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Wrestling women take hold

1/2000

Richmond Academy senior Brandon Porter remembers the day he found out the Musketeer wrestling team would be coached by a woman.

``I didn't believe it,'' Porter said when he heard the news that Nina Creech, believed to be the first female wrestling coach in the state, would coach the wrestling team this year. ``I thought the guys were just kidding.''

Porter's friends weren't joking. A few weeks later, Creech began her stint as Richmond Academy's wrestling coach.

``I didn't really know what to expect,'' junior Carl Tyson said. ``I was just getting used to coach Galen Phillips.''

Before the season started, Phillips took a job at Burke County High School, and because of a shortage of coaches at ARC, the wrestling team's season was in jeopardy.

Creech, who had coached various sports in her 10 seasons at Spirit Creek Middle School, left for ARC earlier this year. She was approached by athletic director Pat Rivers about taking over the wrestling program three weeks into the school year.

``I didn't want to see them not have a (wrestling) program,'' she said. ``In order for the guys to have a season, I told them I'd do it.''

She went to the Internet and researched everything about the sport, then went to a local bookstore and bought the book Wrestling for Dummies. Several of the team's seniors told her about different wrestling techniques and Steve King, a wrestling official, performed a couple of wrestling workshops at the school. Two volunteers with wrestling experience pitched in to help out.

Suddenly, Creech wasn't a stranger to the sport anymore.

Today, she leads the Musketeers into the Augusta City Championship at Cross Creek High School, joining host Cross Creek, Butler, Glenn Hills, Hephzibah, Josey, Laney, Westside, Evans and Lakeside in the event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

``At first, (coaching guys) was little bit uncomfortable,'' Creech said. ``Like when they weigh-in, they weigh in before school in their underwear. I mean, the principal weighs them in but I weigh them in if I have to. I've learned to overcome that kind of stuff.''

It is rare for women to coach high school wrestling, but it isn't uncommon to see females participating in matches.

According to statistics compiled by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHSA), the number of female wrestlers around the country has increased steadily since 1989-90.

Many colleges and high school have dropped wrestling because of Title IX, which states that the number of male athletes must equal the number of female athletes.

``There certainly has been an increase (in numbers) over the last couple of years,'' said Bruce Howard, Director of Publications and Communications for the NFSHSA.

``In the past, girls were denied and several of those cases were taken to court. From the open courts, a lot of females began to win those cases and state schools allow them to participate because of that procedure.''

Some states, such as Texas and California, offer female wrestling as a sport. However, in Georgia, wrestling is offered as a co-ed sport. Girls may compete, but most who do end up wrestling against boys in their respective weight classes.

``There are two ways to go about females participating and not participating,'' said Dr. Ralph Swearngin, GHSA Commissioner of Officials. ``If there is a comparable sport (such as baseball for boys and softball for girls), girls may not participate. But if there is not a comparable sport, they can participate.

``We don't have sports comparable to football or wrestling.''

Midway through the wrestling season at ARC, team members don't see a coach of the opposite sex. They see a coach who wants to win and is interested in helping promote the sport as well as helping wrestlers get better and take their abilities to a higher level.

``She's just like any other coach,'' Tyson said. ``She's there to support us and she's done a lot for us this year. She's almost like having a mom on the sidelines.''

It also seems that opposing wrestling teams have gotten used to seeing a woman wrestling coach on the opposing side of the mat.

``One of the most uncomfortable things when I started was after a match, it's a tradition for wrestlers to shake the opposing coach's hand,'' Creech said. ``They (wrestlers) would come up and look at me kind of funny. But I've gotten used to that.''

As for Porter, he's enjoyed his senior season under Creech, but said he'd would have liked to change one thing.

``The only difference between coach Creech and coach Phillips is coach Phillips was kind of a bigger guy,'' said Porter, who is undefeated in the heavyweight class. ``We don't have any coaches now that can help me out. Most of the coaches are small and work with guys in the light weight classes. But coach Creech has done a good job with us.''

Creech's enthusiasm for the sport has gotten the word around the school, and it seems a handful of coaches are interested in coaching the team next season. She says she doesn't know if she'll be the wrestling coach next season but won't turn down the opportunity.

``If the guys wanted me to stay on, I'd stay on,'' she said.

More female wrestlers

Since the start of the 1990's girls involved in wrestling has steadily increased. These are numbers reported to the National Federation of State High School Associations:

1989-90 -- 112

1990-91 -- 132

1991-92 -- 219

1992-93 -- 404

1993-94 -- 783

1994-95 -- 804

1995-96 -- 1,164

1996-97 -- 1,629

1997-98 -- 1,907

1998-99 -- 2,361

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Evans coach proud of team's behavior

As the only girl wrestling in a two-day tournament at Dublin last weekend, Kalan Garza found the unwelcome mat rolled out for her.

``I got different views from different guys,'' she said. ``Some of the guys were just like, `You're in male territory. You don't need to be here. Go back home.' The coaches were saying that, `You need to put her back in her place.'

``Other guys were real supportive. And other guys, when I got done with my match, were scared to come near me. So it was very interesting.''

Garza is one of five sophomore girls, along with Danielle Fleming, Tara Danielson, Brandy Gwinn and Jody Johnston, participating on the first-year wrestling team at Evans High School. With 19 boys on the 24-person roster, coach J.J. Williams also finds things interesting.

``I don't know if there's a win-win situation or a lose-lose situation,'' Williams said. ``I know that I've been impressed with the way the kids have handled it. I'm glad the girls came out, and I'm glad they stayed. I think it's made our program as a whole more well-rounded.''

Williams coached wrestling at Screven County for three years. However, this year he's had the challenge of starting a new program along with the integration of boys and girls on the same team. While he said that no one gets preferential treatment, Williams did say that there is a different set of rules.

``Bus rides, girls need to sit up front and boys need to sit in the back,'' he said. ``That's something I've never had to deal with. Having two separate locker rooms is a situation I've never had to deal with. Weigh-ins where they need to strip down because they haven't made weight, I have to have a female faculty member available to witness that. A lot of things I haven't had to deal with in the past.''

Williams also has a no-dating policy.

``What they do on their own time is their business,'' he said. ``I'm not snooping around town making sure they are not dating. But if they're hugging and kissing and loving in the bleachers, they are not paying attention to wrestling.''

Garza wrestles in the 125-pound weight class, mainly against boys. She has three wins by disqualification and still awaits the first pin of her brief career. However, she came out for the sport to prove a point.

``I decided at the beginning of the year that I wanted to be in it,'' she said. ``It's a first-year sport. I said that if it was a male dominant, then I was going to try it because I had to prove to the guys that the girls are just as good as the guys.''

Meanwhile, everything has lived up to her expectations.

``It's been awesome,'' she said. ``Things come easy to me. This sport is not one of them. This has been a very big learning experience.''

It's a learning experience for Williams as well. While certain body parts accidentally rub together in the spirit of competition, along with other different awkward situations, the first-year Evans coach has pondered the thought of a frivolous lawsuit.

``That's the first thing that popped in my (head),'' Williams said about co-ed wrestling. ``It's a double-edged sword now. I have no problem with girls coming out to wrestle. But if I said I was uncomfortable with the situation and said, `No, I don't want girls on my team,' I could get sued for not allowing females to come because we don't have a sport that's a comparison to wrestling ... On the other hand, having to show people moves, and guys and girls wrestling against each other, and let's say they don't knock first before coming in there and someone's dressing. You're up for a lawsuit there.''

However, Williams hasn't had to worry so far.

``The thing I'm proudest of is the fact that they've been a mature bunch about the situation,'' he said. ``Obviously, you get in some intimate situations where you have to reach in between the legs and cross the breast line and so forth. It's not an issue anymore. The first day it was a little uncomfortable, but the kids have handled it maturely. They look at each other as wrestlers and not as boys and girls.''

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Title IX gets credit, blame at Olympics
U.S. women thrive, men struggle as colleges adjust to law

Molly Cummins - Knight Ridder September 21, 2000

WASHINGTON _ With an unprecedented number of Olympic sports to choose from at this year's Summer Games, female athletes from the United States have already broken a record: The ratio of women to men in the U.S. Olympic delegation is closer to 50-50 than it has ever been.

But a growing number of American college coaches are complaining that the same federal government policy that has brought U.S. women to new heights of athletic achievement is hurting male athletes, threatening their ability to succeed in the Olympic Games and other international competitions.

The law at issue is Title IX, passed by Congress in 1972 to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex in education and other federally funded programs. Now, with the Olympics under way in Australia, members of Congress are feeling pressure to change the way the law is enforced.

"The problem lies in the interpretation of what is a good law," Angel Shelton, legal counsel for the U.S. Track Coaches' Association, said at a news conference here earlier this month.

Few deny that Title IX has helped increase opportunities for women in sports. But in an effort to achieve parity in men's and women's athletic programs, and fearing lawsuits if they don't, some colleges are eliminating some of the less popular men's teams rather than adding programs for women.

Between the 1981-82 school year and the 1998-1999 school year, the number of college wrestling teams in the United States fell from 363 to 242, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Though the number of gymnastics teams fell over the same period for both men and women, men's teams dropped by 67 percent while 50 percent of women's teams were cut.

Title IX was not necessarily responsible for all those reductions. Some colleges cut back for financial reasons, others for lack of interest. But Title IX, some critics say, has increased pressure on schools to drop some men's athletic programs. The issue has caused a rift between coaches' associations and the Department of Education, and even among coaches themselves.

Title IX's defenders say many schools can meet the law's requirements without eliminating athletic programs.

Since 1979, the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education has used any of three criteria to measure compliance with Title IX: athletic opportunities for men and women proportional to their presence in the student body, proven and continued expansion of programs for women, and accommodation of the athletic interests of women.

According to the College Sports Council, whose members are drawn from a number of college coaches' associations, college administrators often look only to the first prong of the federal agency's test and cut men's sports -- especially those that don't generate revenue, such as swimming, wrestling and track.

For instance, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, eliminated its Division I men's tennis, soccer and wrestling teams last year.

"It's one of those things where nobody's willing to take a chance, because in a court of law, it's very subjective," said Mike Wolf, athletic media relations director for Miami University. To comply with Title IX within its budget requirements, Miami had to cut teams, he said.

"I think ... that's a cheap-shot choice," said Julie Herman, senior associate athletic director at the University of Louisville.

Frances O'shea, national coordinator for Title IX athletics with the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, said there was no need to re-examine Title IX and its enforcement.

To address what they consider Title IX's flaws, the coaches are turning to members of Congress, among them former Olympian and champion miler Jim Ryun, a Republican from Kansas.

"Women should have the same access as men to all the benefits at our universities," Ryun said Wednesday in a statement. "Title IX was signed into law to ensure equal access, but now the Department of Education is using the law to the detriment of intercollegiate sports. Instead of promoting equal access, the department sometimes uses a `proportionality' standard that is not good for women or men."

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