR THE FORTY OR FIFTY GUYS WE'VE GOT WALKING THE HALLS
AROUND HERE THAT WON'T GIVE IT A TRY. ))
According to the Virginia High School League, about a DOZEN girls are
wrestling in the Commonwealth this year.
Heather says she'd like to see that number rise... and she's offering up
some advice.
At this point she has more losses than wins.
But Heather says its not because she's a girl.
She attributes her record to a lack of wrestling experience.
And even though she's having some problems taking down the competition...
she's scoring big points when it comes to taking down the gender barriers of
high school athletics.
Wrestling Women
This year I am a senior at East Valley High School. I have been on the
varsity wrestling team since I was a freshman. I am now the team's captain,
so what I say and do has a little weight with what the team does. We have
had an interesting situation come up and wrestling season is about to start.
A girl from East Valley has decided that she wants to wrestle. This has
caused great controversy among the wrestlers and even more so among some of
our parents.
Many things went through my mind when I heard that this girl wanted to
wrestle. At first I thought the school won't let a girl wrestle, then I
remembered that a few other wrestling teams in the area (like Riverside and
Rogers) had a girl or two wrestling. Oh well, I thought, she'll quit after
the first practice when she figures out what we have to do each day. Then
the thought occured what if she does stick it out? What about getting into
the girls lockerroom? (Male coaches don't have keys to the girls
lockerrooms) This would make it tough for her to even get dressed down for
things like early morning practices, late practices, and Saturday and
holiday matches.
What about wrestling? If you are at all familar with wrestling you know that
you have to get close to your opponent, grab them, and hold them down to
win. (That is greatly simplified and wrestling is much more complex than
that but anyway...) This becomes a great deal harder to do when wrestling a
girl.
Also many of the wrestlers and their parents belived that it would be
morally wrong to even practice with a girl, because they would have to
wrestle her and they consider it fondling. Some parents have even gone as
far as saying wrestling with her could be considered a sexual act. Some of
the wrestlers parents have even asked their sons not to wrestle if this girl
is allowed to join the team.
All of these thoughts went through my mind and still are going through. My
personal feelings are that they shouldn't let a girl wrestle on a guys team.
If she wants to wrestle with other girls thats her own business, but I dont
feel that it would be good for anyone to let her wrestle with the guys. It
would divide some of the wrestlers on the team, which would hurt the team
alot since there are already some hard feelings going around. I think that
it would also make the team just look bad by having a girl on the team.
Should they let her wrestle? Are they going to let her wrestle? I don't
know, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
