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News Page 7
WRESTLING WITH THE GENDER ISSUE
The Deseret News
(Salt Lake City, UT)
January 9, 1997, Thursday
Should girls be allowed to compete against boys?
That particular ''Battle of the Sexes'' issue has become
a heated topic around the nation lately.
In Texas, the state's Wrestling Officials Association
recently decided to boycott co-ed wrestling matches, which resulted in a
discrimination lawsuit by the mothers of two girls who
wrestle. The association then disbanded rather than face the prospect of
refereeing
girls wrestling boys.
There are certainly debates in Utah on whether boys and
girls should ''play'' together, but there isn't a controversy to the extent
of the one
in Texas. And it really wouldn't matter if there were.
Evan Excell, the executive director of the Utah High
School Athletics Association, said that as long as there isn't an equivalent
sport for
girls to participate in, they can play on boys' teams.
Period. There's no room for interpretation, either, because it's the law.
''Everything is Title IX oriented,'' said Excell in
reference to the law that was passed to give girls an equal amount of
opportunities as boys
have to play interscholastic sports.
''By law we have to provide an opportunity. We have no
choice.''
That means that girls can try out for spots on boys'
teams in baseball, football, golf and wrestling because there are no
equivalent girls'
sports. Last year in Utah, 41 girls participated on
those boys' squads - 33 in golf, six in wrestling and one apiece in baseball
and football.
However, because it's the amount of opportunities
available and not the number of teams that counts, boys aren't allowed to
participate
with girls' teams in volleyball, softball or on the
drill team.
There can be no cross-over for girls in cross country,
swimming, track and field, basketball, soccer or tennis because both genders
have
teams in those sports.
The biggest debate usually centers around girls who
choose to participate in heavy contact sports like football and wrestling.
''I figure if they want to do it, they should be able to
do it,'' said Jeff Chaston, whose daughter Michelle wrestles for Hunter
High. ''Let's
face it, (wrestling) is physical. If you're willing to
put out the physical (effort) . . . you should be able to do it.''
Michelle said she wouldn't mind wrestling against other
girls, but she likes the challenge of going against the stronger boys. But
beating your
opponent is the ultimate goal.
''It doesn't matter to me. It might matter to other
people,'' she said. ''In wrestling you want to be the best, girl or boy it
doesn't matter.''
Michelle, a junior, hasn't won a match in which she
wrestled, but she has been declared winner by forfeit several times. On one
occasion,
the boy was at the meet, but he didn't want to wrestle
against her. His choice reflects a somewhat common attitude among boy
wrestlers
who feel they don't have anything to gain by competing
against a girl.
''Man, if a girl beat you, you'd probably have to move
out of the country - and that still might not do it,'' said a Utah high
school wrestler,
who wished to remain anonymous, about how embarrassed
he'd feel.
''If they can get a full girls' wrestling team, they
should do that. I really don't think that girls should wrestle against
boys.''
A statement made by his coach could be the most alarming
to those parents of girls who want to get involved in wrestling: ''If you
wrestle
against a girl, go out there and make her wish she'd
never heard of wrestling.''
And hope she doesn't do the same to you.
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WRESTLING GENDER ISSUES ;
STEILACOOM HAS A PAIR OF GIRLS ON ITS TEAM; ONE IS
WRESTLING WITH HER BROTHER FOR A SPOT ON
THE VARSITY, AND WITH TRADITION FOR ACCEPTANCE
The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
January 09, 1997, Thursday
While others grapple with the delicate handling of
boy-meets-girl in high school wrestling, James and Carrie Reed have each
other to
hold on to.
The Reeds, brother and sister, compete for the
Steilacoom High wrestling team. They fight for family bragging rights in the
same weight
class, 108 pounds.
James, a freshman, is on the varsity. Carrie, a junior,
is right on his heels.
"We've always competed in the same sports - basketball,
baseball," Carrie Reed said. "I've always been a big tomboy. I grew up with
boys."
Carrie Reed and 122-pounder Kristin Gordon are on the
Steilacoom roster this season, giving the Sentinels a total of five female
wrestlers
since the 1990-91 season.
Steilacoom wrestling coach Dale Davis says that's about
average by today's standards around the state.
"We are encouraging girls to wrestle," Davis said. "It's
a way to save the sport - for all the schools."
Girls started turning out for the high school sport in
the mid-1980s. Though the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association
doesn't
recognize girls wrestling as a separate sport, that
could change in the future, executive director Mike Colbrese has said.
No girl has ever qualified for Mat Classic, the state
championship meet.
That's not to say there aren't good female wrestlers. In
fact, small universities such as Central Washington and Simon Fraser have
added
female wrestling teams in order "to protect the sport."
Some colleges had planned on canceling wrestling entirely, Davis said.
At the high school level, participation is growing. In
fact, five girls at Steilacoom approached Davis about wrestling this winter.
"Some girls are just curious. Some are out there just
because of the boys, but in a couple of weeks, those girls are gone," Davis
said. "A lot
of parents are telling them to do it to learn
self-defense. They really learn a calm sense of security."
The biggest pitfall is the possibility of improper
touching on the wrestling mat. Davis is hesitant to teach his girls
wrestling moves for "all it
takes is an accusation and you're (fired)."
Said WIAA legal counsel John Olson: "Coaches really are
scared."
Renee Paravecchio, a Tacoma attorney who specializes in
sexual harassment, said girls who have signed up for the sport have
implicitly
welcomed touching within the context of the sport.
"The law of sexual harassment requires the plaintiff to
prove a couple of things. One, it has to be unwelcomed touching,"
Paravecchio said.
"In this case, if the wrestling student wants to wrestle
and knows she'll be touched by the boys, she welcomes it."
Unnecessary touching by wrestlers has occurred, however.
Steilacoom assistant coach David Rogers should know. His sister, Juanita
Rogers, was the school's first female wrestler during
the 1990-91 season.
"At certain times, there was unnecessary grabbing on the
mat," David Rogers said. "We explained to her it might happen."
Other concerns merit consideration. At most wrestling
invitationals, both large locker rooms are reserved for the large number of
boys.
The few girls are sent off to a separate bathroom.
Weigh-ins can present additional problems because boys
and girls need to go through the process separately. However, the logistics
of
locker rooms and having proper scales can limit privacy,
and Carrie Reed has felt embarrassment over the situation at times this
season.
Davis said WIAA rules are broken in regards to the
"dress down" process where meet officials inspect skin problems on the
wrestlers.
Boys are required to wear one-piece swimsuits or jockey
shorts. Girls, however, are allowed to go through the process wearing sports
bras and their competition singlet.
Auburn High coach Scott Bliss installed a separate girls
bracket for his Auburn Invitational starting in 1993. More than 30 girls
have
competed in that bracket the past two years. Schools
such as Elma and Marysville-Pilchuck have followed suit in tournaments.
Such consideration makes it what Carrie Reed likes - a
fun sport.
"Kristin (Gordon) is out here to get in shape for
gymnastics," Reed said. "I'm out here to kick butt."
Reed has gone from doing managerial chores last year to
junior varsity wrestler this season. She has lost all of her five matches -
four by
pin or technical fall - against boys from bigger
schools.
James Reed has split his 10 varsity matches. One loss,
however, was to a girl from Rainier High in a tournament. She pinned the
Steilacoom freshman in the first round.
"She was buff," James Reed said.
Carrie Reed, meanwhile, is a girl on a mission.
"Before the match, (boys) will point at me and go,
'You?,'" Carrie Reed said. "But they're all scared. They don't want to lose
to a girl."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
S.F. girls go to the mat;
You have to prove you're bad enough to do it'
The San Francisco Examiner
December 23, 1996,
Being a girl on the guys' wrestling team hasn't been
easy.
In one of her first matches, an opponent asked Dolores
Hernandez, "You expect me to wrestle a girl?" Another walked off the mat,
muttering that she couldn't be serious. Another wanted
to know, "Where am I supposed to grab her?"
The put-downs were actually mild, compared to the
takedowns. In her first season, Hernandez, a sophomore at Galileo High
School in
The City, was repeatedly slammed to the mat, twisted
into spine-defying shapes and pinned.
She was bruised and beaten, but not discouraged.
Hernandez, now a 16 -year-old junior who turns into a growling terminator
when talking
about wrestling, says this season she's out to "kill,
kill, kill."
When wrestling officially begins in January, Hernandez,
and another 11th-grader, Gina Evans, 16, who was the wrestling team manager
last year, will be two of three females wrestling in the
eight-team San Francisco Unified School District league. (A girl is trying
out for the
Lowell High School team.)
"Girls have to work much harder than the guys,"
Hernandez says, her purple-streaked ponytail bobbing up and down as she jogs
in place.
"You have to prove you're bad enough to do it."
At this, she sprinted off to join her 19 teammates, who
were warming up. First, they run laps around the small, dimly lit gym,
starting slowly
and picking up speed. Then they form a circle on the
purple mat and count sit-ups and grunt out push-ups. There are no wimpy girl
push-ups for Hernandez or Evans. They keep pace, and
grunts, with the guys.
The Galileo team, which took second place to Lowell last
season, is determined to be No. 1 this year. They began practicing three
hours a
day in early November and will continue until the season
ends in early March.
Coach Larry Kane, a lawyer at Orrick Herrington &
Sutcliffe and a former wrestler at Columbia University, volunteers his time.
Alternately offering encouragement and barking orders,
Kane tells the group to pair off and practice takedowns.
Evans and Hernandez are best friends off the mat. They
go to movies together, talk about guys and listen to rap, jazz and
alternative music.
But suddenly, they look like they want to rip each
other's head off. No sooner is the 135-pound Hernandez squashed by the
merciless
236-pound Evans than Hernandez pulls a miraculous
reversal.
During break time, the guys, who cluster together, admit
they're impressed by the girls' tenacity.
"Dolores was really beaten last year, but she came
back," said team co-captain Cesar Escobar, an amiable senior with a quick
smile.
"She's small but her heart is big. She is really setting
an important example for other girls. I look at her as a new type of
feminist."
Another teammate, Roy Jones, a junior, said it takes
guts for Hernandez and Evans to hit the mat with the guys.
"They're really standing up for womanhood," Jones
declares. "Besides, I like watching them wrestle. They're tough."
In the last few years, the handful of girl wrestlers in
San Francisco Unified haven't placed in sectional or state competitions. The
highest-ranking girl wrestler in California is Karina
Chin, a junior from Aragon High School in San Mateo, who took third in last
year's
Peninsula Athletic League, a competition involving more
than 80 schools.
Aragon's wrestling coach, Robert Barre, said there are
no rules that would preclude Chin or any girl from wrestling in state
competition. "If
she can beat the guys to get to state, she has every
right to wrestle," Barre said. "There are no rules to stop her."
The rules for wrestling were written for boys but now
apply to girl wrestlers as well. Wrestlers are disqualified for any illegal
grabbing of a
body part, though the rules don't specify body parts,
according to Kane. An illegal call is up to a referee, Kane said.
For those who say girls and boys should stick to their
own sports, Anne Heinline, the commissioner of athletics for San Francisco's
high
schools and middle schools, responds: "Not so long ago,
the boys wanted to play volleyball, but it was only offered to girls. Now
it's a
thriving sport for boys. Only three years ago, soccer
was not offered to girls. Look at that sport now."
Evans, who went to every practice last season but didn't
wrestle in any varsity matches, started wrestling in the eighth grade. She
was
casting about for something new to occupy her time, and
mind, after her mother's death.
"I was having problems in school and getting into
fights," Evans said. "The school's peer counselor was also the wrestling
coach. He told
me I had to come out and wrestle."
Although she thought it was a crazy idea at first, she
quickly changed her mind. "I'm aggressive and this is an aggressive sport,"
she
shrugged.
Now, every time Evans steps onto the mat, she thinks of
her past. "I say, "Mom, I'm doing this for you.' "
Coach Kane, who says the most important skills for a
wrestler are "experience, strength, flexibility, agility and mental
toughness," is
impressed by Evans' potential and Hernandez's effort and
determination.
Admittedly, there are some unusual challenges Kane faces
coaching Hernandez and Evans.
"When we go to matches, the guys generally weigh in
naked," Kane says. "So, we have to find a separate place and scales for the
girls to
weigh in."
Hernandez agrees there are occasional awkward moments.
"The singlet we have to wear is so low-cut that I have to wear a shirt under
it,"
she said. "If I forget my shirt, I'm in big trouble. I
can't really lean over."
Then there was the time she walked into the locker room
and discovered the guys in various states of undress. "I screamed and ran
out,"
she recalled.
Biting a nail with chipped purple polish, purple and
orange are Galileo's team colors, Hernandez says wrestling has boosted her
confidence.
"I'm not afraid anymore," she said. "Before I took up
wrestling, it was like, "No, I can't do this.' Now, I feel like I can do
anything."
Her grade point average also has risen, from a 3.0 to a
3.63, since she started wrestling. "I guess it's just made me more
competitive," she
said.
"My dad is totally into my wrestling. Unfortunately, my
mom doesn't like it at all. She doesn't think it's very ladylike. She would
rather have
me playing volleyball."
There's only been one casualty of wrestling, her love
life.
"I have no time anymore," she sighed. "My boyfriend and
I actually broke up because wrestling and school consume my life. He wanted
me to choose between him and wrestling."
Smiling, she adds, "I chose wrestling."
-------------------------------------------------
Why can't girls wrestle boys?
THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
December 20, 1996, Friday
It is a safety issue.
It is a moral issue.
It is a liability issue.
These are the concerns that have made girls wrestling
boys in high
school competitions across the state an issue. These
concerns are why
the Texas Interscholastic Wrestling Association and the
Texas
Wrestling Officials Association find themselves in a
bitter dispute
with high school female wrestlers, their coaches and
families who
feel females should be allowed to wrestle boys.
Based on those three issues, the TIWA and the TWOA have
not
allowed females to wrestle males, which is why the
American Civil
Liberties Union decided Dec. 6 to seek an injunction
stopping high
school wrestling statewide as part of a lawsuit against
the two
organizations.
The lawsuit hasn't materialized yet - people with the
TIWA and
TWOA don't think it ever will. But since Dec. 6, the
TWOA has
disbanded to avoid litigation, the ACLU has attained
legal counsel
and the TIWA has hired a gender-equity expert as an
attorney.
Through all of this, these are three issues are the only
reasons
why girls aren't allowed to wrestle boys.
SAFETY FIRST?
When first told the TWOA might be named as defendants in
a lawsuit
by the ACLU, an irate John Rizzuti advised the ACLU
where to put its
lawsuit.
Within minutes, the former TWOA president cooled off and
spoke
rationally about why girls shouldn't be allowed to
wrestle boys.
"Wrestling is a rough, rugged, injury-prone sport," he
said.
"Girls can easily get their neck broken or their elbow
smashed. "
But are females more at risk to injury then the males
they're
wrestling? TCU assistant strength and conditioning
coach Reed
Wainwright believes so.
"I don't want to offend women and if girls want to
wrestle boys, I
think they have the right to do so," Wainwright said.
"But men are
just usually stronger. I don't think it makes sense for
males to
wrestle girls. I think it's dangerous for them.
"From a physiological and anatomical viewpoint, it's not
smart. "
Martin High wrestling coach Tony Warren, who has a
degree from
UT-Arlington in exercise sports science and health
studies, agreed
that males are generally stronger than females.
But Warren argued the muscle mass in males and females
under 130
pounds is more closely related than males and females
over 130. And
Warren said most - if not all - of the female wrestlers
in the state
are under 130 pounds.
So Warren said female wrestlers aren't more susceptible
to
injuries than males.
"But strength is not going to be that much of a
determining factor
to who wins," said Warren, who has a 112-pound female
wrestler,
Courtney Barnett, on his team.
"At any weight class, skill can overcome sheer strength.
You can
take someone with no skill, who's just a brute, and
someone with good
technique will pin them. It's all leverage. "
Barnett's mother, Rai, said she doesn't worry about her
daughter
getting hurt during matches with boys. Barnett is a
nationally-ranked
judo expert.
"She's gotten hurt in judo, but she continues on," Rai
Barnett
said. "Yes, she is going to get hurt, but so are the
guys. Anything
they say about girls, is applicable to boys. "
THE MORAL PERSPECTIVE
TIWA executive director Jim Giunta said wrestling
becomes a sexual
act when the two genders meet.
"I believe there is a moral stance in this," Giunta
said.
And so does Rizzuti.
"A lot of moves in wrestling involve grabbing the
crotch, like the
high-crotch move," Rizzuti said. "How would they like
some guy to put
a high-crotch move on a girl? "
World champion women's freestyle wrestler Tricia
Saunders said
that wouldn't be a problem. Although Saunders now only
wrestles
females, she said she has wrestled against males in at
least 200
matches.
Saunders said the main objective of both parties in
those matches
was not to grope, but to win.
"All gynecologists are not perverts," Saunders said.
"Gymnastics
coaches and cheerleaders spot women by holding them
through the
midsections, on the thighs and buttocks. That's how
they do those
stunts and lifts.
"It's pretty much the same thing in wrestling. It's
either there
or not. "
Sam Houston wrestler Melony Monahan said the last thing
on her
mind when wrestling a male is sex. Monahan said she
prefers wrestling
males more than females because it's more competitive.
"You wrestle the guys," Monahan said, "and it's great.
It's a
better workout. "
THE QUESTION OF LIABILITY
In a press release, Rizzuti said the main concern the
TWOA has
with females wrestling males was "the absence of
personal liability
protecting us from an inappropriate touch of a young
lady during
off-the-mat spills or potentially dangerous holds.
"We could possibly face legal action for sexual
harassment if a
parent deemed that touch or grab as inappropriate. "
