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El Granada resident Lee Allen said coaching the 1980 Olympic Wrestling Team was a difficult task in light of the country's eventual boycott of the Games: "It was a very depressing time. We ended up being our own support group." |
To say that Lee Allen's life has been consumed by wrestling would be an understatement.
As a youth in Oregon, the now 63-year-old El Granada resident was constantly grappling with his brothers and friends. He has never really stopped.
He starred as a wrestler at the high school and college levels. He made three Olympic teams, two as an athlete and one as a coach, and participated in two Olympics. He will soon mark his 30th year coaching wrestling at Skyline College in San Bruno.
Allen has also been a force in the development of women's wrestling. He currently coaches a women's club team out of Skyline, and is working with the Peninsula Athletic League to form a wrestling league for girls. Several Bay Area high school wrestling teams include female wrestlers, including Half Moon Bay High School.
This spring, for all his efforts advancing the sport of wrestling, he was inducted into the San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame.
Allen got an early start on the mats. He grew up in Sandy, Ore., a small town just east of Portland, and would constantly wrestle his three brothers.
While we'll have to take Allen's word on the outcome of those early matches, his record at Sandy High School wasn't matched until this year.
Allen never lost. Every time he stepped on the mat, he left it a winner. That included four state titles.
It was on to Portland State, then just a community college. But since the school was not yet a member of the junior college association, Allen could not participate in any postseason tournaments. But that changed in his sophomore year, when the college affiliated with the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Association. That year, Allen won a PCIA title.
Allen took the next two years off to prepare for the 1956 Olympics, held in Melbourne, Australia. Participating in the freestyle division, Allen lasted just two matches.
"I had a bad draw," Allen said. "The first guy I wrestled finished fourth in the tournament. The second guy I wrestled won."
After returning from down under, Allen resumed his studies, transferring from Portland State to the University of Oregon. There, in addition to winning another PCIA title, Allen won something bigger, a college degree.
He graduated with a degree in health, physical education and recreation.
In 1960, Allen participated in the Olympics in Rome. There, Allen wrestled Greco-Roman style, a more classic style that allows only holds above the waist. Throws can be made from the waist and above. In freestyle, wrestlers can grab and throw from the legs.
Allen finished in a tie for eighth.
When he returned from Rome, Allen found a job in Oregon. He stayed there until he landed a coaching job at the College of San Mateo in 1964. Five years later, when Skyline College opened, he became the school's first wrestling coach. He has been there ever since, and has helped build the program into one of the best in the state.
All the while, Allen was still very much involved with the national wrestling program. That earned him the honor of serving as the 1980 Olympic coach. But the chance to coach on the world stage never happened for Allen thanks to the United States-lead boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
Eight months before the games were to take place, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The United States demanded that the Soviets withdraw or the U.S. team would boycott the games. The Soviets didn't, and the U.S. team stayed home.
"When the announcement was made, we were all in denial. That decision sent the Olympic movement back eight years," said Allen, noting that in 1984 all but one country from the Soviet Bloc, Romania, chose to boycott the Los Angeles Olympics.
In 1980, though, the athletes still needed to prepare for the games in case the boycott was lifted. The wrestling team met and trained in Brockport, N.Y.
"It was a very depressing time," Allen remembered. "We ended up being our own support group."
The U.S. Olympic Committee eventually did fly the entire Olympic team to Washington for a few appearances, and team members had a brief chance to meet President Carter, who spearheaded the boycott.
"Everyone got a chance to meet him," Allen said. "Some did refuse to shake his hand."
Of all the changes the sport has gone through, though, none is bigger than the admittance of girls. Allen's own daughters, Sara Fulp-Allen, 12, and Katherine Fulp-Allen, 10, both wrestle.
Allen said he was at first unsure what to think about girls wrestling. But after coaching his first female wrestler in the early 1990s, Diana Wessendunk, Allen said he realized that not only were female wrestlers here to stay, but that they were committed, as well as mentally and physically up to the task.
"I saw the possibilities of girls wrestling," Allen said. "Diana didn't win any matches, but she came close a few times.
"My goal is to have the (Peninsula Athletic League) have girls vs. girls," Allen said. "Some of the girls do very well against the boys, but other times, it varies. I would like to see a girls' tournament. I would like to see girls' teams. I want to take it a step further."
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Fossil Ridge fields its first girls team
By Heidi Pederson
Star-Telegram Staff Writer - Jan. 6, 2000
Fossil Ridge was far from the first school in Northeast Tarrant County to add wrestling, but the Panthers are trying to be trendsetters with their girls. They have one of only two girls programs in the Northeast Tarrant area.
Ross Roberts, the coach of Fossil Ridge's first-year wrestling program, found seven girls among the 47 athletes who showed up for the first day of practice this season.
The seven freshmen -- Christa Cooke, Meredith DeBaun, Maryssa Barnes, Brittany Burross, Stephanie Tucker, Annette Cano and Erica Comfort -- have survived while learning the sport. They've discovered that most of the competition has at least a three-year head start on them -- when they can find another girls program to wrestle.
While nine schools in Northeast Tarrant have boys wrestling, L.D. Bell is the only other school with a girls team. Other girls programs in the Tarrant or Dallas County area include Sam Houston, Arlington, Coppell and Carrollton Turner.
"They understand their opportunities are going to be limited, as far as not having as many teams around," said Roberts, a former assistant at Carrollton Turner. "But they realize it's getting there. I took them to the R.L. Turner tournament, and they saw the atmosphere. They're having a lot of fun."
Grapevine Duals start Friday
The Grapevine Duals, which will feature teams from around Texas and Oklahoma, begins Friday with a new format.
The meet will consist of all dual team matches, with none of the individual champions who were crowned last year. Of the original 20 teams competing, 12 teams will make it into a championship bracket, and eight will place.
Competing teams include Grapevine, Highland Park, Dallas St. Mark's, Colleyville Heritage, Arlington Bowie and Lawton (Okla.) MacArthur. The meet begins at 1 p.m. Friday and continues at 9 a.m. Saturday at Grapevine High School.
Top Arlington teams square off
Martin, the top team in the `Star-Telegram area rankings, aren't being allowed to rest easy this week. The Warriors face No. 3 Arlington in a dual meet tonight and compete in the high school portion of the Lone Star Duals in South Grand Prairie tomorrow and Saturday.
Tonight's meeting, which is scheduled for 6:30 at Arlington, will settle the issue as to which is the best dual team in the Arlington district. The Warriors are 6-1 and have lost only to Highland Park. The Colts are 6-0. Arlington coach Henry Harmony said he will use 171-pound star J.J. Holmes, who will be academically ineligible as of 2:45 p.m. Friday.
Martin coach Tony Warren is looking forward to the matchup.
"My guys are tired of hearing how they're undefeated," he said of the Colts.
The Lone Star Duals will include several other area high schools, including Arlington, Lamar, South Grand Prairie, Grand Prairie and Marcus. The event will conclude Saturday with college duals beginning at 10 a.m..
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Williams Cup girls' wrestling meet on Saturday in county
First of its kind: Seventy to 100 competitors from California, Nevada expected at Westlake High.
By Molly R.Okeon
Staff writer
Friday January 7, 2000
Some 70 to 100 girls from California and parts of Nevada are expected to gather at Westlake High School on Saturday for the first Williams Cup Girls' Wrestling Tournament, hosted by Thousand Oaks High.
Weigh-ins will be from 6:30 to 8 a.m.
Shannon Yancey, coach of the Thousand Oaks girls' wrestling team, created the tournament and is using her maiden name, Williams, as the tournament name.
The four-time National Champion and four-time World Silver Medalist in women's wrestling will be teaching an hour-long clinic from 9 to 10 a.m. before the action starts.
"I'm going to share some of my experiences with them," she said. "I'll give them support, encourage them and teach them technique. I'm going to let them know what's out there for them," said Yancey.
The tournament starts at 10:30 a.m.
Individual wrestlers or teams can still register and will be allowed to sign-in on the day of the tournament. The cost is $20 per wrester and $200 per team. The top three wrestlers in each weight class and one outstanding wrestler will be honored.
Yancey said her next step is to try to implement girls' wrestling as a CIF sport.
"I want our league to be the powerhouse of wrestling," she added.
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