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Margaret Byrant, left, jokes around with her daughter, Tara Neal, before the screening of Diane Zander's documentary, 'Girl Wreslter.'
Brian K. Diggs/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Chris Garcia
XLxtra

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, will 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."

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2003 Women’s World Team Trials preview at 59 kg/130 lbs.

6/7/2003
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling

One of the new stars of U.S. women’s wrestling is 2003 U.S. Nationals champion Sally Roberts of the Gator WC. She claimed her first U.S. Nationals title this year, and was named Outstanding Wrestler in the women’s division. Her season has been very successful so far, with a gold-medal at the Dave Schultz Memorial at this division, and a University Nationals title competing up at 63 kg. Roberts is one of the USOTC resident athletes who are helping raise the bar for women’s wrestling in our nation. She will need to continue her intense wrestling if she wishes to make her first U.S. World Team.

As a non-Olympic weight class, the winner of the World Team Trials in Indianapolis does not automatically get to compete on the U.S. team in New York City. Medalists from an Olympic division (either 55 kg or 63 kg) could choose to seek a Special Wrestle-off. Last year, when the rule was the same, nobody chose to challenge World Team Trials champion Lauren Lamb. This year, we will all just have to wait and see if that is still the case.

It would be remiss to not mention Lauren Lamb at this time, the U.S. team member at this division last year and one of the true pioneers of women’s wrestling. Lamb wrestled up at 63 kg at this year’s U.S. Nationals, placing third. If she drops to her normal weight, Lamb is an instant contender to win the whole thing. She has been to six World Championships, but has not claimed a medal to date. Still motivated to challenge herself, many believe it would be fitting for Lamb to capture her first medal on the U.S. home mats in New York. Roberts pinned Lamb in their showdown in the Dave Schultz Memorial, but it might be interesting to see how a three-match series might go.

Placing second to Roberts in Las Vegas was Erin Tomeo of the Sunkist Kids. Although she is still rather young, Tomeo is a veteran in comparison to the rest of this division. Tomeo was able to compete in the 2001 World Championships after winning a Special Wrestle-off after World Team member Tina George missed the meet in order to attend Army Basic Training. Tomeo was also a U.S. Nationals runner-up in 2002. She has a long list of age-group national achievements as well. A USOTC resident, Tomeo has had a difficult season with some injuries, but made a great showing at U.S. Nationals.

Taking third at the U.S. Nationals is high school sensation Brandy Rosenbrock of the Michigan WC, who was second behind veteran Lauren Lamb at the 2002 World Team Trials. Rosenbrock was named TheMat.com/ASICS High School Girls Wrestler of the Year last season, and has continued her dominance of the age-group levels. She will be on the U.S. Junior World Team this summer.

Leigh Jaynes of Missouri Valley College comes into the World Team Trials at No. 4. She is one of the nation’s top college wrestlers, a senior with experience and a funky style that can surprise talented opponents. Jaynes scored a win over 55 kg U.S. Nationals champion Tela O’Donnell at the Missouri Valley event this year, but lost the next two bouts in the best-of three showdown.

A pair of college wrestlers competed in the fifth/sixth-place bout in Las Vegas, with Brooke Bogren of Cumberland College defeating Linse Meadows of Neosho County CC. Bogren was also a U.S. Nationals placewinner while in high school. Another college star, Lindsay Owens of Menlo College, placed seventh at U.S. Nationals. Owens came onto the scene last summer as one of the first to win a gold at the ASICS Girls Junior Nationals. Taking the final qualifying spot from U.S. Nationals was high school talent Othella Lucas of San Diego Hot Beaches, who placed eighth. Lucas is coached by two-time World medalist Afsoon Johnston, who has great confidence in this new talent.

Certainly, if she enters, veteran Tonya Evinger of Stars and Stripes could be a finalist contender. She was ranked No. 3 on the national team last year, and has been a nationally-ranked star since her high school days. Evinger won a silver medal at the 2002 Pan American Championships and has many other medal performances. Also eligible to compete is Regional champion Sharon Jacobsen of UM-Morris.

This weight division could offer some surprises. The Challenge Tournament should be intense, especially if Lamb drops down, if Rosenbrock gets another shot at Tomeo, and if Evinger enters and is well prepared. The college and high school athletes still have a challenge to beat the veterans. Sally Roberts will sit out and wait for a winner from the rest of the pack, and will have a few days to rest and gain strength after weigh-ins. If Roberts continues to improve as she has all season, it will be difficult for anybody to take away her spot on the top.

2003 U.S. Women’s Nationals results at 59 kg/130 lbs.
1st - Sally Roberts (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) dec. Erin Tomeo (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), 6-3
3rd - Brandy Rosenbrock (St. Claire Shores, Mich./Michigan WC) dec. Leigh Jaynes (Marshall, Mo./Missouri Valley), 3-2
5th - Brooke Bogren (Williamsburg, Ky./Cumberland College) by fall over Linse Meadows (Katy, Texas/Neosho), 4:15
7th - Lindsay Owens (Ripon, Calif./Menlo) dec. Othella Lucas (San Diego, Calif./San Diego Hot Beaches), 9-2

2003 Women’s World Team Trials qualifiers at 59 kg (130 lbs.)
National champion - Sally Roberts (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC)
National placerwinners - 2. Erin Tomeo (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids); 3. Brandy Rosenbrock (St. Claire Shores, Mich./Michigan WC); 4. Leigh Jaynes (Burlington, N.J../Missouri Valley); 5. Brooke Bogren (Carbondale, Kan. /Cumberland College); 6. Linse Meadows (Katy, Texas/Neosho); 7. Lindsay Owens (Ripon, Calif./Menlo); 8. Othella Lucas (San Diego, Calif./San Diego Hot Beaches)
Team USA member - Tonya Evinger (Bates City, Mo./Stars and Stripes); Regional champions - Sharon Jacobson (El Cajon, Calif./UM-Morris); Medalist at Group A Tournament - Hillary Wolf (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC)