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Boomer wrestlers take on Bulldogs
Johnny
McMahan 11/29/07
Woodward opens its high school and middle school dual wrestling season
tonight against the Altus Bulldogs at Boomer Fieldhouse.
While this is
technically the season opener, several wrestlers have taken part in some open
tournaments and state title hopeful Zach White is coming off a second place
finish in the Oklahoma Open. He beat a highly regarded wrestler from Tulsa Union
in the semifinals then lost to Dallas Bailey of Catoosa, a top 10 national
wrestler, 3-1 in the championship round.
Woodward has a new coach this
year.
Bobby Cook will be the third head coach in the program’s history,
taking over from Greg Johnson.
Cook said the Boomers will have some holes
in their dual lineup until after Christmas, but will be a strong tournament team
all season.
“I’ve got about five guys who can place in any tournament we
go to,” Cook said.
Zach White was a state runnerup last year and is the
Boomers’ headliner. “He’s most definitely one of the top 15 guys in the country
at his weight, we’ve got high expectations for him in the state tournament this
year,” said Cook.
Matt White compiled a 10-4 record in tournaments at
Yukon and Midwest City while wrestling up from his normal weight.
“Matt
has wrestled tough competition and hasn’t lost to anyone less than a state
placer,” Cook said.
Another wrestler who has stepped up early is Michael
Hale at 125 pounds.
“From the first day until today he has improved more
than anyone in the wrestling room,” Cook said. “We expect big things from him
later on down the road.”
The Boomers don’t have OCU women’s signee Joey
Miller available right now due to a shoulder injury from the
summer.
“She’s working out and drilling, but she can’t wrestle until she
gets cleared from the doctor,” Cook said.
The Boomers lineup for
tonight’s high school dual looks like this:
103 - Josh Rosborough; 112 -
Jonathan Rosborough; 119 - Tommy Bucher; 125 - Michael Hale; 130 - Matt White;
135 - Kelby Shifflett; 140-160 - vacant; 171 - Zach White; 189 - vacant; 215 -
Derek Branson; 275 - Kevin Tapia.
The middle school dual will start at
approximately 5:15 p.m., Cook said, and the high school dual will
follow.
There is one change in the middle school schedule as far as this
weekend’s Kingfisher Tournament is concerned. Kingfisher moved the start of its
tournament to tonight because the Yellowjackets are playing Saturday in the
Class 3A football championship game. Since Woodward already has a match tonight,
the Boomers will wrestle only on the second day of the tournament on
Friday.
Here is the rest of Woodward’s schedule:
Dec. 6 -
Weatherford (HS and MS), 5 p.m.
Dec. 7-8 - Perry Tournament
Dec.
11 - @ Geary/Hinton (HS and MS)
Dec. 14-15 - Kingfisher
Tournament
Dec. 15 - McLoud Tournament (MS)
Dec. 20 - @ Clinton,
(HS and MS), 5 p.m.
Jan. 4-5 - Cushing Tournament (HS)
Jan. 8 -
Enid (HS and MS), 5 p.m.
Jan. 12 - @ Liberal, Kan. (MS)
Jan. 17 -
District Duals vs. El Reno, Guthrie, John Marshall (MS and HS)
Jan. 18-19
- Chickasha Tournament (MS)
Jan. 19 - Newkirk Dual Tournament
(HS)
Jan. 22 - @ Kingfisher/Watonga, 4 p.m. (MS and HS)
Jan. 25-26
- Chickasha Tournament (HS)
Feb. 1-2 - Junior High All State, Oklahoma
City
Feb. 8-9 - Dual State
Feb. 15-16 - Regional
Tournament
Feb. 22-23 - State Tournament
Meg Wochnick
The Olympian 11/29/07
YELM - For Cassie Virgil, it was hard to be the only girl on Yelm's wrestling
team.
That's what the Tornados' senior endured last season.
Despite going 17-3 and winning the district title in the 119-pound weight
class, Virgil's main competition was members of the opposite gender until she
reached the state wrestling tournament, Mat Classic XIX.
"It was really hard to go on my own to tournaments," Virgil said. "I had to
go by myself. The school district wasn't going to support me in wrestling by
myself."
In spite of the Yelm coaching staff's efforts in helping her at the Mat
Classic, it was realized afterward that Virgil needed her own coach.
And the coach that was hired? No one other than Virgil's aunt.
"It was awful, she didn't have a coach," Yelm girls coach Amy Earley said.
"They said, 'OK, we'll give you your own coach.' She called me and said, 'Can
you be my coach?' "
It's not a one-on-one treatment for Virgil. More and more girls turned out to
participate in the girls wrestling program. As of Tuesday, eight girls made up
the Tornados' team.
"It's really nice," Virgil said. "I like not being the only girl. To have
that support and that backbone is a really nice thing.
"I think it'll make the program a lot stronger."
But when it comes to coaching wrestling, Earley's never done it. Prior to
this season, Earley coached softball at Pierce College, as well as volleyball
and basketball at Washington Middle School.
Her lack of background in wrestling was OK with Yelm administrators.
"They wanted someone with coaching experience," said Earley, 35. "I don't
know how to coach wrestling. I've watched 5,000 matches, but don't know how to
coach it. They told me, 'We'll teach you how to coach wrestling.' "
The girls team practices at the same time with the boys team, so that allows
Earley to learn from Yelm's longtime wrestling coach, Gaylord Strand.
"I'm in training, and they're in training," Earley said.
The majority of the Yelm girls don't have wrestling experience, and some have
never played sports before turning out for wrestling. The team's top wrestlers
are Virgil and fellow senior Danielle Curlis, whose brother James was a state
wrestler at Yelm. She and Virgil often pair up in practice.
"Once they got a girls team, I came right out," said Curlis, who will compete
in the 145-pound weight class for now. "By Feb. 15, I'll be at 125 (pounds). I'm
going to be a state champion. The coaches are great, and the teammates are
great."
"It's amazing to me that Danielle has never competed in a competition for
wrestling," Earley said. "She's intense. She's really good."
Each year, girls wrestling programs have become more popular in Washington
state. Lakes, which competes in the Class 3A Western Cascade Conference along
with Yelm, is starting a girls wrestling program this year. So far, the Lancers
have 14 girls out. Other regional girls teams include Camas, Elma, Hoquiam,
Emerald Ridge, Fife, Rochester and Kelso. The Tornados' first tournament will be
Saturday at Emerald Ridge in Puyallup.
"You can expect next year it will probably be double or quadruple of what
there is this year," Strand said. "Schools have been picking up on it. Because
the WIAA has sanctioned it, it's opened up that door."
Because not all schools have girls wrestling programs, Yelm finds itself
going to where other girls programs are, regardless of classification. The team
will compete in eight meets, including three dual matches before state. Earley
said her goal is to send at least half her team to the Mat Classic, which
implemented a first-ever girls state wrestling tournament last year.
"I want all of them to at least have an opportunity to wrestle at state,"
Earley said.
By Kenny Cress / Sports Writer 11/29/07
There is a slight time differential between boys and girls wrestling matches on
the Central Coast.
There is no intensity difference.
The Pioneer Valley and Righetti girls got after it at Righetti Wednesday night
in the first-ever dual meet for the two programs. The visiting Panthers put on a
powerful display, winning the first round of varsity matches 72-6 and the second
round 66-6.
High school boys wrestling meets consist of three periods of
two minutes each. The Pioneer Valley-Righetti girls match had three periods of
1:30 each. No match went the distance, though. There were a raft of forfeit wins
for the Panthers.
Righetti had only six wrestlers, some of whom did
double duty. Girls have competed in the Warriors' wrestling program before but,
“This is the first time we've had an actual girls team,” Righetti Athletic
Director Eric Albright said.
There has been a state wrestling tournament
for girls. “The CIF has split girls programs into Northern and Southern sections
and is trying to work it so there will eventually be sectional and league
competition,” as there is for boys, said Albright.
As for the first-year
Pioneer Valley program, “We have 30 young ladies,” said Panthers coach Justin
Magdaleno. “These girls are working out from 6-9:30 p.m. five nights a week and
working out on Saturdays. They have study hall. They work very hard on their
conditioning.”
It showed.
Pioneer Valley's wrestlers went out hard
from the start and often got startlingly quick pins. Ashley Spencer's was the
quickest, 13 seconds at 154 pounds in the second round.
Liz Alipia, at
138 pounds, took five seconds longer to get hers. Jasmine Williams earned a stop
in 29 seconds at 165 pounds, also in the second round.
In the first
round, Jessica Trujillo won her match in 57 seconds at 235 pounds. Teammate
Desirae Ionata won her 146-pound match in the same amount of time
then.
“I'd been watching guys (wrestle), and I was thinking ‘What would
it be like if we had a girls team here?,'” said Ionata, who's a
sophomore.
She found out.
“At school, some of the people think
it's really cool that I wrestle. Some people think ‘Girls WRESTLE?' I think we
showed them that girls can wrestle.”
Ionata was certainly more than
capable in her debut match. “At first I was pretty scared,” she said. “Then
adrenaline took over,” and she got the job done.
Liz Salcedo is a Pioneer
Valley senior. She wrestled at 189 pounds Wednesday night and took just 59
seconds to get a pin.
She said she became interested in wrestling because
“It's another skill I want to pick up.
“I do Tae Kwan Do. I want to be a
stunt woman.”
No match went the distance Wednesday night. Deidre Burson
(165 pounds) and Aubrei Estrada (114) earned Righetti's wins with
pins.
Estrada rebounded after Pioneer Valley's Veronica Morales stopped
her in the first round of matches. Other Pioneer Valley winners by pin included
Rebeccah Herrera (108 pounds) and Laura Stewart (235) in the first round; and
Angelica Gonzalez (108) in the second.
Pioneer Valley competes in the
Thousand Oaks Tournament Saturday. Both teams compete in a three-way meet at
Oxnard Pacifica next Wednesday.
Texas - Tri Centennial, Liberty & WT White, Centennial Wins vs. Liberty &
WT White (Results)
Centennial 48 - W.T. White 6
95 dbl fft
102 Reyes © wbfft
110
Rojas (W) wbf Adams ©
119 Martin © wbfft
128 Mithani © wbfft
138 Hunter
© wbf Trejo (W)
148 Padro © wbfft
165 Baiey © wbfft
185 Brussow ©
wbfft
215 Davis © wbfft
Centennial 31 - Liberty 18
95 dbl
fft
102 Reyes © wbd Gunia (L)
110 Torres (L) wbf Rivera ©
119 Zaman ©
wbfft
128 Mithani © wbmd Nunez (L)
138 Hunter © wbf Martin (L)
148
Padro © wbfft
165 Pacetti (L) wbfft
185 Brussow © wbfft
215 Lewis (L)
wbf Davis ©
November 29, 2007
THUNDER BAY, Ont. -
Lakehead Athletics and Thunderwolves
women's wrestling will be staging the fifth annual Gord Garvie North American
Women's Duals Championships Dec. 2 at the C J Sanders Fieldhouse on the Lakehead
campus in Thunder Bay, Ontario. This year will see five teams taking part; three
from Canada and two from the USA. Action kicks off at 10:00 am and runs until
5:00 pm EST.
Lakehead Wrestling Head Coach and Duals Meet organizer Owen
Dawkins said Thunder Bay will again have the opportunity to see world class
women's wrestling. "This is going to be a great weekend of women's wrestling!
Although the number of teams attending this year is smaller; it's still going to
be a fantastic tourney with many of the best Canadian and US female collegiate
wrestlers taking part."
The women's teams are host Lakehead, defending
Duals and CIS champions Calgary, Saskatoon, and the University of the
Cumberlands from Kentucky, and the United States Olympic Education Center team
based at the University of Northern Michigan in Marquette, Michigan.
University of the Cumberlands Head Coach Kip Flanik said his team is
always eager to make its annual journey north to the North American Duals. "We
look forward to competing again in Thunder Bay. This continues to be the premier
dual meet tournament in North America and is well run by the Lakehead staff.
It's always nice to see where we rank among Canada's best college teams."
The Duals meet format is a crowd pleaser and this format is a team
competition where two teams go head-to-head and each individual wrestler
competes for team points and not for individual results or medals. The team with
the most points at the end of the series of one-round bouts gets the win. The
teams with the most wins advance to the medal rounds.
Due to the
upcoming Canadian and US Olympic trials in December; some teams that normally
attend the North American Duals will not be coming this year; but will return
next season.
Round Four of the Duals and the Finals round will be
videowebcast live with ordering info available at
http://events.news-cast.com/events/Lakehead. Viewers will need hi speed internet
and Windows Media Player to watch the broadcast. The broadcast will begin at
3:00 pm EST.
Lakehead Garvie International Duals
Schedule:
Saturday, December 2, 2007 (All Times Eastern Standard
Time)
Women's Duals
Round One - 10-11 am
Round Two - 11 am -12
noon
Round Three - 1-2 pm
Round Four - 2-3 pm
Round Five - 3-4 pm
(Videowebcast)
Finals - 4-5 pm (Videowebcast)
Team
Rosters:
Lakehead Thunderwolves:
48kg Jessica
Bershatsk
51kg Brigitta Balog
59kg Leah Dougherty
63kg Laurel
knowles
67kg Amy Slone
72kg Emma Brightwell
82kg Nicole
Plummer
Calgary Dinos:
48kg Tessa Gallinger
51kg Genevieve
Haley
55kg Andrea Ross or Sheina Fisher
59kg Jazzie Barker
63kg Monique
Smith
67kg Stephanie Buchan
72kg Vanessa Wilson and Erica Wiebe
82kg
Megan Goldsmith
Saskatoon:
48kg Lindsay Wickstrom
51kg Pam
Ewanishin
55kg Steph Dergo
59kg Jill Gallays
63kg Amy Dyck
67kg
Dayna Brose
72kg Jane Packota
82kg Beth Thompson
University of
the Cumberlands Roster:
48kg Kapua Torres
51kg Jessica Medina
55kg
Sandy Do
59kg Breisja Macera
63kg Othella Lucas
67kg Lauren
Knight
72kg Paige Rife
80kg Christen Paysse
Alternates:
48kg
Rachel Woodruff
55kg Norma Rueda
59kg Nena Garcia
USOEC
Roster:
48kg- Alyssa Lampe
51kg - Sadie Kaneda
55kg - Amy Borgnini,
Whitney Conder, Beth Johnson
59kg - Shyla Iokia, Amber Miracle, Elizabeth
DeAngelo
63kg - Schuyler Brown
67kg - Lindsey Brooks
72kg - Katie
Crouch
Source:
Mike Aylward
Lakehead University
By CHENG SIO 11/29/07
sports@cggazette.com
Envision
that you are in the middle of a room.
To your left is the only senior on your
wrestling team, 135-pounder Alex Fryd.
Now as you turn around, you’ll see
seventh-grader Samantha Joseph, Ransom’s first female wrestler.
In the back of the room happens to be
215-pound sophomore Skip Johnson. Johnson sustained a preseason injury and has
been deemed out for the season.
And as you make your way back to the front
of the practice room, the rest of your team awaits.
Those are the joys and tribulations Ransom
coach Wilbert Johnson has to face this season.
First up: experience or the lack
thereof.
With Fryd being the only senior, the
pressure will be on him to guide this team on and off the mat week in and week
out. With such a heavy load, can the burden be too much? According to Johnson,
he thinks Fryd will do just fine.
“He’s become a leader,” Johnson said.
“He’s really committed. My assistant coaches really lit a spark in him. None of
us work at Ransom, so he’s my eyes and everything on campus.”
Next: How does Ransom handle having a
female on its wrestling team for the first time in school history?
“I’ve waited for this to happen,” Johnson
stated.
But does Joseph belong, especially as a
seventh-grader?
“She’s pretty serious about this and the
team says nothing but good things about her,” Johnson declared. “We are looking
to get her in the lineup, otherwise the coaches wouldn’t have asked me to get
her some gear.”
Lagos, Nigeria -11/29/07
Nigeria will host the first edition of the West African
sub-regional wrestling championships next year, the President of the Nigeria Ama
t eur Wrestling Federation (NAWF), Chief Austin Edeze, said here
Thursday.
He told newsmen the championships would help in the crusade to
raise the stand ard of the game in the sub-region.
"We are planning to
host other countries in the sub-region so as to further po pularise and develop
the sport. We also want to create a rallying point for bett e r integration,''
PANA quoted Edeze as saying.
He said the NAWF was prepared to provide the
necessary leadership and directio n to member-countries as part of efforts to
reposition wrestling in West Africa.
"Nigeria, for instance, is now
relating well with other countries and they als o accord us the recognition,''
he said.
Edeze, who is also the President of the sport's sub-regional
body, also said h e had hosted presidents of the wrestling federations from the
zone in October last year in Lo me, capital of Togo, as part of strategies to
enhance the development of the gam e .
He also talked about the
forthcoming national championships, adding they were tailored toward preparing
athletes for the 2008 Beijing Olympic qualifiers to be staged in Tunisia in
March.
He recalled the impressive performance of Nigerian Wrestlers at
the ninth All- Africa Games in Algeria in July where 21 wrestlers in the male
and female categories wo n 21 medals -- six gold, seven silver and eight
bronze.
Edeze pledged to continue to accord priority to the welfare of
athletes and of ficials, adding that transparency and accountability would be
the watchword of t h e federation under his leadership.
He disclosed
three top national referees have been upgraded by the continental wrestling body
while two wrestlers -- Isaac Boaz and Amarachi Obiajuwa -- were already in
Cameroon for an Olympic solidarity course.
According to him, the national
congress of the federation has been scheduled f or either Port Harcourt or Abuja
in February 2008 where the stakeholders would d e liberate on policy issues to
move wrestling forward.
Edeze solicited the support of the media in the
reportage of the federation's activities to make wrestling the number one sport
in the country.
Lagos - 29/11/2007
Brock News:
The Brock wrestling team hosted the Ontario
Amateur Wrestling Association Senior Championships this past weekend.
The
women's team finished first by a whopping 32 points with four girls claiming the
top spot in their respective events: Alana King (48 kg), Jessie Bandy (51 kg),
Michelle Fazzari (59kg), and Megan Swietzer (63 kg). Five other Badgers finished
in the top three for a total of nine Badger females on the podium.
The men's
team finished second in the tournament behind only Guelph by 17 points. Both
Ryan Welker and Alex Theriault-Brown finished first in 66 kg and 84 kg weight
classes respectively. Both Mike Neufeld (96 kg) and Steve Snijders (120 kg)
finished second.
The Niagara IceDogs split a pair of games on the weekend.
The dogs travelled to Ottawa on Friday to face the legendary Brian Kilrea and
the '67s, however came back to Niagara with a 4-2 loss. The IceDogs ran into a
hot goaltender as Ottawa's Adam Courchaine turned away 37 of 39 shots the dogs
threw his way.
Niagara would redeem themselves on Sunday when the IceDogs
Adrian Volpe started his first game of his young Ontario Hockey League career
against the Owen Sound Attack. Volpe would receive a second star of the night
stoning the Attack on 40 of 42 shots he faced, and helping his penalty killers
kill off nine of the 10 power plays Owen Sound received.
Badgers men's
hockey captain Ryan Del Monte and women's basketball player Sharon Hollinshead
were named Henley Honda Brock Male and Female Athletes of the Week.
Del
Monte helped lead the Badgers to their league leading 10th and 11th win of the
season by notching three goals and one assist. Of Del Monte's three goals, two
of them happened to be game winners. His first came in a shootout on Saturday
against Windsor and his second was on the power play early in the second period
on Sunday versus the same Lancers.
Del Monte continued his four-game point
streak dating back to Nov. 14. During the streak he has recorded six goals and
two assists.
Hollinshead registered her first career triple-double recording
a season high 21 points, 16 boards, and 11 assists in a thrilling 97-91 double
overtime victory over the Ontario University Athletics East leading University
of Toronto Varsity Blues. With 3.2 seconds left on the clock of the first
overtime and the Badgers down three, Hollinshead carried the ball over half and
sent a prayer up from 40 feet out. Her prayer was answered and sent the game
into double overtime where the Badgers would go on to win.
Hollinshead has
also been named the Ontario University Athletics Pioneer Petroleums Female
Athlete of the Week for the week ending Nov. 25.
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2007-11-26
The U.S. Women’s College November Rankings has recently named three members
of the University of the Cumberlands Women’s Wrestling Team as ranked #1
nationally in their respective weight classes.
As of November 24, 2007, Melissa Gerard (Norway, MI) ranks at the top of the
44K/97lbs weight class in the nation, while Sandy Do (San Diego, CA) takes the
#1 spot in the 55K/121lbs division. Othella Lucas (San Diego, CA) also claims a
#1 spot for the Patriots in the 59K/130lbs weight group.
To qualify for national ranking, the athletes must be full-time undergraduate
college students who compete on women’s college varsity teams, women’s college
wrestling clubs, or are members of their men’s college varsity programs.
Of the 10 top-ranked wrestlers across the country in November, only three
held the number one position in the preseason rankings, which were released in
October. For the Patriot Ladies, Gerard is the only wrestler to have
accomplished this honor.
Cumberlands has already participated in four various tournaments and dual
meets. They will next travel to Thunder Bay, Ontario for the Lakehead Open on
November 30th and December 1st.
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Falcons have high hopes
entering wrestling season
By David Owen 11/29/07
sports@newstribune.comhttp://www.newstribune.com/articles/2007/11/29/sports/032aa2wrfalcon.txt
WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The accomplishments
the Blair Oaks wrestling program achieved last year were unprecedented in its
youthful six-year existence.
It was a year of firsts for the
Falcons:
* first team to go undefeated in duals.
* first team to
qualify six wrestlers to the state championships.
* first team to have
two fourth-place finishers.
* first team to finish in the top 10 at state
by taking eighth.
Talk about raising the bar.
Well, it's just been moved up another
notch.
“Last year definitely set the standard,” Blair Oaks coach Tim
Karsten said as the Falcons get set to open their season Thursday at Fulton. “We
have six returning state qualifiers, that's something we didn't have last year.
If the young wrestlers work and build around the state qualifiers, we could have
just as good a team as last year.”
Now the goal is to bring home a state
trophy.
“We want to jack it up a bit,” Karsten said. “We want to have a
team trophy. If we'd set that at the start of last year, maybe we would have got
up there. We were in a position to do it, but we kind of fell
short.”
Leading the Falcons' quest for hardware will be sophomore Mitch
Clark (135) and senior Kyle Clark (160). Last year, Mitch and Kyle took home
fourth-place medals at the Class 1 state meet.
Heading into the state
meet last year, Mitch was ranked No. 2 in the state at 125 and had a 25-1
record.
“(Mitch) has been wrestling all during the summer and has gotten
more muscular and I think he'll will be someone that everybody is going to have
to deal with when they go out on the mat,” Karsten said.
In the upper
weight classes, the Falcons boast a tough returning lineup, which features four
seniors.
“We have a nice group of seniors in the heavier group,” Karsten
said. “We'll be tough in the upper weight classes, and I'm looking forward to it
and I'm excited to see us wrestle there.”
Kyle Clark leads the group,
followed by Harrison Boyer (171), Michael Singer (189) and Kyle Henke (215).
Both Singer and Henke are looking to get back to the
championships.http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2007/11/29/sports/032aa2wrfalcon.txt
Junior Todd Alexander returns for the Falcons at
heavyweight. Last year, Alexander was the most improved Blair Oaks wrestler of
the six that made the trip to state, but Karsten knows getting back is going to
be tough.
“We wrestle a pretty tough schedule for a heavyweight,” Karsten
said. “Our district is loaded with state-quality kids, which will be good for
him. I expect him to be placing this year. I'm setting a high goal for him, but
I think it's achievable.”
At 112, junior Lance Van Loo will try to make
it back to state, while Ryan Heckman (119) will look to fill a void left by
James Barker.
Rounding out the lineup will be Adam Cline (125, soph.),
Tanner Cline (130, sr.) and Josh Wolken (152, jr.).
“We have a few young
spots there and we haven't gelled quite into a solid lineup yet,” Karsten said.
“But I think it has potential to be a real good one.”
That leaves one
spot to fill at 103, and it's the first time in Blair Oaks history that its
being filled by a female, as junior Hannah McNally will make her debut on the
varsity team.
“She's a state quality kid, who qualified in track and
cross country,” Karsten said. “She's scrappy and quick, and we're looking
forward to see what she can do.
And the Falcons have taken her in with
open arms.
“We're glad we have a 103-pounder, a lot of teams don't,”
Karsten said. “At the start, I was making sure she didn't get overpowered and
get hurt, but then the guys starting realizing she was doing pretty good and
said, ‘Leave her alone and just let her wrestle.'
“We treat her like the
others and she pulls her weight just like every body else. She's a warrior at
heart, and she'll do a good job for us.”
