Opponents do not go easy on Ashley Griffin, left, just because of her gender. They can’t because she has proven capable of beating them.
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Cheerleader's major decision Senior Griffin pins down a dream, joins Knights wrestling team
Chip Knighton, Sports Writer 01/17/2006
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Opponents do not go easy on Ashley Griffin, left, just because of her gender. They can’t because she has proven capable of beating them. |
Central District 103-pound wrestlers might notice something familiar about the Thomas Dale opponent staring at them from across the mat.
She looks strangely similar to one of the cheerleaders they've seen when their school's football team takes on the Knights.
All of that recognition becomes less important when they find themselves pinned by that same cheerleader.
Thomas Dale senior Ashley Griffin, a fixture on the sidelines at Knights athletic events, is now entering the fray on the Dale wrestling team.
"I've been wanting to do it since I was a freshman," she said. "I just thought that this was my senior year, so I should go ahead and try it - last chance, so to say."
Griffin is one of two girls on the Thomas Dale team, joining fellow cheerleader Kiersten Jensen, who wrestles at 125 for the Knights' junior varsity. She has compiled a record of 8-12 on the mat. Griffin was inspired to join the Thomas Dale team by the loss of a family friend - former Knights standout Isaac Dommert, who was killed in a car accident on July 2, 2005. Dommert's younger brother, Chris, wrestles for the Knights at 125 pounds.
"Isaac Dommert used to come over to my house," Griffin said. "We'd mess around and practice and stuff. He's the one that always told me I should get into it. He was in a car accident not too long ago, so I thought that I should do it for him."
Because Griffin is new to the sport, she often finds herself down early in matches, but is adept at coming back and pinning opponents or winning decisions. Her performance on the mat and winning attitude have led her teammates to view her as a teammate rather than an impostor in a male-dominated sport.
"I think we all kind of questioned whether they were for real or not, both of them being cheerleaders," Thomas Dale coach Chris Persing said. "They've come out with the attitude to be good at wrestling, not just to prove that we can be girls and wrestle with boys."
Griffin's teammates also see her as an equal on the mat.
"She's not a girl, she's a teammate," Knights 140-pound wrestler Jonathan Pipkin said.
That's not to say that Griffin's experience in the sport is exactly the same as that of her male teammates. She stays out of boys' locker rooms and usually dresses alone in a girls' bathroom.
"Every time we go to a match, they go into the locker room and I just wait out here," she said. "I usually have to change in the girls' bathroom because they usually don't have girls' locker rooms open. I have to wait for all of them to weigh in and get skin checks before I do. I have to go in completely different areas than they are. I used to just follow wherever they went. Now I hesitate and tell myself, 'Can't go there!'"
While Griffin's teammates accept her as an equal, her opponents sometimes have different reactions. Some are motivated by the new opposition, while others are distracted by her gender.
"Being a predominantly boys sport, you're on the other end and you're a boy and know that there's a chance of losing to a girl," Persing said. "There's definitely a fear there. I think a lot of boys don't want to wrestle her because they know there's a chance of losing."
Griffin has been improving in recent weeks, ringing up a 2-1 record in Central District competition with wins against Dinwiddie and Colonial Heights and a loss against Petersburg. Last weekend, she was unbeaten at the Midlothian quad meet with wins against Midlothian and Douglas Freeman and a forfeit win over Meadowbrook.
She has also faced competition from her Dale teammates. She beat four male wrestlers to win the spot at 103 and has defeated every challenger for her spot. As one of a small but growing number of wrestlers in the Central Region, Griffin knows she is a role model for younger girls and is determined to make the most of her one year of wrestling.
"Other girls have come up to me and said that they would like to [wrestle] and now that other girls have, they should come up and try it," she said.
* Chip Knighton may be reached at 722-5169.
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Clyde's Garcia relies on smarts to beat her opponents
Port Clinton News Herald Port Clinton 1/13/06
It is said that wrestling is the toughest high school sport of all and that the six minutes spent on the mat during a match can seem like an eternity, especially if you're the one taking a beating. The season is long and grueling and wrestlers spend it getting into top physical shape. It's a sport where testosterone abounds.
That is why it is so amazing and alarming to some wrestlers to see Nena Garcia on the wrestling mat. Garcia is not only in the National Honor Society with a 3.952 GPA and senior class president. She's also homecoming queen.
Garcia, who started wrestling when she was 4-years-old, is also a two-time defending girls' state wrestling champion, having won state titles her sophomore year at 123 pounds and her junior year at 126. She'll wrestle for her third state title March 11, at the U.S.G.W.A. Ohio Girls State Championships in Mount Vernon. Garcia, ranked 10th in the nation among women wrestlers, has also been offered a scholarship to wrestle at the University of the Cumberlands, -- the top women's wrestling school in the nation -- but has not yet signed. It is her goal to wrestle for the United States at the 2008 Olympics.
"Nena has great technique, but the guys are afraid to wrestle a girl," said Clyde coach Matt Merrill. "They don't want to wrestle a girl. They try extra hard to squeeze her to death and end the match quick. They're afraid that something is going to happen and they are going to lose so they try extra hard. Some of these boys are getting their butts kicked by a homecoming queen. They try to muscle her and that's been our biggest problem. They can flat-out outmuscle her and there is nothing that we can do about it so we have to try to outsmart them.
"Nena comes in every day and works out and never complains. She does what we tell her to do, what everybody else does. You can't ask for much more than that. You know that she's tough because she gets her butt kicked all the time inside the practice room and outside of the practice room. But it's all going to pay off someday when she starts wrestling girls. She is treated exactly like one of the team. She's one of the guys and they treat her like one of the guys. She's been around four years now and she's starting to open up more. She used to never talk but she's opening up more.
"We let the other schools know ahead of time that we have a female in the lineup and everything is taken care of. Nena's so used to dressing in restrooms and places like that, that it's old habit. They make accommodations. She either weighs in first or last and they'll have a female weigh her in.
"Nena as well as the other kids in the wrestling room have the benefit of wrestling against some of the best wrestlers in the state every day. She has been facing top competition for four years now right in her own wrestling room and they are making her better. Nena is definitely stronger this year. She had to cut weight to make 119 this year. Nena has definitely realized that she can outsmart an opponent even if she can't outmuscle them and that's gotten her some wins. The guys she wrestles are either overly aggressive or almost timid and don't want to touch her and she uses that to her advantage.
"Nena's had to step up and wrestle varsity this year and that's a big difference from wrestling JV. Even for a boy it's a big step from wrestling JV to wrestling varsity. The kids are more physical, they're stronger and they know their moves better. It's a huge step to make but she's done it."
Garcia agrees with her coach. "It's completely different at the varsity level. Last year at the JV level I just kept getting better and better and I had a winning record, but stepping up to varsity is like starting all over again. Now I'm the smallest and weakest out of all the guys because they are so much better at this level.
Garcia, the only girl in Clyde history to win a varsity wrestling match, sports a 5-9 record this year at the varsity level after missing some time with an injury, but she still holds academics first.
"My parents have always raised us that school was first and whatever else was second," Garcia said. "Anything can happen with sports that you have no control over but you can always fall back on your academics and that they are what will really get you far in life.
"Being able to wrestle for Clyde with all of the great wrestlers that they've had, has made me a better wrestler. They are also very supportive here and that's not always the case elsewhere. Some girls have to struggle everyday just to fit in. So I get both the support and the great competition in practice and that makes me better. Sometimes anymore I don't even feel like I'm a girl out there wrestling. I've just grown up with the program and anymore I don't even realize that I'm different. We're all just wrestlers on the team.
"I don't try to tie up with guy wrestlers nor do I try to muscle them. I try to take mostly outside shots that makes us both equal. It's expanded my game. Against girls I try to start off with double legs because it wears them out and a blast double hurts and it helps take the fight out of them and then it opens them up outside too."
After high school, women's wrestling is freestyle. It's something new to Garcia but at the same time, something she's taken to well.
"I just started wrestling freestyle this past summer as a member of Team Ohio and wrestled at the Junior Nationals at Fargo, N.D., where I earned All-American in the tournament and went 2-2, losing to a national champion. Then I went 2-2 in the National Duals Tournament, where I lost to another national champion and a girl that finished fourth at the world team trials, which isn't too bad for my first try at freestyle wrestling."
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Historic victory for Spartan wrestlers
Hogan beats Vallejo for first time since '86
By J.P. HOORNSTRA, Times-Herald sports writer 1/18/06
Jessica Ortiz delivered a lightning-quick pin, Ric Manibusan exhaled a long-awaited sigh of relief and Mike Minahen swallowed the inevitable reality: The Hogan High wrestling team, for the first time since 1986, had beaten Vallejo.
"I've never beaten coach Minahen," Manibusan said minutes after Quincy Nesmith won the night's final match to provide the 44-19 final score. "It's been a goal of mine. I can't express how I feel right now."
On a night when most of America had its attention turned toward the Rose Bowl, the blue portion of Grove Gym seemed entirely focused on the end of its own streak, joining the Hogan wrestlers on the mat for a jumping, screaming celebration.
The clinching victory belonged to the senior Ortiz, a girls' All-American as a junior and the first-string 112-pounder for the Hogan boys. She was a few inches shorter but more muscular than her Vallejo opponent, sophomore Brandon Boggs, who was taken down 13 seconds into the match and pinned in 62 seconds.
Ortiz, who wasn't even born when the Spartans last beat the Apaches, was well aware of the streak.
"Every year, we should have beaten Vallejo," she said. "But this is definitely the year to do it. We have a really good team."
Minahen was a first-year assistant in 1986, and was surprised that it's taken this long for the Apaches to lose again.
"Almost half the time, I thought they were better than us," he said. "This is not a shock by any stretch of the imagination. We kinda knew coming into tonight that this was about going to be the outcome."
Hogan's Justin Azarias won the first match of the evening, a pin in 1:57 against Adam Fuentes. In a matchup of two of the section's best 135-pounders, Vallejo's Ronnie Tsutsui Jr. held off Stuart Yocum on points, 7-4.
At 145 pounds, Ray Hoover took a close match for Hogan over Devin Fernandez, 9-7, before Vallejo's Robert Hansen battled Damian Neves to a 13-7 win. Steve Swaby, fresh off a sixth-place finish at the five-state Sierra Nevada Classic, then grabbed a strong 8-1 win over Nico Sanchez at 152 pounds to tie the match at 9-9.
Over the next two matches, J.R. Bayongan won on points, and Josh Adkins on a pin, to put Vallejo up 19-9. But the Apaches would not win another match all night. Derek Young (189 pounds) notched a 6-4 win over Virgil Narvaza and heavyweight Aaron Stevenson pulled off a last-second pin to beat Marc Ramirez.
Marvin Mora's technical-fall win at 103 pounds put Hogan up 29-19 and put Ortiz in position to clinch.
"Every time I expect to win, coach Minahen has something up his sleeve," Manibusan said. "These guys all did their individual job, keeping their game plan ... team-wise, it is the best team I've had."
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Terra Nova Lady Tiger wrestlers back in action on the mats
1/18/06
The Terra Nova Lady Tiger wrestlers capped off a busy December by finishing third at the Lady Lancer Tournament held at East Union High School in Manteca on Dec. 30.
The Lady Tigers began their tournament season on Dec. 2, finishing first in the Peninsula Invitational Tournament held on their home mats at Terra Nova High School. The team consists of Seniors Ivy Bier, Lisa Szczepaniak, and Jenny Watt; Junior Marina Piccolotti; Sophomores Rebecca Kaplan and Jamie Marchetti; and Freshman Monica Kirkpatrick. Szczepaniak (132), Bier (138) and Piccolotti (146) each took top honors in their weight class. Jenny Watt and Rebecca Kaplan finished second and third in the 126-pound weight class. Marchetti (103) and Kirkpatrick (156) each placed third.
The following weekend the team traveled to San Leandro to wrestle in the Roger Briones Girls Wrestling Invitational. Lisa Szczepaniak (132), Ivy Bier (138) and Marina Piccolotti (146) each placed second. Jamie Marchetti (103) and Monica Kirkpatrick (156) finished fourth. As a team the Lady Tigers finished fourth out of over 30 schools.
On Dec. 17, the Lady Tigers sent a small team to the Castro Valley H.S. Girls Wrestling Classic. Ivy Bier finished first, Jamie Marchetti finished third and Monica Kirkpatrick finished fourth.
The Lady Tigers finished off the month at the Lady Lancer Tournament in Manteca. Lisa Szczepaniak (126), Jenny Watt (126) and Marina Piccolotti (146) each placed second. Jamie Marchetti (103), Rebecca Kaplan (126), and Monica Kirkpatrick (156) each placed third. Terra Nova placed third out of 26 schools.
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SportsDay wrestler of the week: Vanessa Epps
11:39 PM CST on Sunday, January 15, 2006
By TODD WILLS / The Dallas Morning News
What she did: Epps, a junior, went 4-0 with four first-period pins to win the 138-pound division at the Houston Lee Tournament.
Vanessa Epps |
The stats: Epps is 28-0 with 24 pins. She has won four matches by forfeit, so none of her matches have gone the distance.
Who is she? Epps, a member of SportsDay's 2004-05 All-Area team, was 40-3 last season and runner-up in the 138-pound class at the UIL state tournament.
She said it: "Basically, I'm trying to prove myself to some people. I still don't get a lot of respect as a wrestler because I like the headlock. I'm someone you need to watch out for instead of 'that girl with the headlock.' "
Coach said it: "She's so much better than she was last year, it's unbelievable. The biggest thing is her leadership has taken off. ... When she gets in the room, she's going to joke around and have fun, but when it's time to work, she works. When she walks in the room, she's the leader." – Frisco coach Chuck Brown
Did you know? Epps' boyfriend, Vlad Cirmati, isn't exactly thrilled with her choice of sports. "He doesn't think girls should wrestle," she said. "He's typically worried, and I like pushing his buttons."
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Seventh-grader proves girls can be wrestlers too
By MARY MARAGHY, Clay County Line 1/17/06
A few Christmases ago, while fetching mistletoe from a tree, Danielle Kitchens of Green Cove Springs fell and broke both her wrists
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She never shed a tear, said her father Daniel Kitchens about his only child, who he says has a high tolerance for pain.
"She was joking and making a hissing sound because her one broken arm looked like a snake," he said.
Today, the scrappy, lanky blonde-haired seventh-grader is demonstrating her physical and mental toughness in the wrestling ring as the only girl on Green Cove Springs' Junior High School wrestling team.
Before practice recently, Danielle said wrestling is now one of her favorite sports.
"I like it a lot," she said shyly, chewing a lollipop stick. "They were amazed that I made the team."
A newcomer to the sport, competing in the 95-pound weight class, Danielle recently pinned her opponent at Lakeside Junior High School in two minutes, 35 seconds, said coach Rick Wetherill, who said he's impressed with his new recruit, especially her work ethic at practice.
"She's just getting started," he said. "She's a studette. She's competitive and it's refreshing."
She's the only girl in Florida competing against boys this year on the junior high school circuit, according to the Florida High School Athletic Association. Seminole and Orange counties have had all-female wrestling teams for about eight years now, said Paul McLaughlin, FHSAA director of athletics/wrestling administrator. However, female wrestling is not sanctioned by FHSAA.
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Meanwhile, Clay County schools have traditionally had male-only teams. No rules prohibit girls from trying out, however.
"If they want to wrestle, the school has to let them," McLaughlin said.
Bill Tillo, wrestling coach at Orange Park Junior High School, said it's rare to have female wrestlers. He saw Danielle in action recently when Orange Park defeated Green Cove Springs.
"You have to be a real special person to do it," he said. "She's tough. She gave one of our boys a tough time."
At practice recently, Danielle was focused and quietly kept up with her 40 some teammates as they did dozens of push ups, stretching and strength exercises. While practicing take-down techniques, Danielle scooped up teammate Junior Davis and dumped him on the mat with a splat.
Davis blushed when a teammate pointed to him during the drill.
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"You got beat up by a girl," the teammate said.
Another teammate, Martin Dixon said he's not ashamed to admit Danielle is good.
"Most of the time she beats me," he said.
Another team member, Christian Yelton, said Danielle is the team's secret weapon.
"It's better to have a girl on the team because it intimidates the other team," he said. "They think she can't wrestle and then she beats them."
The team has accepted the quiet, even-tempered Danielle as one of the fellows, said assistant coach Josh Matthews. However, her gender does seem to fluster her opponents, he said.
"It unnerves them," Matthews said. "They are like, 'Please God don't let me lose to a girl.' "
One male opponent from The Bolles School refused to wrestle her, Matthews said. Danielle was credited with a win.
"I admire her. I wouldn't do it," said team manager, student Brooke Baudendistel, who said Danielle puts Vicks vapor rub under her nose before she competes to offset smelly armpits in the ring. "She's a lot stronger than I thought."
Danielle played junior varsity volleyball at Green Cove Springs Junior High this fall. Though new to the game, she developed a consistent, effective jump serve with a signature kick at the end, said coach Dawn Smith, who awarded Danielle the Cougar Award for her work ethic, attitude, "coachability" and teamwork.
"She's just got a great personality. She could care less about who is watching her. She has no limitations," Smith said.
When volleyball ended, Danielle wanted to pursue another sport to keep her in shape for track, her true passion. Basketball didn't interest her. So Smith suggested she try wrestling.
"She's a tiny little thing. She's awesome," Smith said. "She pinned a kid last week."
Danielle's father said he really didn't want his daughter out on the mats but said he lets her do what she wants if she keeps up her grades.
"As long as she brings homes A's and B's and keeps perfect attendance," he said admitting that he's enjoyed watching the matches. "I just hope the other teams don't get mad because there's a girl on the team. I know I'm her daddy, and I might be bragging, but she's amazing. She doesn't win every match, but she has a blast doing it. And if she doesn't win, it doesn't bother her. I get tickled at the boys who cry when they lose."
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Liz Yori relishing rare chance;
ERNIE CLARK. Bangor Daily News. Bangor, Me.: Dec 16, 2005
Wrestling provides its competitors a unique challenge, not because the
combatants love their sport more than other athletes, but because of
the specific challenge they face, and the no-hiding arena in which they
compete.
Liz Yori ascribes to that belief, and clearly has a passion for the
sport.
"Wrestling is one sport that really challenges you individually," she
said, "because when you're wrestling you're out there all by yourself, and
not only are you alone, but everybody's watching you."
Yori knows because she wrestled for Mount View High in Thorndike in
1997 and 1998, shortly after girls were first allowed to participate in the
sport in Maine.
"Before that I played basketball, but I got in a lot of foul trouble,"
she said.
These days, she fulfills her wrestling passion from a different
perspective - as the interim varsity wrestling coach at her alma mater.
Yori is believed to be the first woman ever to be a high school
wrestling head coach in Maine, yet she doesn't get bogged down in trailblazer
talk.
"As soon as I started wrestling, I fell in love with it," she said,
"and after I graduated I just thought I might want to get back into it at
some point."
Yori doesn't come to her current job without experience. She moved back
to central Maine after graduating from Saint Joseph's College of Standish
in 2002 and became a volunteer coach at Mount View Junior High. A year
later she was the junior high assistant coach, and she moved up to head coach
last winter.
Yori planned to resume those duties again this year and help out at the
high school until recently, when head coach Hamilton Richards' Air National
Guard unit was activated. Richards' unit is likely to be deployed in early
2006 for up to 18 months, so given that uncertainty Yori was named the
Mustangs' interim head coach.
"I was just interested in being an assistant coach at the high school,
for continuity purposes from the junior high and for some personal coaching
growth," she said. "Then Ham's unit got activated, and everything
changed."
Yori and Richards currently both work with the varsity squad. "I defer
to him, he's been with the team for more than a decade," said Yori, an
educational technician with the special education program at Mount View
High.
Yori describes herself as a hands-on coach, willing to mix it up with
her wrestlers to help them learn and refine their moves. She admits
coaching at the high school level is different than at the junior high, in part
because the older wrestlers use techniques she hasn't had to learn or teach
since her own grappling days.
"I'm sort of learning on my feet," said Yori, whose team has its first
home meet at 10 a.m. Saturday against Skowhegan and Mount Ararat of Topsham.
The fact she coached most of the high school wrestlers in junior high
has helped. That group is led by senior co-captains Walter Harding at 189
pounds and Thom Yori - Liz's brother - at 160. Two girls also dot the
11-wrestler roster.
"I'm looking for a lot of individual growth from all the wrestlers this
year," said Yori.
Once Richards returns from his military obligations, Yori hopes to
remain on the high school staff as well as continue coaching at the junior high.
It's all about fulfilling a passion.
"I just love it," she said. "I loved wrestling, and I love coaching it.
Wrestling's one of those things that if you love it, you love it, and
if you don't love it, you're just not there."