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Girl wrestlers buck tradition

By Walter Grable

Indianapolis Star

January 25, 2001

As Mike Burdick walked off the mat after his second-round victory at a wrestling tournament last month at Bloomington North High School, a confused expression crossed his face.

Burdick, a senior wrestler at Terre Haute North, had defeated Hannah Paarlberg, a sophomore at Bloomington North. It was the first time he wrestled a girl.

"It was different," said Burdick. "It was hard to concentrate. My coaches were telling me not to worry about it. But you have to, because I didn't want to touch her (in some spots)."

Though there are fewer than 20 girls in the state participating in high school wrestling, the numbers are growing. The state tournament begins Saturday.

At the Shenandoah Sectional, the host school will feature 103-pounder Ashley Sturgeon, who is 15-5 and will be one of the top seeds in her weight class. At Bloomington North, Paarlberg (8-21) will wrestle at 112 pounds for the host school.

"I love it when the referee raises my hand (after a victory)," said Sturgeon. "Then people say I'm just a girl. But I've proved to them I could do it."

Said Bloomington North's Monica Clay: "To beat the guys is a great feeling. You break the stereotype that girls can't do anything better than guys."

The number of girls wrestling at the high school level is on the rise so much across the nation that high school athletic associations in Hawaii, Texas and Colorado have created separate tournaments in the past five years.

"Of the two traditional male sports (football and wrestling), we have seen, over the last five years, more growth in (girls) wrestling (against boys)," said Bruce Howard, director of publications and communication for the National Federation of State High School Associations.

In the 1995-96 season, Howard said, 1,164 high school girls were wrestling across the country. In 1999-2000, there were 2,474. In Michigan, three girls advanced to its state finals last year.

"Last year, we had 250 to 300 females on teams," said Bill Bupp, assistant director of wrestling for the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

This year, there are 252 girls on Michigan teams.

While numbers point to a rise in girls participating on the mat, not all are pleased with inter-gender wrestling. The girls dress and weigh in separately from the boys.

"If I had a daughter, she wouldn't wrestle," said Ed Fox, wrestling coach at Fort Wayne Carroll High and president of the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association.

"There are just too many wrestling technique positions that are compromising to the female anatomy. There's the cradle and the ball and change, were wrestlers have to ride through the crotch area. I mean, how do you do it? Some might be hesitant."

Countered Sturgeon: "I don't know what the difference is. It's just another match when you're out there. I'm out there trying to take them down, and they're trying to take me down. When I'm out there, I'm just trying to get those points."

Richard Levering of Greenfield, who has three sons -- including one who wrestles for Eastern Hancock High -- doesn't believe girls should wrestle boys.

"If the boy wins, all he did was beat a girl," said Levering. "But if he loses, how embarrassing could that be?"

Just ask Tyler Whittaker, a freshman 103-pounder at Anderson Highland, who was pinned by Sturgeon this season.

"I wasn't as embarrassed as I thought," he said. "It was uncomfortable wrestling a girl. I was worrying about should I touch her here or there."

Whittaker's coaches wanted him to forfeit the match because they were concerned what it would do to him mentally if he lost. The freshman continues to wrestler for the Scots.

Injuries also have been a chief concern for those opposed to girls taking on boys.

At the Madison County championships, Tiffany West, a sophomore at Frankton High School, suffered a separated shoulder while wrestling David Scott of Anderson High School.

West is out for the year.

Last year, then-junior Rebekah Torbert of Northview tore her right anterior cruciate ligament while wrestling a boy from West Vigo High School. She has missed most of her senior season.

However, Sturgeon's mother says her daughter is just as physical as most of the boys she faces, and the boys should worry about getting hurt.

"She (Ashley) has broken kids' noses and ribs," Sherrie Sturgeon said. "I think she is more aggressive than some of the guys she has wrestled. She has to be."

Tourney on horizon?

Pendleton Heights wrestling coach Dave Cloud is planning the first state high school wrestling tournament for girls.

"It probably will not be a money-maker," said Cloud. "But it would give girls and opportunity to wrestle other girls."

Cloud, who has been working closely with United States Girls Wrestling Association chairman Kent Bailo, said the tournament might be held at Pendleton Heights in early March.

Staff Photo / David Humphrey Ashley Sturgeon, a 103-pound wrestler for Shenandoah High School, prepares mentally for a match. Sturgeon (15-5) is one of fewer than 20 girls wrestling

Staff Photo / David Humphrey Ashley Sturgeon (top) wrestles Tracey Runion of Eastern Hancock high in the finals of the White River Valley Conference.

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Contact Walter Grable at (317) 816-4426 or via e-mail at walter.grable@starnews.com.