Jessica Ortiz, 16, shown here training with Hogan High wrestling coach Rick Manibusan, will compete this Saturday through Aug. 1 at the USAW Wrestling Nationals in Fargo, N.D. Photo by David Pacheco/Times-Herald
News Page
USA women wrestlers hope to make mark on mat in Athens
(Colorado Springs, Colorado-NBC) July 28, 2004 -
Sara McMann and the rest of the USA Women's Wrestling team is prepping for their trip to Athens, "We're really just preparing, preparing, preparing."
McMann has been wrestling since she was in ninth grade, "I was one of the first females ever in North Carolina to ever be wrestling."
Back then she had to compete against boys, but when word came that the International Olympic Committee had established a women's freestyle wrestling competition, she rejoiced, "We're legit now. We're getting respect. This is awesome."
The team is less than one month away from competition. Coach Gary Abbott says, "The best women wrestlers apply to come and train here in Colorado Springs." They practice every day, sometimes four hours a day, and that doesn't include extra conditioning, weightlifting and media appearances.
Coach Shannyn Gillespie says, "Mentally, they're in a lull right now, and we're getting ready to pump them up mentally. Physically, they're probably in the best shape they could ever be in."
And, that's good, because competitors from the Japanese and Canadian teams are expected to give these women their biggest challenge. But, Sara's not worried, "It really boils down to a tournament, and I've wrestled in thousands of tournaments."
Team USA will leave Colorado Springs on August 8th, and they say when they return they'll have gold, "That's the plan! Nothing but gold!" Others say these women will return as heroes, "Little girls all over the US will want to be just like them."
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Ken Marantz / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter 7/25/04
Deep in the mountains of Niigata, the sound of bodies slamming to the mat wafts through the nearby rice fields.
It is here, nine kilometers from the nearest convenience store and well away from the hustle and bustle of city life, that a group of Japan's brightest hopes for gold medals in Athens are preparing for battle.
Japan's team in women's wrestling, which will be making its Olympic debut at next month's Games, is in the midst of a nine-day training camp in a setting that allows for few distractions.
"They can't think about anything but wrestling," said coach Shigeo Kinase at a recent practice at the Oka Wrestling Hall that was opened to the media.
Kaori Icho, Japan's entry in the 63-kilogram class and, like her three teammates, a world champion, said the camp had a relaxed atmosphere.
"It's a good environment," she said.
Asked what the day entails, Icho replied, "Eat, sleep and wrestle."
Icho has been joined at the camp by her older sister Chiharu (48 kg) and Saori Yoshida (55 kg), along with over 20 of Japan's top wrestlers who will help the Olympians prepare for Athens. Only 72-kilogram entry Kyoko Hamaguchi was absent due to illness.
Getting to the camp is a trip in itself.
While an express train stops at Tokamachi Station, it takes a 20-minute taxi ride on a winding, one-lane road up the mountain to reach the hall. Reporters are often surprised to find their cellular phones are out of operable range.
In the shadow of the pillars of a local ski lift, the simple, two-story building sits among tiered rice paddies. The structure's purpose is apparent immediately--taking one's shoes off at the entrance, the first step inside is onto the wrestling mat.
The wrestling room, just big enough for two large-sized mats, resembles a small gymnasium, not exactly surprising, given that the building used to be a school.
Over a decade ago, Japan Wrestling Association chairman Tomiaki Fukuda, looking for an isolated setting for national team camps, purchased the land and building with his own money. Shuji Hideyama, vice president of the Japan Women's Wrestling Federation and a local construction company owner, financed the renovations.
"When I first saw this place, I thought 'This is it,'" Fukuda told The Yomiuri Shimbun in an interview last year, adding with a laugh, "Once you get here, there's no escape."
Above half of the wrestling room, thick steel girders support a weight room on the second floor. The other half of the house includes a dining room and communal area on the ground floor and sleeping accommodation on the second. Both sections were originally classrooms.
There is still some teaching going on here, although the main focus of the current camp is to maintain fitness and sharpness.
The mood is decidedly relaxed, with little of the military-style regimen so often associated with Japanese sports.
"We're not trying to peak here," Kinase said. "We relax, then go in spurts (while sparring), then relax."
The morning is spent on a group run on the hilly roads along with wind sprints. After lunch and a rest, the wrestlers take to the mats for about two hours. Warmups are followed by five-minute "matches" with various partners.
In the only outburst of the session, coach Kazuhito Sakae screams at Yoshida as she tries to take down another male coach, Ryo Kanehama.
"Go! Go!" Sakae calls out as he slams the mat with a plastic whiffleball bat that is constantly in his hands.
Both Yoshida and the Icho sisters are members of the Chukyo Women's University team, where Sakae has built a dynasty as coach.
Yoshida, with her tiger-like aggressiveness, shows her female side while talking later with reporters.
Asked which fellow Olympian she would most like to meet at the Opening Ceremony, she replied it was soccer's Yoshito Okubo. "He's good looking," she says with a shy smile.
"Before it was (swimmer Kosuke) Kitajima, but then he was caught by a weekly magazine with a porno actress..." she said. "I don't like that type."
---------------------------------------------------
Women wrestlers confident of Olympic success
Saturday, July 24, 2004
By ADITI KINKHABWALA
STAFF WRITER
Terry Steiner didn't exactly jump.
Sure, he had put in eight years apprenticing under two college coaches,
and of course that Iowa pedigree marked him for distinction, but when USA
Wrestling came calling, when USA Wrestling wanted him to be their
national coach, Steiner wasn't so sure. After all, they wanted him to coach
women.
"Um, I knew they wrestled," Steiner remembered thinking.
He said he didn't know anything about girls. He said he couldn't be the
right guy. He said no, eight ways, before he finally said he'd do it.
And now? "You have to talk to my wife," the three-time All-American
said. Breaking into a grin, he nodded, and said, "They've definitely taught
me some things."
It goes both ways. The first full-time national women's coach, Steiner
has in two years primed his team for the Olympics' first foray into women's
wrestling.
At the 2003 World Championships, all seven of his wrestlers earned
medals, and at that same year's World Cup, the U.S. beat host and women's
wrestling power Japan. More impressive to Steiner's wife, Jodi, his wrestlers
have him having fun.
"They've given me some gray hair, but they've also given me a great
environment," Steiner said. "I can honestly say I know now it's just a
sport.
It couldn't be anything more than that when most of these women didn't
start wrestling until just a few years ago. They weren't outfitted for their
singlets as toddlers; they weren't sent to specialized academies as
grade schoolers; heck, many of them weren't even wrestling in high school.
Tela O'Donnell wrote to the Homer, Alaska, school board promising she
wouldn't enter any tournaments as long as they let her practice with
the boys school team.
"A few years before me, a girl had beaten some of the boys," said the
121-pounder with the sunny smile. "I think some of the parents were
upset."
Toccara Montgomery, who like O'Donnell is 21, had a high school coach
who brought wrestling to both boys and girls at Cleveland's East Tech High.
No one would be better than anyone else, Montgomery figured, and so she
thought there was nothing to be afraid of. Of course, she still had to
corral a handful of her girlfriends into attending that first tryout.
"Oh, I made them go," she said. "I didn't want to be the only girl."
Wrestling is still a little solitary for the women. With four wrestlers
-
O'Donnell, Montgomery (158.5 lbs.), Patricia Miranda (105.5 lbs.), and
Sara McMann (138.75) - the United States has competitors in only half the
Olympic weight classes. Yet, they all see interest in their sport rising.
Montgomery said in three years at Cumberland College (Kentucky), one of
the few schools with a women's team, she's seen a significant improvement
in the competition. O'Donnell has more little girls coming up to her at meets,
and Steiner said big competitions are drawing a bit better.
Coaching the women technically wasn't too much of a stretch for
Steiner.
Women don't have quite the same upper-to-lower body strength ratio as
men, he said, but they're more flexible. They also talk out things more
("I've had to become a better communicator," Steiner said with a mock sigh).
Montgomery said women wrestlers also don't have the ego issues.
"For guys, it's macho," she said. "For us, it's just fun."
Most of the women have had to wrestle against men at some point, and
some, such as McGann, did so through college.
Miranda, who will attend Yale Law School after returning from Athens,
practices against a male high school wrestler in Colorado Springs.
But Steiner prefers his wrestlers' training partners to be female. And
he doesn't think wrestling against men increases a woman wrestler's
toughness.
"It's a different beast," he said. "If you always put Marion Jones on a
track against Carl Lewis, how much confidence can she have?"
The women are confident, in an unique way.
O'Donnell said she only took up wrestling because she wasn't very good
at volleyball. "Not that I was very good at wrestling either," she said.
Montgomery beat Canada's six-time world champion Christine Nordhagen
recently (Montgomery hadn't been wrestling for six years), and she
still thinks getting USA warm-ups for her first national team was "the
coolest thing."
That enthusiasm, Steiner said, is not only distinctive to the women,
but also one of the reasons he loves coaching his team.
At last year's world championships in Madison Square Garden, the U.S.
men and women shared a locker room, he said. The men's half was filled with
solemn, silent, dour faces; the women's, he remembered with a grin, had
jawing, laughing, dancing athletes.
"They think, 'We're going to do this because we want to, not because we
need to,' " he said. "They're definitely more lighthearted."
But still serious.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's crack about mud wrestling when the
women trained for a week on Staten Island a month ago, irked O'Donnell. And
Steiner said he can't wait until the snide comments about his efforts
end.
Montgomery hopes more colleges start women's wrestling programs to
balance the men's programs that have suffered as schools struggle to comply
with Title IX.
Until then, she is keeping busy giving her coach ideas. Montgomery and
her teammates already have helped Steiner understand his wife a tad better.
But that's not it.
Steiner has a 3½-year-old daughter. One who just might, he said, grow
into a wrestler.
"I couldn't," he said, "think of anything better."
--------------------------------------------------------
Local grappler Hsieh named All-American
Thursday, July 22, 2004
NOTES AND QUOTES for a Thursday in the Napa Valley:
Vintage High School's Jessica Hsieh, who won a national title in the 105-pound division at the U.S. Girls' Wrestling Association National Championships in March at Lake Orion, Mich., was named as a First-Team All-American by Wresting USA Magazine.
Hsieh, a member of the Napa Valley Wrestling Club, was selected to Wresting USA Magazine's sixth annual team.
Earlier this year Hsieh, a Vallejo resident, was named as the most outstanding wrestler of the Asics Napa Valley Girls Classic. She was also third in the 103-pound class with a 3-1 record and two pins at the California State Girls Wrestling Tournament, held at Vallejo High's Bottari Gym.
Hsieh graduated in June and will attend Lassen Community College in Susanville. She will wrestle for the Cougars.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Parents are off to Athens while kids stay at home
Jeff Metcalfe
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2004 12:00 AM
Dad and Mom thought long and hard about taking the kids with them to the Olympics.
But when you're the head coaches of the U.S. women's wrestling team, the only debut sport in Athens next month, Townsend and Tricia Saunders of Ahwatukee Foothills decided work takes precedence.
So they're leaving their 9-year-old daughter, Tassia, and 6-year-old son, Townsend III, at home in Ahwatukee Foothills with her grandmother and a part-time nanny. The day they leave for Greece, the kids start fourth and second grades.
Tricia still remembers how tough it was just to get around at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with Tassia, then 18 months old, when Townsend was winning a silver medal at his second Olympics.
She is unquestionably the greatest women's wrestler in U.S. history with five world medals, four of them gold.
"It's not an event made very well for kids because of the crowds," Tricia said. "I don't think they'd enjoy it like they could if they were a little bit older. Plus, with them being in another country, I would want to be there every second.
"It's hard because we've never been away from our kids," Tricia said. "It became clear that our responsibility is to the athletes and to try to help them win their medals."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Golden chance for women's wrestling
Jeff Metcalfe
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2004 12:00 AM
Tricia Saunders never lost a wrestling match to another American woman and won five world championship medals, yet she rarely saw one of her scores in 15 years of newspaper stories.
The Ahwatukee woman's childhood victories over Zeke Jones, a 1992 Olympic silver medalist and current U.S. men's freestyle coach, are legendary, but the media portrayed Saunders as an oddity, a pioneer or a troublemaker rather than taking her seriously as an athlete.
How do you feel when boys touch you? Do they cry if they lose to you?
"The hook in the story was controversy, and that is just not at all what my life was about," Saunders, 38, said. "It always made me sad. When I put those stories down, as a mom I would not say, 'I want my daughter to do that, too.' "
Saunders and her husband, former Arizona State wrestler and two-time Olympian Townsend, who won a silver medal in 1996, will coach four U.S. women when women's wrestling makes its Olympic debut in Athens, and Saunders wants to spread the news of their athleticism.
Women won seven of the nine medals earned by the United States at the 2003 world championships. Patricia Miranda (105.5 pounds), Tela O'Donnell (121), Sara McMann (138.75) and Toccara Montgomery (158.5) are all medal contenders with the histories and personalities to tap into what Townsend calls the Kerri Strug syndrome.
"She hit her ankle and the next thing you know she's a star," he said of Strug, the Tucson gymnast who vaulted on a badly injured ankle and won a gold medal with the U.S. gymnasts in 1996. "Everybody noticed her. The first time an American wins a medal, that's just going to make women's wrestling explode. Now they'll see they don't necessarily have to be a gymnast or a swimmer to win a gold medal, they have another avenue."
The 23-year-old McMann recalls getting Tricia's autograph as a 16-year-old and being awestruck by the woman who is now her personal coach when she represents the Scottsdale-based Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club.
"She's the one who opened the door for us," McMann said. "We don't want her work to be in vain."
Tricia's brother Andy, also a Sun Devils wrestler, introduced Townsend and Tricia, who married in '92.
Townsend finished seventh at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, then a month later coached Tricia to the first world gold medal for an American woman.
Tricia competed through the 2001 worlds, when she was 35, but not long enough to be on the mat for the dawning of the Olympic era.
"That was sad for me in '92 and in '96 and even in 2000," she said. "I dealt with that then, but that's over. I don't want to be a 2004 Olympian. This is a real privilege and an honor, and I don't want to be wrestling at 38 years old. I'm way beyond that."
She and Townsend are as paternal about their wrestlers as they are about daughter Tassia, 9, and 6-year-old Townsend III.
They're working their way through a stack of airline tickets that take them regularly to camps, the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and next month to Greece, while using a nanny and relatives to cover for their first extended absence from their children.
Tricia, a former microbiologist, works at New Arizona Family, a substance abuse treatment center, and Townsend was recently promoted to manage the University of Phoenix's Canadian online division.
They're two highly skilled individuals," said Art Martori, former president of USA Wrestling and team leader for the women in Athens. "Tricia understands order and process and how to get from point A to point B. She didn't overpower you as a wrestler, but she beat you because she was mentally and technically stronger. "
Townsend has been under that pressure of the Olympics and knows you have to be ready to start off in high gear and be up for the first match."
Townsend, 37, was head coach of the 2003 world women's team with seven medalists. Tricia took her turn at the helm at the 2003 Pan American Games, where the United States swept all four gold medals.
They fervently believe that the only new sport on the Olympic program will be such a smash that even the scores will be reported.
U.S. Women's Wrestling Team
Patricia Miranda
105.5 pounds
The 25-year-old wrestled on the Stanford men's team at 125 pounds as a senior and is entering Yale Law School after the Olympics. "She has by far the most challenging weight class, and she's really going to have to be ready to peak perform," Townsend Saunders said. "I'm not sure if her education helps or hurts. She does tend to over-think a lot. That's one of the messages I'm giving her, to just kind of let it go. Recognize it's a sport and it's about having fun."
Tela O'Donnell
121 pounds
O'Donnell, 22, was a big hit at the Olympic trials because she grew up in Homer, Alaska, as the daughter of a mime. "Everybody likes Tela," Tricia Saunders said. "She is the most positive influence on the team and she's the most inexperienced member. She's one of those people who looks up at the clock and says I know what I've got to do and gets it done. She's new and greener, but she's beaten very good people and has got that heart you can't teach."
Sara McMann
138.75 pounds
McMann, 23, represents the Scottsdale-based Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club and dates former Arizona State wrestler Steve Blackford. "Sara is like all those other girls who had to fight and scratch to get into a wrestling room and earn the respect of men to continue and train," Townsend Saunders said. "She's always had a lot of natural ability, and she's honed her skills to reduce the amount of mistakes that have cost her matches in the past."
Toccara Montgomery
158.5 pounds
The 21-year-old defeated two-time world champion Kristie Marano, wrestling up a weight, twice to win at the trials. "Toccara and Sara come out of real tough neighborhoods," Tricia Saunders said. "They're the first kids to go to college in their families. I'm extra proud of them because they've carved out a whole new standard and given quite a bit back."
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Interview: Toccara Montgomery and Tina George discuss women's wrestling;
TAVIS SMILEY
Tavis Smiley (NPR) 07-21-2004
Interview: Toccara Montgomery and Tina George discuss women's wrestling
Host: TAVIS SMILEY
Time: 9:00-10:00 AM
TAVIS SMILEY, host:
From NPR in Los Angeles, I'm Tavis Smiley.
The Olympic dream is one pursued by athletes in almost every sport.
Four years ago the US brought home 97 medals, the most of any country, but
in Sydney, the wrestling team came up short. However, this summer there'll
be a better chance for wrestlers to grab gold and, for the first time, women
wrestlers will be called Olympians. Joining me now are two
African-American members of the first US Women's Olympic Wrestling Team. Tina George is
an alternate for the team and she joins us from Pan Digital Media in
Colorado Springs.
Tina, nice to have you on.
Ms. TINA GEORGE (US Women's Olympic Wrestling Team): Thank you.
SMILEY: And Toccara Montgomery will be representing the USA in Athens
in the 158-pound class. Toccara joins us via phone from San Antonio.
Toccara, nice to have you on as well.
Ms. TOCCARA MONTGOMERY (US Women's Olympic Wrestling Team): Hi. How you
doing?
SMILEY: I'm well. How are you?
Ms. MONTGOMERY: I'm fine, thank you.
SMILEY: And congratulations on making the team.
Ms. MONTGOMERY: Thank you.
SMILEY: Tina, let me start with you because I've got a picture here
right in front of me in this month Vogue's magazine, and even though you are in
Colorado Springs, I'm scared to talk to you looking at this picture...
Ms. GEORGE: Oh, no.
SMILEY: ...because the photo is so intimidating for someone who's 5'
tall, 120 pounds. You've got quite a body there.
Ms. GEORGE: Thank you. We work out so many days a week...
SMILEY: Yeah.
Ms. GEORGE: ...and it just happens that way.
SMILEY: Give me some idea what your workout routine is, because, I'm
serious, anybody who has a Vogue magazine anywhere near you, you got to
pick up this magazine and see this picture. Give me some sense of what your
workout regimen's like every day?
Ms. GEORGE: Monday mornings I do combat training and in the evenings I
do weight lifting. And I follow that schedule Monday, Wednesday and
Friday. And on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I do one technique session in the
morning and one combat session in the afternoon.
SMILEY: Now I can't be the first one to tell you that the voice does
not match the body. You sound...
Ms. GEORGE: I actually hear that a lot.
SMILEY: I'm not trying to disrespect you, but here you are on the
Olympic team as an alternate and you sound like a 12-year-old.
Ms. GEORGE: Oh, I just--you know, I have a high-pitched voice and I've
been trying to make it a little deeper. This is as far as it goes. I've
really been working on it since high school.
SMILEY: All right. Well, you keep working on it. Toccara, let me ask
you what you think about the image of women in wrestling, since we're
talking about image here.
Ms. MONTGOMERY: I think the image of women's wrestling right now in the
United States is sort of distorted just because a lot of people don't
know what to expect and they've never seen it before. And, you know, it's
sort of derogatory because a lot of people are thinking like maybe mud
wrestling or Jell-O wrestling or something like that. And they have no idea like how
hard and how intense the actual training we do in our sport and what it's
all about and so they miss out on the intensity and the actual sport itself
when they think such derogatory terms about the sport.
SMILEY: I have seven brothers and two sisters and, in retrospect, maybe
my two sisters wish that they had gotten into wrestling so they could have
handled us, their nasty eight brothers, a little better when we would
beat up on them. But let me ask you, Toccara, unless you have seven brothers
as well, tell me why and how you got into wrestling.
Ms. MONTGOMERY: I basically got in wrestling because I was pretty
involved in a lot of different sports in high school. And my high school, East
Tech, didn't have a wrestling team in it for about 40 years and the coach,
Kip Flanik, that started the program at East Tech, opened trials up for
both guys and girls because he formerly was an assistant coach at Cleveland
Heights, Tina's school, and was really impressed about how hard she
worked and everything. And it was just like, you know, girls can do this. If
she's working this hard, I'm sure there are tons more girls out there who can
work just as hard, so I should give them the opportunity.
SMILEY: You did mention that you and Tina are both from Cleveland.
Tina, tell me how you got involved in wrestling.
Ms. GEORGE: I got in wrestling just because someone said that it was
harder than cross-country at the time.
SMILEY: So you were just trying to find the hardest thing to do?
Ms. GEORGE: Yes. Well, we did cross-country as conditioning for the
track team and I worked really, really hard to be average, and I couldn't
think of anything harder than that. But they said the wrestling team was harder,
so me being my nosy self, I had to go and find out.
SMILEY: When I think of wrestling, Toccara, even though the sport is
changing, I still think of a sport that is mostly for males, obviously,
and not just males but indeed white males. So tell me how a black woman
fits in the process.
Ms. MONTGOMERY: It was just really, like I said, a really different
change in everything I was doing. Like because I was typically in basketball
and volleyball and things like that in high school and I myself was
intrigued by it, like, `Oh, wow, I didn't know women wrestled.' So I went down and
tried out to see what it was about and it just sort of stuck with me. And,
like, when I first started wrestling, it was definitely like--you know, I was
like one of the only girls in Cleveland that was wrestling and then like
more and more girls saw me and heard about me and then they wanted to get there.
And like I can actually say over the last three to four years, like, I've
definitely seen an increase in the numbers of girls participating in
the sport, not just in Ohio but just about everywhere.
SMILEY: Tina, you were ranked number one in your class of 121 pounds up
until the Olympic trials. Now there's still a chance, as I mentioned
earlier, as an alternate that you could go. But as things stand at the
moment, you might not get a chance to wrestle in the Olympics. Let me
ask you first what that means for your wrestling career and then I want to
ask Toccara, now that she's on the team, what she thinks the chance to
perform would do for her career. You first, Tina.
Ms. GEORGE: I think that right now, as far as my wrestling career, it's
just a setback. I'm still training. I'm not giving up quite yet. I have
another Olympic pushing me, so I'll shoot for the 2008 Olympics. In the
meantime, I'll try to win the world championships as many times as possible.
SMILEY: And, Toccara, now that you are on the team in the 158-pound
class, what's your sese of what this opportunity will mean for your career?
Ms. MONTGOMERY: I think it's going to be something that's going to be a
great experience for me, both physically and mentally, emotionally,
spiritually. To have this opportunity to represent my country is an
unbelievable feeling for me right now and I'm really looking forward to
it. I'm not sure if I'm going to compete after the Olympics. I'm still in
college and I'm working on my degree right now and it's been really
difficult working on a--trying to make an Olympic team and also trying
to obtain a degree in education, and I think after the Olympics, I'm
really going to try to focus more on my education. And we'll see what happens
after that.
SMILEY: So no matter what happens in Athens, you're fairly certain that
you're done with this, so for the rest of your life, this is a phase
you went through that you enjoyed, but you're actually going to be done
with wrestling?
Ms. MONTGOMERY: Well, I've had a really successful career in a short
amount of time and I'm just like, no matter what happens in Athens, I'm really
proud of myself and all the accomplishments that I've obtained over the
last couple years. And, you know, I just feel like whatever happens, I'll be
happy with the outcome. And I have one more year in college, so I'll
compete my college season...
SMILEY: Right.
Ms. MONTGOMERY: ...and wrestle but after that I'm not sure how much
more I want to do after I graduate.
SMILEY: I suspect, Toccara, that there is a certain amount of pressure
on anyone who gets the opportunity to perform in the Olympics, no matter
what the sport might be, never mind their gender. But because this is the
first time that women will be allowed to wrestle and compete for the gold,
are you feeling any additional or special pressure?
Ms. MONTGOMERY: No, not really. Like, just wrestling in general, it
puts a lot of pressure on you. And I've been fortunate to wrestle some of my
top competitors over the last couple years and really know and train more
in a direction of where I think they're going to try to push me and things
like that, so I don't feel any additional pressure. Like right now it just
sort of feels like any other tournament for me. And I'm sure, like, once I
get into the Olympic atmosphere that things are going to sort of change and
I may feel a little more antsy or something like that, but right now I
feel pretty confident.
SMILEY: Toccara Montgomery will be a member of the first US Women's
Olympic Wrestling Team and Tina George is an alternate for that team
representing, of course, the USA but might I add, more specifically, representing for
Cleveland. And I ain't mad at them.
Toccara and Tina, all the best to you. Thanks for coming on the
program.
Ms. MONTGOMERY: No problem. Thank you.
Ms. GEORGE: Thank you.
-------------------------------------------------------------
• Women's wrestling coaches Tricia and Townsend Saunders get into a hubby-wife tiff over strategy and have to settle it with a takedown tournament. Tricia wins, of course. Townsend does the dishes.
---------------------------------------------------------
By DAN HAYES, Times-Herald sports writer 7/22/04
|
Jessica Ortiz, 16, shown here training with Hogan High wrestling coach Rick Manibusan, will compete this Saturday through Aug. 1 at the USAW Wrestling Nationals in Fargo, N.D. Photo by David Pacheco/Times-Herald |
As graduation approached, Hogan wrestling coach Rick Manibusan knew it was time to pull Jessica Ortiz aside.
More than half of the Spartan girls' wrestling squad was graduating, as well as the cornerstones of both the girls and boys teams: Marcus Moore, Turrone George, Reenie Belamide and Jessica Robles.
Something had to be done.
Manibusan and fellow coach Mike Bryant encouraged Ortiz, a sophomore, to follow the lead of her predecessors and step up.
It was time to take charge.
The 16-year-old's departure today for Fargo, N.D. and the Asics Cadet and Junior Freestyle National Championships would appear to signal the message was received.
"She doesn't even have to go to Fargo," said Manibusan. "She's already accomplished everything I wanted her to. She's living proof of dedication and leadership."
When the high school season begins in November the leadership will be shown through just that the dedication.
While many of Ortiz' teammates have enjoyed a leisurely summer break, she's been preparing two to three hours a day for this week's tournament.
Drilling. Re-tooling her mechanics. Having just about every facet of her wrestling approach analyzed and broken down.
All this for a tournament she qualified for with a second-place finish at the FILA Cadet state wrestling tournament in April an event she participated in on her own after the high-school season had ended.
"(Manibusan) said I have to step up and be the leader," Ortiz said. "I've been working like this since we got out of school. I couldn't (imagine working like this) except for what I'm doing now. I was so honored ... so shocked (when I got invited)."
While Ortiz was shocked at her invitation, her coaches were not.
She won the 110-pound class at a regular-season tournament in Castro Valley. She finished third at regionals and fourth in the majority of her other competitions.
In her first season on the mat, Bryant said Ortiz won more than 20 of her matches.
Compare that to Belamide, the 2003 state runner-up, and Robles, a pair of four-year wrestlers who combined for one victory in their first season.
"She's way ahead of where they were at," Bryant said. "They didn't have as many tournaments. They didn't have veterans. We worked with her and worked with her.
"The confidence and skill level just went up."
And to think it might not have happened.
Ortiz wanted to play basketball. Unfortunately, Hogan's one-day tryout happened on a day she was out of town.
No dice.
Wrestling wasn't even on her mind until she was encouraged by a friend to join.
Even then, Ortiz had her reservations. Her friend had quit the team and Ortiz, with no experience, was constantly getting pummeled in practice by her teammates.
Her coaches had to pull her aside and remind her she was going up against girls with three and four more years of experience.
"It was hard," Ortiz said. "I wasn't used to training like that. Basketball wasn't as hard as wrestling. Now, I love it. I finally feel like I'm really good at something."
After working one-on-one with Ortiz for much of the last month, Manibusan has the proof in the form of bruises and scars.
"I'm still in pain right now," he said. "We had a lot of one-on-one interaction with a lot of emphasis on technique. She just soaks it up.
"I can't even express it. I haven't had a worker who's been so dedicated in doing this."
Another week of work and dedication now lies ahead for Ortiz, who will participate in a camp with her California teammates until she begins wrestling in Fargo on the 29th.
But win or lose, Ortiz has one goal to accomplish.
"I want to make sure everybody remembers me," she said. "I just want to kick enough butt so people know who I am."
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Pioneer advances with tenacity, technique
Medal favorite's inspiration and dedication come from brother whose life ended tragically, brutally
By LORENZO PEREZ, Staff Writer 7/22/04
Sara McMann, right, takes on Canada's Viola Yanik at the Titan Games on June 20 in Atlanta. Sara McMann BORN: Sept. 24, 1980, Tacoma Park, Md. HEIGHT: 5 feet 6 RESIDES: Colorado Springs, Colo. HIGH SCHOOL: McDowell High, Marion COLLEGE: Lock Haven (Pa.) University (degree in theater), Minnesota-Morris CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: A favorite to win a medal at Athens Games; winner of numerous national and international tournaments USA WRESTLING |
Sara McMann will travel next month to Athens, Greece, as an Olympic pioneer. Whether she wins or loses, though, her homecoming after the Summer Games could be bittersweet.
A medal favorite for the Olympic debut of women's wrestling and a graduate of McDowell High in the western North Carolina town of Marion, McMann can't remember a time she didn't wrestle. Her older brother, Jason, served as her earliest foe; she was 3, he was 6, and their living-room scraps fueled her love of a sport that challenged her to prove herself to skeptical male coaches and teammates at almost every level.
McMann's father remembers Jason as her best friend and hero growing up.
"I grew up just completely adoring him," Sara McMann said of her brother.
Jason McMann was 21 when he was beaten and left to die in the woods outside Lock Haven, Pa., five years ago. Clinton County (Pa.) prosecutors were scheduled to try the case this fall -- shortly after Sara McMann's return from Athens -- against Fabian D. Smart, a former Lock Haven University football player charged with his murder.
Clinton County prosecutors have said that McMann's slaying was drug-related. Police have said that he got into a fight in Lock Haven on Jan. 22, 1999, and was beaten unconscious. According to court documents cited by The Associated Press, two other men acknowledged helping to put him in Smart's car and driving him to a remote part of Clinton County, where he was left to die.
Jason McMann's body was so badly decomposed by the time investigators found it nearly three months after his death that they originally couldn't determine a cause of death. Leads didn't start trickling in until the former television show "America's Most Wanted" investigated the case.
The pain that McMann's family endured in the wake of his death has toughened Sara McMann and stiffened her resolve.
"Later on in life, it taught me how to be a stronger person," said McMann, 23. "I don't get down or pessimistic [anymore]. None of us make it out alive."
Born in Tacoma Park, Md., McMann grew up learning how to adjust to abrupt changes. Her father, Thomas "Tucker" McMann, worked construction, and scattered jobs led to family moves through Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia before the McManns landed in Marion during Sara's high school years.
She caught McDowell High wrestling coach Tim Hutchins off guard when she showed up for the first day of practice as a freshman 10 years ago. No girl ever had wrestled at McDowell, and Hutchins made McMann sit out the first several days of practice to observe before he let her hit the mats.
Maybe she would get bored and stop showing up, Hutchins figured, but McMann kept showing up. Some of the other McDowell wrestlers balked at wrestling with her at first, Hutchins said.
"I kept wondering, 'What was this going to make our team look like?' " Hutchins said. "Two months later, I was one of her biggest fans."
McMann estimated that it took her about a year to win over all her teammates, to show that she was willing to put in the work and endure the pain ingrained in the sport. When they stopped ignoring her at practice and good-naturedly dubbed her "Fatty" -- McMann said she had one of the lowest body-fat rates on the squad -- she knew she belonged.
It took longer, however, for some rival teams to offer their acceptance. In her first official high school match, the opposing team sent out a three-year starter against McMann, then a freshman.
"He beat the crap out of me in no time," McMann said.
In her next match, however, McMann faced a similarly inexperienced wrestler and beat him on points. McMann could tell he was distraught after losing to her and tried to offer encouragement.
"I was like a total girl and went over and said, 'It's OK, you wrestled really well.' I don't think the guy took that very well," she said.
Other high school opponents refused to send anyone out to wrestle McMann, accepting a forfeit or claiming injury. They couldn't duck McMann forever, though.
In her senior year at McDowell High, she posted a 15-13 mark against all-male competition. She couldn't match them in pure strength, but no one worked harder on technique, Hutchins said.
Other McDowell High girls have tried to follow in McMann's wake, but none has lasted a full season on the team. Of the estimated 700,000 competitive wrestlers in this country, USA Wrestling estimates that only about 5,000 are female.
"It takes a special person to hang out with 30 guys wrestling. I could have another 2,000 girls come out and not have another like Sara," said Hutchins, who hopes to travel to Athens to watch McMann compete in the 63-kilogram class (138.75 pounds).
McMann wrestled briefly at the University of Minnesota-Morris, which had a women's team, before transferring to Lock Haven University. Thomas McMann said his daughter found training a tougher challenge against the men at Lock Haven. As in high school, McMann found herself playing the role of wrestling pioneer, Lock Haven coach Anthony "Rocky" Bonomo said.
"A lot of guys, of course, were wanting to see how she would handle practice, and it was tough for her because a lot of guys weren't comfortable wrestling with her," said Bonomo, who was a Lock Haven assistant coach when McMann wrestled there.
But in the boot-camp setting of preseason workouts, Bonomo said, McMann didn't break.
"You can't help but like her," he said. "She's pretty tough, and the guys who weren't starting had to watch her, or she'd score on them."
Since joining the U.S. women's team, McMann has won national and international championships. She lives and trains at the Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., but plans to move to Washington, D.C., this fall with her boyfriend, former Arizona State wrestler Steven Blackford.
Blackford is scheduled to start law school at Catholic University, and McMann plans to pursue a clinical doctorate in psychology.
At the Olympic trials championship in Indianapolis in May, McMann scored two technical falls over opponent Alaina Berube to clinch her trip to Athens. She didn't have to face her toughest rival in the 63-kg class after two-time world champion Kristie Marano failed to make the weight.
As a teenager, McMann never imagined wrestling past high school. Now she dreams only of gold in Greece.
"I set my standards high," McMann said.
And a gold medal, she said, would have made her brother proud.