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By MATT WELLENS Journal Sports Writer 7/16/06
MARQUETTE — Besides the handful of girls in her weight class at youth tournaments, Taylor Gillis, 12, of Gladstone has always had to wrestle the boys.
“I started wrestling when I was four and I grew up around wrestling my whole life,” Gillis said. “It’s a lot of fun to wrestle the guys because it gives you more upper body strength.”
This week, the Gladstone middle school student who also acts as the high school wrestling team manager is immersing herself even deeper into the growing sport of women’s freestyle wrestling at the United States Olympic Education Center’s All-American camp in Marquette.
“I hope to learn just how to be a better freestyle wrestler because you don’t learn freestyle wrestling up here in the high schools,” Gillis said.
The open, instructional camp for girls 12 years of age and older began on Saturday and will run through July 21. Last week, the USOEC women’s freestyle wrestling program brought in 15 women for a recruiting camp.
“This week’s camp is a little bit smaller because we didn’t actually pull them in or call them,” USOEC women’s wrestling coach Shannyn Gillespie said. “Last week, we were actually looking to get people into our program.”
The small size will benefit the four girls attending this week’s camp as each girl will receive plenty of individual instruction from Gillespie, assistant women’s coach Tony DeAnda and USOEC wrestler Liz Short.
“I think the girls will get a lot out of it because they’ll be able to work one-on-one with us,” Gillespie said.
“But I’m looking to bring girls in from this region, this area and this town, specifically, to show wrestling is a viable sport to get into at a 12, 13 or 14-year-old age.”
Gillespie intends to change the format of the camp next year in order to open it up to everyone, he said. This is only the second year the USOEC has held the camp, since the USOEC women’s wrestling program began in 2004.
“The cost is prohibitive,” Gillespie said. “It’s $450 to be in this camp and right away, that scares a lot of people.”
To help cut the cost in half of the USA Wrestling-sanctioned camp, Gillespie is hoping to gain public grants or sponsorships, he said.
“The only way the sport is going to grow is through people coming to these instructional type of camps,” Gillespie said. “If we’re charging them an arm and a leg to get in here, it’s not going to be productive and help women’s wrestling grow.”
Two of the girls attending this week’s camp also participated in last week’s recruiting camp.
Whitney Conder, 18, of Washington and Erin Clodgo, 15, of Vermont are both using the camp as a way to train further for the coming Junior National Championships in Fargo, N.D.
“I’ve trained with Tony before, but I never trained with Shannyn,” Clodgo said. “There are a lot of different skills that I’ve learned. I’ve learned how to do a gut wrench, which I never did at all. I’ve also become better at leg laces.”
While Clodgo is hopeful that one day she’ll be a USOEC wrestler, Conder has already been invited to join the program in the fall.
“I’ve seen Tony and Shannyn at a lot of the tournaments and they have been talking to me about joining,” Conder said. “This week, I’m working on getting ready and losing a little bit of weight for the tournament.”
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Valley's Lee one win shy of American world team
Saturday, July 15, 2006
By Chris Allen/Sports editor
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COLORADO SPRINGS -- Missouri Valley College junior Stephany Lee keeps inching closer to her goal of being No. 1 in the U.S.
Two years ago, Lee -- a native of Honolulu, Hawaii -- reached the challenge tournament finals in the Olympic Team Trials at Indianapolis, only to be pinned by veteran Kristie Marano. Ultimately she was the second alternate behind Tocarra Montgomery, who represented Team USA in the Athens games, and Marano and went on claim the gold medal in the University Women's World Championships at Lodz, Poland.
After missing the 2005 meet with a knee injury, Lee was back at it last month in Colorado Springs -- having taken second place at the U.S. Senior Nationals -- but once more was halted by Marano, albeit in the final series of the meet to give her first alternate status at 72 kilograms.
Lee beat Lady Vikings freshman Lacey Novinska in the first round June 29 with a 7-0 technical fall in the first period and 6-0 decision in the second. Downing the Gator Wrestling Club's Ali Bernard, 5-1, 1-0, in the semifinals put Lee into the June 30 challenge tournament finals against the U.S. Army's Iris Smith.
Smith, the defending world champion, was stopped 65 seconds into the second period by Lee to set up the finals series clash with Marano. However, the top-ranked Marano, 27, an eight-time world team member, pinned Lee -- the current PanAmerica Games champion -- at the 1:03 mark of the second frame of their first match and took the second contest by the narrow scores of 2-0, 1-0 to return to the team for the first time since '03.
Lee wasn't the only Valley grappler with a strong showing. Sophomore Rachel Billerbeck of Pflugerville, Texas, won her first-round 63-kilogram bout by pinning Laura McDonald of the U.S. Air Force in 1:27, but then was stopped in 50 seconds by No. 3 Alaina Berube of the New York Athletic Club in the semifinals.
Billerbeck, ranked fourth in the latest poll of U.S. Senior women by TheMat.com, rebounded to halt Vanessa Oswalt of the Gators in 1:32 and take a 2-1, 2-0 decision over Vision Quest's Amberle Montgomery for third place.
The Lady Vikings' three other entries were unable to post a win. Novinska was knocked out of the meet the round after losing to Lee, pinned in 1:59 by the NYAC's Tabetha Golt. Freshman Samantha Schuman (51 kilograms) was on the short end of decisions against Joey Miller and Jessica Medina, both of the New York AC. And freshman Sara Hilliard (67 kg) was beaten 3-0, 4-0 by No. 4 Stefenie Shaw of the U.S. Olympic Education Center in her only match of the three-entry division.
Valley had four other wrestlers -- junior Clarissa Calibuso at 55 kilograms, senior Brooke Bogren and junior Erika Chew at 59, and freshman Michelle Hooker at 67 -- qualify for the trials, but not make the trip.
While the season is over for the Lady Vikings, Marano and the other U.S. team members head to the World Championships, set for Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 at Guangzhou, China.
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Young athletes attend ou wrestling camps
the OU Wrestling Technique and INtensive camps included ou wrestling coach jack spates
by Chris Hall July 13, 2006
More than 550 boys and girls are trying to pin one another this week at the OU Wrestling Technique and Intensive Camps.
OU wrestling coach Jack Spates said the purpose of the 10-day camp is to benefit young men and women by improving their wrestling skills and helping make their dreams come true.
“We have had kids from our camps go on to be state champions, NCAA champions and world and Olympic team members,” Spates said. “Also a lot of the guys we have here on our teams were once campers in this camp including four time All-American and former NCAA champion Michael Lightner and our current 157-pounder, Will Rowe.”
Rowe, an instructor for the camp, said helping run the camp reminds him of what it was like when he was a camper and how he dreamed of being one of the OU wrestlers helping with the camp one day.
“I came my freshman year in high school and it was my first experience ever at a camp,” Rowe said. “I idealized the OU wrestlers when I was here. I thought they were the biggest and baddest guys I had ever seen and I just wanted a chance to be one of them.”
Spates said the camp is not only about helping those who attend set goals and dreams but to also give the wrestlers some advice and guidance to help them be better wrestlers.
“The actual wrestling part is broken up into two parts the technical part and competitions,” Spates said. “In the technical part they get to choose what they want us to work with them on and the competitions give them a chance to wrestle against different levels of competition.”
Justin Killaugh, a camper from Alabama attending camp for the fourth time, said he comes back to camp every year because he likes training with nationally ranked wrestlers and getting advice from them.
“I use stuff all the time in my matches that I learned right here at this camp,” Justin said. “A lot of the take-downs that I get are because of moves I learned here. I actually got to the state finals last year because of a take-down I learned three years ago at camp.”
Most of the wrestlers at this year's camp were boys. A few girl wrestlers did come to the camp to wrestle with the boys.
“Wrestling the guys really helps when we get back home and wrestle girls again,” said Taylor Prett, a second-year camper from Texas. “I have lost more matches in the past three days than lost all year last year but it just makes me want to try harder not to lose at all next year.”
While not everyone who attends the camp may go on and have a career as a wrestler, Spates said, he hopes to at least make a mark on their lives.
“We want to teach everyone who attends how to work hard, work smart, dream big and we want to impact their character,” Spates said. “If the kids can learn those things then we did our job.”