womens wrestling news

Shelby Novak loves challenges.

Over the past couple of fall sports seasons, she has put herself on an island as the goaltender for the Plum varsity girls soccer

team.

She is the last line of defense for the Lady Mustangs and has made some big saves and brought some big wins to the Plum program.

In November, Novak accepted another challenge.

This one involved taking on a sport where her teammates all are male.

She is one of a select number of female athletes in the WPIAL who are on varsity wrestling rosters.

"One day in study hall, we were all talking about wrestling and girls in wrestling," Novak said.

"I said I would be interested in doing it. Everything went from there."

Novak came to conditioning workouts shortly after the season ended for the varsity girls soccer team in late October.

She then found herself learning the ropes on the mat in the wrestling room and started to earn the respect of her new teammates.

"At first, I don't think some people were too sure about it," Novak said. "They weren't sure if I would last. They've noticed my dedication and my willingness to do the work, and they have accepted me."

Novak said she has learned a lot about the sport so far.

"It's a lot harder than I thought it would be," she said. "I know what my teammates have gone through to get to where they are. I see it from their perspective."

There currently are 10 female wrestlers on WPIAL varsity rosters, including Norwin junior Katelyn Lishego, as well as one female wrestler each in City League varsity programs at Perry and Carrick.

Novak said she has faced the usual reaction of uncertainty from her male opponents but always strives to gain their respect the same way she strove to gain the respect of her Mustang teammates.

"Several of them have come up to me after a match and said, 'Good job,"' Novak said. "They say that I was a lot tougher than they thought I was going to be. They often change their mind about female wrestlers."

Novak's efforts have impressed Plum head coach Mike Supak.

"At first, we just told her to be in shape for wrestling," he said.

"Wrestling shape is a little different than soccer shape. You have to train for wrestling and get used to that. When she first got on the mat, you could tell she had the coordination and athletic ability that would help her out. Live competition has been the key for her. Any time you start a new sport, live competition with the pressure on is different that being on the mat in practice."

Novak is 6-9 overall this season. In the 103 spot on the Plum roster, she has earned five forfeit wins and has one win on the mat. She also has suffered three decision losses and six others by pinfall.

She won her first match on the mat by pinning Dan Reasman from Bridgeport (W.Va.) at the Wheeling Park Duals.

"She was really excited to actually wrestle," Supak said. "She took the kid down quickly and was very aggressive. She put him right on his back, used the cradle and pinned him."

Novak lost her second match in overtime to a wrestler from Edgewood (Ohio), but not before rallying from five points down in the third period to tie the bout.

"When she tied the match, the place went nuts," Supak said.

Novak said there are some similarities to her work as goalkeeper for the girls soccer team and her work on the wrestling mat.

"There is a lot of mental work in both sports," she said. "It's not all physical. In wrestling and (playing goaltender) in soccer, you have to think about what you are going to do in advance. You have to anticipate what your opponent may or may not do."

Novak said she has talked to a number of female wrestlers who have gone through the same things she is going through right now, and she likes what she hears.

"A girl on a team that was wrestling at the Wheeling Park Duals approached me, and we started to talk about the women's national team and other opportunities for women in amateur wrestling outside of high school," Novak said.

"There are girls freestyle wrestling programs everywhere. It's nice to see how many opportunities are out there."

Novak will be in the Plum lineup at 103 this weekend at the Allegheny County Tournament at Fox Chapel.

CHS set to host wrestlers

By Mike Jones

Perry’s lineup for state duals filled with freshmen

PERRY — A host of freshmen dot the lineup of the Perry wrestling team, but the Panthers’ young stars are no mere novices.

Freshmen are expected to fill half of the 14 weight classifications when the Panthers face Woodward Academy in the Class AAA division of the GHSA state duals, which begin at 8:30 a.m. today at the Macon Coliseum. Many of them are veterans of the Takedown Club, a USA wrestling group organized by Perry Middle School athletics director Randy Moss.

They have all been involved in our youth program for several years,” Moss wrote in an e-mail. “Mat time is everything in wrestling and the majority of our freshman class had (more than 100) matches going into their high school career. They are experienced, and they all seem to love the sport.”

Perry has freshmen at the lightest weight (103-pound Jake Parker), the heaviest weight (Matthew Long) and five weight classes in between. The Panthers expect to wrestle just three seniors today: Jacob Ennis (135 pounds); Ross Tew (145) and Javon Walker (152).

Freshmen Dillon Hendrix (130) and Luke Lineberger (140) wrestled with Moss beginning in sixth grade. Lineberger said he has participated in a pair of USA state meets. He doesn’t expect to be overwhelmed by today’s environment.

“I’m looking forward to the competition,” he said. “I want to see how good we are. It will be interesting to see how we react.”

Perry finished as runnerup to Westover in the Area 1-AAA meet on Jan. 9 in Albany. The Patriots edged Perry 41-40, and as a result, the Panthers drew Woodward in the first round.

The Atlanta private school is serious about its wrestling. The War Eagles finished third in the event last year and have placed in the top four three times in the past five years. The Area 4-AAA champions have already competed in more than 30 dual meets this year.

Perry’s wrestlers understand they’ll be facing a stepped up level of competition. But to a man — and 112-pound freshman girl Haleigh Wilson — they’re looking forward to the challenge.

“We’d like to make a statement,” Tew said. “No one’s thought much of Perry wrestling. ... We’re looking to show the improvement we’ve made as a team.”

COLLEGE WRESTLING: King match canceled

In his five seasons as the wrestling coach at Inderkum High School, Mike Moyer has witnessed the proliferation of girls in the sport.

"As the sport has gotten bigger and more sophisticated, we're now seeing teams with a full roster of women," Moyer said. "Some girls even have their own coaches."

Moyer is the tournament director for the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California Regional Tournament being held today and Saturday at Inderkum. Some 320 girls from 80 schools will compete. It's the largest field in the event's six-year history, Moyer said.

It's the third season Moyer and Inderkum have hosted the event. The Southern California tournament will be next Friday and Saturday in Covina.

Although the CIF doesn't hold a state wrestling championship for girls, it's in the "talking stages" for 2011, according to CIF sports information officer Quwan Spears.

Girls wrestling has grown enough that separate female tournaments are held almost every weekend throughout Northern California from late November to late January.

The California Women's Wrestling Association holds the unofficial state championship Jan. 28-29 in Hanford. The Sac-Joaquin Section also will hold a girls-only invitational tournament Feb. 5-6 in Stockton.

Moyer coached one of the area's top female wrestlers in Jamila McBride, a two-time NorCal 235-pound champion who now competes on scholarship as a freshman at Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky.

Another Inderkum graduate, Darla Plymesser, a Sacramento City College student, is Moyer's assistant.

She coaches Inderkum's two girls wrestlers, senior 108-pounder Camille Antivo and junior 122-pounder Jodi Mallary. Although Antivo is a rookie wrestler and Mallary a second-year competitor, Moyer says they could be in the mix to medal as top-eight finishers in their respective weight classes.

"The sport is still new enough that even those who come in without a lot of experience can still do well," Moyer said. "It's wide open a lot of times."

Franklin High School Cougar star shoots for state

Franklin High School wrestler Alba Mendoza has built a 28-0 record this season. She is considered a favorite to contend for the 110-pound state championship. (Vanessa Monsisvais / El Paso Times)

EL PASO -- Franklin High School's Alba Mendoza has run her wrestling record to 28-0 and is considered a legitimate contender for a state title this year. And it's not surprising when you throw in the fact that she has several generations of experience behind her.

Mendoza, who failed to qualify for the state tournament last year after making it as a sophomore, is hoping her senior season will culminate in Austin.

"My goal since I was a freshman was to be a state champ, so we'll see what happens," Mendoza said. "Anything can happen. If I keep working hard, I think I can take it.

"I'm getting more used to my higher weight class, plus now I can eat whatever I want."

It was the jump in weight class that caused Mendoza some disappointment as a junior.

"She advanced to the state meet as a sophomore at 102 pounds, but she struggled last year when she jumped to 110 pounds," Franklin coach Jesse Almodovar said. "This year, she's adjusted to her weight class very well."

That may be the understatement of the season.

"She's already won two of the top tournaments in the state," Almodovar said. "She won at the Frisco Tournament in Dallas and took the Amarillo Caprock Tournament last weekend and was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler."

Though she's considered the top wrestler in her class in the region, Mendoza still was stunned at the end of the Caprock Tournament.

"It was amazing; my hands were shaking," Mendoza said. "I was telling my teammates that I hope I get it (outstanding wrestler), because I'd worked so hard. When I heard my name called, I was so excited I was speechless."

Mendoza isn't the only member of the family to attain success on the wrestling mat.

"Her older sister (Brenda) was a state runner-up a couple years ago for Franklin," Almodovar said. "She's wrestling at Northern Michigan University now -- that's where the Olympic training center is -- and there is talk that they might be interested in bringing Alba to join her sister there."

It wouldn't be the first time the younger Mendoza has followed her big sister.

"My sister always has been a role model for me," she said. "Anything she did -- I wanted to do it too. We grew up in Juárez, and we moved to El Paso when I was 8 years old. My sister wanted to do something like judo in high school, but the closest thing she found was wrestling. And I followed in her footsteps."

The fact that the girls knew anything about judo can be attributed to their parents -- both martial arts experts.

"Both of my parents are black belts in judo," Mendoza said. "In fact, my parents met learning karate together at a class run by my grandpa (her dad's father), and they ended up getting married.

"I'm a blue belt in judo, but I haven't practiced in forever. My parents had their own dojo when my sister and I were little. As soon as we were born, we were on the mat."

But, as her father recalls it, neither was very anxious to start a career in martial arts.

"It's interesting, because both of them used to cry all the way from the house to the gym, but once we got there they would have a great time," said Oscar Mendoza, an instructor at Hayashi's Martial Arts Academy.

"Judo is very similar to wrestling, and I think her background in martial arts has helped Alba very much. The discipline she's learned has definitely played a role in her success."

Mendoza's success, however, reaches beyond her wrestling skills.

"She's a great student, and I'm always hearing nothing but compliments from her teachers," Almodovar said. "She's a team captain and a role model for the rest of the wrestlers, and she's highly respected by both the girls and the boys on the team."

Mendoza's dream of winning a state championship begins at the district meet Feb. 6.

"Hopefully, I can achieve my goal of winning a title," Mendoza said. "I've dedicated myself to the sport, and it would be great to accomplish something so special."

Mat club grapplers compete again

Three years later, Simmons is now in her final season on the Oklahoma City University women's wrestling team, which has quickly emerged as a national powerhouse in collegiate women's wrestling.

Under the leadership of Archie Randall, who coaches both the men's and women's wrestling programs at OCU, the Stars have won the National Wrestling Coaches Association national duals championship in all three years of the program's existence, including this season. Last year, the Stars also won the Women's College Wrestling Association championship.

The Stars will try to defend their WCWA championship on Jan. 30 in Marshall, Mo.

"We probably have the most talented group of girls here at our place," Randall said. "We basically dominate everyone in college."

Since women's college wrestling is not an NCAA Division I sanctioned sport, OCU and most of the other major women's college wrestling programs compete as members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

OCU competes against 15 colleges in the United States -- notably Missouri Baptist College, Missouri Valley College and King College (Tenn.) -- about 23 Canadian colleges and competition internationally.

Randall believes women's college wrestling will ultimately be accepted as a mainstream sport and have a presence on the major college athletics scene.

"I think it's going to continuously grow in the NAIA division and in the small private schools," Randall said. "It's unbelievable. In the last three years, it seems we're adding two to three teams every year. It's going to cause a trickle effect down to the high school level. As soon as someone starts a Division I program it is going to snowball.

"When I got hired here four years ago, that's something we were warned -- that we were possibly going to be Division I. It doesn't make any difference to me. I don't want to be Division I; now I've got to recruit against OSU [Oklahoma State University] and OU [the University of Oklahoma]. Who wants to do that?"

With the success OCU has had at the NAIA level, Randall has been able to recruit nationally despite limited financial resources. The team is allocated eight full athletic scholarships valued at about $32,000 each. Yet, with more than 20 student-athletes on the team each season, Randall allocates partial scholarships to students, who combine their athletic money with any academic scholarships or federal assistance they can obtain to make the school affordable.

Tthe lack of athletic scholarship dollars hasn't hurt OCU's recruiting efforts, as the Stars currently have 21 players on their roster who come from 13 different states.

Michaela Hutchison started wrestling at age 7 with her brother Eli in her hometown of Soldotna, Alaska. Throughout most of middle school and high school, she was the only girl on the boys' wrestling team. Most states do not have dedicated girls' wrestling programs in their public school systems. That didn't bother Hutchison, who just wanted to wrestle.

"I didn't really notice after awhile," Hutchison said. "They just treated me like another teammate."

"I prefer to recruit girls who have been wrestling on men's teams," Randall said. "Those girls tend to be a little bit more resilient. The ones from the strictly women's programs, they have an adjustment period.

"I don't coach the girls any different than I coach the guys. I don't treat them any different. I don't do anything different. I treat them as women athletes who wrestle."

Randall's wrestlers have one primary goal for their time on campus: graduate. Once they have their degree, some of his athletes will compete to make the United States Olympic team for the 2012 Summer Games. Though he has not had any female wrestlers move on to the Olympics yet, he believes his program is unique for young women who have Olympic and educational aspirations because it will set them up for academic success and a career beyond wrestling.

"The main goal of OCU wrestlers is to graduate from college and get a degree," Randall said. "The goal of most of the girls on this team is to be Olympians, but they want to have their degrees so if it doesn't work, then they're still fine."

However, as the Olympics are currently formatted, fewer of his female than male athletes would have a chance to wrestle for their country. At the Olympic level, there are seven weight classes for men's wrestling while there are only four weight levels for women. Randall hopes the remaining three levels will be added in time for the 2012 games.

While Randall's wrestlers remain focused on their college degrees, some of them are already preparing to represent the United States in London.

"It would pretty much mean everything," Simmons said of going to the Olympic Games. "It's what I've been training for forever."

Nearly four years after the car accident almost ended her wrestling career, Simmons will begin training for the Olympics this summer after she graduates from OCU. Simmons didn't take the typical path to OCU; she joined the Stars only two seasons ago after spending a year at the Olympic Education Center following high school and taking time off in her home state of Washington. But she plans on staying in Oklahoma for two years to train while also pursuing her master's degree at OCU in health and human performance.

Women's wrestling still has a long way to go to become a mainstream sport in most colleges.

"I think women's wrestling in general is looked down upon," Hutchison said. "I think it's expanding every day. There's more and more little girls going out for wrestling.

"At airports, when we go travel, they're [travelers] like, 'You're a wrestling team? I didn't even know they had wrestling.' The news is spreading."

Girls take male wrestlers to the mat

Clark-Johnson, a senior at Southeast Raleigh High, and a handful of other female wrestlers across the state have learned how to win.

"At 112, everybody's going to be bigger than me," said Clark-Johnson, alluding to upper-body strength. "Having the technique absolutely perfect is the key to who's going to win."

But Clark-Johnson and her colleagues are still learning how to deal with the negative, often painful fallout from beating boys at their own game. Girls aren't always given respect for winning and sometimes face resentment. Boys who lose to girls can face ridicule from teammates, parents and coaches.

The pressure can be so great that some coaches are reluctant to match boys against girls.

Clark-Johnson has won more matches than she has lost this year. As a sophomore, she was one win short of qualifying for the state tournament. Her career record is 99-60, with almost all the wins against boys.

An injury may have cost her a chance to become the first female wrestler to qualify for the state finals last season. Olivia Branch of Rosewood High qualified in the 103-pound class and advanced to the second round in February.

Clark-Johnson has seen coaches scream at their wrestlers for losing to her.

"They don't seem to accept the fact that he lost to someone who was better," she said, "that he could lose to a female."

Wrestlers from some schools have refused to wrestle Clark-Johnson. More than 20 wrestlers have forfeited against her, many because of concerns about wrestling a girl. She takes it as an insult, though it no longer happens as often.

"At first, people didn't think I was worthy to compete against their wrestlers, that I was inadequate," she said. "It seemed stupid because I worked so hard. Then, when I started winning, they didn't want to hurt their kid's ego."

At Cary High's Mark Adams Holiday Classic in late December, Clark-Johnson beat Matt Cox, a freshman from West Carteret High.

Cox said a friend who also lost to Clark-Johnson last year is no longer wrestling.

"He got picked on so much he quit," Cox said.

West Carteret's coach at the time, Dan Varner, now an assistant coach at the school, said that wasn't the reason he was given when the boy quit.

Cox said he loves the sport and wouldn't quit even if he were teased for losing to a girl. A few weeks later, nobody had ribbed him, he said.

Skill over muscle

It can be a battle for girls to get a chance to wrestle.

There are four girls on Knightdale High's team, including two sisters who routinely win matches against boys, Jessica and Lacy Haig. All have competed at the varsity level to varying degrees.

Jessica, a senior wrestling in the 130-pound class, is 10-17 this season. Lacy (125), a junior, is 3-15. Sophomore Jaha Cruz (103) is 11-21 at the varsity level. And freshman Jordan Weber (130) is 0-2, having wrestled most of her matches in junior varsity.

The Haigs had to win over their father before they could compete against boys.

Mark Haig needed the nudging of a friend when he agreed to let Jessica and Lacy wrestle several years ago.

"I think it was a boys-don't-wrestle-girls inclination," Haig said.

Haig and his friend started a girls wrestling club in Oregon. Two years ago, when the family moved to Knightdale, the Haig sisters knew a thing or two about wrestling.

"They have more technique than probably 60 or 70 percent of these kids right here," said Jessica's boyfriend, Nick McClelland, a junior, who is also a member of Knightdale's team.

Knightdale High, which opened in 2004, has had a girl wrestling at the varsity level every year.

"I'll take technique over strength any day," Knightdale coach Alex Von Hoene said. "When you combine that with the grit and determination to overcome the obstacles that girls face, that goes a long way."

Resistance lingers

Rick Strunk, an associate executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, said the association's rules, which go back at least 25 years, say girls may compete against boys as long as there is no girls program available. Twenty to 25 girls join wrestling teams each year, he said.

The association does not track the number of girls wrestling and has no record of the first time a girl won a match against a boy.

Clark-Johnson said she was drawn to the sport by some male friends who wrestled.

"I was intimidated at first," she said. "I was afraid people would make fun of me or tease me. Of course, that's what they did anyway. My friends said I wouldn't last 10 days. I've lasted four years."

When Cardinal Gibbons was in the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association, the school, per the association's rules, could not allow boys to face girls.

Now the school belongs to the N.C. High School Athletic Association, but the coach, Stan Chambers, is reluctant to let his boys wrestle girls. He decides on varsity matches case by case and is willing to forfeit a match against a girl as long as it does not endanger his team's chance of winning a meet. Technically, wrestling coaches can forfeit matches for any number of reasons.

"If they lose to a girl, they're going to get laughed at," Chambers said.

Mixed matches limited

Chambers doesn't let any of his junior varsity boys wrestle girls.

"If she beats him, you could lose that kid," he said.

Chambers said he would rather there be an all-girls league. Society has a double standard, he said.

"It's tough to lose to a girl in the sport of wrestling," he said.

But any coach who would yell at a wrestler for losing to a girl shouldn't be coaching, he said.

"I think that's wrong because that's the beginning of the end of a boy's wrestling career," said Chambers, who coaches a wrestling club that is open to girls.

Dorsey Edmondson, a sports psychologist from Rocky Mount, said double standards aren't fair to either side.

"Normally, when an athlete performs better than someone else, it's celebrated," Edmondson said. "But when the male loses [to a female], it doesn't necessarily come across as the female was better, but that the male wasn't up to the task. That's wrong for a lot of reasons. It puts great pressure on the male, but it doesn't give the female respect and credit."

Lacy Haig, the junior at Knightdale, said she has been treated with varying degrees of respect.

"Some guys really treat it with respect and honor -- it's just another wrestler," she said. "And then some other guys are just completely disrespectful towards any girl who attempts wrestling."

Diane Whaley, a professor at the University of Virginia who interviewed the five members of the 2004 women's U.S. Olympic wrestling team, found that most had gotten into wrestling in high school, wrestling against boys.

"It was the biggest deal to the parents of the boys [that they were wrestling girls]," Whaley said. "That's where they had parents yelling at them that they had no right to wrestle against their son. That's when they got the abuse. [The parents] were more afraid of their sons losing to them than their sons were."

For all the turmoil over girls and women in a male-dominated sport, Whaley said, the girls who really love the sport get by on the positive support they receive from parents, coaches or teammates.

Part of the team

Coaches such as Von Hoene and Jeff Smith, who runs Southeast Raleigh's wrestling program, see the girls as important members of their teams.

"She has been a true leader on the team," Smith said of Clark-Johnson. She is one of only two wrestlers on the team with more than 20 wins and has been a captain since her sophomore year.

"I had wrestlers saying, 'I don't think she should be a leader,' " Smith said. "I'm like, guess what, she works harder than you do."

At Knightdale, Keith Clark, a JV heavyweight, said the female wrestlers have earned the team's respect.

"They're great teammates," said Clark, a junior, during a meet against Garner High near the end of December. "I love them like my sisters."

During that match, all four Knightdale girls lost. Jessica Haig had a lead on Vince Woods, who was physically stronger, and did not allow herself to be pinned.

"She was the difference," said Von Hoene, whose team won 41-40. "If she gives up that pin, we lose."

Count Woods among those who respect Haig.

"She is a very, very aggressive person," said Garner's Woods. "She would not let me get it [the pin]. ... Honestly, I think girls make the best warriors because people think they're going to be easy to beat."

MAKING HER MARK: Novak battling through challenges as female member of Plum wrestling tea