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Purler Wrerstling Academy

3/26/2001

Kayla Fischer was 2nd in the female state meet and will be traveling to the Girl's Nationals this weekend. Kayla is a fantastic wrestler and should do very well. I just received an email from the new wrestling coach of Sam Houston High in Arlington, TX where I coached for 3 years before moving back to MO to start PWA. They had one boy in the finals and several girl place winners. After next season, all of the wrestlers I know at Sam will be gone but it is neat to get emails from them on their season. There new coach, Ryan Menard, is really building the program up at Sam and the kids love him. Brandy Killingsworth and Ember Brettman both have placed in the Girl's nationals in the past and both placed very high in this years state meet. Some of the Sam kids are competing for NAIA power Missouri Valley.

Kayla Fischer had another great weekend. I wrote a coach's corner update late Friday afternoon while the kids and family were out of the house but somehow I lost it in the computer somewhere. My brother in law in Stillwater read it but it is not on line anymore and I can't find it. I should have just let Angela publish it and left it alone. In that update, I mentioned that Kayla Fishcher won TWO NATIONAL TITLES and earned another SILVER at the LaFemme Nationals in Tennessee two weekends ago. She won the Freestyle and Greco-Roman titles and was caught and pinned with just one second left in the third for the Gold Folkstyle medal. She was winning that match 7-3! Kayla is an amazing athlete. In fact, after one of Kayla's performances, an awestruck woman climbed out of the stands and asked Jim how she could make babies like that. Jim got a kick out of that. These events are extremely competitive. Kayla faced opponents from Ohio, Iowa, California and elsewhere. This past weekend she traveled to Michigan for the USGWA National Folkstyle Championships and came away with another GOLD. She outscored her four opponents 40-1!! I am telling you, she is a tiger on the mat. Medal Count Kayla Fischer: 3 GOLDS and one SILVER in 9 days and 4 National Tournaments. What a grind. Her dad, Jim, said she had a following of fans within no time at each event...she is fun to watch. Kayla trained on her basement 'home mat' with her brother Matt to prepare for these competitions. Kyle Hachtel (PWA State Medalist) also helped her to prepare. Matt was 5th in AAU State for us and will do damage for us very soon. He is a snakey leg attacker. Jim has done a great job with these kids. Jim also said she proudly wore her Purler Wrestling Academy jacket on the awards stand. Needless to say, I am proud to have her in a Purler jacket. Kayla is 11 and may continue to compete or just concentrate on Gymnastics. Wait and see. I am pushing for wrestling. Go to www.usgwa.com for results.

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Brother, can this girl wrestle

By PAUL BETIT, Portland Press Herald Writer

3/28/2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers

SOUTH PARIS — Growing up in a household with three older brothers who loved to wrestle can have an effect on a girl.

For Jen Wormwood, it meant she had to follow in her brothers' footsteps. She had to wrestle, too.

"My brothers use to beat me up wrestling," said Wormwood, a senior at Oxford Hills High School, "and I started to give them a run for their money so I thought I would be good at it."

She's become so good, in fact, she has won two national wrestling championships.

Wormwood claimed her latest this past weekend when she won all of her four matches to defend her title in the 138-pound division at the National Girls High School Wrestling Association championships in Lake Orion, Mich.

Wormwood tuned up for her title defense by wrestling against boys.

This past high school season while wrestling in the 135-pound division, Wormwood went 18-8 in her matches against boys.

"Most of the guys have more upper-body physical strength," she said, "and wrestling against them really gets you ready to wrestle against the girls."

Wormwood defeated wrestlers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Hawaii and California at the nationals.

"Most of the girls I talked to had their own female state tournaments," she said. "Most of them were state champions."

Wormwood didn't win a state championship, but she did finish third in the Eastern Class A regional to become the first girl to qualify for the state meet in that class.

When Oxford Hills handed out its winter sports awards, Wormwood, who lives in South Paris, was named Most Valuable Wrestler, although another wrestler on the team had won a state championship and two others had accumulated more than 100 victories during their careers.

"I've had state champions before, but Jen's gone further than any girl we've had," said Oxford Hills Coach Chris Cobbett. "And she's been right up there with the best ever as far as work ethic. She's the type of athlete I want the incoming freshmen to most be like."

Wormwood thrives on the competition.

"I'm partially a tomboy," she said, "and competition has always been important to me. I always want to know who the best is.

"If I wasn't watching my older brothers' sporting events, I would be out in the field at our house playing softball, baseball, kickball or whatever."

Wormwood isn't done wrestling. She has been accepted to Cumberland College and the University of Minnesota, two of the four colleges she's found that have women's wrestling teams.

"She can get a scholarship to any one of them," said Cobbett. "They all want her."

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 725-8795 or at: pbetit@pressherald.com

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Girl wrestlers take each other and the boys to the mat

By RODDIE BURRIS, The (Columbia) State

3/14/2001

Crouched over, looking into the eyes of her opponent, 16-year-old Holly
Peters of North Carolina has two thoughts.

"What's my first move, and how can I take this girl down."

At the referee's whistle, the two girls explode toward one another,
jostling, pushing, holding and twisting one another to the mat.

The girls wrestled recently during the first South Carolina Women's
Wrestling Championships at Dreher High School in Columbia. Twenty-six girls
from the Carolinas, Florida and Virginia competed in what organizers hope
will become a major annual event.

The goal is to encourage more girls to choose the sport. Most high school
wrestling teams are all male, although more girls are joining. Organizers of
the recent championships hope showcasing the girls who wrestle will
encourage others to join.

The girl wrestlers say they love it.

"I'm rebellious," said Ginny Welch, a junior at Lakewood High School in
Sumter. "My mom brought us up that way to do what you want to do and don't
worry what people think. Boys have gotten used to me being around."

Katie Parker, 17, of Deltona, Fla., is a second-year wrestler who is 2-for-4
in matches against boys.

"For a lot of girls, this isn't even an option," she said. At first boys
snickered when she took to the mats. Now, they give her respect, she said.

Coach Scott Peters of Forest High School in Ocala, Fla., brought several
wrestlers to Columbia for the matches. In two weeks, some of those wrestlers
will head to Michigan to compete in the national girls championships.

"This is more mat time for us in out-of-state competition," he said.

At the recent matches, the appeal was evident.

Girls from second grade to high school seniors wrestled in 10 weight
divisions, from 60 pounds to 158 pounds. Most matches lasted through all
three two-minute rounds.

About 30 spectators watched, most of them relatives, coaches or friends.

"Some of these girls wrestle all year without winning a match," said Dreher
High School head coach Paul Watson, who organized the event for that reason.
"Getting a (all-girls) state championship under their belts will give them
confidence."

It may also save the sport. A 1972 federal provision known simply as Title
IX prohibits sex discrimination in schools in academics and in sports.

That means schools must provide girls with the same opportunity to play a
sport as they do boys, wrestling officials said. If a sport such as
wrestling has no girl participants, it may violate that requirement.
Administrators may then choose to eliminate the sport.

But encouraging girls to compete in wrestling may also require some people's
attitudes to change.

"They've got to get over this girl thing," said Mel Welch of Sumter, who
watched her daughter, Ginny, compete. "Three years ago there were two girls
in the entire state in wrestling. The next year there were 10. When the
girls are encouraged, they will take off."

Welch said her daughter, a junior, has more confidence, more pride and
self-esteem since entering the sport three years ago.

But she complained that some coaches and referees discourage the girl
wrestlers. She said referees sometimes won't call points for a girl wrestler
if she's facing a boy.

"Some people say girls can't wrestle, but we're proving them wrong," said
Brittany Delgado, 10, a fifth-grader at Fountain Inn Elementary School near
Greenville. Her younger sister, Breana, a second-grader, also wrestled.

Robert and Ericka Delgado, Brittany and Breana's parents, have gained a
certain perspective about girl wrestling. They realize it's not just a
passing fad.

"The South is still behind," Erika Delgado said. "There are not enough girls
competing in the South for our girls to compete against, so they have to
wrestle against the boys."

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Patriots' wrestler a national champ

3/26/2001

LAKE ORION, Mich. -- Binghamton sophomore Wendy Casey became the Patriots' first national wrestling champion with a pair of victories Sunday at the United States Girls' Wrestling Association Tournament.
Casey, a 9-0 winner in the final over Danni Presley of Napa, Calif., was 4-0 in the tournament, which featured more than 500 wrestlers.

"She represented New York state very well," Binghamton wrestling coach Tom Beatty said. "Wendy was really the show here today."

Casey, who finished fifth in last year's nationals, cruised to a 5-1 semifinal victory at 126 pounds over Raquel Magdaleno of Little Lake, Mich.

Against Presley, Casey recorded a first-period takedown. In the second period, Casey had an escape and another takedown for a 7-0 lead. A two-point near-fall in the third period gave Casey a 9-0 win-- and the title.

"My philosophy has always been, 'Takedowns win championships,' " Beatty said. "Wendy dominated on her feet this whole tournament, and she did not get taken down one time in any of her matches. "I was one of the biggest doubters of women's wrestling in the beginning. But I was amazed at the level of skill. I've been around wrestling for about 15 years now, and this was my first women's tournament. I was really impressed with the quality of the wrestling."

Toni Copeland, an Oxford Middle School seventh-grader, finished third out of eight girls in the junior high division.

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AV girl stars in wrestling meet

GENERAL ROUNDUP
TIMES STAFF 3/30/2001

LAKE ORION, Mich. -- Amador Valley High School senior Erica Hartman claimed the 165-pound championship at the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association High School Tournament last week.

Hartman pinned Alicia Wilson of Santee, last year's girls state champion at 175, in 3 minutes, 45 seconds of the championship match. She also pined Texas state champion Casey Britain of Amarillo in 4:39 in the semifinals. Hartman also pinned two of her other three opponents in earlier rounds as she went on to win her fourth girls tournament. Hartman was one of two champions from California, helping her home state place second with 338 points to national champion Michigan with 380.