Kim Salma, 17, who wrestles for Fair Lawn High School.
Photo by: THOMAS E. FRANKLIN
News Page
Girls get showcase at state
California may soon be third state to sanction female wrestling
By Billy Ortiz STAFF WRITER 3/9/03
Kent Bailo founded the United States Girls Wrestling Association out of necessity.
"I got tired of girls wrestling the boys and getting the (stuff) beaten out of them," Bailo said. "How fun is it when you lose 95 percent of the time?"
At the time Bailo started the USGWA, Michigan was the only state to offer a girls high school state tournament. Seven years later the number of states to offer state wrestling for girls has ballooned to 35.
Of those, only the athletic associations of Texas and Hawaii sanction girls wrestling.
California may soon be the third state to sanction girls wrestling.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has decided to showcase girls wrestling at its state meet today, and today at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
"It's a step in the right direction, no question," Bailo said.
Although girls are eligible to compete in the state meet, none qualified this year
San Leandro High senior Madeline Briones is one of the 32 girls who were invited to take part in one of the 16 exhibition matches.
Briones was skeptical at first.
"My first thought was they were going to let us wrestle when nobody was in the arena," Briones said. "I didn't want to go and waste my time if nobody was going to be there."
When she found out CIF was going to showcase the girls, Briones gave the nod.
Six matches will start today at 10 a.m. And the final two matches are on center stage, just before the main event -- the state finals at 7 p.m. today.
In the first session, American's Kassie Cook, an unofficial state champion, will go at it against Yesenia De La Mora of Granite Hills. Cook's teammate Leah Lach is also wrestling in the first session. Lach, a senior, will battle Paradise's Amy Havens. Also wrestling in the first session is San Leandro's Alexis Gonzales, who will face Thousand Oaks' Ginger Taylor.
Saturday morning, Tennyson's April Pabilona wrestles Bishop Amat's Monica Gochico. Berkeley's Jere Summers will meet national team member Michelle Graf of Colton.
"Hopefully, we will give them a good show," Briones said.
It wasn't too long ago when girls were lumped with the boys when it came to high school wrestling.
For Briones, it all changed three years ago when San Leandro started its own girls team and became fully funded by the school district.
The Pirates won the state title in February, but because girls wrestling is not recognized by CIF, the title isn't official.
San Leandro coach Dylan Souza has seen interest grow in recent years and hopes one day the sport will be sanctioned by CIF.
"The sport has grown tremendously," Souza said. "There are lot more tournaments, and hopefully (the exhibitions) will lead to a creation of a girls state championship in California like Texas and Hawaii."
Bailo would be ecstatic to see California join Texas and Hawaii. But he also is looking at the bigger picture.
"I always think everything is overdue," Bailo said. "If you go back to the 1920s when women first got the right to vote, it was the vocal 10 percent who voted. You know what, today more women vote than men.
"It has to start somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me in 10-15 years to see every state in the country have a tournament for the girls. And why not?"
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By MARK PIRAS
Gazette sports writer 3/9/03
Of all the girls who competed at Saturday's Beaufort Relays, none of them had a preseason training regimen quite like that of Lower Richland's Sarah Chavis.
Chavis, who ran the second leg for the Diamond Hornets during a first-place team finish in the shuttle hurdle relay, spent the previous three months with the boys' wrestling team -- as a competitor and, occasionally, the victor.
The 116-pound Lower Richland senior was last in Beaufort on Jan. 17-18, competing at the Battery Creek Duals. She had three wins under her belt at the time, including a pair of pins. During the meet, she was shut out from the win column, but took two matches through the full time limit, nearly winning both.
The transition from runner to grappler was an easy one for the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdler with a background in martial arts.
"This is my senior year of high school and I figured why not get into another sport," Chavis said after the BC Duals. "I took judo for almost eight years, and it's pretty much the same thing as wrestling, so I'm used to it."
The work ethic she brought to the wrestling mat was something her wrestling coach never questioned.
"She's a hard worker," said Lower Richland wrestling coach Robert 'Hollywood' Hemmingway. "That's what does it. No matter what, she's still fighting. It's all in her work ethic and her conditioning. She's got better conditioning than almost all the guys."
Chavis was a trainer for the team the last two seasons -- until her coach inadvertently planted a seed that would blossom quickly.
"She used to yell at people for coming into her face," Hemmingway said. "I told her if she's got all that attitude, maybe she needs to get on the mats. Believe it or not, that's why she came out for wrestling. She would talk noise to the wrestlers and they would come to me about it. So I said, 'Sarah, if you want to take on the wrestlers, maybe you need to get some shoes.' So she bought some, and here she is."
Hemmingway was the least surprised when she did try out.
"She was already aggressive -- an aggressive young lady," he said. "She gives total effort. She's in a male sport, but she gives as much as they give."
Competing on the wrestling mats started as a one-year deal for Chavis, but her success this year has already landed her a spot in a national girls tournament at Lake Orion, Mich., on March 27-28.
A good showing in the tournament could mean that wrestling is something Chavis will be able to do at the college level.
"Maybe," Chavis said. "It depends on if the college I go to has it or not. But even if it doesn't, I still have track."
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Summers has a short day at state
• Berkeley wrestler dominates top opponent in girls exhibition match
State wrestling notes 3/9/03
STOCKTON -- It doesn't look like anyone is going to figure out Berkeley High School wrestler Jere Summers anytime soon.
For the second day in a row, girls hit the mats in exhibition contests at the California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships at the Spanos Center on the University of the Pacific campus. And for the second day in a row, an area wrestler was in the mix.
Summers, a sophomore, competed in 158.5-pound action against Colton's Michelle Graff, a National Team member and a state champion. Summers was clearly not impressed with Graff's pedigree. She flipped Graff to her back almost immediately and pinned her just 25 seconds into the first round.
"She's that good," Berkeley coach Tony Rotundo said. "She's going to do really well at nationals. She's a natural athlete -- competes in four sports. Track, wrestling, lacrosse and (club sport) rugby."
Summers was not surprised by her quick win against such a highly-touted opponent.
"I thought that I would win," she said. "I'm proud to represent girls wrestling and Berkeley High School."
Hugh Johnson, who works closely with the Berkeley girls wrestlers, was pleased with his pupil's success.
"She hasn't gone the distance with anyone this year," Johnson said. "She's been wrestling at 165, and Graff has been at 152, but they were both at 156 today. She pins everyone in the first period. Nobody's been able to touch her."
Deer Valley's Khira Thomas competed in Friday's exhibition, losing by pin at 2:24 to Rancho Cucamonga's Charlise Castro.
Saturday's first session began just after the third round of consolation action at 10 a.m. and featured wrestlers from American, Paradise, Aragon-San Mateo and University City, Tennyson, Bishop Amat-La Puente, Vintage-Napa, Patrick Henry-San Diego, Lowell-SF, Ukiah, Colton, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Paula high schools.
The second girls session of the day had participants from Vintage-Napa, Hanford, San Leandro and Silver Creek-San Jose high schools
So long, Stockton
Since 1988 -- and once before that in 1985 -- the state wrestling tournament has been held at the Spanos Center. But that is about to change, because the CIF is taking its show southbound on Highway 99. Beginning in 2004, the tournament will be held at Bakersfield Centennial Garden and Convention Center.
Valhalla-El Cajon won the first state title in Stockton in 1985. Antioch won the first title in the extended run in 1988. Clovis, which won the 2003 championship, became the final champion in Stockton.
The fact of the matter is that, despite CIF's stated affinity for the Stockton venue, the swelling popularity of the event, now in its 31st year, has forced the tournament to look for more space. The Spanos center only accommodates 6,100 fans, and is routinely packed to the gills for two days in March when the grapplers come to town. Centennial Garden will hold upwards of 10,000 fans. The facility hosts up to 300 events a year, and is also the home of the Cal State Bakersfield men's and women's basketball teams, the Bakersfield Blaze Arena Football team and the Condors of the West Coast Hockey League.
-- Bill Kolb
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Girls events a first at state meet
• Deer Valley's Thomas suffers a pin but is 'proud' to take part in exhibition
CIF wrestling notebook 3/8/03
STOCKTON -- For the first time in the 30-year history of the California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships, the competition floor was not a boys-only club.
The first of three rounds of girls exhibition events took place Friday morning at the Spanos Center on the University of the Pacific campus, which has hosted the state championships since 1988.
Deer Valley High School's Khira Thomas, who placed fifth at the California Championships in Vallejo at 147.5 pounds this year, was featured in a match against Charise Castro of Rancho Cucamonga.
Despite suffering a pin, Thomas was awed and thrilled by her experience.
"I didn't know it was going to be this big," she said. "I was very proud to be out here, to hear them announce my name. I've been at this for a long time, so it was nice to get some recognition.
"I was shocked when they told me I was coming here. I was hesitant, but then I thought that I'm never going to have this opportunity again. You have to take every chance you get. To have a chance like this is great."
Girls exhibition matches are slated for action today at 10 a.m. and again just before the finals at 7 p.m.
First time's a charm
College Park's Justin Conley (147) and Las Lomas' Erik Shortenhaus (154) are seniors with more in common than their Diablo Foothill Athletic League affiliation. Both qualified for state competition for the first time, and both notched convincing victories in their first matches on the grand stage.
Conley trounced Brian Cody of O'Connell-San Francisco 10-1 to move into the second round of the championship bracket. Minutes later on the same mat, Shortenhaus dominated Calvin Devault of Temecula Valley by the exact same score. Both Conley and Shortenhaus also won the DFAL championship and placed second at NCS in their respective weight classes.
Liberty senior Travis Williams won his first match as well with a 7-3 decision.
Albany's Kyle Griffin (162) is another first-timer at state who won his first match in the competition. Griffin, a junior, topped Alemany-Mission Hills' Chris Gonzalez 14-10.
Three sophomores recorded victories in their first attempt at state. De La Salle's Brandon Zoeteway (105), San Ramon Valley's David Christian (127) and SRV's Robby Smith (217) all recorded close victories in the first round. Zoeteway won 3-2, Christian 9-8 and Smith 4-2.
Shorty's rags
Despite having grown over six inches and having gone up seven weight classes (from 114 to 154), Shortenhaus still wears the same ratty knee pad and Iowa University Wrestling warm-up shorts that he has used since he began wrestling at Las Lomas as a freshman. And though he plans to take his competitive fire to the next level in the form of a collegiate wrestling career, the pad and shorts are living on borrowed time at the state tournament. The knee pad is hanging together by the barest threads, and the shorts are almost see-through.
"They're good luck," Shortenhaus said. I'm gong to retire them after this year, after senior nationals."
That is, if they make it that long.
-- Bill Kolb
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Sunday, March 9, 2003
By JORGE ARANGURE JR.
Staff Writer
HACKENSACK - During a week in which she made history by becoming the first girl in New Jersey history to advance to the quarterfinals of the regional wrestling tournament, Kim Salma repeated that the toughest part of her accomplishment was not the 20-pound weight loss she had to endure to make the varsity, the constant taunts from parents and naysayers, or the stereotypes she had to overcome.
No, the most difficult part of her season, she said, were the losses on the mat, precious opportunities for achievement squandered because of a bad move or a lapse of concentration that nagged at her for days.
Garfield's Aaron Kahn defeated Salma with a 21-6 major decision in Saturday's 103-pound consolation bout at the Region 2 wrestling championships at Hackensack High School, ending the Fair Lawn girl's high school wrestling career.
But what weighed on Salma's mind after the match was not what was lost Saturday, but what was gained in an improbable run in the postseason tournaments.
Salma won something more valuable than a medal or a trophy. She won the respect of her peers.
Each of Salma's opponents praised her prowess and admitted to being a bit shocked at how well she fought her way through the matches.
Kahn made perhaps the boldest statement Saturday after having his arm raised by the referee for his victory. The Garfield wrestler grabbed Salma's arm and raised it in the air in a symbolic show of respect.
"She seems really dedicated with the way she approaches wrestling," said Kahn. "She showed a lot of heart."
"He's so respectful," said Salma. "I was happy he was my last match."
Salma also won the adoration of her teammates and coaches.
"We were a little nervous that she'd hold back [after Friday's loss to Bergenfield's Dan Glover]," said assistant coach Jon Piela. "But she kept on fighting."
And it seems that acceptance will be what Salma misses most.
"They'll always be my brothers," she said of her teammates. "And my coaches have been the best."
Salma says her future is still a bit undecided. She's considering wrestling in college where there is a separate women's division, and perhaps her recent success will provide more opportunities.
"I've never been exposed to that," said Salma. "I'd love to see how I'd do against girls."
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Of pins and passion ; UT lecturer's SXSW documentary, 'Girl Wrestler,'
follows Cedar Park teen Tara Neal's life both on and off the mat
Legitimate wrestling is all about the lunge, the grab, the mount, the
pin. In the abstract tangle of bodies, a misplaced grope (well, hello) is
forgiven as par for the kill. Wrestlers have a sense of humor about it.
The contortions can be so suggestive the athletes have gone ahead and
dubbed various moves "the crotch grab," "the Saturday night ride" and "the
honeymoon." The names come with a blush.
Boy wrestlers do the moves with other boy wrestlers all the time and
it's fine. But when a boy is wrestling a girl, those fast hands and explicit
positions start to look like a whole other sport. This makes some boys
(and some wrestling officials) squirm.
Thirteen-year-old Tara Neal is a girl wrestler who thinks they should
get over it already.
Tara, of Cedar Park, likes to wrestle boys flat to the mat. She's
beaten every girl she's wrestled, and in her league there are no girls her
weight or age she can wrestle. So she wrestles boys, and wins a lot.
Her struggle to keep wrestling boys is the subject of "Girl Wrestler,"
a 60-minute video documentary by Diane Zander, a lecturer in the
radio-television-film department at the University of Texas. The movie
will have its world premiere Sunday at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
"Girl Wrestler" is as much about the girl as the wrestler. Tara's fear
of being barred from wrestling boys when she gets to high school -- the
Texas University Interscholastic League prohibits girl- on-boy wrestling
after junior high -- is the backdrop for a profile of a steely teen whose
pensive dedication to her sport seems to eclipse the quotidian distractions of
adolescence. We see Tara cruising the mall and palling around with
girlfriends, but mostly we see her in tights bracing for the bout.
"She's mature beyond her years," says Zander, who spent six months in
2001 filming 82 hours of footage of Tara. "She sees right through
everything. Social psychologists will say that girls are more emotionally in-tune
at that age, and I definitely got that."
Zander tried to interview every boy Tara wrestled, but was mostly
rewarded with grunts and monosyllabic shrugs. Tara, conversely, radiated an
alertness and spoke with eloquence. Her self-possession and blinkered focus on
the sport seemed to muffle the standard teen ebullience.
"She's more complicated than that," Zander says. "She's not a bouncy
teenager. She's gutsy but not in a bubble-gum way. Her humor is more
like dark irony."
That's what drew Zander to Tara, a stout, soft-spoken girl with
freckles and red hair that goes from long to pixie-short in the course of the film.
Zander liked her poise and attitude the first time she met her at a
tournament she was invited to by Tara's coach.
As a filmmaker, she was fixed on the idea of a girl wrestling a boy
after she saw a segment about it on a television news magazine. She held fast
to the image and wanted to expand it into a project for her graduate
studies at UT.
"There are images you're always drawn to as a filmmaker and I'm always
drawn to ideas about gender and socialization," says Zander, 28. In 1999,
Zander shot about two hours of Tara wrestling and practicing. She had her
image. Then she mothballed the video.
A year later, mulling over an idea for her thesis film, Zander returned
to the footage and recontacted Tara for what would become "Girl Wrestler."
Plunging into the testosteronic province of wrestling allowed the
filmmaker to wed her interest in gender issues with that fascinating initial
image.
"This was a way for me not just to talk about a girl pushing
boundaries, but a way to explore a very masculine world as well," Zander says. "When I
went to that first wrestling match in '99, I was blown over. It was so
intense. It felt like a mass hysteria. The boys are as young as 4 and some are
crying and their dads are telling them to buck up and stop being a sissy.
Sports are an interesting device through which we can see a lot of things
about American culture. It becomes a way to see gender really play out."
Some of Zander's assumptions about gender were dispelled in the
process. She found more men than women who were sympathetic to Tara's desire to
wrestle.
"One mother told me quite clearly that this is the gladiators and men
should be on the mat, women in the stands," she says.
The film depicts mostly mild opposition toward female wrestlers.
Occasionally a boy will forfeit a match to avoid wrestling a girl. Yet
when Tara starts attending Cedar Park High School in the movie, she
effectively can't wrestle. There is no girls wrestling team, so she has to join the
boys team and hope that there will be other girls to wrestle. (Now 15, Tara
has since quit wrestling.)
Zander foresaw the gender drama and the battles with weight that most
wrestlers confront -- Tara is in a constant struggle to drop five
pounds -- but couldn't foresee the friction between Tara and her supportive
father who pushes her harder than she's comfortable with.
"Her dad is a generous man trying hard to raise his daughter right,"
Zander says. "He's just trying to instill some moral responsibility in her."
Tara's parents are divorced, and when her dad stops bringing his
daughter to wrestling matches, Tara's mother enters as a vibrant new character.
"She's a very strong personality and through her you can tell why Tara
is who she is," says Zander.
Zander, an Emmy-winner for associate producing "Moving Stories" for
PBS, ill take the film to several festivals seeking distribution. HBO has
expressed interest, she says.
"Girl Wrestler" may be the first in an unplanned series of gender-
centric films by Zander. She's considering the Dallas-based group Second
Amendment Sisters for her next subject. "They claim that having a gun is the only
way to be a real feminist because it's the ultimate equalizer," she says.
Whatever her subject, Zander will be using the nonfiction form to
explore and express salient issues of real life.
"I want to keep doing this for as long as I can," she says. "Making and
seeing documentaries allows you to live the life of someone else for a
little while and to see the world through their eyes. It's a revelatory
experience that can change your politics, sensitivity and range of
empathy toward people.
"And that's an exceptionally important act in the world if you're
actually serious about connecting with other people. You should see things that
allow you to look at the world from a different point of view every once in a
while. That's the way change is made."
About a 'Girl'
'Girl Wrestler' shows during the South by Southwest Film Festival at 11
a.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress
Ave., and at 4 p.m. March 15 at the Austin Convention Center, Fourth and Trinity
streets. The Sunday and March 15 screenings will be captioned for deaf
and hearing-impaired audiences. Director Diane Zander will conduct a Q&A at
all shows.
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Girls can wrestle, too
Castro wins by pin as state meet features female competitors
By PETE MARSHALL
STAFF WRITER 3/8/03
STOCKTON — There was no state title on the line, but that didn't mean it wasn't a big moment for Rancho Cucamonga High senior Charise Castro.
Castro was part of the first series of girls exhibition matches Friday at the CIF State Wrestling Championships at the University of the Pacific's Spanos Center.
Castro finished second in the state last year, but that was in a high school gym. With thousands of people watching Friday, Castro wrestled Khira Thomas of Deer Valley in a 147.5 pound weight class exhibition match, one of eight that were held Friday between the first and second rounds.
Castro took Thomas down early, then pinned Thomas in 2:24.
"I was really nervous," Castro admitted. "But I want to pin everybody."
Castro didn't wrestle varsity this year for Rancho Cucamonga because at 145 pounds, she was behind Cougars Masters qualifier Jacob Parra. Parra did not qualify for state because he suffered an injury in his second match at masters.
But at the junior varsity level, Castro lost only once against boys or girls all year (the loss was to Alta Loma), and won the Williams Cup, a girls tournament in Thousand Oaks.
Her training is in Brazilian jujitsu, and said when she started wrestling last year, she was met with a lot of resistance from the boys on the Cougars squad.
"A lot of them resented it before," she said. "Now they treat me like one of the guys."
Boys that lose to her, she said, still resent it. Castro said that at least a couple of opponents who lost to her quit the sport.
The trip north serves two purposes for Castro. Today, she is making a trip to Menlo College, a Bay Area-school that offers women's wrestling.
Then there are the girls' state championships next weekend in San Diego.
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Fair Lawn's Salma finds top seed is just too much
March 08, 2003,BY JIM HAGUE
For the Star-Ledger
Fair Lawn's Kim Salma said she knew she didn't have any realistic hope of actually beating Bergenfield's undefeated wrestler, Dan Glover, the No. 1 seed at 103 pounds, at the Region 2 quarterfinal round last night in Hackensack.
"He's the first seed, and he's going to take the (region) tournament," Salma said. "I really didn't expect to win. I tried as hard as I could, but I knew it was going to be tough."
Glover, the Bergen County and District 7 champion, gained the early lead with a single-leg takedown 20 seconds into the match and held control for the remainder, scoring a 6-0 victory.
Salma, who on Tuesday became the first female wrestler to win a regional match since the regionals were created in 1961, earned praise from Glover.
"She's right up there with some of the toughest guys I wrestled this year," he said. "I didn't expect that. Every time I tried to pull her over, she fought it off. She was very tough."
Salma can still become the first girl to advance to the state tournament.
Her task, however, may be tougher than beating Glover, as she must win two wrestleback matches, which begin this morning, and then the third-place consolation bout later today to earn a berth in the state tournament next weekend in Atlantic City.
Last night, she never had a chance.
Glover, now 28-0, simply wouldn't allow Salma to come back.
"He had my legs in the whole time," Salma said. "There was not much I could do from that. It was really frustrating. I tried to get what I could, but he wouldn't give me anything. I worked really hard to get out, but couldn't."
Glover tried several different pinning combinations, especially a powerful arm bar that caused Salma to wince a little in pain, but she refused to go to her back.
"I think people expected that I would go out there and get pinned right away," Salma said. "I didn't want that to happen."
Glover said he was impressed with Salma's strength.
"Since she cut that much weight (17 pounds), in reality, she felt like a 130-pounder," he said. "She is certainly built like one. She was very tough on bottom. I could have let her go and tried to take her down a few more times, but I stuck with what was working."
Glover gained a reversal in the opening seconds of the second period and continued to work from the top to get a pinning maneuver, but Salma again defended herself well, drawing rousing applause as the second period ended with Glover leading, 4-0.
Glover gained a takedown midway through the third period for the final score.
Both Salma and Glover expressed relief that the highly anticipated match was over.
"I'll be glad when it's all over," Salma said. "The attention has been too much. I just want to go to sleep. I'm happy with my effort. I think I just need some sleep now and I can come back fresh. I had a chance to wrestle a good kid. It was a good experience, but all the attention has been tough."
Not just on Salma.
"There's a little bit of a relief," Glover said. "Everyone was here to see her and root for her, not me. That got me a little motivated. I'm kind of satisfied and I'm glad I'm moving on. But I've never been involved in anything like this.
"Before the weigh-in tonight, Sports Illustrated called. She's made such a name for herself and brought attention to the sport that probably won't happen again. I think she was real brave for doing this and I'll always respect her."
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March 8, 2003 ,By JORGE ARANGURE JR.
Staff Writer
HACKENSACK - Kim Salma was not prepared to become a celebrity.
She was a normal teenager whose biggest wish was to be on the varsity wrestling team. When she became the first girl in New Jersey history to qualify for the State regional quarterfinals earlier this week, she could not have possibly expected so much attention so quickly.
On Friday, in front of a large crowd, including a heavy gathering of media, the Fair Lawn senior wrestler lost a 6-0 decision to undefeated 103-pound Bergen County champion Dan Glover of Bergenfield in the quarterfinals of the State Region 2 wrestling tournament at Hackensack High School.
Salma will wrestle today in the consolation round starting at 9 a.m., and can still qualify for the State tournament by winning three bouts in the consolation bracket.
The cameras that followed Salma during warm-ups seemed to make her uneasy.
"I didn't think there'd be people flashing cameras," said Salma. "I didn't expect so many people to be around. I thought it would be a normal match."
Soon the attention, which she had seemed to embrace eariler in the week, didn't appear to be much fun anymore. Salma worried whether her coaches had gotten enough credit for her success. She worried whether she was becoming a distraction for her teammates, who have supported her throughout her career. And Salma worried she would get lost among all the hype, becoming something she had been trying to avoid her entire career. Salma didn't want to be a novelty, and all the attention seemed to turn her back into one.
"I think that's why I didn't have a good time trying to clear my head," said Salma. "It messed up my concentration. But I'm not going to use that as an excuse."
Mostly, Salma lost to a better wrestler. Glover, who with the win improved his record to 28-0, controlled the match throughout.
"It just got me a little more motivated seeing the cameras," said Glover. "I knew they weren't there to see me. They were there to see her."
But Salma held firm, standing her ground every time Glover seemed to have an advantage, every time the Bergenfield sophomore appeared ready to end the match with a quick and easy pin.
"Every time I tried to put her over," said Glover, "I couldn't put her over."
Salma's first real smile of the night, a wide grin that revealed two ample dimples, came when told that Glover said she was as tough a wrestler as he had faced all season.
"I thought she wrestled tough," said Fair Lawn coach Frank Guadagnino.
By the end of the night, all the worrying and running around - and oh yeah, the actual wrestling match - had tired Salma out, and the senior didn't want to think about all the pressure that seemed to wear on her.
"I just want to go to sleep," she said.
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Salma seeking to become first girl wrestler to reach States
Friday, March 7, 2003,By JORGE ARANGURE JR.
Staff Writer
|
Kim Salma, 17, who wrestles for Fair Lawn High School. Photo by: THOMAS E. FRANKLIN |
Kim Salma, by becoming the first girl in New Jersey history to qualify for the quarterfinals of the State Regional Wrestling Championships this week, ceased to be labeled by her gender and became simply an athlete.
Oh, she still has the long, flowing dark brown hair that often gets put in a ponytail, the nimble walk that carries the aura of femininity. And she still sometimes waits by the phone for her boyfriend to call.
But the Fair Lawn senior is neither a boy nor girl now. Salma, 17, is a wrestler. And a very good one.
"The sport is so difficult, that to reach the level of achievement she's reached [is amazing]," said Paramus' Joe Servino, a wrestling coach for 33 years. "She's received more respect [than any other girls wrestler]."
The 103-pound Salma gained instant credibility Tuesday when she pinned Randy Bognatz of Hackensack at 5:18 of the third round, earning a berth in the State Region 2 quarterfinals tonight at Hackensack High School.
"People are freaking out at school and not a lot of people know about wrestling," said Salma.
Up until Tuesday, Salma was mostly a novelty to those outside of the Fair Lawn program. But Salma is not a newcomer to the sport. Her fascination with wrestling began in third grade, when Salma idolized her grappling older brother Aaron. She watched and wondered whether she could imitate his moves.
With no girls wrestling program in the area, Salma began wrestling against boys. Though her mother heard dissent from other parents, she did not hesitate to allow her daughter to participate.
"Whatever she wanted to do, I'd be behind her," said her mother, Andrea Badalamenti. "It's just something I accepted."
And Salma did well to defend herself. Even as a child, Salma demonstrated superb athletic ability. Her mother remembers how easily Salma tangled with boys.
"It was cute," said Badalamenti.
Salma routinely beat boys. Her mother remembers her pinning four boys in one tournament in the fourth grade. She continued to be a standout in junior wrestling programs.
She arrived at Fair Lawn with good credentials but no spot on the varsity team. For three years Salma languished on the junior varsity team.
Fair Lawn coach Frank Guadagnino told Salma she had an outside shot at the varsity her senior year, but it would be at 103 pounds, a weight class she wrestled at as a freshman.
Salma realized she had to lose 20 pounds to accomplish her dream of being a varsity wrestler. She didn't hesitate, establishing a grueling diet regimen.
For several months, she started her day with egg whites, ate bland chicken for lunch, and then had another type of bland protein for dinner. After wrestling practice, Salma ran extra laps.
She constantly monitored her weight, almost to an obsession. At times, the task became too daunting and Salma considered quitting.
"For a guy it's a lot easier [to lose weight]," said her boyfriend, Frank Phelan, a 171-pound wrestler at Saddle Brook who also qualified for tonight's quarterfinal. "Everything she eats becomes double the weight. I've never had to cut that much weight."
But amazingly, Salma cut the 20 pounds by the middle of the season, becoming eligible to wrestle at 103 pounds.
"That's all I wanted to do," said Salma. "Be on varsity."
The most remarkable thing about Salma is how unremarkable she appears.
She's simply a normal teenage, high school athlete. The only difference is that she's making history every day she wrestles.
"This sport has been around since 1934 and no other female has ever gone this far," said Matt Menkowski, who works with the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association on a publication called "The History of New Jersey Wrestling." "She did something phenomenal by taking second place in the districts. It's an accomplishment because she's doing this in a male-dominated sport."
Salma constantly fights the stigmas of stereotypes. Many teams refused to match a wrestler against Salma, forfeiting their matches for fear that she would humiliate the boy by beating him.
"If I was a guy who got pinned by a girl who made it to the regionals, it must mean she was a pretty good wrestler," said Phelan. "It wasn't a fluke."
It's not likely the attitudes will change, though.
"It's a no-win situation for a boy that wrestles a girl," said Servino.
But Salma allows the negativity to pass like some idle attempt at a headlock.
"It doesn't really affect me that much," said Salma. "You're going out there and wrestling. It doesn't affect the way that I'm thinking.
"I've gotten that all the time. That they didn't just lose, but that they lost to a girl. Everyone is going to keep making comments. Unless more girls are out there."
Perhaps Salma will one day be seen as a pioneer. She often thinks about her position as a role model. While it wasn't the reason she started wrestling, she realizes how good it feels to be admired by the young girls who have come up to her after matches.
"Everything about this is positive," said Salma. "I guess I'm setting an example. It's like I'm special."
Menkowski hopes this will trigger participation to the point where a separate league can be started for girls.
Servino thinks that all the publicity Salma has received could encourage girls to try out.
"If they think they have the opportunity to succeed, we might be able to encourage more girls to participate," said Servino.
But all this responsibility seems an awful lot to put on the shoulders of a 5-foot-1 girl, no matter how strong they may be.
"We know this is not going to go on in college," said Badalamenti. "But it shows her, no matter what, you can do anything."
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By HARVEY ARATON 3/8/03
ACKENSACK, N.J — MOTHER waited for daughter with arms outstretched, her eyes carefully searching for clues of combat.
"Is your lip bleeding?" Andrea Badalamenti asked.
"My whole mouth," Kim Salma said, feeling for the blood, taking a deep breath and melting into her mother's hug.
It would have been nice to say, "You should see the other guy," or in this case, just the one guy, but in a much-hyped battle of the sexes, Dan Glover of Bergenfield High School escaped unscathed, physically and otherwise. By a 6-0 decision, he defeated Salma, the first girl to win a match in the New Jersey state wrestling tournament, in the 103-pound class Region II quarterfinals last night at Hackensack High School.
Timothy Ivy for The New York Times
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"He laid on top of her," Andrea Badalamenti said, which was her honest and biased opinion. "If he would have let her up, we would have had some real wrestling."
As stressful as it apparently is for boy to be challenged by girl, even one all of 5 feet tall, it was understandable if Glover, a lanky sophomore who is seeded No. 1, preferred to take few risks and gratefully move on.
"Let's face it, it's not an easy thing, wrestling a girl," his father, Ray Glover, said. "No matter how good she is — and this girl's very good — you're supposed to win. I know. I have a daughter who used to wrestle. I've been on both sides."
After Salma, a 17-year-old Fair Lawn senior, pinned her preliminary round opponent Tuesday night, the debate raged in the New Jersey sports forums online, a bonfire of unmistakable boyish bons mots.
Kim Salma: wrestling heretic or wrestling heroine?
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For years, she tuned out the testosterone crowd that contended that she had no business being on the mat, the parents who said it was inappropriate for a developing girl to compete in a sport so heavy on groping, the opposing coaches who told her they would rather default a boy than have him risk the emotional calamity of losing to her.
Badalamenti, the proud mom, never understood why people didn't watch the matches as she did. "I've never seen girl against boy," she said. "Just two wrestlers, competing hard. For anyone who would say Kimmy shouldn't be out there, they have no idea how hard she's worked."
From third grade on, Salma wrestled in town recreational leagues, took middle school off from competition, then languished on the Fair Lawn junior varsity for three years. Her coach, Frank Guadagnino, told her that if she was going to move up, she had to move down in weight class, and that meant strict dieting, losing 20 pounds.
Salma said she has lived her senior year on egg whites and bland chicken. Given the preponderance of supplemental shortcuts and the occasional tragedy resulting from their over-the-counter availability, all one can hope these days is that every young athlete gets the best available advice and care.
Cutting weight is hardly the most flattering endorsement of wrestling, a sport that not long ago chose another course of controversy, leading the movement to reinterpret or rewrite Title IX. Proponents of wrestling, claiming that their sport has unfairly suffered scholarship losses at the collegiate level because of Title IX compliance, legally challenged the 31-year-old legislation, which forces schools receiving federal money to offer equal opportunities in sports.
Salma followed her brother into wrestling, never defining herself as a female trailblazer. For the record, she was too late, said Gary Abbott, the director of special projects for USA Wrestling.
"For her to make the state tournament is an amazing achievement, don't get me wrong, but this is a 10-year-old story," Abbott said yesterday from Colorado Springs. "Girls in wrestling have moved on from man bites dog. They are competing all over. Last February we had one in West Virginia who made the state gold medal match."
Female participation in wrestling is growing fast, he said, just not in New Jersey. The state had only 18 girls out of the reported 3,405 competing nationally on the high school level. While girls compete against boys in most places, Texas and Hawaii have moved to all-girls wrestling scholastic teams, and California has some. Seven colleges have varsity women's teams, and full medal status has been awarded in four weight classes to women's freestyle wrestling for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
"That's the future, girl on girl," Abbott said. "We're developing the sport for women, creating the interest. We just don't believe in doing it under the threat of lawsuits and quotas."
Which makes wrestling, come to think of it, an interesting Title IX test case in itself. With no reason to doubt girls' interest, deficient growth in the number of all-girls teams could easily be taken as an effective argument for the strict, by-the-numbers approach to Title IX compliance that the wrestling lobby has been waging war against.
Girl beats boy is still eye-catching news, a compelling measuring stick. A woman recently scored a goal in a professional men's hockey game in Finland. Another attempted an extra point in a Division I-A college football game. The eyes of the world will be on Annika Sorenstam when she soon ventures into Tiger territory when she plays a PGA Tour event in May. That said, the road to full gender equity for women leads to leagues and teams of their own.
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For Salma, the state tournament, which she is not eliminated from yet, will most likely be her career climax and conclusion. The college she plans to attend, Richard Stockton in New Jersey, does not have a wrestling team.
"I'd love to help develop a rec program for girls in my town," she said. "There's been some talk."
Someday, more than talk, maybe there will be a team, an all-girls high school team, and Kim Salma will achieve another state first, as coach.