News Page

Wisconsin State Journal :: FRONT :: A1
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Sandy Cullen Wisconsin State Journal

Female wrestlers have made it to the Olympics and to the state high school tournament, but three girls on the Middleton-Cross Plains middle school wrestling team couldn't even get a match at a recent meet against Stoughton.
Boys on Stoughton's middle school wrestling team didn't want to wrestle the girls, and coach Jason Model didn't force them to, said Athletic Director Don Jarvis.

Jarvis said he didn't know why the boys didn't want to wrestle the girls.

"Certainly, there's the social issue of a boy getting beat by a girl," he said, adding, "They just might feel real uncomfortable about touching a girl."

Margaret Lewis, the mother of one of the girls, said she is concerned about the message that sends to her daughter, Kate Berry, an eighth-grader who has been wrestling since she was in fifth grade.

"She's a full member of the team. I expect her to be treated that way," Lewis said. "There ought not to be any choice here."

Lewis also is concerned that it sends a message to boys that "you don't have to play with the girls" and "you don't have to follow the rules."

Athletic directors in the Badger Conference, which includes Stoughton and Middleton, will address the issue at their Jan. 19 meeting, said Luke Francois, athletic director and wrestling coach at Middleton High School and president of the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association.

The question of whether boys should have to wrestle girls pits the awkwardness of adolescence, sexual mores and gender stereotypes against expanding opportunities for girls to compete in athletics.

The worst time

Because Wisconsin has no middle school or high school girls wrestling teams, girls have the right to compete on boys teams.

"I know that some guys don't really want to wrestle girls," said Kate, 13, who believes that they "have to deal with it. It's not that big a deal."

Francois, Jarvis and Jill Gurtner, a wrestling official who also coaches the four girls on Middleton's high school wrestling team, agree with Model that boys shouldn't be forced to wrestle girls.

Janet S. Hyde, professor of psychology and women's studies at UW-Madison, said the rights of both girls and boys have to be protected.

The physical contact in wrestling makes it different from other sports, Hyde said.

From a wrestling perspective, there is nothing sexual about the contact, Gurtner said, adding, "There's no pride to be lost in being beaten by a girl who's really good at wrestling."

Middle school is the worst time for kids to be dealing with these issues, which would be hard for high school or college athletes, Hyde said.

"A lot of them are going through puberty, so their bodies are developing," she said.

The number of girls in wrestling is small, but interest is growing, Gurtner said. "We want to do everything we can to encourage girls who are interested and give them every opportunity to compete."

Last year, 28 girls were on high school teams, compared to 7,344 boys, said WIAA spokesman Todd Clark.

In the Madison area, about a dozen girls are on middle school teams, Francois said.

This year, women's wrestling became an Olympic sport, and Tomahawk sophomore Alyssa Lampe became the first girl to qualify for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association's individual state tournament.

"I know of some coaches that don't want (boys) to wrestle girls," said wrestling official Randy Schoeneman of Cross Plains.

"Personally, I have no problem with it," Model said.

Weight and ability

At middle school meets, wrestlers are matched based on weight and ability. Wrestlers can forfeit, sacrificing 6 points to the other team.

Dale Kalscheur, coach of Middleton's middle school team, said Stoughton didn't match any wrestlers with the girls, though it appeared that matches could have been made.

Model said he could not recall why matches weren't made, but denied that the boys didn't want to wrestle Berry and her teammates because they are girls.

There are about 22 boys on Stoughton's team. This year, four girls wanted to join the team. Two never showed up, and the others left because they only wanted to wrestle other girls, Model said.

Hyde said the answer is to form girls wrestling teams.

Several parents of middle school wrestlers, including Sara Schmid of Verona, said they have no problem with their sons wrestling girls.

Schmid's son, Chris, 12, wrestled Berry in a match last week. Chris, who been wrestling for just 2 1/2 weeks and is about 10 pounds lighter than Berry, lost the match, 4-2.

"I've never wrestled a girl," Chris said after the match. "It was hard. She was quicker than me, and I didn't expect that."

Losing to a girl didn't bother him, Chris said, adding, "It wasn't much different than wrestling a boy."

-------------------------------------------------------

Vallejo quartet wrestling way to tournament success as freshmen

By TIMOTHY SCOTT, Times-Herald sports writer 12.14.04

Freshman Monica Gonzalez works out Monday at Vallejo High wrestling practice as coaches Mike Minahen, right, and her father, Bobby Gonzalez, watch in the background. Photo: Mike Jory/Times-Herald

You can tell when Vallejo High wrestling coach Mike Minahen is excited. His voice picks up, achieving a higher octave, and the pace of his speech quickens.
Asked to comment for a season-preview story a few weeks ago, Minahen became enthused - in the way coaches do where there's talent to be cultivated - when the subject of his girls team was raised.

"And I've got these four freshmen..." began Minahen excitedly, before rattling off names, weights and assorted wrestling backgrounds for the quartet.

Last weekend, at the talent-rich Roger Briones tournament in San Leandro, Jennifer Fernandez, Jennifer Avelino, Angie Miller and Monica Gonzalez proved their coach a sage when each finished in the top three of their weight class.

Here's how:

Fernandez, a 98-pounder with an "iron will," took first place by pinning - in order - the No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 seeds. As a freshman, she wasn't awarded a seed, but that should soon change, especially after what Minahen called a "dominant" final match.

"Jennifer, really, her biggest asset is her heart and desire," said Vallejo High coach. "The first two matches she was on her back twice and ended up reversing both matches and putting the girls on their backs. She fought out of situations most girls would have been pinned in."

Avelino, an all-around solid wrestler in the 108-pound class, lost her first match Saturday to the second seed - but bounced back with three straight wins for a third-place result. Battling through a left-knee injury, Avelino draws inspiration from her older brother Mike, a former Apache wrestler.

"I'm working harder than last year," said Avelino, who was a wrestler at Solano Middle. "Just like my brother, I'm trying to work as hard as him."

Miller is a 144-pounder who "wants it bad," said Minahen. She went 3-1 and took second in San Leandro, losing in the final to the reigning state champion. Before that, though, she cruised through her bracket with a trio of first-round pins.

"Sort of like Jennifer (Fernandez), even if she's behind, she's just one roll or one move away from putting a girl on her back and pinning her," said Minahen. "She put a girl away in the tournament - she squeezed her for about 30 seconds and wore her out until the girl finally gave up."

And then there's Gonzalez, who's looking to clear some room in her family's trophy case. She's the younger sister of former state champ Bobby, who took the 135-pound title in 2003, while her dad, also Bobby Gonzalez, is a longtime area wrestling coach.

Last weekend, she no doubt made the family proud by taking third in the 195-pound class, losing in her semifinal to last year's state title winner.

"I chose it. I love it," she said of the family sport. "Last year I used to come to practice every day to get ready for this year."

Said Minahen of the quartet: "All four of them have tremendous work ethic, they never miss a practice. Just everything you ask of them, they give and do. I can't say enough good things about them. I mean, four freshman, and all of them place in the top three of this 50-something school tournament. It's just very impressive."

This year, each of the wrestlers said their goal is to place high at state, while Gonzalez would like to show at Nationals. But Minahen has a bigger picture in mind, and isn't fretting over wins and losses.

Hold those expectations, at least for now.

"I just think the sky's the limit for all four of them," said Minahen. "(But) this year is about them not getting burned-out, staying healthy and learning. It's not about winning, it's about learning."

Gonzalez compared it to a season red-shirting in college, while both Miller and Fernandez agree that the best lessons so far have been learned after losses.

"I pick up things from my losses, and I work on those," said Fernandez. "I try to focus on improving and focus on what I did wrong to improve it."

Said Miller: "It's been harder than I thought, and that's good too."

Part of that learning process is to break from the swing-for-the-fences pin moves that become popular with young wrestlers. Miller learned that last weekend with three easy matches and a blowout loss in the final. Basically, she got by on "middle-school moves."

Against top-notch opponents, though, those homers quickly become strikeouts. Continuing with the baseball metaphor, Minahen would like to see singles and doubles collected, and the home-run swing to appear with men on base.

"They still, from time to time, resort to their junior-high moves, which, we don't necessarily try to break them of," he said, "but we want to make it sort of a back-up plan."

So far, even the backup plan seems to be working as the freshmen quartet grapples through their fledgling prep careers.

"I felt that all four of them were going to be tough," Minahen said, "but to this level, this early? No, obviously not."

--------------------------------------------------

Missouri Valley College's ROTC commissions first female lieutenant

Monday, December 13, 2004
By Matt Heger/Staff Writer

Newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Mollie Griffin, right, shakes hands with Missouri Valley College Interim President Ed Elliot after stepping up from cadet status at a ceremony Friday, Dec. 10. Griffin, a honor scholar and accomplished women's wrestler, will graduate in December from MVC. [Click to enlarge]

On Dec. 10, Mollie Elizabeth Griffin became the first female lieutenant to be commissioned at Missouri Valley College, gaining the position of second lieutenant through the MVC Reserve Officers Training Corps unit.
The Aurelia, Iowa, native transferred to MVC from Aurelia Community School in 2000. She completed Basic Individual Training at Fort Leonard Wood in 1999, and completed Supply Apprentice School in August, 2000, at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Attending the 2003 National Advanced Leadership Camp at Fort Lewis, Wash., she finished in the top third of all cadets. Her excellent performance resulted in her being selected as the Viking Detachment Commander for MVC's 2003-2004 academic year.

During the Cadet Command Accessions Board process this October, Griffin was named as a Distinguished Military Graduate. That title is reserved for the top 20 percent of the national order of merit list.

Aside from her military accomplishments, Griffin is graduating with honors this December from MVC, earning a degree in physical education for kindergarten to 12th grade.

She is also an accomplished athlete, competing as a four-year varsity women's wrestler, as well as three-year captain and three-time All-American wrestler. In 2004, she won the College National Championship in the 63 kilogram weight class, the University National Championship in the 67 kilogram weight class and was a member of the 2004 National Champion-ship women's wrestling team.

This semester, Griffin is serving as assistant women's wrestling coach at MVC and is completing student-teaching requirements at Bueker Middle School. Following her graduation, she will serve as a military police officer in the Missouri Army National Guard.

--------------------------------------------

Grappling with inequity
'Girl' hero falls to Texas bias

By MARISA GUTHRIE 12.14.04
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Team sports are a rite of passage for millions of kids. But for Texas middle school student Tara Neal, joining the wrestling team proved a lesson in gender discrimination.
"Girl Wrestler," tonight at 10 on WNET/Ch. 13, follows Neal through eighth grade, the last year she was allowed to wrestle boys, according to state guidelines.

Once girls enter high school in Texas, as in many other states, they are barred from wrestling against boys.

"The inequity and disparity of [school sports] is much more visible with wrestling," said filmmaker Diane Zander, who teaches media production at the University of Texas at Austin.

"If we're going to say, 'Of course girls should be allowed to play sports,' where does that question end? With wrestling, they don't have any helmets hiding their faces. They don't have any pads separating them. If girls are in a contact sport with boys, is that okay?

"It's something that makes people uncomfortable," added Zander, "but it is something that gets at the larger question. If we as a culture are going to decide that girls are going to have equal opportunities, we have to extend that all the way down the line."

At the heart of the controversy - and the film - is Title IX, which gives girls sports proportionality in public schools. In the film we see coaches and parents, mothers as well as fathers, claim that girls have no business on the mat with boys. In 2002, the National Wrestling Coaches Association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education to repeal Title IX. The suit was dismissed the following year.

One scene in the film follows Neal to a wrestling convention, where she gets to meet one of her heroes, Olympic wrestler Brandon Slay. She asks him if he's ever wrestled girls. He has, he says, but he doesn't think it's right.

"If you haven't already locked into Tara's struggle, you do at that very moment," said Zander. "[Slay] is very representative of the mentality of someone in wrestling. The reason he said that to her is because it is completely acceptable to say things like that in that environment."

For all of Neal's tenacity, when she got to high school, said Zander, the gender bias proved insurmountable.

"When she got to high school she joined the wrestling team but she couldn't wrestle. As she predicted," said Zander, "there weren't any other girls who were interested in the sport. She tried to recruit and couldn't."

"And she just got tired of sitting on the sidelines."

Today, Neal, 17, is a teenage mom. She had a baby last summer.

"But she's finishing high school," said Zander. "She's taking college courses. She's doing great."

---------------------------------------------

COMMENTARY: "Girl Wrestler" is mostly a Kids Wrestling movie, focused on a girl

12/13/2004
Gary Abbott/TheMat.com

Don’t always believe everything you read in the previews and feature stories. When it comes to “Girl Wrestler,” a film by Diane Zander, the clippings miss the point.

If you read some of the articles provided by those promoting the film, you would think it was some treatise on feminism, Title IX or other worldy controversial topic. In fact, “Girl Wrestler” is basically a kids wrestling movie, in which the central character happens to be a 13-year-old girl.

“Girl Wrestler” is scheduled for national broadcast on the PBS Independent Lens! Show on Tuesday, December 14, at 9:00 p.m. Central time.

It is the story of Tara Neal, a 13-year-old Texas girl, who is active in wrestling. The film follows Tara as she goes through a USA Wrestling freestyle season, practicing in her club and competing on the local, state, regional and national levels. The film ends with her participation at the USA Wrestling Kids National Freestyle and Greco-Roman Championships, which were held in Fresno, Calif.

Tara is an engaging girl, who seems pretty smart, but is not much different than most young wrestlers. It is told in her voice, with her own words. She talks a lot about wrestling, and how much she loves the sport. The movie is about more than just the wrestling. It also gets into her relationships with others, including her mom and dad who are split up, her coach, and other wrestlers. In that respect, it is a teen growing up film.

The main focus of the movie has to do with Tara training and competing against boys, something that happens all over the country on a daily basis. Tara is from Texas, however, where they have a separate high school program for girls. This film documents the last season where she is competing against boys in the Kids program.

Almost all of the action is wrestling. It shows Tara at practice. It shows her at a number of wrestling tournaments. She wins some matches, against both boys and girls. She loses some matches against both boys and girls. She gets upset with losses and happy with victories. She drives to many tournaments, but for the nationals, gets on an airplane as part of Team Texas.

There are many things in this film that will get some people in wrestling upset. The film does get into uncomfortable areas, especially for those who do not like that girls wrestle against boys. The film touches on other touchy topics, such as the “sexual” appearance of wrestling moves, weight cutting and Title IX. Some of the positions taken by the film, mostly through the editing process, are different than the mainstream thoughts within the sport.

By interviewing coaches and young wrestlers, some of these difficult topics come across a bit raw, and perhaps a bit out of context. There are boys spouting off in a macho manner about girls in wrestling, trying to show off their toughness and their masculinity. There are some coaches and parents who seem quite hardcore and inflexible in their beliefs.

Weight cutting is displayed in a negative manner, showing that the culture of poor weight management still exists, even if the rules have been changed in youth wrestling. A few kids say the wrong things about it. Tara decides not to eat for a while, trying to get to a lower division. She is shown trying to run off weight prior to a tournament, only to decide to go up instead. One coach at a training camp, Frank Halloran, the former state chairman of Texas USA Wrestling, says all the RIGHT things about the topic, telling the kids not to cut weight, making them drink lots of water, and making himself available to anybody who wants to talk about it.

Those within USA Wrestling will recognize a number of the people in the film. There is an interesting moment, when Tara gets a chance to meet her wrestling hero, 2000 Olympic champion Brandon Slay, a fellow Texan who is at a tournament signing autographs. Brandon is very nice to Tara, but tells her that he is against boys wrestling girls in high school. This view is against her opinions, so Tara admits that Brandon is no longer such a hero for her.

The relationship between Tara and her dad, who supports her wrestling, is interesting and shows some of the dynamics between wrestlers and their parents. Tara ends up believing that her dad is pushing her too much within wrestling, and she badly wants to spend time with him no matter what. At one point, her dad decides not to take her to tournaments anymore, just to be part of her practices. These kind of situations are very realistic within the sport, whether it be a boy or a girl on the mat.

At the end, when Tara goes off to the National Championships, she gets to meet other girls in the tournament who are going through many of the same challenges and experiences within the sport. They spend some time together and become friends. In fact, Tara has to wrestle one of the few girls in the meet, and ends up pinning her new friend.

This movie was in a number of film festivals before it received its national airing on PBS. The director and producer is Diane Zander, an Emmy award winner who has produced many documentaries, and teaches media production at the Univ. of Texas at Austin. Zander saw a TV feature about girls wrestling, reported by John Stossel on ABC’s 20/20, and she wanted to follow up. She was amazed by the visual nature of wrestling and decided to learn more about the people in the sport.

In the promotional materials, Zander makes a statement about the film, which tells her viewpoint of why she did it and what she was trying to achieve. Zander writes:

“This is not the ‘Hoop Dreams’ of girls wrestling. It’s not an expose about discrimination in wrestling. What I hope that this documentary accomplishes is to complicate these archetypal stories by offering a tale of one girl who just wants to play, in an environment where some men and some women disagree with her choices and where some men and some women wholeheartedly support her decisions.”

Zander is available and willing to talk about the film at any time. In absorbing herself in Tara’s life, she has also become much more aware about wrestling.

“When I went to a Kids wrestling meet, I was hooked,” said Zander. “The idea of girls wrestling gets to the heart of girls and women in sports. When it comes down to it, the ultimate extension of that question is coed sports and coed contact sports. Dealing with girls wrestling boys got to the heart of the question. It uncovered the uncomfortableness our culture has with girls wrestling. It surprised me that there are so many women that are not supportive of it. I was thrilled there were so many men who were supportive.”

“Once I met Tara, I realized she is a great character,” said Zander. “She is thoughtful about what she is doing. She is eloquent. She is a great spokesperson for the sport. In the narrative, she tells why she is wrestling, because she loves wrestling. She is not doing it for rebellion, and not doing it for her dad. She did it for herself.”

Zander will talk other topics, such has her view of Title IX and “positive feminism” and other such things. Certainly, a lot of that is woven into this film. However, if you spend too much time there, you miss a movie about a young wrestler, her family and the sport of wrestling.

“I think this will make people talk about things,” said Zander. “It will show what complications there are.”

Whether you like this film or not, it is out there. It will receive national television exposure this week, and will certainly be a topic that will kick around the wrestling community. And with the inclusion of women’s wrestling in the Olympics, and the growth of participation of girls in youth programs, these issues will certainly not go away.

----------------------------------

Sorry, Tara, When You Turn 14, No Wrestling With Boys

By NED MARTEL

Published: December 14, 2004

eenage boys' pinning down teenage girls is considered unsportsmanlike conduct, and vice versa. Or so they say in Texas, where the prohibition of coed wrestling at the high school level has inspired "Girl Wrestler." It will be shown tonight on most PBS stations.

As it follows the headstrong, body-conscious Tara Neal through the advent of her adolescence in 2001, this cluttered but heartfelt documentary almost misses its most salient point about adults guiding teenagers through gender identification.

While the boys carefully say they fear hurting a female opponent, their moves in such matches suggest otherwise. Tara endures fat lips, scrapes and even hair pulling.

The actual unspoken issue seems to be fear of arousal. Why else would the prohibition begin at age 14, when just before puberty, coed wrestling is deemed legit? (Texas and Hawaii are the only states that prohibit girls from wrestling with boys at the high school level.)

These boys have more sexual energy than outlets, and they form a tight, affectionate cabal when barring Tara from their ranks. When the boys are just being boys, they subject one another to straddling maneuvers that they call "the Honeymooner" or worse. The film captures a few Bruce Weber-worthy rubdowns and some strangely suggestive talk among the boys. "I start thinking that it's more than wrestling," Tara observes, perplexed by the hostility she encounters in the all-male subculture.

That's not to say that particular subculture is necessarily based on homosexual impulses. Instead, while hormones addle young minds, such sports impose a strict system of reinforced gender roles and rankings within them - a point the film suggests but doesn't quite nail down. A girl in the male hierarchy apparently messes with the delicate order. "If you lose to a girl, you walk out of the gym, you walk out of the stadium," one boy testifies. "You don't come back either."

Tara herself is not in the game for the body contact, although she does turn gleeful when one boy asks her out. Instead she is building corporal agility and mental sharpness in competitions long open only to boys. Plus she's assembling her own sense of how females should compete, since she has so few role models in her sport. "I try to make myself angry, so I can get aggressive, because I always want to be nice. I don't want to hurt anyone," she says. "It makes me feel like I control something."

Her parents' divorce has agitated her young mind, and emotional hurt is clearly a motivator. So too are the taunts of her dad, who is super-devoted as a chauffeur-cheerleader-coach but then derides her during one tense weigh-in. "I'm the son my dad never had because my brother isn't really into sports," Tara explains with obvious pride.

When not stuck in fluorescent-lighted gyms, the documentary records Tara prowling the mall, discussing diets with other girls and engaging in hair experimentation. It is not clear whether the filmmaker or Tara herself is making the effort to prove her girly bona fides. Still, you will believe Tara when she hopes aloud that sportswear companies will one day issue a pink singlet.

Like MTV's gripping "True Life" documentaries, the camera captures genuine moments just by showing up. The young girl waits in an autograph line to meet her Olympic hero, only to get some face-to-face discouragement about the future of boy-girl wrestling. Tara adjusts her outlook: "O.K., so I don't look up to him as much as I used to now."

The filmmaker, Diane Zander, could have spent more time on the confusing arousal issue, although she does find one father of another girl wrestler who suggests that the ban on teenage coed wrestling is silly considering how backseat grappling on Lovers Lane gets condoned. There's an intermittent, sometimes contradictory discussion of Title IX, and that federal mandate to increase spending on women's sports in public schools may have led some administrators to abandon less revenue-generating teams altogether. Thus Tara and others like her are scapegoats to some and pioneers to others.

Ultimately, the film is more adept at documenting Tara's complexities than her sport's. In one small sequence Tara is heard in voice-over discussing her frustrations with her dad, while the camera shows her, in an all-girl chorus, practicing a glum rendition of "You Don't Own Me."

'Independent Lens: Girl Wrestler'

PBS tonight at 10; check local listings.

-----------------------------------------------

PREP HUDDLE: Don't rule out male gymnast

00:00 am 12/14/04
Rob Hernandez Wisconsin State Journal

A boy wants to compete on the girls gymnastics team at Stevens Point. But WIAA rules won't allow it.

At the same time, there are a handful of girls in Wisconsin who want to play hockey and wrestle. While eight school districts in the state sponsor varsity hockey for girls, the rest who wish to play those sports have the chance to do so, right alongside the boys.

In many cases, Title IX has turned opportunity into a one-way street since its enactment in 1972, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in all federally funded education programs and activities. Athletically, it rightfully expanded programs for high school girls and college women - and made exceptions for those who wanted to compete in wrestling, hockey and even football.

But it doesn't work the other way around. Stevens Point junior Keith Bukowski wants to compete on the girls gymnastics team and have his routines count in the Panthers' score, but Article VI, Section 6 of the WIAA constitution says that can't happen.

The WIAA provision "prohibits all types of interscholastic activity involving boys and girls competing with or against each other, except (a) as prescribed by state and federal law and (b) as determined by Board of Control interpretations of such laws."

The first exception gave 2004 trailblazers Alyssa Lampe of Tomahawk (the first girl to qualify for the state individual wrestling tournament) and Molly Schemm of Fort Atkinson (the first girl to qualify individually for the state boys golf tournament) the chance to break new ground.

But both WIAA exceptions have teamed up to give Bukowski a seat on the same bench as the dozens of collegiate wrestling programs that have fallen victim to Title IX. (However, Bukowski's mother has said she is prepared to fight the WIAA in court.)

For now, the WIAA appears comfortable with the effort it made to sponsor boys gymnastics from 1963 through '81. A decline in participation doomed the sport at the WIAA level, although Madison high schools - thanks largely to the energy of La Follette coach Tom Sisulak and the money of Princeton Club owner Dave Gerry - managed to keep the sport alive until 2001.

Besides, critics of Bukowski's quest will tell you, Paul Hamm became an Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics even though Waukesha South didn't have a boys program. True, but Hamm and twin brother Morgan, his Olympic teammate, live in an area where opportunities extend beyond the YMCA level.

Then again, it seems the second exception of the WIAA provision would give the association some latitude to explore ways to deal with these situations and satisfy both genders - maybe even Bukowski, a boy wishing to compete against the girls in a culture that believes he would bring a clear physical edge to the gym.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy. There is a difference between participation and competition as they relate to mixing genders in high school sports.

Simple participation would hold the key to compromise in Bukowski's case. It would be easy for the WIAA to give him clearance to participate with the girls on an exhibition basis if his goal was merely to be involved in an extra-curricular activity.

Competition, on the other hand, suggests full-fledged equality. It's about girls like Lampe and Schemm not only having the opportunity to participate with the boys, but the opportunity to compete for their prizes - be it a varsity letter or a state title.

That's the opportunity Bukowski wants and the WIAA is not ready to give it to him. One fear is it could draw enough boys to gymnastics to drive girls away. It's a real concern for the WIAA, which so agonized over the 4-2 advantage boys sports (basketball, hockey, swimming and wrestling) had over the girls (basketball and gymnastics) in the winter season, it added girls hockey in 2001 - despite having just six of the minimum 25 schools typically required to add a sport.

To do the same by Bukowski - one student in a school of 2,691 - would be asking the WIAA to make a monumental exception when the model for a better solution already exists.

It's called diving, a sport kept alive as an event attached to boys and girls swimming. More than 100 WIAA schools sponsor swimming and diving, but the majority stop their commitment this side of the "and." However, that hasn't stopped deserving divers - like Madison Edgewood's Kiley Hearn and Ryan Jefferson - from having the opportunity to become state champions and score points at the state meet.

Maybe the time has come for the WIAA to take the same approach with boys gymnastics - and girls wrestling, for that matter - and attach them to the more popular programs offered by the other gender. Maybe the time has come create a division of girls gymnastics for the boys - or a weight class in wrestling reserved for girls - in keeping with today's mission of a world in which no child is left

Back