Columbus sophomore Danette O’Hara is one of 42 female wrestlers in the state taking part in high-school programs. Nationally, the number of girls on high-school wrestling teams has more than doubled since 1997.
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News Page
Columbus wrestler shows gender has no place on the mats
Ryan Malashock
Globe Sports Writer
12/15/05
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Columbus sophomore Danette O’Hara is one of 42 female wrestlers in the state taking part in high-school programs. Nationally, the number of girls on high-school wrestling teams has more than doubled since 1997. |
COLUMBUS, Kan. — When they’re all together, sweating and grunting through a grueling workout, they don’t see the ponytail.
They don’t notice the smooth legs, and they don’t bother to care about the high-pitched shrieks.
To the Columbus High School wrestling team, Danette O’Hara commands all the respect any tenaciously driven teammate is granted.
Her gender means nothing.
Her hustle, her attitude and her competitiveness mean everything.
“There are a lot of guys who can’t get through our practices, but she does it with ease,” said Columbus senior Aaron Ellison, a defending 135-pound state champion. “She really is just like one of the guys.”
That assertion might spark rage from most girls. But not O’Hara.
The sophomore is one of an increasing number of girls nationwide who participate in boys sports such as wrestling, football and soccer.
More than 4,500 girls now compete in high-school wrestling, up from 1,907 in 1997, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Forty-two girls, O’Hara included, are grappling on the mat this year in Kansas, battling to overcome stereotypes and find their place in a boy’s world.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association tracks female participation. The Missouri State High School Activities Association does not, and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association reports that three girls are taking part in high-school wrestling this year.
“It really makes me mad when people think that I’m not good or I shouldn’t be doing this just because I’m a girl,” said O’Hara, 15. “They think wrestling is only a guy thing. It isn’t. I’m proof of that.”
Getting started
The idea of wrestling swept over O’Hara at age 8, when she first witnessed her older brother, B.T., practicing with his buddies. This looks cool, O’Hara thought.
“I didn’t think twice about it,” she said. “It seemed natural to start practicing with him and my little brother (Matthew).”
Mere months later, O’Hara placed second in a youth tournament. A career had begun.
She joined the Columbus youth wrestling club, the lone girl among a throng of boys determined to one day become superstars in the Southeast Kansas town rich with wrestling tradition.
Her family moved to Parsons when she was 10, but O’Hara kept at it, joining the Parsons youth wrestling club. The O’Haras returned to Columbus two years later.
That year, O’Hara started to compete against girls for the youth wrestling club. She also started to hear the grumblings and the condescending comments that challenged her parents, Brenda and Daniel O’Hara, and that continue to fuel her.
“I’d always hear people talking quietly, saying things like, ‘How could her parents let her do that?’” O’Hara said. “But you know what? As I got older, it was almost like most people thought it was really cool.”
Count her coaches and teammates among those supporters. Todd Napier, in his eighth year as the Titans’ head coach, agreed with Ellison that gender plays no part in how O’Hara’s teammates perceive her.
Napier has kept an eye on O’Hara for years, wondering what type of wrestler she would become. So far, he has been more than impressed with O’Hara, who wrestles at 103 pounds and takes a 4-1 season record into this weekend’s Claremore (Okla.) Tournament.
“She’s not just some girl who’s out here to make a point,” Napier said. “She’s out here to win. She’s out here to help Columbus do as well as we can as a team.”
While her high-school career is just now blossoming, that attitude has allowed O’Hara to thrive in the summertime against female competition.
As a member of the Kansas Krusaders, a traveling all-star girls wrestling team based out of Wichita, O’Hara earned all-state honors last summer. She even dreams of one day making the Olympics, which added women’s freestyle wrestling in 2004.
“I’ve got a long ways to go to get better at freestyle,” she said. “But if I can get better, who knows? I might want to go to college and wrestle.”
Crossing over
O’Hara isn’t alone among area athletes in crossing over into boys sports. Brianna McKenzie, a sophomore in Webb City, Mo., recently finished her second season on the Cardinals’ boys soccer team.
A talented outside midfielder, McKenzie is taking advantage of an MSHSAA rule that permits girls to play boys sports if their school does not have a girls team.
Every state in the United States, in fact, lets girls participate in boys sports in those circumstances.
“There’s even a couple of girls in the state that play boys basketball,” said Rick Kindhart, assistant executive director for the MSHSAA. “And, of course, wrestling and football are non-gender-specific, so anyone is free to play those.”
Three girls qualified for the Missouri state wrestling tournament last February. Two girls qualified for the Kansas state wrestling tournament. One of the three female wrestlers in Oklahoma, Woodward’s Joey Miller, earned a fourth-place medal at the state tournament last season.
“I think that opened some people’s eyes,” said Ed Sheakly, assistant executive director for the OSSAA. “The perception of girls in boys sports is changing, I think, for the better.”
McKenzie said she couldn’t be sure of that.
For the past three summers, McKenzie has competed primarily against boys for the Joplin Lightning, an area select team. Joking comments, during pregame warm-ups, are rampant. Dirty looks are the norm. On-the-field taunts are expected.
“It usually makes the teams we’re playing relax and think it’s going to be an easy win because there’s a girl on the team,” McKenzie said. “We just don’t get respect. So we have to earn it.”
O’Hara knows that matching Miller’s accomplishment would do a great deal to enhance the perception of girl wrestlers.
Only one girl has ever claimed a victory in a match at the Kansas state tournament, said Rick Bowden, KSHSAA assistant executive director.
A future ascension onto the medal stand is a common dream for O’Hara.
“That would be so great,” she said. “And maybe it would make girls who want to wrestle more comfortable with the idea of it.”
Making progress
In the meantime, O’Hara inches her way toward her goals. She flies through practices with a vigorous, determined work ethic and perfects her moves on two Columbus freshmen, Nick Thomas and Andrew Ballantyne.
Ballantyne, a newcomer to the high-school program, acknowledged that he felt a bit of initial reluctance toward practicing with O’Hara. It didn’t take long for him to come around.
“She’s a good wrestler, and she makes me better when I work with her,” he said.
That initial skepticism is common, O’Hara said. She notices apprehension, even confusion, when it sinks in with boys that she is their opponent.
At first, even throughout her freshman season on the junior varsity, O’Hara relished the opinions of her opposition. “Most of them would just be like, ‘Oh, she’s a girl. This will be fast,’” O’Hara said.
But then, something changed. Word spread. Watch out for the girl from Columbus, 103-pounders were told. Now, O’Hara almost wishes she was a guy at times.
“It’s like I get wrestled harder than the guys,” she said. “They know it’s not going to be easy, and they definitely don’t want to lose to a girl.”
Several boys, though, have learned how to deal with that exact situation this year. Earlier this month, O’Hara swept through the Kan-Okla Tournament in Caney, Kan., with three dominant victories.
Napier said it could serve as the first of many milestones for O’Hara.
“She’s wrestled for a long time, but she’s still got a long way to go,” he said. “Strength is the biggest thing holding her back for now.”
Overcoming barriers
O’Hara realizes she may never get strong enough to overcome the state’s toughest 103-pound wrestlers. It won’t ever be like her first couple of years wrestling, when strength meant little in matches between boys and girls.
Regardless, she pushes on, breaking down barriers, establishing new ones.
“Even though I’m a girl, I’m proud that none of my teammates look at me like one,” O’Hara said. “Just one of the guys? I can deal with that.”
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Grappling with a different gender
By Jim Correale
Sports Editor
WESTBROOK (Dec 14, 2005):
In her initial season as a wrestler, Amanda Simoneau wasn’t sure that she liked the sport. She came out for the sixth-grade team at Wescott Middle School because she wanted to try a contact sport and she had seen professional wrestling on television.
“I really didn’t like it the first year because it was so hard for me and such a struggle learning things,” she says. “I had a hard time, but my mother told me never to quit anything and at the end of the year I realized that I loved it and wanted to do it again. And I got better after that.”
Despite the early misgivings, Simoneau is now in her seventh season as a wrestler. She’s a senior at Westbrook High School and a co-captain on the Blazes squad. Her coach, John Nicholas, admires her determination.
“She was able to stick through four years of a pretty tough sport surrounded by all guys, for the most part,” Nicholas says. “She’s been the only girl we’ve had until this year. Just the fact that she was able to tough it out and stick with it shows a lot of her character.”
Female grapplers are becoming a more common sight on high school wrestling mats around the country. Last year, Marshwood’s Deanna Rix garnered quite a bit of media coverage when she barely missed becoming the first girl to win a state title.
Simoneau’s classmate and co-captain Alex Emery says that it’s “pretty normal” to see girls wrestling in the lower weight classes.
“Amanda’s been on my team since I’ve been here. I didn’t think anything of it,” Emery says. “I’ve seen her get injured in matches and fight through it. She’s got really good drive.”
Simoneau is not the first female to wrestle for Westbrook, but Nicholas said that he believes that she is the first to stick with the sport. The coach adds that she is a talented athlete, not a novelty.
“She doesn’t just go out there because she’s filling a weight class,” he says. “She’s placed in a couple tournaments, and she’s beaten many boys over the course of four years.”
Simoneau, who currently wrestles at 112 pounds, said that she likes that she is part of a team as well as an individual athlete.
“When you do well in a match, whether you win or lose, it’s this whole feeling of satisfaction,” she says, “knowing that you worked hard in practice, and that you’re in good shape.”
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Athlete of the Week: Lauren Knight
Knight rules at weekend tournament
By TIMOTHY SCOTT, Times-Herald sports writer
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Vallejo High wrestling coach Mike Minahen hadn't ever seen Lauren Knight so focused.
But payback is - well, it's nice.
Knight, a two-time All-American, was looking for it Saturday at the Roger Briones Invitational in San Leandro, where the top girls teams in Northern California gather annually for an early season showdown.
And for Knight, that meant a match against Napa's Lauren Phillips in the 138-pound division. Last year, Knight bested Phillips just once, when the Apache wrestler rolled to a regional championship. But Phillips took 3-of-4, topped Knight in two early-season tournaments, and, most memorably, eliminated the Apache middleweight from placement contention at the state tournament - site of Knight's biggest wrestling disappointment.
Knight, though, learned from the loss and bounced back for All-American status in 2005. This year, she's even more determined.
At Saturday's invitational, the Vallejo senior went 4-for-4 to win the 138-pound title, pinned each of her opponents - including a second-rounder against Phillips in a semifinal match - and was named the meet's Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Knight gained extra inspiration from Vallejo's only other senior girl wrestler, Maria Angara, who the team learned last week may be out for the season with a dislocated elbow.
"Maria said, 'If you go into the match and give it all you've got, you'll have no regrets,' " Knight said. "I basically dedicated the tournament to her. I wanted to win for her."
Minahen, a veteran wrestling coach, was impressed with Knight on Saturday.
"Awesome, she really was," he said. "It was the dominant performance in a tough class."
For Knight, the disappointment of not placing in last year's state tournament proved to be an important lesson. In just her third season in the only sport she's ever competed in, Knight was used to success - earning All-American distinction as a sophomore - but had to learn to cope with failure.
"That's what losing has taught me," Knight explained, "stay humble."
Other lessons, according to Knight: focus on what went wrong, stay confident and keep emotions in check -
something she didn't do at the state meet.
Knight, who draws inspiration from wherever she can - "I just soak in what people tell me. I want to get better," she said - had a combination that worked on Saturday, when Minahen said Knight's aggressiveness allowed her to control matches.
"It was funny, she said, 'coach it didn't even seem like me out there,' " recalled Minahen, "It was as focused as I've ever seen her."
It's just a step, Knight hopes, in a road that brings her a state championship, All-American status once again, and maybe a national title. And why not? Since the United States Girls Wrestling Associaion Web site (usgwa.com) currently ranks Knight as the top 134-pound wrestler in the nation.
"(Wrestling) has taught me ... to stay more positive, to believe in myself most of all," Knight said. "That match with Lauren Phillips taught me to believe in myself - (because) she's going to come back harder."
Said Minahen: "The goal is to get her so strong mentally and physically that the state meet will be a picnic."
Other Nominees:
Darnell Grier (Bethel basketball). Named to all-tournament team at Berkeley High tournament.
Lamar Mitchell and Kirby Vaughn (Vallejo basketball). Named to all-tournament team at Nevada Union Classic.
Angie Miller, Vallejo wrestling. Took first place in 144-pound division at Roger Briones Invitational in San Leandro.
Steven Swaby, Vallejo wrestling. Had five pins in five matches at 140 pounds in dual meets at Ponderosa High last weekend.
Ronny Tsutsui, Vallejo wrestling. Went 5-0 as 135-pounder at Ponderosa dual meets.
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You throw, girl
Murphy proves she belongs on Rochester wrestling team
By DAVE KANE
STAFF WRITER
Published Wednesday, December 14, 2005
ROCHESTER - When he saw Leann Murphy's name on a sign-up sheet for Rochester High School wrestling in the fall of 2004, coach Brad Alewelt's first reaction was concern.
But his concern wasn't prompted by his role as a coach. It was his paternal instincts kicking in.
Michelle Murphy's maternal instincts also reached a heightened state of alert when Leann - the second of Michelle and Bob Murphy's four children - announced her intentions of getting on the mat and competing against teenage boys.
But in hindsight, the coach and the mom admit they should've known better. And dad? He wrestled for a couple of years during his high school days, so he knew how tough it would be. But Bob Murphy also knew his daughter's competitive nature.
"She looks at it like, the harder something is, the better," Bob said. "She'll come home and I'll say, 'How was practice?' And she might say, 'It was kind of easy; I wish it was harder.' She likes hard workouts and practices, whether it's track or cross country or wrestling."
Alewelt agrees, although he admitted to having some worries in the very beginning.
"I have three daughters of my own," Alewelt said. "When (Murphy) came out, I wasn't sure I wanted this to happen. But she changed my mind the first day.
"Now, I don't look at her as a girl. I look at her as my 103-pounder."
You can look it up.
After competing on the junior varsity level as a sophomore last year, Leann Murphy is usually the Rockets' varsity entry at 103. The junior has done more than hold her own this season, posting an 11-3 record that includes three pins.
She's coming off a 3-1 finish - including a pin in less than one minute - at last Saturday's Porta Invitational, where she took seventh place at 103.
Several of the victories have come by forfeit, including one in the Porta meet. But Leann said only one forfeit has resulted from a reluctant male who took a pass on wrestling someone of the opposite gender.
She doesn't like forfeits, by the way.
"Forfeits get me upset," she said. "If there's a challenge, I want to take it. I've had more forfeits than I'd like.
"But I have a lot of respect for every guy who comes out and challenges you. Wrestlers give it their all, and that's amazing."
Some would say Murphy's desire to wrestle is amazing, although she's not the first girl to compete in high school wrestling. The most well known female wrestler in Illinois is Caitlyn Chase, a Glenbard North senior who qualified for the Class AA State Meet at 103 last year.
Closer to home, Murphy has a female teammate in Sara Yingst, a fellow junior who competes for the Rockets' junior varsity.
Having at least one girl teammate helps, Leann said. But after not taking the leap her freshman year, she was determined to try out her sophomore year, even if she was the only girl.
"I didn't do it my freshman year because there weren't any other girls in it," she said. "But my sophomore year, I decided I might as well do it, no matter what. After cross country season my sophomore year, I decided to go for it.
"Going into it, I had no idea what wrestling really was. But I know it was a challenging sport, and once I started I knew I had to stick with it. I just like challenges - and following through on whatever I decide to do."
Michelle Murphy said her first concern about having a daughter involved in wrestling was the obvious one: injury. Leann Murphy was a high-caliber competitor in her other sports, qualifying for state in cross country and track. But those aren't the most high-contact sports in the world.
"I thought she was just teasing us about it at first," Michelle said. "But then she signed up, and I thought, 'Hmmm, I think this is the real thing.' I've heard about girls trying something like this but not sticking with it.
"But she does love challenges. She's a straight-A student, and anything she's tried, she's been successful. She just has a very strong drive, doing what she wants to do.
"She's also very independent; she doesn't care what other people think. That's not real common with high school girls."
Rochester sophomore Andy Owens, who competes at 112 pounds and also runs cross country with Murphy, said she doesn't try to take advantage of her distinction as a female varsity wrestler.
"She always wants to be treated the same, to just go out there and wrestle in her match just like everybody else," Owens said. "She takes it very seriously, and she goes out there to win. She's just as competitive in wrestling as she is in cross country."
Michelle Murphy says she and her husband got their first indication of their daughter's commitment to wrestling almost one year ago. They were in Michigan visiting relatives during the holidays when Alewelt contacted Leann on the phone.
"He called her and said, 'Can you be here tomorrow?' He hadn't told her about this junior varsity tournament over at Quincy Notre Dame. Well, we drove all the way back home so she could be at the school the next morning to take the bus (to Quincy).
"We didn't go over to Quincy; we were pretty tired from the driving. But she ended up winning her (103) division in the tournament. She was pretty pumped when she got home that night."
Leann Murphy doesn't plan on continuing her wrestling career after high school; she's fairly sure cross country and track will occupy her time in college. But the rest of her high school winters will be spent in the classroom and the wrestling room.
Does she have any specific wrestling goals this season and next?
"I never try to put anything out of my reach," Leann said. "Whatever I see and I want, I try to go after it. I never tell myself, 'I can't be something,' or 'I can't do something.' I'm happy to be where I'm at right now; I just hope to continue and get better."
Alewelt, who was among those who had his doubts at the outset, said Leann's ascension to the varsity level has been a source of inspiration - for the coach as well as the team.
"She's really into it," Alewelt said. "I can show her a certain move, and she'll be like an assistant coach after that. She goes around the room and helps the other guys with the same move.
"It almost gets me choked up thinking about how hard she works and what she means to this team."
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Wrestling takes hold in Friendswood
By Joey Richards
Published December 18, 2005
http://galvestondailynews.com
Copyright © 2005 The Galveston County Daily News
FRIENDSWOOD — Girls are supposed to be sweet, pretty and demure. Amanda Gaeckler can play that role. She also can be one tough cookie.
Guess which role gets her more attention?
The 16-year-old Friendswood junior is one of 33 athletes on the Friendswood wrestling team.
“I get noticed more now than I used to,” Gaeckler said. “I can be a girly girl at school. And then when I get on the mat, I can be tough.”
This is Friendswood’s fourth year to field a wrestling team. It started out as a club sport, and it became a University Interscholastic League sport three years ago.
Wrestling is something of a foreign sport to Texans. It’s popular in the Northeast and Midwest.
But it’s gaining popularity in Texas. It caught on in the Dallas area, which has a large influx of folks from the Northeast (i.e. Yankees). Now, it’s a statewide phenomenon.
Friendswood is one of approximately 220 wrestling teams in the UIL. They all compete in the same class.
“It’s the fastest growing high school sport in Texas,” Friendswood coach William Baker said. “It’s really exciting. The competitions are getting really big. Houston’s starting to rival Dallas.”
There are about 40 teams in the Houston area, including the Katy, Klein and Cy-Fair school districts. Even Class 3A Barbers Hill has a team.
Brazoswood is also a team, and La Marque is even starting to field a team. The Cougars will begin competing in January.
Baker believes Clear Lake will field a team next year. He’d like to see more teams in the area.
“I want to see all these schools get teams — Texas City, Dickinson, Alvin and all the Clear Creek schools,” he said. “We could have our own district here. Brazoswood is in our district. They’re very good. They’re probably a step ahead of us. They have a good club, good coaching and tough kids.”
Baker has a passion for the sport. He grew up around the sport in Allentown, Pa., and started wrestling at age 7. He moved to Friendswood after attending college at Slippery Rock. Baker did some teaching at Central Middle School in Galveston and even tried to persuade the Galveston Independent School district to start a wrestling program, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
However, he landed the Friendswood job after its founder, Luke Dahlberg, moved to Austin after last season.
Still, Baker finds himself battling some misconceptions about the sport. No, it’s not like the professional wrestling you see on TV. It’s not like ultimate fighting, either. It’s folk-style wrestling, an offshoot of one the world’s oldest sports (wrestling got its start at the Olympics in 708 B.C.).
And Baker believes it’s a beautiful sport.
“It’s a lot about technique,” he said. “There’s no showmanship or phoniness to it. It’s competition in the purest sense. It’s a tough sport, but it’s a clean and dignified sport.”
Baker not only has to make a hard sell to youngsters, but coaches, too — especially football coaches.
“I know there’s always a little apprehension with the football people,” he said. “There’re kids that don’t want to lose weight. I have to get them to understand that we’re not encouraging kids to lose weight. We’re just trying to get them in the best shape possible.”
In fact, Baker believes wrestling is a great off-season sport for football players.
“It compliments football,” he said. “We’ll develop their quickness, strength, balance and flexibility, and it just makes them tougher, too.”
That’s why 15-year-old Cory Hart, a sophomore, joined the Mustang wrestling team this year. He believes it’ll make him a better football and baseball player.
“I’ve heard it makes you a lot faster and agile,” he said. “I wanted to try it out and see how it was.”
Nick Warren, a 16-year-old junior, has been on the team for three years now. He believes the sport is even tougher than football.
“It’s the toughest sport out there compared to football, basketball and all that,” he said. “You get in the best shape, and it’s fun.”
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Girls Can Be Tough, Too
It’s a tough, manly sport for the guys. But the girls are drawn to the sport for the same reasons. There aren’t many sports out there that encourage a girl to put aside the girly-girl stuff and get rough and tumble. Even the girls in basketball, volleyball and soccer sometimes wear ribbons in their hair during competition. Not these girls.
“This is not a girly sport,” said 15-year-old Bridget Burton, a second-year wrestler. “One girl I wrestled from Brazoswood, she was the most ungirly girl I’ve ever wrestled. She was grunting and yelling the whole time. She was a good wrestler. You’ve got to be tough in this sport.”
That’s what drew the sophomore to the sport. She wanted to do something different, something not so girly-girl.
“I like the challenge,” she said. “It’s not what many girls do. I can say I’m a wrestler. Many girls do cheerleading or dance. I do wrestling.”
Baker, who wasn’t used to girls wrestling until he got this job, has found the girls to be great students of the sport.
“The girls are so enamored by this,” he said. “They can’t believe there’s a sport where they can do this. They really listen, pay attention at practice and work hard. They want to win, and they want to wrestle well.”
It’s the girls, not the guys, who have made their mark in the Friendswood wrestling program, too.
Tiffany Sanders, who graduated in May, is the only Friendswood athlete to advance to state. She did it as a junior and senior, during the first two years it was a UIL sport. She even won a bronze medal at state last year.
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Wrestling: Where the boys and girls are
Saturday, December 17, 2005
By PAT BAHR
The Daily Sentinel
Candace Workman and Alexis Trujillo are two of the most ferocious 103-pound wrestlers around, but the big difference is that they are girls in a high school sport dominated by boys.
Workman, from Uintah High School in Vernal, Utah, is a two- time girls national champion. The ninth-grader came up short at the Warrior Classic on Friday, losing her consolation match to Nucla’s Ty Sickles, 6-0.
“Candace is a hard worker,” Unitah coach Gregg Stensgard said. “Most coaches would be a very happy person if they had a wrestler that is as hard a worker and is as committed as she is.”
Workman is realizing how much stronger the opponents are at the high school level, but that has not stopped her from posting a 7-5 varsity record.
“I think I have really good technique,” Workman said. “But I also lift a lot to try and keep up with the boys.”
Workman does have good technique and lifts but the one thing that cannot be taught is her toughness. She broke her finger during last year’s wrestling season and still won a junior high state championship in her weight class.
“She gets bloodied up, she gets her face scratched up,” Stensgard said. “Last week she had two black eyes and a rug burn on her face and it was no big deal for her.”
Getting on the mat is only half the battle for Workman. She has seen some negativity from her opponents.
“She’s run into some ignorance,” Stensgard said. “Some people have cheered against her because she is a girl, but that is from not knowing her. Anyone who knows her would be proud to have her represent them.”
Workman has big plans for her future. She plans to wrestle in college and also wrestle for the women’s national team in the Olympics.
“She has already won two national championship and there is no reason why she can’t wrestle for the national team,” Stensgard said.
Trujillo, of Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, is a senior this year. She lost her consolation match to Moffat County’s Craig Gearhart 10-8.
Her brothers got her into wrestling at age 7.
She wrestled in junior high school, and when it came to wrestling in high school, Rocky Mountain head coach Ken Taylor welcomed her with open arms.
“I knew she was a good competitor,” Taylor said. “When she came to wrestle at Rocky, we were glad to have her.”
Trujillo, like Workman, knows she has an uphill battle when it comes to matching strength with the other wrestlers, but that hasn’t stopped her.
Trujillo also is well liked by her teammates, but has run into the same barriers Workman has.
“Some kids don’t want to wrestle her because she is a girl,” Taylor said. “But as for the guys on team, to them she is just like one of the guys. They respect her, they are all behind her and every guy on our team would go to bat for her in a second.”
Trujillo’s goals are very similar to every other wrestler.
“I want to wrestle in the state tournament this year, but later on I want to try out for the women’s national team, ” she said.
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Don't tune out this game, guys
By TED MILLER 12/17/05
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Here's an eyebrow raiser: This week the P-I noted that Whitney Condor is back for her senior season at Puyallup. Who's that? She took sixth in 4A state last year. In wrestling. Against boys.
That gets a Holy Cow, but apparently girls wrestling successfully in high school isn't terribly uncommon. Washington is one of at least eight states where a prep girl wrestler has placed in the sport against boys, including a pair in Alaska and Maine who finished second.
How can you not respect that?
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For the love of wrestling .
She's a one-of-a kind athlete
SHERRY VAN ARSDALL
Tribune Staff Writer 12/19/05
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CASSOPOLIS -- Ashley McCoy needed to convince her wrestling coach in seventh grade.
"Mr. (Glenn) Williams didn't believe in girls wrestling, but he gave me a chance and changed his mind," she said.
It was the fact there are some moves to certain areas of the body, like the breast area, that made him discourage girls from wrestling, Williams said.
"Ashley was very experienced and very good in take down," Williams said. "She's so flexible and boys had trouble getting out because of her moves."
So she's become kind of a celebrity in the six years since being a member of the wrestling team.
"Boys were embarrassed at getting beat by her until they became stronger over time," Williams said.
That hasn't discouraged the 17-year-old as she's in her last season as a senior at Ross Beatty Junior-Senior High School in Cassopolis.
She began wrestling at the age of 4 when her father, David McCoy, piqued her interest in the sport.
"My dad was the coach for the freestyle wrestling club," she said. "I fell in love with the sport, and I've grew up with it."
Her experience in the lower weight class led Ashley to establish a record for the Lakeland Conference/Blossomland in tenth grade.
"She was the first and only girl to place in the conference," Williams said. "She medaled at the meet and placed third."
And she said she doesn't feel set apart by being the only female on the team.
"I have gained a lot of respect from people because I don't go out just to show people I can do it like most girls do," Ashley said. "I go out for the fun of it."
Wrestling isn't the only sport the senior has been involved in during school.
She has participated in softball and cheerleading.
The three sports are spread out, so she can take part in each one and still concentrate on her homework.
"It's hard to keep up," Ashley said. "I try to get my homework done before anything else."
That's the type of dedication that Williams respects as a coach and a teacher.
"She's a straight-A student and never takes anything for granted. She does her best and her best is A work," said Williams, who's been a teacher for 34 years at the high school.
He said the senior has gained respect from her fellow students.
"The student body trusts her abilities to be elected as a class officer," Williams said.
She's also been a member of the Spanish Club, Spanish Honor Society, National Honor Society and the Varsity Club.
She indicated mixed feelings with just one semester left before graduation and the wrestling season nearing its conclusion.
"This will be the last time I'll probably ever wrestle," Ashley said. "I like being just a member of the team, too. We all work together and get along. I like how they treat me and give me respect."
She's looking forward to graduation and new challenges in the future.
In the meantime, she'll concentrate on academics, hanging out with her friends and spending time with family.
"She really knows how to manage her time and still be a typical teenager, too," her coach said.
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