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Wrestling the world’s best a dream come true

Jennifer Nguyen, 19, of London competes in world junior finals

By SEAN MEYER, The Londoner

Wrestler Jennifer Nguyen, 19, of London practices her sweep-single technique with coach Ray Takahashi as she gets ready to leave tomorrow, Aug. 16, for Beijing to take part in the Junior World Wrestling Championships.

Jennifer Nguyen has been wrestling for the past seven years and dreams of one day competing for Olympic glory.

Before she can reach the Olympic podium, Jennifer is going to gear up for the world stage by taking part in the Junior World Wrestling Championships, Aug. 21-26 in Beijing.

In fact, the 19-year-old University of Western Ontario health sciences student will be leaving tomorrow, Aug. 16, for the Chinese capital in preparation for the championships.

For Jennifer, who has been a member of the both the University of Western Ontario wrestling team and the London-Western Wrestling Club for the past three years, competing for her country against the very best junior wrestling talent in the world, is a dream come true.

“It didn’t really hit me at first, but to be able to put on a shirt that says Canada on it and compete, it’s pretty incredible,” says Jennifer. “I get a little stressed if I think about it too much. This is the biggest tournament of my life, I want to just enjoy the experience and do the best I can. When I look back I think I will remember what an amazing experience it was. Of course, winning would be nice too.”

Jennifer came to Western to wrestle after competing for four years in high school.

“It was a popular sport in high school. Some friends had siblings who were wrestling and said I should give it a try, so I did. I loved it right away,” says Jennifer. “I played a lot of sports when I was younger, not contact sports, but that’s what I liked, the contact. I liked it was something different, something individual.”

Even in her early days in the sport, Jennifer found success at the highest levels she could compete – even if she didn’t feel she was ready for it.

“I qualified for the Ontario championships in Grade 9, but I didn’t want to go. By Grade 10, I understood how big a deal it was. I really got serious in Grade 11, maybe the end of Grade 10,” Jennifer says. “So when it came time to look at university, that’s one reason I applied to McMaster (University, in Hamilton) and to Western. They were good wrestling schools and good academic schools. I toured Western with Ray and got a really good feeling about it. I was so excited to have the opportunity to come here.”

In this case, Ray is Ray Takahashi, head coach of the UWO wrestling team and a coach with the London-Western wrestling club.

From the first time he met Jennifer, Ray says he knew she had the potential to compete at the highest level.

“She was one of our top recruits a couple years ago (Jennifer is entering her third year at UWO this fall). I had seen her at various high school and open meets and I always thought of her as a top high school wrestler,” Ray says. “She has been an outstanding student athlete, very good to coach. She just keeps doing better in better.”

This year has seen Jennifer win not only the junior provincial tournament in St. Catharines back in January, but also the junior national title back in March in Prince Edward Island.

“I really wasn’t expecting to win. I hadn’t done well the year before and this time I faced last year’s gold medallist in the first round. I thought I am here to wrestle my best and have a good time and I was just going to focus on that,” says Jennifer, whose matches consist of three, two-minute rounds. “I lost the first round, but then put that out of my head and won the next two. I was really happy. I wasn’t expecting it, a lot of people not expecting it.”

In the finals Jennifer defeated last year’s silver medallist, a victory that paved the way for her to compete in Beijing. Before making her way to the Orient, however, Jennifer travelled to Prague, Czech Republic, to join her Team Canada teammates in a pre-tournament training camp.

“That was an incredible experience. Just sitting there watching former Olympic medallists, world champions. Everyday we had three sessions. One we would run, the other two were on the mat. It was tough, a lot of people were exhausted by the end of it, but I think Team Canada learned a lot from it,” Jennifer says. “I learned I need to be more aggressive and I’ve been working on that. I’m pretty offensive-minded. I use my speed. But I think a little more rage will help. You certainly saw that at the training camp, it helps to be a little bit angry.”

While Ray says Jennifer will be in tough at the worlds, he adds she certainly has a chance to achieve success.

“There’s no question it will be a very big challenge for her. There is some great competition out there. In a sport like wrestling you can never be perfect, there are so many facets to consider,” Ray says. “She has strength, endurance, agility, but she also has the technical knowledge. So many things can happen on the mat. I don’t like to make predictions, but she has the ability to be out there, she has a chance. And if you have a chance, even a remote chance, you can win. Sometimes it is not about who is the best, but who is the best that day.”

Jennifer is taking her coaches words to heart, adding she is – to use a classic sports cliché – simply going to go out and do her best.

“I’ve been working really hard, training the best I can. Working on the things I think will help me succeed. The coaching I have received has been really great. Ray is great. I’ve learned so much I think I have been transformed into a much better wrestler,” Jennifer says. “This is just a beginning for me. There is the senior worlds next year, the Olympics is a goal. I’m just proud to be where I am and to have the opportunity that I have.”

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Junior wrestlers grab two bronzes in Taipei tourney

(16-08-2007)

HA NOI — Wrestlers Nguyen Thi Lua and Can Tat Du took home two bronze medals from the women’s 46kg division and men’s 54kg class of the Asian Junior Wrestling Championships in Chinese Taipei on Monday.

The two youngsters, who have been part of the national youth team since 2005, showed their good form in the freestyle category against strong rivals to win the bronzes.

Women’s wrestling has become more popular since the sport was re-established at the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Indonesia 10 years ago. Currently, Viet Nam has one of the strongest women’s teams in Asia, after China, Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

At the Asian Junior Wrestling Championships in the Philippines last month, Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Loc also took home a gold medal in the women’s 44kg division along with Le Thi Trang who grabbed another gold in the women’s 51kg division, while Pham Thi Hue and Dang Thi Van bagged two silvers in the 55kg and 48kg categories.

Last year, Vietnamese female wrestlers, Nguyen Thi Minh and Pham Thi Thanh Phuong, brought home two bronze medals from the 5th annual Asian Youth Wrestling Championship in the 43kg and 46kg categories, respectively.

In 2005, female wrestler Nghiem Thi Giang pocketed a bronze at the Asia Junior Freestyle and Greco-Roman Wrestling Tournament in Wuhan City, China, while Nguyen Thi Hang won silver at the World Junior Wrestling Championships in Lithuania.

According to the wrestling department chief of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Le Ngoc Minh, the women’s national wrestling team is preparing for the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand this December and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. — VNS

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Girls wrestling popularity depends on region

By Steve Smith
08/16/2007

FORT LUPTON – It’s a sport that is growing in popularity among some high schools, depending on the region of the country.

But the interest in girls prep wrestling isn’t strong enough to get its own sanction in Colorado.

Two other states – Hawaii and Texas – sanction it in the high school ranks and host state tournaments.

Colorado hosts its own state tournament in the winter. A Brighton 6-year-old won a state title in her weight class in February at the United States Girls Wrestling Association’s tournament in Strasburg.

But the Colorado High School Activities Association doesn’t sanction it.

Fort Lupton’s turnout for girls wrestling increased 300 percent this year. Supporters want to see that continue so that boys and girls can compete in side-by-side tournaments at the state level.

Interest

CSHAA officials said there is little interest in fielding girls wrestling teams among the state’s high schools. Francine Tafoya Bachicha doesn’t want to hear about that.

She runs the girls wrestling program in Fort Lupton.

“This year, I had 10 girls on the mat this year from the age of 4 to 18. In the previous years I have only had three or four,” she said. “Our tournament hosted about 60 girls from all over the state of Colorado as well as Wyoming, Nebraska and Minnesota, just to name a few places.”

There’s no problem with a lack of interest in the state of Hawaii. It hosted its 10th state wrestling tournament for girls this year. In 1998 (with 10 weight classes), participation was limited to a few teams with full lineups.

The dominant league in 2007 was the Oahu Interscholastic Association. Three other leagues fielded teams. But Keith Amemiya, the executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, said none were as large as the OIA.

“The Interscholastic League of Honolulu (ILH) had a few girls. The schools that were represented by those girls, along with the coaches and parents, were very influential in establishing girls wrestling in Hawaii,” he said.

Almost 350 girls took part in state-sanctioned wrestling programs in Hawaii. The OIA is the only conference to maintain a junior-varsity program.

“Participation has been fairly stable over the past few years but down a bit from the peak in the early 2000s where numbers of girls exceeded 400,” Amemiya said.

Weight classes in Hawaii range from 98 pounds to 220 pounds. Between five and 20 pounds separates the weight classes. In the state of Colorado, the weight classes start at 103 pounds and continue to 285 pounds. The difference in weights range from five to 70 pounds. The biggest difference is between the 215-pounders and the heavyweights.

“There are few girls in the 220 division,” Amemiya said. “Last year (2005-2006), the 175-pound class was one of the largest. Historically, we have had full brackets at the state championships for all classes except 220.”

In Texas, the girls wrestling program began in the 1998-1999 school year with 77 schools and approximately 450 students. Officials say almost 200 schools plan to field girls wrestling programs with 1,300 student participants this coming school year.

“Participation has steadily grown both in number of schools participating and number of students,” said Mark Cousins, athletic coordinator for the Texas University Interscholastic League. “Attendance is harder to quantify in that we run both boys and girls tournaments at the same time.”

Weight classes in Texas range from 95 pounds to 215 pounds. The splits between the weights are between seven and 30 pounds. The bigger variations come at the heavier weights.

One-on-one, family history drives the interest

Jeniece Montoya of Fort Lupton has been with the area’s girls wrestling program the past four years. Her uncle is one of the coaches of the high school wrestling team, and her cousins started the girls wrestling program in Fort Lupton.

“It’s exciting when you get on the mat. You get good training. You get to work hard in practice, then go to a tournament and see how much you’ve improved,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

She and Bachicha pointed to the individual nature of the sport, too. While competing for team points, it’s up to the individual to execute the moves without help from the rest of the team.

Bachicha said the sport has grown because of the one-on-one nature of the sport.

“If you are wrestling, you and you alone can determine how successful you will be,” she said. “You are not depending on your teammates to carry you through the game, and they cannot depend on you to help them out. It is hard to find eight or 12 individuals who have the same drive as you in basketball or soccer.”

“You’re proving to yourself who’s the more competitive,” Montano said. “If you’re competitive like me, you don’t like to lose.”

“Not being able to have that support from your team is hard,” Bachicha said. “In wrestling what you bring to mat is all your own personal sweat and hard work, day in and day out, at practice. You and your opponent battle it out for six minutes.”

Propriety

Bachicha said it’s easier to get the parents of prospective female wrestlers to work around the “guys-only” stigma than it is to get new wrestling parents to understand the concept.

“A lot of the girls who are wrestling have a father who wrestled once or a brother who is wrestling,” she said. “Many of the girls are in practice rooms and in the gyms on the weekends along with their brothers. Or they are their brother’s practice partner at home.”

That’s how Montano started. Since she began, Montano earned two third-place finishes and a pair of second-place finishes at the Colorado Open girls tournament, which is contested in Fort Lupton each year.

Bachicha said questions about girls wrestling boys aren’t a big concern.

“Their bodies are developing about the same,” she said. “But as a girl and boys matures around the age of 10 and so on, it starts getting difficult. Boys bodies mature faster than girls so strength starts to become an issue.

Another issue on the table in coed wrestling is manners.

“Boys are taught to respect girls, not to be rough with girls,” Bachicha said. “But that all changes once you step on the mat. It is hard for boys to understand that it’s OK to rough up a girl (just like another opponent) but not any other time.”

Montano’s can’t wrestle against boys.

“A lot of them have been wrestling since they were 5 years old and know a lot more moves,” she said. “My mom doesn’t want to see her daughter wrestle guys. I’m fine with that.”

“Believe it or not older boys and high school boys are intimidated about wrestling a girl because of the holds, grabs, positions,” Bachicha said. “They are afraid to grab in wrong places. A girl will go out with something to prove, and the boys have to go out with the fact that they just might get beat by a girl.”

Bachicha also said girls have something to prove as wrestlers each time they step on the mat.

“If they win it is a great feeling,” she said. “Hopefully as girls wrestling grows it will be just like basketball or soccer. You have a girls team and a boys team”

Gaining in popularity

Girls wrestling may not be ready for its own stage in Colorado. But some of the more popular boys tournaments (Monster Match, Rocky Mountain Nationals, Who’s Bad and other tournaments on the Eastern Plains) are beginning to offer companion girls tournaments.

“These are great opportunities for girl wrestlers but many of them wrestle in both tournaments so that they have tough competition,” Bachicha said. “In areas where the growth isn’t quite as rapid, there are gaps in competition.”

That leads to discrepancies in participants. In some cases, one weight class will have as many as 10 wrestlers; others will have but two.

Future elsewhere

Amemiya thinks the future of girls wrestling in his state is good. That feeling goes beyond his state’s contribution to programs at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

“We are getting back a number of our ‘first-generation’ girls from college, and many are eager to share their talents and experiences with the current middle and high schoolers,” he said. “Additionally, many male coaches have a better understanding of the ‘new breed’ of wrestlers. Many of the collegiate programs have strong Hawaii representation and we are happy to that our girls have an opportunity to continue their education while representing Hawaii and Hawaii wrestling to the nation.”

In-state future

According to CHSAA, there has been no local interest in starting high school girls wrestling. CHSAA’s board of control has the power to approve new sports after a lengthy review process.

“To propose a new sport, a league would have to get board of control approval,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann said. “That would come after the equity committee took a formal position on the sports’ impact on gender and other aspects.”

In addition, Borgmann said the sport would have to prove its ability to have enough teams within a specific area and that there are enough officials for the sport in question.

Bachicha can’t stop dreaming about the future.

“I would like to see it get to where boys wrestling is. But that will take time,” she said. “As for the near future, it would be nice to see little league wrestling clubs offer girls wrestling with their own season and tournaments, even if they ran concurrently.”

Personal future

The future is bright for female wrestlers. Colleges are beginning to offer female wrestling programs and scholarships. That’s not the path Montano wants to take when she goes to Regis University in the fall. It’s not her year-round sport.

She’s opting for club soccer now and collegiate soccer when Regis gets its own team.

But she also wants to help with the local program when time permits.

“I hope the program gets bigger and that the community gets more involved,” Montano said. “It’s a good sport.”

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Black to coach U.S. Women's World Team

River Falls Journal
Published Thursday, August 16, 2007

Former Wildcat and University of Wisconsin Badger wrestling standout Kevin Black of River Falls has been named as one of the coaches of the 2007 USA Women’s World Wrestling team that will participate in the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 17-23.

Also selected to join USA Wrestling National Women’s coach Terry Steiner of Colorado Springs, Colo., as a coach in women’s freestyle wrestling was Troy Steiner of Corvallis, Ore.

The World Team coaches were chosen by the Women’s Coach Selection Committee and approved by USA Wrestling’s Executive Committee.

Black has coached a number of USA Wrestling age-group women’s teams overseas, and has been active as a coach and leader with women’s wrestling programs in Wisconsin. He has coached on the college and high school levels, and currently operates the Victory School of Wrestling in River Falls. He was a NCAA Division I All-American at the University of Wisconsin, and competed in international freestyle wrestling for a number of years.

“I think this is a great opportunity,” he said. “Since I have been involved in women’s wrestling, I have found that I enjoy coaching women very much. Their personalities, the way women communicate, I really enjoy that side of coaching.”

National women’s coach Terry Steiner said he is looking forward to working with Black.

“Kevin brings some new energy to the team and to the program,” Steiner said. “Kevin is a wrestling junkie. He grew up with wrestling and loves wrestling people. He has been involved as an athlete, a coach and an administrator. He truly knows USA Wrestling, which is good for the organization. He has the right personality to coach our women. They can trust him immediately.

“The most important thing about Kevin as an athlete is he can find the good in every situation,” Steiner added. “He finds a way to learn from every experience and walk away with a smile. That attitude is contagious, and I think he will bring that to our program.”

Black has coached USA Wrestling age-group women’s teams for the last two years, taking the U.S. University women’s team to compete in El Salvador in 2007 and the U.S. Cadet women’s team to China in 2006. He has participated as a coach in a number of Women’s Team USA training camps in recent seasons.

Black serves as the Women’s Director for the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation. He has coached the Wisconsin Junior Nationals Women’s team since 2005 and has coached Wisconsin athletes at the USGWA Nationals for the last two years. Black has also started a new women’s wrestling club program at UW-River Falls.

Black served as an assistant coach for the University of Wisconsin from 2003-05, working with the Division I program there. He was a wrestling coach at Lodi High School from 2005-06.

He has been the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation State coach from 2004-06, and coached the state’s Cadet Freestyle National Team from 2002-06. Along with his younger brother and former Wildcat and Badger teammate Tony, he conducted the Black Brothers Wrestling Camps from 2000-06.

Black was a NCAA Division I All-American for the University of Wisconsin, where he was a NCAA qualifier three times and served as the team captain three times. He won four Wisconsin state titles for River Falls High School, with a 160-0 career record. He competed on the Senior level in freestyle, competing in a number of major international tournaments.

Black said he is excited about the challenges that go along with coaching the USA women’s team

“This is the highest assignment I can have as a coach,” he said. “We need people who have been around wrestling at all levels to step up for the women’s program. Having coaches who stay involved and stay consistent is important to the program. We need more good wrestling people to be involved with women’s wrestling. Overall, our entire team, all seven athletes, will be very competitive. The goal is to win the overall World team title in all three styles, and winning is our goal for the women’s team.”

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I am scheduling for the first week in October, a weekly Internet Radio Wrestling Talk program titled Wrestling Talk with Mike. This will be a call in show, which will feature guests with a primary focus on promoting the sport of wrestling. It is also hoped that an agreement can be made to also broadcast wrestling duals and tournaments from within Kansas. It is possible that if the agreement is made that we could also be broadcasting duals in addition to the weekly talk program.

Right now I am specifically looking at guests and sponsors for the program. This post is specific to see if there are guests that individuals would like to hear and be on the program. I have already had some individual contact me regarding guests and I have started that process of contacting them and scheduling them for future shows. Who would you like to have on the air for something like this? I would also ask, what day and time would be best for the program? For those that don’t know, it will be possible to access all programs through the archives. It would also be interesting to hear what topics you would like to see discussed on the program. I assure you, I will take all of your input seriously and I also appreciate you taking this announcement and future announcements to other wrestling boards. If wanting more information contact me at mike@furches.org with Wrestling Talk with Mike in the subject line. Thanks and I appreciate it.

Mike Furches
www.furches.org
www.thevirtualpew.com
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