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Wrestling with summer

For Hawaii grapplers home from college, the only chance to get a workout is the Aloha State Games

ksimpson@starbulletin.com 6/17/2001

He was only a sophomore, so he was sitting out. And across the gym, in the middle of this wrestling tournament an ocean and half a continent away from home, was another young sophomore who wasn't in the lineup either. That other guy caught Chris Rufo's attention. Rufo kept looking over, past the action on the mat, to this guy. "He looks familiar," Rufo thought.

Radford High School graduate Stephanie Bolton, top, worked on trying to pin Moanalua High's Kuuiini Johnson in this Aloha State Games freestyle wrestling match yesterday. Bolton is a freshman at Cumberland College in Kentucky

On a mainland winter day on the frozen plains, there isn't very much that looks familiar to a Hawaii boy.

But the other guy turned out to be Vail Minn from Iolani School, a member of the University of Southern Colorado wrestling squad.

And he and Rufo, a North Dakota State wrestler from Moanalua High School, would go on to cross paths every so often on the NCAA Division II circuit.

Last season, Rufo's Bison were national champions. Minn's Thunderwolves were champs of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

And yesterday, at the Aloha State Games freestyle tournament at Leilehua High School, they met up again. By now, as friends and supporters. Local boys made good. College guys come home.

Minn and Rufo were joined by Katie Kunimoto and Stephanie Bolton of Cumberland College's women's team as Hawaii collegiate wrestlers taking part in the state games. Yesterday's action gave all four a much needed chance at a difficult task -- staying sharp over the summer.

"It's kind of hard to stay in shape with the weather," Rufo said. "There are a lot of distractions."

Sure, there are other things to do in the islands than lock yourself in a wrestling room for hours at a time. But Rufo and Minn see a definite difference in the level of wrestling enthusiasm between Hawaii and the mainland. The sport is simply bigger in other parts of the country.

"Hawaii kids are probably just as talented, or more," Minn said. But their mainland counterparts start sooner and develop faster.

"They start real young," Rufo said. "When our team does camps, there are some real small kids and they're pretty good already."

Rufo and Minn do their best to find high school wrestlers to work with while they're home, they said, to stay ready for their return to their college teams. But the Aloha State Games offered the only "game" action of the summer for many.
Kunimoto, a former United States Girls Wrestling Association national champion, and Bolton, a former runner up, were also at the games to polish skills and get a match in. Cumberland College is one of the few schools in the country to offer women's wrestling as a varsity sport, and travels far and wide to also take on opponents from club teams or in open competition.

Kunimoto, a Castle High School graduate, says she gave up a spot on the University of Hawaii cheerleading squad to wrestle at Cumberland. She had done both in high school. But while helping coach her old alma mater, Kunimoto knew she had to get back on the mat.

And so she transferred from UH, and set out for Kentucky.

Bolton, a Radford High School graduate, had no such decision to make. "No, I was strictly wrestling," she said. The only question was where.

Like the men, Kunimoto and Bolton also see the Aloha State Games as one of the highlights of their summer training. They need to wrestle whenever they can, and they'll take it when they can get it.

"It's hard when we're home," Kunimoto said. There were no brackets yesterday. Each had only one match, one shot. To get better, they'll need more.

"Just to get more mat time in," Bolton said.

"The more matches you have," Kunimoto said. "This is a good time to try your moves."

Three-time state champion Travis Lee, a recent St. Louis Schools graduate headed for Cornell, took part in the games and took his chance to talk about college wrestling with those that had been there. All the high school accomplishments don't mean much now, he was told, because everyone on the team has them.

Lee smiled at that. "It's OK," he said. "I'm ready to start over."

Lee will practice at the United States Olympic Training Center at Colorado Springs from July 1-8. Then he leaves July 18 for the Junior Nationals tournament.

And in the fall, he becomes a college wrestler himself.

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Waiting for her chance Lindsay Rushton moves another step closer to her Olympic dream

Bernie Puchalski
The Standard 7/27/2001

Webb Rushton was surfing the Internet last week when he happened to land at a Japanese wrestling site.

Scanning the computer screen, he read that the International Olympic Committee had approved, in principle, women's wrestling at the Olympics. The news sent him hurriedly looking for his daughter Lindsay.

"Ever since she was a little girl she was hoping she would go to the Olympics and that this would transpire," Webb said.

Upon hearing the news, the 18-year-old Lakeport Secondary School student immediately called fellow Brock Club member Tonya Verbeek to relay the news.

"It gives me more to drive for," said Rushton, who is projected to be part of the promising future of Canadian women's wrestling. She wasn't the only one excited about the prospect of women's Olympic wrestling.

"It's a great thing for Canada. The Canadian women are so strong," Brock Club head coach and national team assistant coach Marty Calder said.

Rushton, who travels to Martigny, Switzerland, Aug. 17-19 to compete in the world junior women's championships, is already one of the strongest.

"She has so much natural ability and she's a very good competitor. And she likes to win and has the tenacity and determination to succeed," Calder said.

But included with these attributes, are a few shortcomings, most notably a lack of concentration and a killer instinct.

The former could explain why the reigning OFSAA (54 kilograms) and Canadian junior champion (50 kilograms) placed third at the Canadian juvenile championships (54 kilograms) while the latter may be the culprit for what transpired at the senior nationals.

Wrestling against eventual 54-kilogram division champion Lyndsey Belisle, Rushton had a 6-2 lead before seeing Belisle tie it up and win in the match's final seconds.

"I knew she was really strong and I had already got my six points. I felt that getting six points was all I needed to do and I had already done well," explained Rushton.

"It's a little bit of inexperience but sometimes I get down on myself when I make a mistake. And I can't bring myself up again."

Said Calder: "She doesn't have enough experience to draw on yet. She's very young."

Rushton would end up an impressive third at the senior nationals and followed that with a second-place performance at the Calgary Cup. Seventh at the world junior championships last year, she will be looking to move up the ladder.

"I'm going to try my hardest and I'm hoping for the best. I want to be a medalist."

And the experience from last year's worlds will be a definite asset.

"Last year it was really big for me and the other countries have different styles that weren't what I was used to."

To prepare for the worlds, she has been training six days a week through the sweltering heat that might make one wonder why she is doing it.

"Sometimes you think that but you remember you're going to the worlds and it's worth it," she said.

"I haven't had any breaks this summer and after the worlds, I won't stop."

In the past she has trained at Lakeport and Brock, but when she returns from the worlds her focus will shift solely to Brock. It gives her the advantage of training with several other of the high-calibre Canadian women in the Brock program.

After Lakeport, she plans to go to Niagara College and Brock with the ultimate goal of being a firefighter. But for now, she will reserve her fighting for the mat.

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Presley to wrestle in college

Thursday, June 28, 2001

By MARTY JAMES
Register Sports Editor

Danni Presley, a member of Vintage High's state championship team and national team of the year for girls wrestling, will attend Neosho College in Chanute, Kan., on an athletic scholarship in the fall.

Presley, named as an All-American by Wrestling USA, a publication, finished her senior year with a 17-2 record against girls and a 30-17 mark against boys. She competes in the 112-pound division.

"Going into wrestling I didn't expect to get anything out of it except for maybe just fun," she said. "Since I've been at Vintage nobody has gotten a scholarship that I know of. This is a really good surprise.

"It was like I actually worked for something. I got something in return for working so hard."

Presley, who also wrestles for the Napa Valley Wrestling Club, which is part of the Boys and Girls Club of Napa Valley, is considered one of Neosho's top recruits for its brand new program. Neosho is a small junior college with 2,000 students. She plans to transfer after two years to a college in California and pursue a career in nursing.

"I'm real happy for her," said Carl Murphree, Vintage's girls coach and the director of the NVWC. "She's going into a good situation that's going to help her out -- I'm glad for that. We'll miss her."

In her four years as a Vintage wrestler, Presley has achieved success on local and national levels. She's a two-time national placer at the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association High School Nationals, taking second place this year and seventh last year in Lake Orion, Mich. She's a two-time national cadet placer at the USA Wrestling Association nationals, finishing fourth last year. One of her most impressive finishes came when he took seventh in the senior division at the Sunkist International, held last year in Phoenix.

In addition, she was a California state runner-up this past year and won five individual titles for the Crushers.

"She's always been a good athlete, but in the last year or two she started developing into a wrestler and utilizing strategy and technique," said Murphree.

"Danni has been a hard worker during her four years at Vintage. Danni has developed into a confident, mature wrestler during her years at Vintage. Her improvement has been a pleasure to watch, and I am glad that she has found a program that will be supportive, and will take her to the next level. I'm going to miss being her coach."

Presley not only has freestyle and collegiate-style wrestling experience, she also holds a black belt in karate, dating back to when she was a member of Pinewood Karate in town.

"I never really thought until recently actually how much I had to go through to compete with the boys," said Presley, who is ranked by Wrestling USA.

Presley, 18, had her mind made up during the spring semester that her days as a wrestler were over. But then she heard from Neosho and her plans changed.

"I was thinking about not wrestling anymore and just going on and getting on with what I want to become," she said. "Then when the opportunity came along it was like a chance of a lifetime, so I decided to take it and see what happens with it. I want to see how high of a level I can get with freestyle."

At Vintage she wrestled for a girls team that was named as fhsw.com's national team of the year. The other wrestlers for the Crushers are Maika Watanabe, Jessica Hseih, Christie Rafanan, Carina Valle-Santana and Emilee Murphree.

"She's put in a lot of work in practice," said Jim Lanterman, an assistant NVWC coach. "I'm glad she's got the chance and the opportunity to go to a college that recognizes that women do wrestle."

A heart problem hasn't stopped Presley from wrestling. She has gotten the OK from her cardiologist at UCSF to continue with the sport, but said she'll have to undergo open heart surgery one day for what has been diagnosed as a leaky valve.

At Vintage, she had a 3.3 GPA.

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Generation Now
Sara Fulp-Allen: REAL Wrestler

brainevent.com 3/2/3001

Sara Fulp-Allen is a sophomore wrestler for Half Moon Bay High School in California. And we're not talking about the kind of wrestling that made Vince MacMahon a multi-millionaire. She's the real deal: she's going for takedowns and escapes and pins, against both girls and guys.
Recently, Sara became only the fourth girl in California history to win a boys' league championship (she just took first place in the Peninsula Athletic League at 103 pounds), and she is also the reigning girls' freestyle national champion. She's truly someone you don't want to mess with on the mat.

We caught up with her on a pretty typical evening. After a full day of school and after-school weightlifting, she went on a babysitting job and then talked with us on the phone. Here's what we learned.

Sara first started wrestling when she was 9 years old, when she beat a boy 20-2 in her first match. Her father, Lee Allen, is a wrestling coach, but Sara wasn't pushed into the sport; she says she was curious and wanted to check it out. Girl wrestlers don't always have it easy, and Sara has heard her share of ignorant comments and dumb misconceptions.

"The stupidest questions I get are from people who think that TV wrestling is real wrestling," Sara says. "You know, like 'Do you smack 'em down?' or 'Do you run around the ropes and then jump on people?'"

Another thing that bothers Sara is the stereotyping that surrounds her participation in a traditionally male sport. "A lot of people think that girl wrestlers are huge manly people, but we're not," she says. "Most of us, you couldn't pick us out of a crowd."

Winning the boys' league championship has gotten her a lot of attention, but fame doesn't seem to bother her one bit. Another thing that doesn't bother her is wrestling against guys; she actually prefers male opponents in "folk-style" wrestling, which is the style used in high school matches. "Guys have told me they've been teased by their teammates when I beat them," she says. "But none of them are embarrassed." When Sara grapples freestyle, she prefers to go against girls. And being the national champion in female freestyle wrestling doesn't hurt: "Winning boys' league was pretty cool, but winning freestyle [girls'] nationals was better."

Sara says she doesn't have one single devastating move, but admits, "I'm pretty fast." And being the national champion has created some major opportunities for her. She is currently touring Sweden with the USA Cadet Wrestling Team ("Women's wrestling is a bigger deal in Europe than it is [in the U.S.]," she says) and has her eyes on some serious prizes.

"My goals are winning a high school championship against boys, and not losing to any more girls." And her long-range goals are pretty impressive, too: she wants to make the women's wrestling team for the 2004 Olympics. And, ultimately, she plans to make a career out of wrestling.

If anyone can do it, Sara can.