Womens wrestling news 09

WASHINGTON — Three generations of the most powerful women in sport and politics sat along a table in the Eisenhower Building of the White House complex Tuesday to celebrate the 37th anniversary of Title IX, the federal law that outlaws sex discrimination at schools receiving federal funds.

Women's tennis legend and Women's Sports Foundation founder Billie Jean King, 65, traded knowing smiles with a giddy Valerie Jarrett, president Barack Obama's senior advisor and the leader of a panel that discussed the challenges of furthering the letter and spirit of the law.

When U.S. Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes said she "wasn't born at the time" Title IX was passed, King let out a loud snicker, eliciting laughter from the 50-plus in attendance, some of whom were girls from local middle and high schools.

"I wasn't around, but I was definitely someone who benefited from it," Dawes said.

The 32-year-old also wasn't born when King won what's remembered as the "battle of the sexes," beating men's tennis champ Bobby Riggs in a much-publicized exhibition just a year after Title IX passed. Jarrett, 52, remembers watching the match on television as a teenager growing up in Chicago.

"As I was watching, I really felt that my future was in your hands," Jarrett told King during the discussion. "He was just such a trash talker and you just pummeled him!"

This celebration came against the backdrop of a study released Tuesday showing 12,000 more athletic scholarships available for females than males in sports played by both men and women. The College Sports Council, a watchdog group that charts the impact of Title IX on men's sports, says the NCAA is not making decisions based on interest when it comes to women's sports but is looking for sports with large rosters "to satisfy the gender quota," said chairman Eric Pearson.

"If you are focused on just putting numbers out, you are inclined to go to sports like rowing," Pearson added.

Providing opportunities proportional to the student body for men and women athletes is one way schools can comply with Title IX.

According to figures for 2006-07, the latest available from the National Federation of State High School Associations, 5,048 girls wrestle in high school while 2,685 are on crew teams and 1,341 are on equestrian teams. Yet, women's wrestling is not an NCAA sport while those others are.

"You can have strong interest in a women's sport, but if it's not a large-roster sport, the NCAA doesn't go for it," Pearson said.

The CSC study does not include football, which has 85 men's scholarships. Pearson said football was left out to shine the spotlight on sports played by men and women. He says scholarships should be equal and schools should determine how they are used to meet Title IX guidelines.

"The CSC's study is off the mark because Title IX states schools must offer gender equitable opportunities, aid and benefits without discrimination on the basis of sex — there is no distinction made with respect to individual sports," Karen Morrison, NCAA Director of Gender Initiatives said via e-mail. "Football is part of the equation and cannot be overlooked. The Department of Education and the courts continue to support the current way schools assess compliance — by determining how participation opportunities and benefits for men and women are provided in the athletics programs as a whole — not how one sport compares to its counterpart."

She added that member schools determine how many scholarships sports can award and which sports are added to the emerging sports list.

At the panel discussion, King reminded those in attendance that challenges remain in furthering the Title IX agenda.

"We're looking to have the hearts and minds of the people match up with this legislation," she said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in the 37 years since Title IX was passed, female participation in college athletics is up from 15% to 43%, and the number of female high school athletes has grown from 300,000 to nearly three million.

Duncan also announced $2.4 million in grants for 13 organizations to support projects that will help high school girls gain higher proficiency in math and science, according to a White House press release.

"These grants go hand-in-glove with our efforts to improve equity and access for women and girls in the classroom and on the playing field," Duncan said. "While much has been accomplished since Title IX was enacted, we must continue to push for further progress. The Obama administration strives to remove the obstacle of gender discrimination as a way to increase access to college and careers for all students."

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Five high school senior wrestlers earned All-America honors from Wrestling USA Magazine.

Novato’s Madson is a triple threat, and loves it

108-lb. dynamo competes in track, cross country and wrestling

Novato cross-country coach George Bousquette first saw Courtney Madson when she was running in middle school.

Same for Novato track and field coach Steve Deschler.

While realizing she had a talent for running, Madson, who just completed her sophomore year at Novato High, they also saw something else.

“I watch the middle school meets and take notes, and you could tell she loves to run and loves to compete,” said Deschler. “But there is something inside her that if it comes down to the late stages of a race, she gives you everything she’s got and then some.”

Fast-forward to this past school year, when the 5-3, 108-pound sophomore applied her talents and her competitive spirit to competing for the Hornets in not only cross-country and track, but also in wrestling.

“I think her wrestling is a positive, because it makes her an even tougher competitor,” said Deschler, who can definitely relate to Madson as an athlete because he also competed in cross-country, wrestling and track. “Whatever sport, she brings an attitude with her, a toughness.”

That would no doubt be attested to by girls she has run against, and girls -- and boys -- she has competed against on the wrestling mat.

“I may not seem angry, but it feels good to be physical,” said Courtney, now in her fifth year of wrestling. “On the mat you are doing it all by yourself and you can’t blame anybody but yourself.”

Madson’s ability to excel at three sports has not come without paying a price.

While she can run during the summer to prepare for cross-country season, and her running no doubt helps prepare her for wrestling, the transition from wrestling to track has proven to be something of a problem.

“I have the whole summer to train (for cross-country) and moving on to wrestling has not been that difficult,” said Courtney, who turns 16 in November. “But it took me until the end of the season to really get into running shape for track.”

Even so, her 2:20.38 in the 800, 5:35.44 in the 1,600 and 11:24.36 for 3,200 were exceptional. Her 800 and 3,200 times rank her second on the all-time list at Novato High.

“She loves to train and she trains hard,” said Deschler. “Some kids put in the minimum effort but Courtney is not one of them.”

As her junior year approaches, Madson is not ready to shed any of her sports.

“If they (Bousquette and Deschler) had their way I would only be running, but that won’t happen this year,” she said.

It’s not as though she merely dabbles in her three sports -- she is outstanding at all three.

Wrestling -- her father Steve, a former Novato coach, is her coach on the Hornets’ girls’ team -- at the 105-pound level, she has captured MCAL, North Coast Section, state and national honors.

In cross-country, she has been to the state meet twice and will no doubt represent NCS this fall. And her abbreviated track season produced outstanding marks.

“I never tell kids to quit one sport for another,” said Bousquette. “If you want to do two or three sports, then do it.”

He does think at some point -- maybe her senior year, maybe in college -- it will become clear to her that she needs to refocus.

“As a track coach, I would love to see her concentrate on running, because her times at the end of the season were phenomenal and we can only speculate how good they might have been,” said Deschler. “But as an ex-wrestler and track guy, I know this is a decision she has to make.”

Courtney says she often talks with Bousquette about running but he has not suggested she drop wrestling.

“Steve sees a bigger future for me in running than wrestling,” she said.

Madson often fields the obvious question about wrestling boys in league, an endeavor in which she is usually successful.

“I have no problem with it, but sometimes it’s awkward,” she said. “It can be a lose-lose for boys because if they win, so what? But if they lose, they lost to a girl!”

Courtney said her tough demeanor -- on the mat and on the track or road course -- belies who she really is, what she calls “a girly girl . . . I’m still a girl, always will be.”

In fact, she recalls passing on a big wrestling meet last year so she could attend a spring formal.

She started wrestling as a 6th grader, watching a tournament and deciding it looked like fun. She practiced for a week -- “I really didn’t know anything about wrestling” -- and took second in a tournament.”

Madson will be running a lot this summer, preparing for cross-country. Because her postseason is usually extended, she will get a late start on wrestling, and because that season will no doubt be extended, she will again get a late start on track.

“Courtney is fearless,” said Deschler. “Athletes hit a pain threshold and the good ones push through it . . . Courtney is that kind of athlete.”

As far as college Deschler and Bousquette feel she could be offered a scholarship in any one of her three sports.

“I’d love to do cross-country and wrestling in college, but there aren’t many schools where I could do that,” said the 3.5 GPA student, although she mentioned Menlo College, where cross-country is mandatory for girls who wrestle.

“Some people see my future as a runner, not a wrestler,” she said. “But for now, I see a future in both.”

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Kevin Black was a busy guy while wrestling for Wisconsin. He competed during the 1999-03 seasons, earned All-American status in 2002 with a fourth place finish at the NCAA championships at 133 lbs., participated in Athletes in Action and also stuck around after graduation to help out on head coach Barry Davis’s staff.

Since he left Wisconsin, Black has not slowed down. He moved back to his hometown of River Falls, Wis., and created the Victory School of Wrestling. Before starting up Victory, Black worked with the U.S. Women’s Wrestling Team and will travel with the team to Denmark this summer for the 2009 World Championships.

Black and his wife Liz (Reusser), a former UW track and cross country athlete, also had their first child last September. Be sure to read on to see how Kevin has stayed busy since leaving the UW.

I graduated in 2003 but my senior year I got hurt, so I didn’t finish out that season, but during the summer of 2003 I got married to my wife Liz. When I graduated, we hung out in Madison, she went to pharmacy school and I helped Barry out for two years and I still did a little competing. I tried to do the senior level thing and make the U.S. National Team. I never made the team, but had the chance to travel overseas for a couple of events and wrestled a couple of domestic competitions. In 2005, I just decided that I didn’t have what it took to compete at that level any longer. It was too big of a commitment and we wanted to start a family.

Liz graduated from pharmacy school and she got a job in River Falls, Wis., so we moved up here to River Falls and I decided to start the Victory School of Wrestling. When I was at Wisconsin, Troy Steiner was a coach for us and he started a wrestling school in Madison. I got to see him start from the grassroots and build a business and a program. I took a lot of the things that I saw he did well and applied them to this area. It’s a little bit different type of kid that comes to the school, it’s a different economy up here, but we still were able to make it work and in about three years, it’s really grown into a big production here in the Northwest part of the state. We get kids from about a 100 mile radius; we draw from the north and south and even into the Twin Cities.

I also had a unique opportunity to work with Terry Steiner with the U.S. Women’s Wrestling Team after graduation. Terry was a coach in Madison when I was there as well, and he actually left the UW to take a position with U.S.A. Wrestling coaching women. I did some coaching at the state level with some female wrestlers and just from there, I progressed into coaching at the senior level. This summer I will be one of the World Team coaches. I was a World Team coach in 2007 and we took fourth as a team and had three medalists in Azerbaijan. This year we’re in Denmark so I’ll travel over there in September.

What events do you have coming up this summer at the Victory School of Wrestling?

Summer just started so we’re picking up the pace a little bit for the wrestlers that are in summer training. During the school year, the kids have other things going on and they’re pretty busy with school commitments, but during the summer, we can pick up the intensity a little bit. The high school guys train three times a week down here, some kids come in for one-on-one attention or more strength and conditioning. Our big goal is Junior Nationals at the end of July in Fargo, N.D. It’s the biggest wrestling tournament in the world and we’re just sort of on the first week of our cycle to have them ready for that event. We’re putting them through a program where they peak in July.

My best memory off the mat was being involved with some other outside activities. I was involved in Athletes in Action and I met my wife through there and did a lot of great things with AIA.

With wrestling, I have two very memorable moments. The first was from my freshman year, at the Big Ten championships. I got beat two weeks before that in a dual meet by a wrestler from Michigan. I actually got beat 21-5 and Barry and I went back to the drawing board and he told me that I was going to beat him at Big Ten’s two weeks later. He put together a game plan and said if you trust me, you’re going to beat this guy. I trusted him and I ended up beating him to qualify for nationals as a true freshman and he was a fifth-year senior and ranked fifth in the country. It was a pretty big moment for my career, but also just big for the guys on the team. I bought into what Barry had to say and I came out with great success. I think Barry even still uses that story with the guys today.

My other favorite memory came from my senior year when I got hurt. I thought that I was set up to win a national title, and all those sorts of things, and I was ranked second in the country but got hurt three weeks before Big Ten’s and was out for the season. My best memory from that situation though was the way that Barry handled me as a man. I went to Wisconsin to win a national title but I also went because I thought Barry was a guy that could help me do that and I thought that he had a lot of good character traits aside from just being a coach, that could help me grow as a man. He helped me realize that there is more to life than wrestling. It was a good moment for me. Barry truly and genuinely cares about his wrestlers and I think that I have testimony to that.

I do. I still stay in contact with Barry and follow the team’s success. I didn’t get a chance to make it to any duals in Madison last year but I went to the National Duals. I did follow them online and watch the live Web casts.

When I was there, I was also interested in my education. I was a good student in high school but I had to take it to another level in college to succeed. Now, I value my education more than my wrestling experience in hindsight. I went to class, I studied, I did all of the things I was supposed to and I think that’s one of the reasons I got so much out of my education. Some of the guys that didn’t apply themselves in the education maybe don’t have that same appreciation or memory of how good of an institution the University of Wisconsin is. If I had any advice for those guys, it would be to go to class, to really take it serious because it can change your life.

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The rest of the best student-athletes in Vaughan

Novato’s Madson is a triple threat, and loves it

108-lb. dynamo competes in track, cross country and wrestling