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Pins and needles don't stop girl wrestler;
Clifton Park Columbia's Nicole Baylinson keeps trying despite a 2-6
record and some teasing
The Times Union (Albany, NY)
January 16, 2003
Columbia High sophomore Nicole Baylinson was dismayed after losing her
119-pound JV wrestling match to Shenendehowa's Ray Murray,
15-0, in the Shenendehowa gymnasium on Jan. 7.
She successfully fought back tears at the traditional post-match
handshake with Murray at the center of the mat, but then the waterworks
opened up freely as she went off the mat and walked behind the team
area to get a drink of water. Then she gave the padded wall a swift kick
of frustration before sitting down to watch the rest of the JV match
with her teammates.
While Baylinson may have been upset with this latest match, she remains
steadfast in her pursuit to stay on course and become a successful
wrestler. "I love wrestling. I like the fact that it takes work on my
part, and I like the fact that it's a very physical sport," Baylinson said
after shehad calmed herself from the loss. "You can work out a lot of stress if
you're a wrestler."
Girls and wrestling. That still sounds like a contradiction in terms to
even the most liberal of those offering an outside opinion. The fact is,
girl wrestlers are not such a novelty any more. Former Colonie High wrestler
Kristie Stenglein changed a lot of that thinking a few years ago with
the success she enjoyed. Stenglein has gone on to win silver and gold
medals at amateur world championship wrestling matches.
"It's not so unique now. I know of at least a few other girls besides
me who are wrestling against boys. Colonie has one, Cohoes has one, and
so does Amsterdam. I'm sure there are some others I don't know about,
too," said Baylinson, who is showing great determination to succeed
in her chosen sport.
"Girls don't have as much strength as boys. That's a fact," she said.
"But I think my wrestling technique is good, and I'm going to stick with
this."
Baylinson has wrestled in eight matches this season and sports a 2-6
record.
Taking into consideration she took a year off from the sport, that's
not bad at all.
"I started wrestling when I was in seventh grade. My father (Dan
Baylinson) was a wrestler in high school in Wilmington, Delaware, and he got
me interested in it. Another reason I wanted to try it was because a
lot of my guy friends were wrestling, so I decided to try it."
As an eighth-grader competing on the modified wrestling team, however,
she sustained a serious shoulder injury in practice that cut short her
season. Baylinson decided to play basketball last winter as a freshman,
but after giving the matter a lot of thought she decided to return to her
favorite sport.
She went to Columbia varsity coach Jim McHugh's summer wrestling camp
and then came out for the sport again this winter.
"My mother (Judy Baylinson) was a little hesitant to let me try it
again," she said. "But she knows I want to do this."
She certainly has earned the respect of her teammates as well as the
admiration of McHugh.
"You look at Nicole and you say to yourself it's a matter of days
before she'll pack it in and give up," McHugh said. "But the next day she'll
showup with a shiner and gauze in her nose and she starts all over. She's
got more fight in her than a lot of the boys wrestling today do. She's got
a lot of drive, and she's earned the respect of the boys on the team to
the point where she is treated as 'one of the guys.' "
Baylinson said she gets some disrespect about competing in wrestling
from others less close to her. She shrugs it off.
"I get a certain amount of teasing from people in school," she said.
"But that comes from people who are not really my friends. And there are
guys on other teams who simply will refuse to wrestle against me."
Pressed for an opinion on the subject of girls wrestling against boys,
even McHugh admits he has mixed feelings on the topic.
"I think it puts boys in a lose-lose situation," McHugh said. "If he
defeats the girl, everyone says he should beat her, so big deal. If he loses,
it'sa lot worse for him."
That's not to say he doesn't have deep admiration for Baylinson,
because he does.
"I'm definitely not pro-girl wrestling, but I'm very pro-Nicole," he
said. "She played basketball last year and she really missed wrestling, so
when she showed up at our camp this summer and told me she wanted to give it
another try, I was very happy to see her. She's very committed, and
she listens and knows what she's supposed to do."
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Tiffany's a typical teen-age girl -- outside the ring
BY ALAN DELL CORRESPONDENT 1/16/03
Before you sit down and talk wrestling with Tiffany Mason, she has a point to make: She is a girl, not short on feminine characteristics and not short on looks.
"There are some girls who want to look like men. I don't want that. I am a petite, little girl," said the 5-foot-6, 118-pound junior who made history last week when she became the first girl to wrestle a varsity match for Lemon Bay High School.
After getting past those preliminaries, Tiffany will talk freely about what has become her favorite sport.
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"I like being aggressive and fighting. I have two younger sisters and I am always beating them up," Tiffany said. "I was raised watching wrestling on television and when I was younger it looked real. That's just me."
After trying her luck at basketball for two years, Tiffany decided it was time to pursue another sport. She had already gained notoriety in track as a hurdler, but she wanted something more demanding. In her mind, wrestling was the obvious choice, but she had to sell her mom and dad on the idea.
"My parents didn't want me to wrestle because I was coming home with bruises during the first two weeks of practice. I looked like one big bruise and had black eyes," Tiffany said. "My mom wanted me to quit, but I kept telling her 'no.'"
Tiffany's dad, Dennis, who was a high school wrestler in Michigan, is amenable to his daughter's wishes, though he can't conceal his concern for her safety.
"I had a hard time selling my wife on Tiffany wrestling," he said. "Her mother doesn't like the idea of her kid coming home with a purple bruise on her nose and a black eye.
"I don't like the idea of my daughter getting beat up, but if her heart is into the sport, I am not going to be the one to tell her no. She is a straight-A student and a very bright girl with a lot of drive. "
Though she has gained most of her knowledge wrestling boys, Tiffany's success has come in girls wrestling, a fast-growing sport in Florida. She won three individual titles in three girls' tournaments this season and is 8-0 against female competition. In her only varsity match with the boys last week against Venice, she was pinned quickly.
Tiffany says wrestling against the guys in practice has given her a huge advantage over the girls. She also has a rigid personal weightlifting program and has invested a lot of time in the sport. During summer, she was a participant in a program at Venice High that helped her improve her technique and learn moves.
"When you wrestle guys it's totally different. They are aggressive and always coming at you. The girls are more laid back," Tiffany said.
People who know Tiffany are impressed with her aggressive nature and work ethic.
"She works harder than most of the boys on our team," said Lemon Bay co-head coach D.J. Keisling. "Our practices are intense and she is there day in and day out without a complaint. This is not a sport for the meek and she never cried or tried to get out of anything."
Frankie Faulseit, the school's top wrestler who often practices against Tiffany, says she is tougher than then some guys he has faced in competition.
"She is very aggressive and always moving forward. She doesn't stop," he said.
Tiffany has her sights set on the girls' state championship next month and a national girls' tournament in Michigan she expects to enter at the end of March.
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By: Eric Ollila January 16, 2003
There are a few comments that seem to come up again and again when it comes to the decision by the South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) to allow Sioux Falls' Erin McKeown to wrestle.
The first goes something like this, "How can the parents of that girl allow her to wrestle? After all, she's going to be getting groped by boys. I've seen wrestling and there's always some body part getting grabbed. That's just disgusting. They should be ashamed."
The second falls along the lines of this, "Oh, those poor boys. How are they going to be able to wrestle a girl? Aren't they going to be afraid of grabbing something? And the fear of losing, to a girl, that must be petrifying."
And then there's the third. This may be the most telling of all. "Girls should be learning to be ladies. They shouldn't even be involved in sports. They should stick with cooking and cleaning. Heck, how are they going to find a husband wrestling?"
My reaction? It's unfortunate that the positives of such a move aren't examined more closel - and changes like this are positive. Remember, not so long ago people were against doing away with slavery and giving women the right to vote. Now we have women who are Air Force pilots, firefighters, police and leaders of Congress.
Now, throw a boy that wants to compete in a "girls" sport into the equation. Watch out though, you might get hit by mud.
"Well, he would simply take over the sport," they say. "Boys are stronger and faster. No way could girls ever compete with boys. "
Then there's, "What's next? Are we going to have everything open to everyone? Where will it all end?"
Indeed, where will it end? Could it actually end with everything being open to everyone?
Is there a possibility that human beings can ever come to grips with the fact that they are just like everybody else? That their hopes, fears, dreams and expectations are shared?
Could it all end with a true equality, where a person's looks, gender, color, race, religion and nationality are of no consequence? I sure hope so.
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High School Notes: Ridgefield girl posts wins at Oregon Wrestling Classic
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
The Columbian
Melissa Simmons, a Ridgefield freshman, swept two divisions Saturday during the Oregon Wrestling Classic.
Simmons won the women's high school division and also took first in the women's open division, beating several college wrestlers.
Simmons wrestles varsity for the Spudders at 145 pounds, where she joins her older brother, Kyle, a senior, and father, Kim, an assistant coach.
The Washington Women's Wrestling Team, coached by Kim Simmons, is preparing for the United States Girls Wrestling Association National Tournament in Lake Orion, Mich., in March.
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Females are getting grappling hook
Last Updated: Jan. 16, 2003 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wrestling has always been known as a sport that twists and stretches the body into awkward positions.
So when the topic turns to girls participating at the high school level, the discussion can be just as awkward.
About 30 girls across the state wrestle for their high school varsity teams in a given season. Aside from the usual matters such as separate locker rooms and a consistent lack of suitable opponents of the same gender, many interesting concerns arise for both genders.
One one hand, this is 2003, and almost everyone now recognizes the ability of girls to thrive in previously all-male activities, such as soccer, hockey and (gasp!) sportswriting.
On the other hand, this is 2003, and one thing seems to have not changed: the male's attitude to losing to a female in sports competition.
Local coaches cited the possibility of a damaged ego as a reason to avoid coed wrestling.
"I don't care for coed wrestling too much," Wilmot coach John Watson said. "It puts vulnerable young boys in a no-win situation. If they beat the girl, they don't get any credit. If the lose to the girl, they're going to get ridden a little bit."
In fairness, there is also concern about damage to the female ego.
Although wrestlers who compete have to fall within the same weight class, males tend to be stronger physically and simply overpower their female counterparts. Consequently, females typically lose more matches than they win.
"One of the reasons why I have girls stick with girls is that they try their hardest and give their all in practice, but they constantly end up getting defeated," Kenosha Bradford coach Jerril Grover said. "I had one girl who won one match against a boy. It was the biggest victory, but to me it wasn't as much because she only had one win."
What many people would like to see is separate divisions for boys and girls.
As it currently stands, there is no large-scale movement to create a separate varsity sport for girls wrestling, according to Dave Anderson, deputy director of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
"There's not anything as of yet that has coalesced into a more united interest," Anderson said. "I think that right now, it is more of an individual interest."
Since it is so rare for a girls to find a suitable partner at the high school varsity level, competition usually comes from club tournaments throughout the state. The next major event is the Wisconsin Girls State Wrestling Championships on March 2 at Middleton High School.
"I think girls should wrestle girls, and there are tournaments developing for girls wrestling girls," Pewaukee coach Ed Kurth said. "Most coaches are in favor of girls teams. Mixing boys and girls is the main issue."
It's not only more fair but also unique when girls face each other.
"When girls wrestle guys, they just can't go on muscle because they may not be as strong as the guys, so they have to use technique a little more," Grover said. "But when girls wrestle girls, they can do more muscle moves because they have the equal strength."
Girls in wrestling remain somewhat of a novelty but the sport's enthusiasts, such as Grover, Watson and Kurth, are nonetheless pleased to see the high interest in the sport they love.
Grover runs a popular program called the Kenosha Girls Wrestling Club in which 70 students from grades K-12 participate.
Watson said when a dozen girls approached him last season about wrestling for the team, he welcomed them with open arms. Eight of the girls are still with the Panthers.
Although he prefers separation, Watson said he would never hinder the girls - whom he said are "a joy to coach" - from participating.
"If that's what it takes for a girl to compete on a mat, that's the way it is and I'm not going to knock them," Watson said.
Kurth, too, had reservations about female wrestlers until Erica Stephenson joined the team this season.
Stephenson, a sophomore who wrestles at 125 to 130 pounds, is a cheerleader during the fall and a soccer player during the spring who sought a winter activity.
"I wanted a more challenging sport," she said. "Wrestling challenges me mentally, emotionally and physically, and pushes me to the limit. I wanted to see if I could give myself that test and pass it."
Stephenson has quickly learned good wrestling technique and has two pins this year, including one over a boy.
"I'm not a gung-ho feminist, but girls can do anything guys can do," Stephenson said. "Anything."