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THE MAUI NEWS 2006 MIL WRESTLING ALL-STAR TEAM: Red Storm sweeps

By Stan Lee, Staff Writer 4/5/06

Lahainaluna High School wrestler Sheryl Manglaylay was a winner this season. It was her toughness, however, that made her stand out.

Manglaylay, who overcame a pair of knee injuries during a season that ended with a runner-up finish at the state tournament, has been picked by Maui Interscholastic League coaches as the girls wrestler of the year.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,’’ Manglaylay said of her return to the mat. “We all pushed each other and kept each other focused, to do better. They helped me a lot, especially with my injury.’’

Manglaylay tore the medial collateral ligament in her left knee in the Maui Invitational Tournament’s 120-pound championship match in December.

Manglaylay had Kaiser’s Ashley Poling on her back, with one leg hooked. Poling tried to turn herself, and in the process pushed in Manglaylay’s left knee. With 30 seconds left in the match and her knee twisted, Manglaylay still pulled out a 9-6 win.

“I had to keep her down and not let her score,’’ Manglaylay said. “I was like ’Oh my god, my knee.’ ’’

Manglaylay spent the next several weeks doing rehabilitation work to strengthen her knee.

“It’s hard to sit on the side and hard to come off an injury,’’ Manglaylay said. “But that’s what rehab is for, trying to work hard and come back.’’

The rehab paid off, but she injured her MCL again a week before the MIL tournament. Nevertheless, Manglaylay finished the season by winning her weight class at the MIL tournament and finishing second in the state.

“At the MIL and states, it (her knee) was 80 percent,’’ said Lahainaluna coach Todd Hayase. “She did her rehab with the trainer and stayed focused on what her goals were and she definitely did her very best at the state level.’’

Manglaylay is still doing rehab, with sights set on competing at a national meet this summer and in college during the fall. She’s also back on the mat, helping out in the local youth leagues that helped produce Lahainaluna’s state competitors.

Manglaylay hopes to build the type of team chemistry she enjoyed this year.

“This season, we were the closest throughout all my years,»»’’ Manglaylay said. “All the camaraderie we built up in the (wrestling) room is so unreal. I think we did good as a team. We were close in the beginning and as our season went on, we pushed each other and got closer.’’

Stan Lee can be reached at stanlee @mauinews.com

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Manchester raises another champion - Jackson wins national girls' wrestling title

By Marsha Johnson Chartrand, Editor

PUBLISHED: April 6, 2006

Off the wrestling mat, 11-year-old Nichole Jackson doesn't look much different than any other middle school girl.

But on the mat, her competitors better watch out.

A member of the Manchester Wrestling Club for five years, this young woman has earned a national championship, taking first place in the United States Girls Wrestling Association tournament held in Lake Orion last weekend.

With 651 female wrestlers representing 41 states participating in the tournament, Nichole's grandparents, Dave and Cheryl Bunn, said they were surprised at the number of girls wrestling, from the elementary, middle school, high school and college levels.

Nichole wrestled her way through the tournament, collecting four pins for a perfect record to earn her first-place medal and stand atop the podium.

Dawn Jackson, Nichole's mom, said that one of the hardest things she's ever done is stay and help to coordinate the Wrestling Club's annual home tournament while her parents took Nichole to Saturday's tournament events. Fortunately, however, she was there on Sunday to watch her daughter earn her championship.

Jackson thanks her parents for their support as well as former state champion James Tobias and all-state wrestler Cevin Walker for helping to coach Nichole to her victorious finish.

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Anderson twins two of four girls in Grand Haven wrestling program

Sunday, February 05, 2006
By Steve Kaminski
The Grand Rapids Press

Alyssa Anderson admitted her parents weren't all that excited to hear last year that she wanted to join the Grand Haven wrestling team.

Her twin sister, Sarah, sure thought it was a great idea, though.

The Buccaneers wrestling program features four female wrestlers this season, including the Anderson sisters, who are sophomores, and sophomore Cindy Kaffenberger and freshman Molly Boersma. The four are quickly changing the perceptions of female wrestlers in Grand Haven, from parents to competitors to coaches.
"It caught me by surprise," said Dan Anderson, the father of Alyssa and Sarah. "I was never a wrestler. I remember wrestling in seventh and eighth grade in (physical education class), but that was about it. It really came out of the blue when she said she wanted to wrestle.

"Both have been involved in athletics, playing soccer and softball. I went with her and observed a practice, and I saw the coaches work with them and I was very impressed. I was very impressed with the Grand Haven coaches."

Alyssa is dividing her time between wrestling the 103 and 112 weight classes. She has competed in approximately 10 varsity matches as well as junior varsity. Sarah Anderson, Kaffenberger and Boersma are wrestling on junior varsity.

All-girl tournament

Not only do the girls participate for their high school team, they recently competed in the United States Girls Wrestling Association's all-girl tournament in Manistee. Sarah Anderson won the 90-97 weight class while Alyssa Anderson and Boersma were second and third, respectively, in the 102-116 class. Kaffenberger was second at 125. The girls also are eyeing the USGWA National Championships set for April 1-2 at Lake Orion.

"I had a friend who is wrestling with the team and he would show me a lot of moves, and I wanted to join but I first had to convince my parents," Alyssa said. "But there was another girl on the team, so they let me join, and after a couple of weeks, they got used to it and they enjoy watching it."

Like Dan Anderson, Grand Haven coach James Richardson said he has changed his perception about girls wrestling, too.

"This is my 14th year here, and last year was the first year that I had a girl on the team, we had a senior," Richardson said.

"My perspective on girls wrestling has changed, without question. The young ladies work just as hard as the guys, and they are just as dependable. Sometimes we forget that we have females. We have 41 wrestlers. If you ask me, I don't think of them as girls, they are wrestlers.

"I always thought it was difficult when one of our boys had to wrestle a girl. But the girls on our team are tough and they work hard. They know how hard our girls work and they have immediate respect for our opponent because our teammates."

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Buc girls place in USGWA Tournament

Pictured L-R are Cindy Kaffenberger, Alyssa Anderson, Sarah Anderson, and Molly Boersma

Four girls from Grand Haven and two from Muskegon competed in the First Annual USGWA (United States Girls Wrestling Association) Western Michigan Championships Girls Wrestling Tournament. The Tournament took place on Sunday, January 29, 2006 in Manistee, Michigan.

Rayne Rivas, Muskegon, took first place in the Elementary School age 67 lb. weight class.

Sarah Anderson, Grand Haven, took first place in the High School age 97 lb. weight class. Shelby Stevens, Muskegon, took third place in the same weight class.

Alyssa Anderson, Grand Haven, took second place in the High School age 102 to 116 lb. weight class. Molly Boersma, Grand Haven, took third place in the same weight class.

Cindy Kaffenberger, Grand Haven, took second place in the High School age 125 lb. weight class.

Girls competing were from as close as Manistee, and from as far away as the Flint, Saginaw, and Detroit areas. The event was successful, a learning experience, and a lot of fun for the girls.

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Arctic Winter Games: More than just sports

Article published on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006
By DEREK CLARKSTON
Mirror Writer

A month has passed since the Arctic Winter Games, but the memories will last forever for two sophomores at Kodiak High School.

Jimmy Eggemeyer and Michelle Canete brought home medals from the 2006 winter games that were held on the Kenai Peninsula. However, it’s not the medals that made the trip unforgettable — it’s the people they met along the way.

“People get into the medal count and that’s the wrong thing,” Kodiak High School wrestling coach Pat Costello said. “It’s what did you do? Who did you meet? Did you enjoy the competition? If they did, it was worthwhile.”

The games brought athletes from North Alberta, Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Nunavut, Yamal-Nenets, Greenland, Nunavik Quebec and Saami together at one gigantic meeting ground.

“It wasn’t so much the wrestling, because there weren’t too many wrestlers,” Eggemeyer said. “Just the whole trip itself. I met a lot of new people — a lot from Canada.”

Canete echoed the same feelings about what made the trip worthwhile.

“Just the people,” Canete said. “Everybody, not just from my team. The people that were there made it fun. From the people that organized it to the people that were actually the athletes.”

She felt the games were made more enjoyable due to the bonding of the team.

“Our team just fused into one big family after the first day,” Canete said. “That made it even more fun.”

They also enjoyed watching the variety of sports that the Arcticgames offer, specifically curling and all of the Inuit games.

When Eggemeyer and Canete weren’t busy learning about curling or mingling with their Alberta bunkmates, they were dominating the mat.

Eggemeyer, wrestling in the 57 kilogram bracket, breezed through the competition beating Daniel Sanchez of Alberta; Brett Snider from Northwest Territories; Matthew Nester of Nunavut; and Kyle Karman from the Yukon all by 5-0 scores. This earned Eggemeyer the gold medal in the five-person bracket.

“It was fun,” Eggemeyer said. “This wasn’t my first time doing it. I had represented Team Alaska in other things. But this thing was new for me. I didn’t expect anything from it when I went down there. It was run like a mini-Olympics. It was actually a really good experience.”

An experience that almost slipped by, Eggemeyer had planned to compete in the high school sophomore nationals but opted to wrestle in the Arctic games. His choice paid off.

Winning isn’t something new for Eggemeyer. During his freshmen year he finished fourth in the state tournament in the 103-pound classification. This year he was runner-up in the 112- weight classification.

Canete knows how to win as well. She holds the school record for season and career wins for females. and finished second in this year’s state high school girls’ tournament.

During the team competition in the Arctic games she swept through her opponents, but stumbled in the individual portion losing to Alberta’s Michelle Babb 3-1, in her opening match.

Babb had lost to Canete the day before.

“I lost to the girl I had beat the day before,” Canete said. “So it was actually really terrible, because I knew I could beat her. When I fell down I wanted to get back up. But getting back up kind of went against me and that gave her points because I exposed my back.”

Canete bounced back taking down Nunavut’s Roxy Nanuraq and Northwest Territories’ Glenna Inglangasuk by scores of 5-0, to earn a silver medal.

“It was pretty honoring being there. I didn’t think the coach would choose me,” Canete said. “He was telling us that there were a great number of applications for the lower weight classes. I feel really honored to have gotten that position.”

Eggemeyer and Canete are hoping that memories continue to the 2008 Arctic Winter Games.