Montgomery named FILA International Women's Wrestler of the Year,the first U.S. women's wrestler to win this top international honor

1/11/2002 themat.com

Toccara Montgomery (Cleveland, Ohio/Sunkist Kids) was named the 2001 International Women's Wrestler of the Year by FILA, the international wrestling federation.

Montgomery becomes the first U.S. women's wrestler to win this prestigious award. Women's freestyle wrestling is the newest sport added to the Summer Olympic Games.

She becomes only the third American to win a FILA International Wrestler of the Year honor, joining men freestyle wrestlers John Smith (1995) and Stephen Neal (1999).

Montgomery won a silver medal at 68 kg/149.75 lbs. at the Women's World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, Nov. 22-25. She was one of two U.S. silver medalists, leading the USA to a seventh-place team finish. It was her first Senior World Championships appearance.

Her only loss at the World Championships came in the gold-medal finals to six-time World Champion Christine Nordhagen-Vierling of Canada, 4-1. She pinned her other four opponents in the tournament, dominating the action in every match.

During the 2001 year, Montgomery claimed seven gold medals at major Senior women's events. She won the Yasar Dogu Tournament in Turkey, the Manitoba Open in Canada and the Sunkist Kids International in the USA.

Domestically, she was also the U.S. Nationals and World Team Trials champion, as well as the Hoover/Geller Keystone Open champion and the University Nationals champion. Montgomery won Outstanding Wrestler awards at the U.S. Nationals and the Sunkist Kids International Open.

During the 2001 season, Montgomery defeated three past Women's World Championships. She beat Nordhagen-Vierling in the finals of the Sunkist Kids International Open in October. Montgomery also defeated 2000 World Champion Kristie Marano of the United States at both the U.S. Nationals and the World Team Trials. She also scored a victory over 1999 World Champion Sandra Bacher of the United States at the U.S. Nationals.

Montgomery also claimed a silver medal at the Junior World Championships. She qualified for the U.S. Junior World Team by winning the FILA Junior Nationals title, her second straight Junior World team appearance.

Montgomery also received a number of top wrestling honors. She received the 2001 USA Wrestling Championship Belt Series for Senior women, recognizing the most successful and active women's wrestler on the Senior level. She was also the winner of the 2001 TheMat.com/ASICS Girls High School Wrestler of the Year award, recognizing the top U.S. high school female wrestler.

Montgomery is now a freshman at Cumberland College in Kentucky, competing on its women's varisty wrestling team. In June, she completed her high school career at East Technical High School in Cleveland.

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Boys lead the cheers for girl who wrestles with them at Missouri School for the Blind

By Tom Wheatley
Of The Post-Dispatch
01/10/2002 05:07 PM

Deke Edwards is blunt. Most high school wrestling coaches are, especially those in their 40th year at one school.

When the whistle blows, this is no sport for blowhards. Two wrestlers butt heads and the best man wins. Nothing could be more basic.

Except at the Missouri School for the Blind near Tower Grove Park, where Deke is head coach.

For the past two years, Deke's wrestling room has been invaded by a female wrestler, 125-pound senior Amanda House from Columbia, Mo.

"I think it's stupid," said Deke, with typical political incorrectness. "I wouldn't want a daughter of mine to wrestle a boy. The girls are just not strong enough. Until they're 10 or 12, they're pretty equal physically. Then the shoulders start growing out on the boys, and they get too strong."

Amanda, 18, has heard all of this before from her crusty old coach.

"He's just concerned for me," said Amanda, who smiles a lot when she's not crossfacing someone or being crossfaced. "He's worried that I'll get hurt."

That's the only issue for Deke.

"What really worries me," he said, "is if some guy with a macho attitude, who's really strong and not very skilled, starts slamming her around. She could break something."

"Well," snapped Amanda, "guys get their arms and legs broke, too."

Deke, 63, is not campaigning to ban females from the sport. Just the opposite.

"It'd be great if they could wrestle each other," he said. "Some states have wrestling teams for girls now. And they're talking about women's wrestling in the Olympics, which would be great.

"Amanda's wrestled four girls last year and this year, and she's beaten them all. One girl beat her early this year, and when they wrestled again Amanda pinned her. So she's 4-1 against girls.

"But she hasn't beaten any boys yet . . . except for the ones that forfeit because they won't wrestle her. There's been three of them, including one for religious reasons."

Sprinting down a hallway for conditioning, with Deke barking at each runner, is Amanda's least favorite part of wrestling. Being shunned is a close second.

"That makes me really mad," she said. "It makes me want to go over and drag them off the bench and make them wrestle. I think they're afraid of me. They just don't want to lose to a girl. I've wrestled five boys so far. I score quite a few points, but I haven't beaten any yet. Sometimes I get pinned, but mostly I hang in there.

"The most mad I got was when I was on the mat, all suited up, and I just stood there for about five minutes. Then the coach finally came out and said, 'My boy doesn't want to wrestle a girl.' He was from the Ohio School for the Deaf."

Losing to a girl is an issue that should have died in the last millennium. Religious objectors cannot be dismissed so lightly.

For a boy, grappling with a girl can lead to contact that would bring a slap at other times.

At a match, by rule, Amanda must wear a T-shirt under her wrestling singlet. That's the only concession to modesty. She wears no special protection. And sees no need.

"There are some moves that can be awkward," she said, "but that doesn't happen often. They don't do them because I'm a girl. If they did, I'd end up hurting them. Did you know I do judo, too?"

In Deke's wrestling room, Amanda is accepted as an equal. Volunteer coach Danny Lawrence, 31, has no qualms about Amanda. He was a three-time Missouri state qualifier in 1-A/2-A for the school at 125, 130 and 135 pounds.

"Things have changed," he said. "Girls used to cheerlead and boys wrestle, and now boys cheerlead and girls wrestle. You've got to keep an open mind."

That analogy is a perfect fit for Deke's team.

Jimmy Lasley, a 98-pound junior from Scott City, is Amanda's frequent practice partner.

"It's all the same," Jimmy said. "She's really dedicated and wants to work out."

He is also a gung-ho cheerleader when wrestling is out of season. "Want to see my new routine?" he asked, peeling off a series of cartwheels and backflips.

Jimmy is no slouch as a wrestler. Besides giving away five pounds at 103, the lightest weight class, he placed fourth in 1-A/2-A districts last year, went 2-2 at sectionals and just missed a trip to the state meet.

Amanda, meanwhile, said, "I didn't want to cheerlead. I wanted to do a sport. I like swimming a lot, but that's after wrestling is over. And I wanted to do this because it's physical, not because I'm a girl. That's why I do judo. It's a way to get the stress out."

At this point, it should be noted that nobody but a visitor has mentioned blindness during the team's crisp 90-minute workout.

Assistant coach John Schrock, a fully sighted faculty member, is the ringmaster. He keeps both eyes on practice and snaps instructions as the wrestlers pair off for drills.

Deke has been at the school since 1951, when he enrolled at age 12 after a hunting accident stole his vision in both eyes.

"I coach by wrestling," he said.

In sweats, kneepads and wrestling shoes, he nimbly drops alongside a wrestler or a wrestling pair and works by touch. He gets cold-cocked by many a flying foot or elbow, which may be why Deke for years has claimed to be on the verge of retiring.

His wrestlers have sight ranging from dim to none.

Amanda has 20-400 vision in the left eye and 20-200 in the right. Her good eye, such as it is, can make out the clock on the wall but not the hands. "I don't use the other eye at all," she said. "I also have no peripheral vision and I'm night blind."

For all of that, she does not consider herself handicapped.

"People who say that don't know me," Amanda said. "If I want to do something, I'm going to do it."

That also goes for her male teammates. Three of them have just two losses apiece: Jimmy; Darwin May, a 152-pound sophomore from Kansas City; and Bobby Hall, a sophomore at 112 from Park Hills.

Sophomore Adnan Gutic of Affton, 17, a Bosnian and new American citizen, is 8-4 at 160 pounds. And Tony Samson of St. Charles, 15, is a promising freshman at 119.

They take on all comers, blind or sighted. At a recent nine-team meet, they placed third behind Soldan and Sumner while beating Gateway Tech, Vashon, Clayton's B team and schools for the blind from Indiana, Arkansas and Minnesota.

Jimmy and Darwin won individual championships. Tony was third and Amanda won a match by forfeit.

Deke concedes that his team has a handicap. It's not vision. It's depth.

"We only have 10 kids," he said. "And since they went from 12 to 14 weight classes, that's four weights where we can't get points. So it's tough."

Still, he allows no can't-do talk and few allowances.

For safety in the wrestling room, mats cushion the walls and pillars as well as the floor. For fairness in matches, opponents touch hands with Deke's kids in the up position until the whistle blows.

Deke is training independent citizens, the school's mission since the doors opened 150 years ago. When graduates step onto Magnolia Street and beyond, they know how to bounce up if they trip or get pushed.

Confidence and enthusiasm are crucial. So he encourages antics such as Darwin jumping him in the hall during classes.

"When Darwin knows I'm coming," Deke said, "he'll single-leg me and try to take me down. Some teacher will yell at him to stop. But I always say, 'Don't criticize him . . . unless he's doing it wrong!' "

Deke's wrestlers have absorbed his humor as well as his instruction.

"You've got to be able to take a joke if you're in something like this," said Amanda, "or you'll never make it."

She meant living in the male-dominated wrestling world. She could have meant surviving in the sight-dominated outside world.

That's why Amanda just laughed and shook her ponytail when her coach threw one more barb at her.

"If she was serious about this," grumped Deke, "she'd get a hair cut."

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Girls wrestle with stereotypes

Thursday, January 10, 2002

MELISSA SEGURA
Staff Writer

FAIR LAWN -- Jessica Madonna, 10, and her sister Jennifer, 12, made an important decision Wednesday night -- they chose wrestling girls over "Gilmore Girls." Sweat and struggle over sugar and spice. Wrestling pins over hairpins.

Jessica and Jennifer sat near the top of the packed bleachers at Fair Lawn High School as Kim Salma of Fair Lawn defeated Domenique Heslep of Mahwah, 3-2, in a monumental but soon to be mundane female-versus-female wrestling bout at 103 pounds. Fair Lawn won the dual meet, 60-10.

After the sisters scraped the linguini and chicken cutlets off their dinner plates, their father, Joseph, drove them to the gym to witness their first-ever wrestling match.

"They needed to see a girl wrestling varsity," said Joseph of his decision to take his ballet-dancing daughters to the match.

"I never thought of a girl wrestling that much," Jessica said. " She [Salma] shows other people she can stick up for herself to other people. She can probably get other people into it."

Salma and Heslep are part of a growing trend in American sports. More than 3,000 girls across the country strapped on wrestling team singlets instead of dance team spandex in the year 2000, according to the National Federation of High Schools participation survey. That figure is one thousand girls stronger than the season before.

But to Salma and Heslep, they aren't trying to blaze trails. They aren't trying to win more rights than points. Or even trying to raise more eyebrows than opponents.

What they're doing is what they've always done.

Heslep has participated in wrestling for the last nine years.

Salma wrestled for the first time before she learned her cursive letters in the third grade. She joined Fair Lawn's recreational league after watching her older brother, Aaron, wrestle when she was 9. She garnered her first gold by the time she was 10 at the Fair Lawn district tournament.

"I gave one of the kids a bloody nose," Salma remembers.

"I couldn't be in high school and not do it," said Salma.

But wrestling a girl is something unique, both admit.

"It was weird," Heslep said of her bout with Salma. "When I'm wrestling a guy, everybody wants me to win."

Before the match, the Mahwah locker room buzzed with nervous excitement.

"Everyone was saying, 'Domenique has to wrestle a girl,' '' Heslep said. "Only one kid said, 'So?' ''

Salma awoke Wednesday morning with one thing on her mind: The long-limbed and lithe Heslep.

"It was pressure," she said. "It was harder for me. I tried even harder."

That effort showed when Salma brought Heslep to the mat with a pinning combo that gave her the first points of the match. Heslep quickly followed by using an almost identical move to even the score at 2-2. The third and decisive point came at the end of the match when Heslep was called for a clasping violation.

But according to Fair Lawn head coach Frank Guadagnino, trying hard is nothing new for his 103-pound contender.

"She's one of the most mentally tough kids on the team," Guadagnino said of Salma.

To Heslep, mental toughness is a requirement for the job.

"It takes a lot," she said. "She [Salma] was so strong. I kept looking for a shot without being overpowered by her."

But after the headlocks, it was a hug, and new wrestling fans.

After the match, Jessica and Jennifer waited for Salma and that one chance to meet a real-life wrestler.

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Millard West girl wrestles in dual

BY MIKE PATTERSON 1/9/2002
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

It made her coach proud.

It made her opponent uncomfortable.

And when it was over, it made her even more determined to do better next time.

Millard West sophomore Michelle Tozser made history Tuesday night as the first girl to wrestle in a varsity Class A dual. Tozser, winless in 12 junior varsity matches this season, competed in part because the Wildcats' regular 103-pounder did not make weight.

Tozser is not the first girl to wrestle in Nebraska. Others include Elaine Blessen from Class D Malcolm, who competed at the state tournament last season.

Tozser patiently sat and cheered her teammates before her match against Omaha Northwest sophomore Kyle Buglewicz. The Wildcats had a commanding 44-4 lead when those two took the mat.

"I was kind of nervous," Tozser said, "but I wanted to give it my all. I just tried to do the best I could."

Her inexperience showed in the first period, as Buglewicz quickly scored two points for a takedown. But Tozser stubbornly fought back and the score remained 2-0 entering the second period.

That period proved to be her undoing. Buglewicz kept up the pressure and scored points for a near fall before scoring a pin with seven seconds left in the period.

"I thought she did a great job," Millard West Coach Scott Bohlken said. "She wrestled hard and didn't quit. I was proud of her."

Buglewicz said he hoped his first wrestling match against a girl will also be his last.

"It was weird," he said. "It made me feel uncomfortable, having to wrestle her. But I was surprised she was as good as she was."

Tozser, who previously competed in gymnastics, said she had considered going out for wrestling since attending middle school.

"I used to wrestle with my younger brother all the time," she said. "I thought it was something that would be kind of fun."

Bohlken said he had no problem with Tozser joining the Wildcats' squad.

"I needed to know if she was really interested in wrestling or if she was trying to make some sort of statement," he said. "She's worked hard, and the team has been real supportive."

More supportive than some of her fellow classmates, Tozser said.

"A lot of people at school make fun of me because I'm wrestling," she said. "But I don't care what they think. I wanted to give it a try."

Northwest Coach Weylon White said he didn't object to the boy-girl matchup.

"Wrestling is wrestling," he said. "If she's got the courage to be out here, more power to her."

Tozser's loss was one of only two suffered by Millard West, which rolled to a 68-10 dual victory. When it was over, two Northwest cheerleaders approached Tozser and congratulated her for competing.

"For my first year, I think I'm doing pretty good," she said. "I'm going to stick with it and work to be the best wrestler possible."

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Ellison boys earn tri-match win over Heights, Granger

BY JUAN MARSHALL
Herald Staff Writer 1/11/2002

Ellison's boys' wrestling team relied on its top two performers to help push the Eagles to a 51-27 dual match win over Harker Heights at Ellison on Thursday.

In other action, Ellison's state-ranked girls took a 36-12 win over Harker Heights.

Granger, the third team in the district tri-meet, lost to Ellison 82-3 and to Heights 68-12.

The Lions, a Class A school, only have five wrestlers, and gave up 54 team points on nine forfeits.

Leading 17-15 against Heights, the Eagles got two straight pins —from 171-pounder Jose Vasquez against Vincent Chinn, and 180-pounder Kyle Moore versus Andrew Wilcox — to get up 29-15.

Six team points are awarded for pins.

"We only beat them by about three or five points the last time we wrestled them, so this was a big win," said Ellison coach Tim Ray.

"We've been wrestling a lot over the holidays, and I think that experience showed up here tonight."

The Eagles wrestled in four meets over the break, including the Lone Star Duels, where the girls finished second and the boys also had strong performances against national competition.

Joe Jones took a major decision, worth four points, at 189 pounds over Heights' Lucus Lynch, and Jecorie Williams' third-period pin of Jose Cancel Ortiz clinched at least a tie for the Eagles.

Ellison wrapped up a win in the 275-pound match when Joseph Sheffield pinned Fernando Hernandez with 1:35 left in the third and final period.

Heights jumped out to a 9-0 lead after Richard Orona topped Robert Miller by a 16-9 score at 125 pounds and Tino Vanegas pinned Jorge Garza at 130.

Ellison won the next two matches — a five-point technical fall on a 17-2 win by Jay Robins over Brandon Smith at 135, and a Michael Torres pin over Kurtis Pope after Pope had built an 8-4 lead going into the third period.

Heights' final lead of the night came after a 7-6 145-pound victory for David Hill over Octavia Lowe. Hill got the win on a two-point reversal with six seconds left in the match.

After John Modde pinned Alex Hammond at 152 pounds, the Eagles never trailed again.

Also winning for Ellison was Anthony Funkhouser (112) by pin over Hestin Renick.

In the girls' match, the Lady Eagles won four of the five contested matches, all by pins.

Latisha Keahey (110), Alana Chase (119), Ebony Bradley (128) and Angela Whitley (165) were all victorious for Ellison.

Hanna Ferguson pinned Kentra Rider for the lone Heights win at 138 pounds.

The three points the Lions got against the Eagles came in one of the best matches of the night.

In the 189-pound bout, Brady Nix, a regional qualifier last season, and Moore, who usually wrestles at 180 pounds, hooked up, going scoreless in the first period.

In the second, Moore took a 2-1 lead on a takedown after Nix was awarded a point for an illegal hold call.

Moore got away from Nix for a one-point escape in the third, but Nix sent the match into a sudden-death period with a late takedown for two points.

Nix won the match with another takedown with 24 seconds left in overtime.

"Brady is ranked in the top three in the state in the 189-pound class, so we wanted to let Kyle wrestle him," Ray said. "He's getting closer and closer, and one day, he's going to get him."

The Eagles won all but two of its remaining matches by pin. The exceptions included an 18-9 Jecorie Williams won over James Holder, and a 160-pound match win for Ronald Murray after the bout was stopped because of blood.

Winning by pin were Funkhouser and Vasquez.

The top-ranked Lady Eagles swept all three matches against Granger by pin, with Keahey, Chase and Bradley all getting wins.

Against Granger, the Heights boys got a 68-12 win.

Chinn, Ortiz and Renick were victorious against Granger. Chinn and Renick won by fall, while Ortiz was a 13-7 winner against James Holder.

Granger's Angel Sifuentes pinned Keith Jenkins at 160 pounds and Nix pinned Leonard Hayes at 189 for the Lions' two wins against the Knights.

In girls' action, Jessica Godbold of Heights pinned Adriana Pedroza of Granger at 102 pounds, but Amber Benbenek got the Lady Lions a victory with a pin of Desiree Trevino in a 110-pound match.

Nikki Haney gave Heights a 2-1 match count edge with a 20-3 technical fall win over Yolanda Calderon.

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