News Page
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
FILA wants beach wrestling in Olympics:
The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), the governing body of international amateur wrestling, aims to add beach wrestling to the Olympics program. FILA President Raphael Martinetti, who was in Antalya for the First World Beach Wrestling Championships, told the Anatolia news agency that he was pleased with the organization in Antalya, adding: “Beach wrestling has simpler rules than mat wrestling and the matches are more entertaining for the spectators. I am confident of a bright future for beach wrestling.” Martinetti added that they would soon apply to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to recognize beach wrestling as an Olympic sport.
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By ADAM ADKINS The Tampa Tribune
Published: Nov 7, 2006
TAMPA - Had it not been for one small problem of finding an alternate dressing room for road games, Cambridge coach Rick Shears never would have been reminded of the fact he had a girl on his football team.
Other than that, Malissa Gallogly was simply "one of the guys."
Still, it's funny for Shears to think back to the chore it sometimes became for his junior place-kicker to find a spot to suit up, which mostly ended up being a vacant bathroom stall.
But for Gallogly, the time on the field was worth any small hurdle.
"It's a new experience, definitely," Gallogly said. "Just playing football as a girl, it's a bigger experience than anything."
It's an experience not too many girls are having in Florida, according to sports participation surveys conducted by the Florida High School Athletic Association. Last year, only 15 girls statewide participated in boys varsity football, and the numbers have steadily decreased every year since 1998-99, when there were 119.
However, Hillsborough County might have been the hotbed for a girls invasion into football this season. In addition to Gallogly, Bloomingdale senior Tina Hooks suited up for half the season before leaving the team for personal reasons. Bethany Isaac, a sophomore at Alonso, played on the Ravens' junior varsity team.
And there might have been more, if only those pads weren't so darn tricky.
"That was crazy [the first time]. I went out with my hip pads upside down, and all the varsity guys started laughing," Isaac said. "But, I got it right the next time."
As for Gallogly, it was only a matter of time before she ended up on the football field, according to her mother, Julinda.
"Her first birthday, we took her to have first-year pictures taken. But she wouldn't smile. Her dad [Tom] says, 'I'll get her to smile.'
"There's a football sitting on the side, and he threw it to her. That's her first-year picture - holding a football, smiling."
While that picture may be cute, watching her daughter play football wasn't always fun. Julinda Gallogly mostly sat nerve-wracked, wondering if her 5-foot-5, 115-pound daughter, an accomplished soccer player, could be jeopardizing her future in that sport with the risk of injury in football so great.
That's why Julinda's favorite player, other than No. 16, was Kyle Sims, who handled kickoff duties for the Lancers. That kept her daughter to kicking extra points and field goals - which she did very well, hitting 20 of 28 extra points and field goals of 31 and 37 yards - and off the field at times when injuries were more likely to happen.
"I am very grateful to that young man for coming out and doing the kickoffs," Julinda Gallogly said. "Those are the plays you can get hurt."
Physical challenges aren't the only things girls have to deal with in football. Mentally, it can be tough as well.
"One of the toughest things is worrying what the other teams are going to say," Malissa Gallogly said. "I don't like to cause drama or whatever. I'd rather stay away from that."
Isaac was no stranger to the situation.
Football wasn't the first boys-dominated sport she invaded. As a sixth-grader in Virginia, she participated on the boys wrestling team, even notching a win.
"I've got insulting comments before because I'm the only girl," Isaac said. "But stuff like that doesn't bother me. I have high self-esteem."
Still, Isaac's decision to play football weighed heavily on her mother, Denise Wood. While Wood always has been supportive of her daughter's athletic pursuits, this one was a little different.
Wood was going to make sure Isaac could hold her own, setting a practice guideline of a 90 percent success rate on extra points before she agreed to a tryout. The guideline wasn't meant to be a deterrent. As Wood put it, she had a better understanding of what her daughter was getting into.
"I wanted that when she went out there she would be good, because she was a female entering a male-dominated sport and that she had to do things that much better," Wood said.
It wasn't exactly a perfect merger when Isaac first hit the field. However, things quickly changed.
"Some of the boys were like, 'Oh I can do that, why is she here?'" Isaac said. "But whenever they tried it and couldn't do it, I got more respect from them."
Respect was something Hooks definitely earned from Bloomingdale coach Corey Brinson.
The thought of having a girl on his football team wasn't exactly appealing to Brinson in the beginning. But, after watching Hooks compete each day, even when her playing time was limited to either sporadic special teams' assignments or mop-up duty at the end of games, her level of toughness made a big impression.
"She popped you just like the guys popped you. And when she got popped, she'd get right back up," Brinson said. "It was like you didn't even know a girl was on the team.
"She came out and busted her butt every day. Oh yeah, [she] definitely earned my respect. Big time."
Next year, Hillsborough County could have two girls playing again, should Isaac make the Ravens' varsity squad and Gallogly decide to continue. If there are any other girls out there thinking about giving football a try, Gallogly has some advice.
"Just go for it," Gallogly said. "The worst thing they can say is, 'Sorry, you can't play, you can't make a tackle.' Just try it."
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Separating the Boys from the Girls
by Jessica M. Karmasek
Daily Mail staff 11/6/06
When George Aulenbacher came to Stonewall Jackson Middle School as principal almost two years ago, same-sex classes already were in place.
He said teachers begged him to maintain the classes.
"It works because the teachers are on board. We believe in it from both an academic and management standpoint," he said.
New federal regulations will give school districts across the country more latitude to open all-girls and all-boys schools or offer more same-sex classes in regular schools.
But the new federal guidelines won't change current Kanawha County policies already allowing such classes.
The federal legislation states that schools choosing to separate a class for one sex would not have to provide an equivalent class for the other sex. They simply would have to offer a "substantially equal" coed class in the same subject. The regulations, effective Nov. 24, also further clarify rules on creating same-sex public schools.
"We don't want to give kids an inequitable education, and we're not doing that with the gender classes," said Melanie Vickers, assistant superintendent for middle schools in Kanawha County.
"They all have the same opportunities and the same curriculum, just a different atmosphere."
Federal lawmakers and educators say the new legislation will allow for more experimentation in public schools.
Across the nation, the number of public schools exclusively for boys or girls has increased from three in 1995 to 241 today, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.
Two middle schools in Kanawha County, Stonewall Jackson and East Bank, have same-sex classes. Another two, Cedar Grove Middle and Hayes Middle, offer same-sex activities such as lunches, intramural sports and physical education courses.
Other school systems in the state are considering the idea of same-sex classes.
The West Virginia Education Information System -- a statewide computer networking system that tracks student attendance, scheduling and grading - says four other counties have at least one all-boy or all-girl class. Those counties are Fayette, Hampshire, Monongalia and Ohio.
Vickers believes same-sex classes offer advantages for both students and teachers.
"Everything goes back to student achievement," she said. "This is a strategy, and we're always looking for strategies that improve student learning."
Vickers said the single-sex classes provide a better learning environment and an increased level of comfort for adolescents.
"It impacts academics, it impacts the climate of the building and the social networking of the kids," she said.
"But if there's a time in life when it's most needed and most successful, that would be the middle school level."
Middle school students deal with emotional and physical changes. Social situations can be awkward and stressful.
That is what prompted Kanawha school officials to try the single-sex classes.
"I'm sure any student in these single-gender classes would tell you they are more comfortable standing up in front of a group of all boys or all girls. They don't have to worry about being made fun of or laughed at by the opposite sex," Vickers said.
School administrators from Raleigh County recently visited Stonewall Jackson Middle.
At Stonewall, core classes such as English, math, science and social studies, as well as classes such as music, art, health and physical education, are separated by gender. The same-sex classes started there about three years ago.
The school on Charleston's West Side has about 600 students in grades six to eight, with about 20-25 students in each class.
Principal Aulenbacher said the setup has proved useful.
"From the management end, teachers know where everyone is and where they're supposed to be," he said, "and there's less problems with socialization, especially given the age group. It allows them to be a little more focused."
Nacoal Ransbottom, a third-year English teacher at the middle school, said the same-sex classes allow teachers to experiment more with different strategies and focus on students' needs.
"The way boys and girls interpret things and learn things are different," she said. "Girls are more sensitive, boys are more concrete."
In the girls' classes, Ransbottom focuses on group discussions. In the boys' classes, a question-and-answer format or hands-on projects work best.
Mary Beth Kessinger, a general science teacher, agreed.
"With the girls, you can ask what they're thinking and how they feel. With the boys, you ask more practical questions. They want to grill you. They want more factual answers, but the girls appreciate the human interest more," she said.
Math teacher Aaron Amick said the big plus of same-sex classes is improved discipline.
"That's the major advantage," he said. "When girls are around, boys will show off in front of them, but when they're not there, they're focused. And of course there are some girls who enjoy that extra attention and respond.
"You can see it in the hallway, when they pass by each other. You can see the difference."
Kessinger said girls also tend to be more hands-on and less squeamish in a class of only girls.
"They won't jump into things as easily. They'll hold back when boys are around," she said.
Eighth-grader Tequila Hayes, 14, agreed.
"It's easier to concentrate (in a class of girls) than when the boys are acting up in class, talking, throwing paper balls and calling your name," she said.
"I think I do a lot better in school with the all-girls classes. It's less distracting."
There are critics of same-sex classes, including the American Association of University Women and the American Civil Liberties Union, who call the new federal legislation and the increasing number of same-sex schools and classes troublesome.
Marcia Greenberger, a co-president of the National Women's Law Center, went as far as to say the federal legislation was "a serious green light from the Department of Education to re-instituting official discrimination in schools around the country" in an article for the New York Times.
Dusty Lanham, 14, an eighth-grader at Stonewall, says the same-sex classes have made her more of a "girly girl."
"I remember in sixth grade I hated (the same-sex classes). I was friends with mostly boys and then I was separated," she said.
She believes it has made her a better student. She has a 4.0 grade point average and even takes Latin classes.
She still gets a friendly dose of male companionship after school. She's a member of the middle school's wrestling team.
Said Vickers, "People might think we're going back to the ‘old days,' but in reality there's equity for all kids. It's just an environment where the students are more comfortable, and learning can occur without fear of being made fun of."
Although the classes are successful at Stonewall, Aulenbacher admits the single-gender classes aren't a "perfect fit" for every school.
"I think it depends on the building administration and the staff itself. At some schools like John Adams or Horace Mann it might not work. It's something that a school's staff has to look at very closely," he said.
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Kodiak uses exhibition matches to get in mid-season form
Article published on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
By DEREK CLARKSTON,Mirror Writer
Pat Costello encourages his wrestlers to get in as many matches as possible. Even if that means wrestling an exhibition match where they might end up on the losing side.
The more matches the better, especially during the early stages of the season and Kodiak got in plenty of regulation and exhibition matches during the Nikiski Duals at Nikiski High School Friday and Saturday.
In the matches that counted, the Bears did quick work with their opponents, conquering the seven-team field, and claiming the title with a 51-18 defeat of Skyview in the championship dual match Saturday.
The Bears recorded four pins by Lucas Fried (135), Jeremiah Olsen (152), Jimmy Caswell (160) and David Gilbert (215) to lead the way in the championship match.
Overall, Kodiak went 5-0 in dual meets, while Chloe Ivanoff, Tuck VanMatre, Jimmy Eggemeyer, Lucas Fried, Olsen and Al Cratty won all of their varsity matches.
“We had good aggressive wrestling and pretty good technique for most of them,” Costello said. “There were no glaring errors, nothing that really stood out wrong.
“For after 10 days of practice, I thought their technique was really good. Nobody was panicking and doing stupid things. You have to open sometime. It was a good opening weekend, the kids wrestled well,” he added.
One of the highlights of the two-day roadtrip was the exhibition matches — one in particular involving Fried and Homer’s Simeon Daigle.
The two were apparently sitting together drinking a cup of juice when they decided they wanted to go at it on the mats.
Daigle, a 125-pound state champion from a year ago, and Fried, a third-place finisher in the same class last year, didn’t care that one of them was going to walk away with their first loss of the season.
“Only in Alaska wrestling will two top kids get together and want to go wrestle each other, because one of them was going to get beat, but neither one of them cared,” Costello said.
It was Fried who ended up losing the match 6-2, but it was a tight battle throughout until the senior gave up four points in the last minute of the final round.
Costello likes the fact that his wrestlers are not afraid to challenge some of the top wrestlers in the state.
“We just want them to realize you wrestle to get into shape and you get into shape by wrestling,” he said. “A match is a match. You have to take the opportunity because you may never get it again.
“I’ve always wanted my kids to find the best kids,” he added. “A lot of kids won’t do it.”
First time
It was also a historic weekend for Alaska high school wrestling, coach Costello said.
For the first time a high school team fielded two girls in the starting lineup when Kodiak rolled out Michelle Canete (103) and Chloe Ivanoff (112) during their varsity matches.
“I know it’s the first time I have been involved in a match where you had two girls wrestling varsity back-to-back,” Costello said. “I have never seen it before and I don’t think any team in Alaska has ever had two girls in a varsity lineup in a dual meet or any place else.”
The two combined for a 7-2 varsity record and a 9-3 record including exhibition matches.
All-tournament team
Five Kodiak wrestles were selected to the all-tournament team: Ivanoff, Caswell, Marlon Branson and Al Cratty.
Cratty was involved in one of the most exciting matches of the championship match when he faced off against the Panthers Eddie Buffington in the 189-pound battle.
Cratty, trailing 3-2 with less than 40 seconds left in the final round, the senior earned a takedown to jump ahead 4-3.
Buffington tied it at 4-4 with an escape seconds later, before Cratty notched another takedown and two more points in the final seconds for an 8-4 victory.
Costello also cited Colton Cubbedge and Nick VanMatre for their weekend performances.
On Friday and Saturday, Kodiak hosts Grace Christian and Nome at 5 p.m.
Championship results
Kodiak 51, Skyview 18
103 — Michelle Canete (K) won by forfeit. 112 — Danny Marciariello (S) won by forfeit. 119 — Michaela Hutchison (S) dec. Nick VanMetre, 8-1. 125 — Tyler Janorschke (S) dec. Colton Cubbedge, 4-0. 130 — Jimmy Eggemeyer (K) won by forfeit. 135 — Lucas Fried (K) p. Luke Morse, 1:22. 140 — Derrick Burlison, (S) won by forfeit. 145 — Marlon Branson (K) won by forfeit. 152 — Jeremiah Olsen (K) p. Fred Pollard, 1:27. 160 — Jimmy Caswell (K) p. David Duncan, 3:18. 171 — Patrick Sheridan (S) dec. Malachi Peterson, 9-2. 189 — Al Cratty (K) dec. Eddie Buffington, 8-4. 215 — David Gilbert (K) p. Adam Byrne, 2:20. HWT — Russ Bacon (S) dec. Jacob Long, 4-2.
Team results
Kodiak 71, Voz/Ninilchik combine, 12.
Kodiak 51, Soldotna 30
Kodiak 71, Nikiski 3
Kodiak 60, Seward 18
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Mary Kelly makes personal plea to wrestling community to save MacMurray College program
Craig Sesker USA Wrestling
11/07/2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Anybody who knows Mary Kelly realizes she is not one to back down from a challenge.
Kelly fought through a number of near-misses and battled through injuries to make her first U.S. World Team in women’s freestyle wrestling this year. A past Cadet World Champion and Junior World Silver Medalist, Kelly placed ninth at 48 kg/105.5 pounds at the World Championships in late September in Guangzhou, China.
Now Kelly is prepared for another fight. She is doing whatever she can to help save the MacMurray (Ill.) College men's wrestling program.
MacMurray announced last week it is dropping wrestling after the 2006-07 season for financial reasons. Kelly’s father, Jerry, a past NCAA runner-up for Oklahoma State, is the head coach at MacMurray. Her brother, Chris, a junior, is one of the wrestlers on the MacMurray team, an NCAA Division III school located in Jacksonville, Ill.
Mary Kelly wrestled one year for MacMurray College. She is now a resident-athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
“MacMurray is a great school to wrestle at and it’s a shame that colleges are dropping these programs,” Kelly said. “When my dad came there three years ago they only had two guys on the team and now they have 30. My dad’s done a great job recruiting and everyone was real excited about this season.
“Nobody had any idea this was coming – I know my dad was pretty shocked about it. They say they are doing this for financial reasons, but MacMurray is a Division III school and can’t give out any (athletic) scholarships. It costs over $20,000 a year to go there and there are 30 guys who are going to school there because of wrestling. It doesn’t make any sense to cut the program.”
Kelly said there is an online petition and addresses for the administration if you would like to write letters to help the program at www.savemacwrestling.com. She also has started a couple threads on TheMat.com message boards, asking the wrestling community for assistance in helping the MacMurray program.
“Anything you are willing to do - sign the petition, write a letter, donate money, or inform other people - would be greatly appreciated,” Kelly said. “About 400 people have signed the petition already. We also are encouraging people to write personal letters to the administrators there.”
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Thrissur dominates State Mini Games
Principal Correspondent 11/8/06
Wrestling (finals):
Girls: Up to 38kg: S. Savitha (Alp) bt Charishma C. Babu (Tvm); 40kg: C. Jibissha (Tvm) bt Aswathy Roy (Alp); 46kg: Surya Gopal (Tvm) bt Renju R. Pillai (Alp); 49kg: Liju Sajan (Tvm) bt Jomol (Alp).