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Taking a gender-neutral position at Tualatin
01/31/02
DOUG BINDER
TUALATIN -- Sammi Lang can empathize, somewhat, with some of the boys she has beaten on the high school wrestling mat.
She got pinned by a girl once herself, and she didn't like it.
She was an eighth grader competing in the high school girls division at the national championships in Michigan.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I just got pinned by a girl,' " said Lang, a Tualatin High School sophomore. "I started to cry, but in like two seconds I stopped. Why am I crying?"
More often than not, it is Lang pushing someone else's shoulders to the mat.
Lang, who started wrestling in the third grade, is serious about the sport.
She is dedicated, with goals that include the U.S. Olympic team. Women's wrestling will be an Olympic sport for the first time in 2004.
She has the respect of her Tualatin teammates, who have long gotten over the fact that they have a girl for a teammate.
"It's not like she's weak," said Tualatin senior Matt Mellinger, the Timberwolves' starter at 160 pounds. "She's a wrestler and a good wrestler."
Lang intends to wrestle at the Pacific-9 Conference district meet at 160 pounds, like Mellinger, but has been wrestling at 171 lately to help give the team its best lineup.
Over the next couple of years, Lang would like to get down to 152 and vie for a berth in the Class 4A tournament. She would be the first female to qualify from the perennially strong Pac-9.
"I think she could qualify for the state tournament, even in one of the toughest leagues," Tualatin coach Matt Hamilton said.
Lang, 15, already is on the map nationally in women's wrestling.
Last year, she won the national high school championship at 165-and-over, the female equivalent of heavyweight.
Lang weighed 167 at that tournament and competed against women as large as 230 pounds. She beat a 198-pounder for the title.
"I was the smallest in the bracket, but it also meant I was the fastest," Lang said. "If I could push them over, they couldn't move."
She went to a women's meet in Vancouver last month and entered three brackets -- a high school elite bracket and two for high school novices.
She won all three, pinning every opponent she faced without giving up a single point.
But, she says, wrestling women feels a little weird.
"It's like wrestling two different species," Lang said. "Guys have testosterone. They're faster and stronger, and when I go against them I'm usually on the low end of faster and stronger."
But wrestling boys, as she has done since she started as a third-grader, seems perfectly natural to her.
Not surprisingly, it doesn't always seem natural to the boys.
"To be honest, it really is a no-win situation for the guy," Hamilton said. "I won't make light of that. But she has earned the right to be there."
Lang has seen firsthand the entire spectrum of sportsmanship from male competitors. Some shake her hand afterward; others, particularly after they lose, run off the mat in tears.
"I think it's funny when boys cry," Lang said. "It's not the end of the world. It just means that I'm a better wrestler. The boys on my team don't make a big deal about the people that I beat. But when they cry, it's like a week-long joke."
Lang prefers to dress for school in skirts, and she is the only athlete in Tualatin's wrestling room wearing nail polish.
She uses the girls' locker room to dress for practice and home meets, and Hamilton bought a second digital scale so that she could make weigh-ins without having to wait for the all the boys to go first.
Beyond that, she is just one of the wrestlers.
"There's nothing flashy about Sammi," Hamilton said. "She doesn't complain. She works as hard or harder than anybody we have out there."
There is a reason for the hard work.
Lang has always felt a burning inside to be something special.
"I've always wanted to be someone great," she said. "And when I found wrestling, I saw that, hey, I'm pretty good at this. I want to go to the Olympics. I want to be great. That drives me."
Lang's competitive nature has led her to other sports as well. She has trained in judo for three years. She played soccer for eight years. And she is a member of Tualatin's water polo team in the fall, and track in the spring.
Lang's mother, Juli, is probably her biggest fan.
"She makes me really proud," Juli said. "Everyone I meet, I tell them about her."
Juli has been there from the beginning, taking Sammi to practices and national meets.
As a 12-year-old, Sammi went to the USA Collegiate Nationals meet and competed in the 11-12 age bracket against boys. She won, becoming the first girl to do so.
"I was kind of a bully," she said. "I don't know what it is, but I have this strange fascination with beating up on the boys. Maybe it's a women's power thing. It's one thing to win against girls, but if you can beat the boys, that's even better."
Lang has a record this season of 8-10, but most of her losses have come wrestling at 171, where she consistently faces wrestlers who tower over her, at 5-foot-4.
She compensates for her lack of leverage and upper body strength with good body position and technique.
"There are just biological differences, especially in weight classes like 160 and 171, when you've got young men who are seniors with some serious strength, and a sophomore girl," Hamilton said.
Lang has her strong suits, though.
She is very difficult to turn over once she's down.
And when she has an opponent in a vulnerable spot, she has a knack for finishing.
"When's she's close to getting someone on their back, she knows how to put it away," Hamilton said. "She takes some abuse. But the next thing you know, she's taking them down."
Lang doesn't shy away from the pain.
"I've got bruises all over, probably 50 of them right now," she said. "And I bite my lip or tongue a lot. I hate that."
Lang's father, Mark, played football and wrestled in high school.
He was slower to understand.
"He wasn't that supportive at first," Sammi said. "But he came to one of my tournaments and saw that these guys I was wrestling were 6-feet tall and had bulging muscles, and he was like, 'Wow, OK.' "
Still, a girl in wrestling has a bristling effect on some.
Last week, Woodburn's 171-pounder forfeited rather than compete against her.
Hamilton said some coaches act supportive of girls but privately don't agree with it.
"Behind the scenes, a lot of them don't like it," Hamilton said. "They think boys should wrestle boys, and girls should wrestle girls."
At Tualatin, though, the novelty has worn off.
She is an accepted part of the team.
"When I first met her I wasn't sure what to think," Mellinger said. "But she's proven herself. I know when we wrestle other teams, they see her as a girl. But the guys on our team respect what she can do now." You can reach Doug Binder at 503-221-8166 or by e-mail at dougbinder@news.oregonian.com
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Pastor's daughter Meadows finds her true calling in wrestling for Katy
TERRY CARTER, Houston Chronicle 1/24/02
LINSE Mishel Meadows.
If the name sounds poetic and peaceful, you haven't seen this pastor's
daughter wrestle.
The Katy High School wrestler is a one-woman army, capable of
manhandling and pinning any female grappler in Texas in the 128-pound weight class.
Exceptionally aggressive on the mat and technically sound, Meadows
(20-0) fatigues opponents with her strength and endurance and seldom passes
the opportunity to pin her opponent to the mat. Her parents, Roy Meadows,
the pastor at Westland Baptist Church of Katy, and wife Sharon, didn't
expect it turn out this way.
Meadows transferred to Katy High School as a freshman. While a
volleyball, basketball and track veteran, she searched for a new sport to tackle
once she arrived on the Tigers campus. Almost by accident she found
wrestling.
The 17-year-old senior said her parents, although surprised at the
onset with her interest in wrestling, have always supported her endeavors.
"My dad was been real supportive, but my mom didn't want me to wrestle
at first. She was afraid I'd get hurt," Meadows explained. "All parents
are like that when they find out their girls want to wrestle."
Has she ever lost a high school wrestling match? Yes. She's notched
three defeats in three seasons of grappling - all to state champions.
According to Katy wrestling coach Tim Ripperger, Meadows, now a senior,
lost twice to 1999 and 2000 state champion Brenda Malott of Arlington
Houston in the 2000 season. After losing at the 2000 State Wrestling Tournament,
Meadows rebounded to take third at state among 128-pounders.
Last winter, Meadows tore through her regular-season competition,
entering the state tournament undefeated. However, in the championship match,
Katherine Quinones of El Paso Hanks edged Meadows, 7-5, in a dramatic,
overtime state final. The loss left Meadows more hungry and dedicated
than ever.
The Katy Lady Tigers have placed in the top 10 at the UIL Girls State
Wrestling Tournament each year since girls wrestling was approved for
competition by the University Interscholastic League in 1999. A
sixth-place team finish currently highlights the girls' record book, but Ripperger
is shooting for a top-four position soon. With nine girls wrestling in the
emerging sport, the Lady Tigers stand a chance of bringing enough
wrestlers to the state tournament to make a run at the top teams in 2002.
"Whenever I practice now, I look at that match, which went into
overtime where the first takedown wins. She had the first takedown," Meadows
stated. "My goals this year are to win first at state and for our team to win
state, which I think we can."
Meadows claimed a Texas State Championship beyond UIL competition,
which ranked Meadows fifth nationally in the spring, Ripperger said. She also
traveled to Poland to represent the United States in a series of team
matches.
An intense wrestler respected by all other Katy wrestlers, Meadows has
set her sights on perfection in her senior season. She leads by example for
her younger teammates, and Meadows' example to date has been perfect this
season.
"Every year she gets better. This year she's going for perfection," her
coach said. "We're really blessed between 128-138 pounds and the rest
of our girls are freshmen and sophomores."
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Sullivan junior is first female sectional wrestling champ
API 1/29/02
With a wave of her arm, Rachel Monroe made Indiana high school sports
history as the first girl to win a wrestling sectional championship.
The Sullivan High School junior was declared the winner in the
103-pound weight class last week when her opponent - also a girl - forfeited
because of an injury. The sectional title put Monroe and her Sullivan teammates
into this week's regionals. "To our knowledge, that is the first female that
has ever won a wrestling sectional title," IHSAA commissioner Blake Ress
said.
Monroe and Kylea Knaus of Vincennes were the only entrants at 103
pounds.
However, Knaus suffered a cracked vertebra in her neck in an earlier
meet. Because Knaus already was assured of a regional berth with a
second-place finish, Vincennes coach Steve Luce decided not to put her on the mat
against Monroe.
"It kind of sucks to win when I didn't do anything," Monroe said of her
sectional crown. "I thought there were going to be some more wrestlers.
"I wish Kylea would have wrestled," she told the Sullivan Daily Times.
"But if I was in her situation, I don't know if I would want to wrestle,
either."
Girls are allowed to compete on boys teams in sports that have no
comparable sport for girls, Ress said.
"That's why we occasionally have somebody in football or wrestling that
is female on a boys team, because we don't offer a comparable program," he
said.
Monroe, who beat Knaus 5-2 in an earlier meet this season, will bring a
19-11 record into Wednesday's team regional. Knaus is 12-10.
"Both the girls are talented," Luce said. "I know they both had
forfeits, but they have also both wrestled their way to wins. It has been
enjoyable to ee another side of wrestling."
Monroe has been a member of Sullivan's squad for three years, competing
at the junior varsity level for the first two seasons and then earning a
varsity spot this year.
"Rachel has wrestled for a long time," Sullivan coach Erich Blevins
said. "We are looking forward to having her back next year. Maybe she can do
it (win a sectional title) again. It is quite a thing in a male-dominated
sport for her to step in and do as well as she has done this year."
Monroe's father, brother and cousin also wrestled at Sullivan.
"It is just a tremendous help that she has been around it (wrestling)
all the time," Blevins said. "I don't think it is a fluke at all that she
won a sectional. It comes from a lot of hard work, and we don't cut her any
slack. We yell at her just like we do everybody else when she is not up and
moving."
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Junior high girls win right to wrestle
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.1/26/02
Madison County junior high girls are starting to be a force on
wrestling teams, and now the county athletic conference is changing its rules to
make sure they can compete along with the boys.
Conference President Sue Rives sent principals a letter two weeks ago
saying they needed to address the fact that the conference constitution
defines wrestling as a sport for boys. The principals met and decided
temporarily to leave the matter up to the school officials hosting meets, virtually
guaranteeing girls will be allowed in every meet until the season ends
in February.
Conference officials now intend to amend the constitution to allow
girls.
"No one objected at all," said Rives, principal at Wood River's Lewis &
Clark Junior High. "We all agreed that we need to change the
constitution so it's consistent with what's going on today."
A junior high school in Granite City and one in Collinsville each have
three girls on their wrestling teams.
One, 12-year-old Erika Prazma of Grigsby Middle School in Granite City,
defeated 12-year-old John Shiadek of Coolidge Middle School in Granite
City in a match on Friday. Shiadek said he doesn't mind wrestling girls.
"It was a good match," he said. "A match is a match. We're both human
beings."
Prazma's mother, Jill Prazma, said her daughter and a friend helped
bring attention to the issue by making their varsity team and wrestling
against eighth-grade boys as sixth-graders. She said she is not worried about
injuries because her daughter could just as easily be injured playing
basketball or another sport.
"Conference and school officials were very responsive and I'm very
happy," she said.
High school girls are allowed to wrestle statewide in matches
sanctioned by the Illinois High School Association.
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COMPROMISING POSITION?
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE (RIVERSIDE, CA.)
January 29, 2002, Tuesday
The Press-Enterprise photo (Hemet-San Jacinto B Section, Jan. 18)
of the teenage wrestlers is an incredible example of adult denial
of how the birds and the bees work. What responsible, wise parent of a
young girl would permit her tobe handled in this way? What sports program director with the brain
capacity of a clam would put young people in this position, both
figuratively and literally?
What parents of a teenage boy would knowingly subject their son
to such incredible temptation and stimulation? We have here a group
of either very stupid or very corrupt adults.
All the parents of kids in these wrestling programs, which
encourage sexual, full-body contact between teenage boys and girls,
should yank their kids out until the porridge-headed parents and
the see-no-evil schools straighten up and face reality.
PHYLLIS WALKER
Hemet
* * *
Letters should be addressed to Sports Editor and should be sent
by mail (P.O. Box 792, Riverside, CA 92502-0792), by e-mail
(sports@pe.com) or by fax (909-782-6009). Letters may be edited for
length and will not be published without the author's name and
city. Please include an address and a daytime phone number.
--------------------------------------------
W. HILLS ON ROAD BACK ; HELP COMES FROM EAGER FEMALE STAR
The Record; Bergen County, N.J.; Jan 22, 2002
When Mark Zarro was hired as Wayne Hills wrestling coach last year,
4-foot-10 Joanna Wu met him at his office door.
"I wrestle," she said, stopping the former Essex Catholic coach in his
tracks. "I can wrestle at 103 pounds, 112, 119, or 125, if you like."
When Zarro took his team to the Penn State summer camp prior to this
school
year, Wu was placed in a group of wrestlers lighter than she is.
Zarro insisted she was tough enough to go against boys her own size. He
was
right. Wu moved up and pinned all but one wrestler in her weight class.
Today, she is 11-6 with eight pins on a varsity team making tremendous
strides. The Patriots have seven wins, their most in a decade.
"Before our coach came, we couldn't win anything," says Wu, a senior
who was
fourth in the East Coast Judo Championships in 1999 and 2000.
"Last year, he put seven freshmen in the lineup, and they'd never
wrestled
before. And we walked away with four wins."
There are times when wrestling is a lonely activity for Wu.
"My parents don't approve and they don't give me any support for
wrestling,"
she says. "But it's fun. When I first came out as a sophomore, boys
told me
they'd make me cry, but they didn't last a day."
Zarro credits Wu with toughness and style. "She does moves that nobody
on
the team does better. Her duck-unders are smooth as silk, and she has
outstanding balance."
A strong headlock comes from her judo background, but Zarro says Wu has
any
number of pinning combinations.
Only two members of the team wrestled before ninth grade, but 10 joined
the
Wrestling Plus club in Pompton Lakes and wrestled all summer.
One of the leaders is four-year standout Joe Paladino. Wrestling at 189
pounds, Paladino has 12 first-period pins and also has an appointment
to
West Point. It's been quite a year.
"He should be a 171-pounder, but he does it for the team," Zarro says.
"He
only weighs 174, but we have nobody else at 189."
Paladino (14-2) is known for his aggressiveness. He charges in with a
double-leg lift and puts his man to his back in a rush.
Zarro, who helped develop the outstanding line of Region 4 medal-
winning
Dufresne brothers at Essex Catholic, appreciates what Paladino brings
to
each match. "Joe's so tough and focused, I call him 'taramaude, which
is
Italian for 'Earthquake.'
Paladino, in turn, calls Zarro a "great man."
"Freshman year, I had two wrestling coaches, so he's been a godsend.
He's a coach and a friend and he relates to all of us. And he's got
some
great stories that get us pumped up."
Either West Point or its prep school is next for Paladino, who has his
congressional nomination from Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. and just needs to
take
the physical and entrance exam.
"It's always been my dream to serve my country," he says. "Duty, honor,
and
country. I've always believed in that."
At a football-dominated school such as Wayne Hills, it is interesting
to
note that Wu and Paladino were voted by the student body as Most
Athletic
for the yearbook.
WHATEVER IT TAKES: Bryan Haase and Dave Frasca are good enough to pick
the
weight class that best suits them and have the rest of the lineup built
around them. But that is one thing that Pompton Lakes coach Scott
Mahoney
hasn't had to do this season.
Haase's travels between 135 and 145 and Frasca's frequent moves up to
160
have been a major reason why the Cardinals have won eight straight
matches
and nine of their first 10 and hold a two-match lead in the fight for
the
B-PSL Carpenter Division title.
"You need guys who are willing to do that if you're going to be
successful,"
Mahoney said. "Those two guys are very good mat wrestlers, and they're
very
tough. They'll go up and down, no questions asked."
Frasca, a returning district champ and County third, is 9-0 at 152
pounds.
Haase, a County champ and district third, is 11-2 at 135.
They've provided the foundation for the defending division champs, who
also
have gotten strong performances from sophomore Barry McBain, who is 8-2
at
112 after going 23-10 as a freshman last season, Joe Schachetano
(11-2), and
Tommy Brennan (8-4).
"The biggest surprise might be Jason Trumper at 215," Mahoney said.
"He's only a second-year wrestler, and he's got a win over a returning
Region champ Bill Beirmeister of Boonton, 5-2. People didn't expect us
to
have anybody in the upper weights, and he's been tremendous up there."
The Cardinals also are hoping to get 160-pounder Justin Perinotti back
from
a broken collarbone.
But he's not expected to be ready in time for Wednesday when, Pompton
faces
off against Passaic Tech. The Bulldogs pulled off a huge victory over
Garfield last week to remain undefeated.
"Any time you go to Tech, it's going to be a match," Mahoney said of
the
Bulldogs, who are 7-0 despite having few marquee names in the lineup.
"We've
only beaten them three times ever, the last time in 1993.
But we're getting there. We lost by four points last year and we tied
them
the year before."
