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Sabres collect third straight 3A team title
Female grapplers garner two medals
Times Advertiser Staff
Monday March 27, 2006
Three-for-three on the grappling mats.
That bragging right belongs to three female wrestlers with the WCHS Sabres program following the ASAA provincial wrestling championships.
Hosted by WCHS for the second time in the past five years, coach Mike Spinney applauded the effort of his rookie males and veteran females during the two-day competition.
“Our guys were unlucky,” said Spinney, acknowledging injuries hurt his 10th graders on the mat.
“Our guys are young, so the future looks good as they go into Grade 11. I hope the experience of provincials inspires them.”
Spinney had no doubts that Melissa Reynolds, Kendra Shortt and Dylan Kennedy would prevail, collecting 17 points to the seven earned by one Olds grappler, Danielle Lappage, who earned silver after losing to Bishop Carroll’s Cassidy Freeman.
“The girls did very well,” said Spinney, noting he was missing Emily Chambers, out recovering from shoulder surgery.
“Dylan really improved with her fifth, considering she hasn’t really trained in two months.
“Kendra has lots of talent. She hasn’t had a lot of time to train either with her knee and that hurts. She got caught a few times.”
Kennedy finished fifth in the 65-kg class won by High Level’s Melissa Morris.
Shortt defeated Lethbridge’s Esther Bishop to claim gold in the 57-kg class. Gold went to Bishop Carroll’s Cassidy Freeman.
The lone gold for WCHS went to Reynolds, who bested Western Canada’s Kim Gould.
“Melissa was never really challenged, which is good, because she’s been hurting,” said Spinney.
In fact, Reynolds has ignored the pain in her ribs she initially injured last February. There was no real break for her as she trained and wrestled last summer while preparing for a trip to South America.
Spinney said he plans to take Reynolds and Shortt to the juvenile nationals being held in Edmonton.
And with Chambers back and additional grapplers coming out of Griffiths-Scott’s junior high program, Spinney said there’s a good chance his girls can tie the boys with four 3A team wrestling titles.
“It looks good for four (in 2007). This is the first time a girls team has won three in a row. Highwood has won three, but not in a row. The girls can make history with four in a row.”
Spinney only had three of his four rookie wrestlers at provincials, with 59-kg competitor Tommy Whitebear missing his weigh-in.
“Tommy would have done well. With experience, he’s grown with the sport.”
Jesse Burghardt came closest to earning a medal in his rookie campaign. He lost bronze in the 82-kg class to McNally’s Noah Olsen.
John Neufeld, in the 56-kg class, and Landon Looy, a 65-kg wrestler, both missed the medal round.
“It was a learning experience for the guys,” said Spinney. “Once you make more of a commitment to the wrestling program, you’ll get much better.”
Neufeld hurt his shoulder, while Looy had a disappointing first day of competition. Up on his opponent, he broke his collarbone -- again.
“He broke it the first time in our first competition and was off,” noted Spinney. “It’s a tough break, especially when he was doing well after starting his training again.”
Spinney sees his roster of male grapplers growing next year, and there’s a few more coming out of QE, but he’ll have to wait another three years.
“Our program has been in lull the past three years. We need to be in the junior highs recruiting,” he explained.
“It’s a different mindset getting kids to come out and wrestle.”
He points to the wrestling garb as one obstacle when it comes to guys joining his program.
“You have to start in the junior high schools if you want to help your (wrestling) program, and we’re just getting back in this (past) year.”
X-rated: Stephan Shkuratoff provided inspiration for all those who watched the Lord Beaverbrook grappler do battle with Keegan Oliver out of John G. Diefenbaker.
The 44-kg wrestler is blind, but did not let that hinder him in the gold medal bout with Oliver.
Up after the first round, Oliver had troubles with Shkuratoff in the second, just avoiding a pin. Oliver would eventually prevail, but knew he was in a match with his fellow Calgary opponent.
The 2006 high school wrestling provincials attracted 181 male wrestlers and 98 females.
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Area sports briefs; March 23, 2006
sports@TimesRecord.Com
03/23/2006
Kelly Golek competes in Mass. wrestling
TOPSHAM - Kelly Golek of Mt. Ararat High School and Harpswell recently competed in the United States Girls Wrestling Association Championship and took second.
Wrestling in the High School Division at 104 pounds, Golek lost to Jessica Bennett of Uncasville, Conn., 6-4 in the championship round.
Golek also decisioned Chiane Simmons of Appleton, Maine, 9-6 and pinned Brittany Schoolcraft of Marlborough, Mass,. in 1:59 in preliminary round action.
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Kathleen Costello
March 27, 2006
Wrestling mystifies me.
Not the sport: the practice.
I'm referring to the commonality of two boys - of any age - spontaneously tackling one another, grappling on the ground and taking turns pinning each other down.
This behavior is exhibited across cultures by brothers, friends, teammates, college roommates and even grown men. It occurs in living rooms, on porches and at family barbecues. The guys end up on their backs: bruised, disheveled and laughing. They find this to be great fun.
Why? I just can't comprehend it.
Girls don't do this, at least not by choice. They may have brothers or male friends who include them in their friendly skirmishes. But it is not a female instinct to randomly put someone in a half-nelson.
My 3ì-year-old twins have been wrestling each other for well over a year. They'll just be sitting side by side, playing with trains, when one boy suddenly grabs the other one around the middle and flattens him to the floor. This will incite a 10- to 15-minute round of friendly grabbing, thumping and rolling around, which ends when one son gets pinned under the other. That's when the squashed boy cries, wails and yells, "MOMMY! HELP ME!" I break it up, and an hour later the "hurt" child instigates the next tussling session.
Where do boys learn this?
My children have never witnessed this behavior: not at home, not at day care, not on television, not even at our family barbecues! So where does this instinct come from?
My first inclination is to blame testosterone. Maybe an elevated level of this hormone creates the need to roughhouse. Perhaps this urge is left over from the days when hunting-and-gathering Neanderthal men would wrestle wild boars to the ground. (Didn't that happen?)
Or maybe the innate urge to wrestle is in the same part of a boy's brain that prevents him, later in life, from asking for directions.
Whatever the source, I do think that wrestling provides a great way for boys to release stress, tension or pent-up frustration.
I wonder, though, why girls don't utilize this outlet. Do girls simply not have this innate urge to roughhouse, or does society discourage it from an early age? Studies have shown that girls are encouraged by adults (often unintentionally) to restrain their actions - much more than boys are.
I wonder whether we also unintentionally encourage more physical behavior by boys, simply by standing back, watching with amusement as they wrestle.
On Second Thought appears Mondays on the Twin Tiers Life page. Contact Kathleen Costello at 800/836-8970, ext. 287, or kcostello@stargazette.com.