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McKay's Julie Kirk finds success in wrestling against boys, including winning a state championship. Now the senior is giving up the sport to concentrate on life outside high school.
BILL POEHLER
Statesman Journal May 13, 2007
Julie Kirk may never slip into a singlet again and corral her long, red hair under a swimming cap again.
She is -- at least for the moment and possibly forever -- giving up the sport that has defined her.
Kirk is the girl who wrestled against the boys. Now she is looking for whatever else life has to offer.
"I think it's a really cool experience, something cool I could show my kids and tell my kids," said the senior at McKay High School.
"I bet in the future I'll be like, 'Oh why didn't I go on wrestling.' But right now I don't really feel like it's a bad thing that I'm stopping.
"I need to kind of stop and start focusing on what I actually want to do in life because I know I don't want to wrestle in college that much."
Kirk has been wrestling since she was a sixth-grader at Waldo Middle School.
During the spring of her junior year, she wrestled seven days a week, either with McKay or the USA Cobra Wrestling women's program. It took its toll.
"Seven days a week she was having to wrestle, having to practice," father Craig Kirk said. "That pretty much went through the high school season."
After her final season of high school wrestling when she placed sixth in the Central Valley Conference in February she continued wrestling for Cobra.
Kirk defeated Lebanon's Amy Bloom, an OSAA Class 6A tournament placer, in the Oregon Girls High School Wrestling Tournament and won a state championship.
But she was ejected from a girls tournament in Washington the next day for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The thought of ending her wrestling career resurfaced.
She could have continued on and wrestled in the USGWA national tournament in Michigan, but she decided it was time to move on.
"That was when I (thought) maybe I shouldn't wrestle," she said. "Then the camp, the pinning camp before Michigan that I was at, I was kind of like, I don't want to be here. I already know all this stuff.
"I'm sick of wrestling and worrying about stuff like that and spending money on stuff like that when I could go to college with my money."
Since she quit wrestling in March, Kirk has found other things in life.
She has a passion for pottery and has a number of pieces that will be displayed in various exhibits.
And she found a boyfriend, Kenny Grimberg. Her father Craig didn't allow her to have a boyfriend during wrestling season.
"They're so good together," said friend Felicia Russell. "They're perfect. They're like a match made in heaven."
When she went to the Snowball dance her junior year, many of her classmates hadn't seen her in a dress before.
It was still a shock when many saw her at this year's prom, which she went to with Grimberg.
"It was fun," she said. "I like it. I think it's cool when everybody sees me and they're like, 'Oh Julie, you look so cute,' because people aren't used to seeing me all dressed up and stuff and that's cool."
Kirk has a part-time job at Target and June 5 will move into an apartment with Russell. She plans to go to Chemeketa Community College in the fall and try to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
She says she loves to travel, something wrestling afforded her, and may want to go into a career where she can travel and meet new people.
"She is actually very shy until she gets to know someone, but she can force herself to not be that way," mother Sherry Kirk said.
"I was always impressed that she would tend to come away from every meet with a friend or someone new that she's going to have to e-mail or send letters to."
In a sport where girls are subject to ridicule and where they stick out, Kirk persevered.
She didn't set the world on fire, but she toughed it out. She was injured from time to time, but she came back. She wrestled all four years of high school and placed in district twice.
"Everybody's proud of her because it's a tough sport to do and she proved that she can do it," fellow McKay wrestler and best friend Deontay Marin said.
"It opened up a lot of girls to come wrestle, but they weren't mentally tough enough to do it.
"She proves that a girl can wrestle in high school."
Kirk has tried to encourage other girls to go to her club team to take up wrestling in a less-hostile environment. A few have taken her up on it.
Although she no longer participates in the sport, wrestling still is a frequent conversation piece with her friends.
"You can't just put something down and not have the urge every once in a while," Grimberg said. "She's not definitely (quitting). She still might (wrestle)."
Kirk received interest from colleges to wrestle on women's teams, and it's something she might consider in the future.
The coach of her women's program, Kent "Bobo" Umemoto, has left the door open for a return.
"I'm not sure really what I want to do with my life, and I kind of want to try other things," Kirk said. "But if in the future I still want to wrestle, Bobo said I could call him up and he'd help me where I need to go."
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6701; tgonzale@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6608
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Clinging to a dream
Klingel has big plans as she gets ready to enter high school
CHRISTOPHER EDNIE
For the Pocono Record
May 13, 2007
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Pound-for-pound, Samantha Klingel is the nation's preeminent female wrestler and she has no intention of relinquishing that title anytime soon.
In fact, the 14-year-old Kresgeville native has made a self-promised four-year plan of maintaining her dominance in girls wrestling.
"I want to win nationals from now until my senior year," said Klingel, alluding to the annual United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championship.
Klingel, an eighth-grader who is on the Pleasant Valley Middle School wrestling team, challenged herself to that pledge after she won the 10th annual USGWA National Championship on April 1.
The yearly tournament was held at a high school in Livonia, Mich. The onerous eight-and-a-half-hour drive the Klingel family made seemed to be more arduous than the 83-pound foes Samantha grappled with in the rounds preceding the championship match.
They "were pretty easy," said Klingel, who added that she either pinned them or executed a technical fall, a victory by at least 15 points.
But in the finals, Klingel found herself in some trouble with 10 seconds remaining. Her opponent, Emily Webster of Cameron, Mo., was able to tie the match, sending the contest into sudden death. During the 30-second intermission before overtime, Klingel went to her coach, her dad, Ed Klingel, and he provided her with some fatherly advice.
"I told her, 'Don't be nervous and do your best,'" said Ed, who wrestled when he was in high school.
And when the two teenaged wrestlers returned to the mat, Klingel was able to best her toughest of four weekend opponents by reversing Webster's patented leg move, a maneuver Klingel scouted, and decisively dropped Webster to the mat. Samantha's intuition landed her a 6-4 victory and a gold medal.
"I was real happy," Klingel said of all the hard work she put in preparing for the tournament, which was the first time she has squared off against girls. "It paid off."
Her father added, "She was floating on a cloud when she won that."
But before taking the cushioned glory ride through the sky, Samantha devoted endless hours preparing for a chance to bask in her national achievement.
Samantha, who has wrestled for just two years, enters 20 to 30 tournaments per year.
Samantha's mom, Nancy Klingel, said Samantha has a rigorous five-day training regimen, including traveling to Easton two or three days a week to shore up her adeptness with wrestling behemoth Jack Cuvo, a two-time NCAA Division I national champion at East Stroudsburg University.
"She does everything guys do and beyond," said Cuvo, a 1989 graduate of ESU. "She has great technique and a great attitude."
Klingel also takes that innate attitude with her to five-day summer camps in State College with the Penn State University coaches.
While there, Klingel bunks with whatever women's team happens to be on campus.
"It doesn't faze her," Nancy said. "She always has a good time."
And despite predominately being the only girl among boys on the mat, Klingel candidly said, "Being on the mat with the boys makes me work harder."
"She's the hardest worker in the room," her dad immediately added, "which means a lot because she's out there with the boys."
Klingel's career began after being, "a tackling dummy" for her brother Ernest, 12, in the basement of their house the past six years, Nancy said.
As Ernest was learning new things and using them against his older sister, Samantha said that piqued her interest in the sport and it was benefiting her, too.
"Watching Ernie helped me a lot," said Klingel, who also has a twin sister, Christine, and a 20-year-old brother, Nick. "It helped me learn the moves."
Another move Klingel has in store is joining the PV varsity wrestling team next year. And after graduation, she plans to go to the University of Iowa to wrestle. Nancy instantaneously asked her to explain her intercollegiate aspirations.
"I want to do girls Olympic wrestling," said Klingel, who also participates in scholastic cross country to enhance her endurance during competition.
"You have to wrestle in the college level before the Olympics," Nancy explained.
Cuvo said she certainly can retain success if she keeps her impeccable work ethic.
"If she continues to do what she is doing, she can compete," Cuvo said. "I think she can do great nationally against the women and hold her own against the guys."
And she has been able to hold her own against the boys. At the end of the '07 wrestling season, Klingel had a 29-7 record — 25-7 against boys and 4-0 against girls.
"She doesn't back down from any boy," Nancy said. "She's got the heart of a lion."
Cuvo said the matches against the boys translates into success against the girls.
"What helps her against women is that she competes against the guys," said Cuvo, who added that boys her age are generally stronger than her. "Naturally, when she competes against the girls she's prepared."
Klingel said it is the personal instruction she has with Cuvo that undoubtedly helps her on the mat.
"He's improved me a lot," said Klingel, who admits the biggest difference with wrestling the girls and the guys is that the guys possess more inherent toughness. "He gives me more confidence."
"He's always showing her something new," Ed said. "He makes it fun for her."
And when it comes to wrestling, Samantha having fun is the only thing that makes wrestling worthwhile, her parents said.
"We're really proud of her. She does something most girls don't want to be around," Ed said. "They look at you weird because they don't think it's a girls sport, but as long as she enjoys it is all that matters."
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Kentville native proves women have a place among wrestling elite
Kirk Starratt/The Advertiser
NovaNewsNow.com 5/13/07
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A native of Kentville is proving that women have a place among the elite in the sport of wrestling. Diana Ford, 17, currently a Grade 12 student at Chelmsford Valley District Composite School in Sudbury, Ontario, said she first tried wrestling while attending Aldershot Elementary School before joining the team at Northeast Kings.
She said she had an older brother who was involved and she absolutely loved it, although she doesn’t really know why. She continued to wrestle throughout high school.
Ford said she loves the individual dedication of the sport. “However hard you work is what you get out of it,” she said. “If you focus and want it badly enough, chances are you’ll get it eventually.”
Ford was on the podium at Junior Nationals (a competition generally for 19 and 20-year-olds) in Charlottetown, PEI in March 2007. She earned bronze and then challenged the silver medalist for a spot on the Junior National Team and won. She’ll now travel to Venezuela for the Pan-American Championships June 20-25.
Ford also made the Under-18 team and will compete at the Canada Cup this July in Guelph, Ontario. She is qualified to attend several other international competitions this year as well.
Can’t wait
Ford said she couldn’t wait for the trip to Venezuela. “It’s going to be an amazing experience to get to see more international competition,” she said. “It will further my long-term wrestling goals by that much. It feels amazing to be able to represent Canada.”
She said the trip, which is going to cost her $2,000, is being paid for through small fundraising events she’s holding and individual sponsors. Ford is currently seeking more sponsors and said donations are welcome.
Recently, she attended Juvenile National Wrestling Championships in Whitby, Ontario (17 and 18 years old) and won gold.
Ford said she finds that some people have a stereotype that wrestling is a guy’s sport, but she usually just laughs it off. She said people are entitled to their own opinions, but it pushes her to work that much harder.
“Wrestling isn’t about gender,” she said. “I can beat guys and I can be beat by guys. Girls are stepping out in wrestling and we’re making our mark.”
She practices three or four times a week after school, working on technique and physical training such as running, stairs and body lifting. She works on technique most mornings with her coach, Andy Lalonde. Her team travels out of town every weekend to compete.
Ford said anyone wishing to make a donation or sponsor her could call (902) 678-4192 for more details.
