News Page
Player of the Week
March 2, 2000
Heather Morris — Klein Oak High, Girls' Wrestling
Klein Oak High's Heather Morris was just a youngster when she realized she didn't like being picked on.
"I was always wrestling around with my brothers,'' says Morris. "They would pick on me, and we would end up in a wrestling match.''
Little did Morris know that those daily matches would lead to a pair of state wrestling championships. The 5-foot-8 junior recently pinned Cathy Cotter in 1:51 to win the girls' 110-pound state wrestling title. It was the second straight year Morris has won the crown. As a sophomore, Morris rallied from a 17-10 deficit in the final period to beat Cotter, 20-17, to capture the championship.
"I pretty much knew it was going to be her again,'' says Morris. "We have had some great matches. I was ready for her.''
Morris, who is the only female wrestler in the Klein Independent School District, has compiled an impressive 47-1 record in two years of scholastic grappling. Her only loss came during a tournament her sophomore year.
"It was my very first match,'' she says. "I didn't know that much. I got thrown around a couple times. I ended up second in the tournament, which wasn't that bad. But it made me more determined. I realized right then that finishing second wasn't very cool.''
Morris, who also plays center field and catches for the under-18 Pasadena Panthers' softball team, hopes to earn a scholarship to either Oklahoma University or the Naval or Air Force Academy. But for now, she's concentrating on her scholastic career.
Today, she is trying to raise money to attend the National Girls' Wrestling Tournament in Michigan March 24-25.
"Cathy (Cotter) is ranked No. 3 in the nation,'' says Morris of the girl she beat in 3:02 earlier this season. "I didn't go to nationals last year, so I didn't get ranked. But if she is No. 3, I would think I would have a good chance to be No. 1. I am looking forward to going. I just have to raise the money.''
Morris, who makes A's and B's in school, recently scored a 1050 on her PSAT. She plans to attend Dan Gable's wrestling camp this summer and eventually train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
"I hope it becomes an Olympic sport,'' says Morris. "That is one of my goals. I plan to do everything I can to become a better wrestler.''
— Todd Hveem
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Never on the Bottom
By Mike Butts
January 7, 2000
The Lanier High girls’ wrestling team, in its inaugural season, has had to borrow headgear from opponents and compete while wearing boys’ uniforms and shoes. It could be embarrassing for some, but 16-year-old Jamie Bottomley takes it all in stride.
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For now.
Bottomley is a sophomore and already one of the Lady Vikings top wrestlers. She has mixed feelings about the lack of proper equipment for the team, but she wants to wrestle so badly that she would probably compete in ballet slippers and a bike helmet if there was no choice.
“I just love wrestling,” says Bottomley, who has lost only two matches this season and helps pace Lanier’s first-ever girls team. “It’s so much fun. It’s really inspiring if you get the other person pinned.”
Bottomley and her coach, Nancy Lehman-Carssow, seem to feel the team’s equipment problems are just part of starting a new sport.
“We feel like we’re blazing new territory, and the kids are fine with that,” says Lehman-Carssow.
Bottomley says her coach eventually ordered head gear for each member of the team. But when the wrestling season began earlier this school year, it was a different story.
“At the beginning we had to share with the guys’ head sets and sometimes we had to borrow from other teams,” says Bottomley. “It was hard finding wrestling shoes and at the stores they said they didn’t make girls’ wrestling shoes.”
Bottomley says the team is looking for someone to make uniforms for them. For now they are wearing new boys’ uniforms purchased for the team and boys’ wrestling shoes.
“It’s just a new sport, so I sort of understand why we have guys’ uniforms,” says Bottomley. “Honestly, by the time next year or the year after if they don’t
have girls uniforms I would be upset. They should have gotten uniforms and found out about this stuff before the season started.”
Obviously, Bottomley isn’t too worried about uniforms when she’s wrestling. Despite taking up the sport for the first time this school year, she came in first at the Austin I.S.D. meet in December in her 165-pound weight class. She placed third at a meet in Bryan. And she wants to keep wrestling, and winning, throughout her high school years.
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“I think I’m doing pretty good,” she says. “Some moves I can master and some I can’t. I think I pick up certain moves really quickly.”
Although the Lady Viking athlete — who also plays softball and competes in the shot put and discus — has never been to the state championship meet, she wants to get there and win.
“I’m working on going to state this year,” says Bottomley. “And by my senior year my goal is to be a state champion.”
Lehman-Carssow has no reason to believe she can’t achieve that goal.
“Jamie is a tough kid and smart as can be,” says Lehman-Carssow. “She came out this year and started focusing and is really good.”
For Bottomley, the novelty of the sport was one of its attractions.
Says Bottomley, “I sort of wanted to be different and go out for something I never thought I would do.”
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National Buzz
7/14/2000
The United States Girls' Wrestling Association has named two wrestlers from Hawaii All-Americans. Stephanie Bolton and Katrina Winget, Class of 2000 graduates of Radford High and Moanalua High, respectively, received the honor. Bolton will attend Cumberland College in Kentucky this fall on a wrestling scholarship. Winget is set to go to the University of Hawaii, where she will not wrestle.
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National Buzz
7/11/2000
Sara Fulp-Allen of Half Moon Bay High will represent the U.S. girls’ wrestling team at the Junior Pan Am Games, slated to take place July 14-24 in Lima, Peru. The 14-year-old has also participated at the Cadet Women’s National Free Style Wrestling Championship in Battle Creek, Mich. Fulp-Allen has been wrestling at 101 pounds. Her wrestling is also taking her to Bulgaria and Paris this summer.
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Wrestling Away a Placing… Freshman Sara Fulp-Allen of Half Moon Bay High won a third place in the 106-pound class and state champion Helaina Day of San Mateo High finished fourth in the 137-pound class this weekend at the National Girls Wrestling Tournament in Detroit. Day suffered two losses, but won her last match to finish with a 4-2 record. Fulp-Allen wrestled to a 4-1 record, capped by a win in the third place match. Other locals completing in the match included Nicole Williams and Terresa Aiello from Terra Nova High.
