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From Beatty wrestler to a war hero in Iraq

By DOUG McMURDO
PVT 11/5/03

While news of death and destruction continue to splash across newspapers and television screens reporting on Iraq, one former Beatty High School wrestler now serving with the 1st Armored Division has been recognized as a hero for actions taken during a checkpoint nearly five months ago in Baghdad.

Last week the soldier was awarded the Army Commendation Medal "for valor and courage in the face of enemy action."

The wrestler's name is Jessica Lynn Nicholson, and she is a 22-year-old private first class assigned to the HHC, 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade.

According to Monday's edition of The Old Ironside's Report, the 1st Armored Division's newsletter, Nicholson's usual job assignment is as a tracked-vehicle mechanic, but she found herself working at a security checkpoint in Baghdad to search women who passed through.

It was the seventh of June, around 9 a.m. Baghdad time when the checkpoint became "very busy," according to comments attributed to Nicholson in The Old Ironsides Report. "There were a lot of people gathering at this checkpoint, so I was asked to search some men, too."

Nicholson was searching the Iraqi driver of a vehicle that other soldiers were searching. After initially believing the car was safe, one of the soldiers got an uneasy feeling, Nicholson explained, and resumed the search.

The grenade was hidden behind a visor. When the searcher shouted out a warning, Nicholson said, "I immediately got the driver down on the ground, face down, and I remember pressing his face into a sandbag."

Nicholson restrained the man in this fashion until other soldiers came and zip-cuffed the suspected insurgent.

The man tried to talk his way out of the situation, telling Nicholson and other soldiers that his intent was to turn the grenade into American forces.

But since he never mentioned there was an explosive device hidden in the vehicle, Nicholson and her comrades didn't buy his excuse.

Nicholson said she didn't remember how, exactly, she subdued the man, but she credited her Army training and the time she spent on the boys' wrestling team at BHS back in 1998, her sophomore year.

And Nicholson is a soldier through and through. She has nicknamed her weapon, an M-249 SAW (squad automatic weapon) "Camille," and calls it her baby. She has boxed with some of the men in her company, and when asked by a reporter if she wore gloves during bouts, she replied, "Oh yes, of course we had boxing gloves. I wouldn't want to hurt them."

The citation reads: This is to certify that the Secretary of the Army has awarded the Army Commendation Medal to Private First Class Jessica L. Nicholson, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, for valor and courage in the face of enemy actions ... her decisive actions at a security checkpoint prevented the enemy from endangering the lives of her fellow soldiers."

Jim and Kris Nicholson, Jessica's parents, couldn't be more proud.

Kris Nicholson and her husband Jim moved to Winnemucca after Jessica's junior year at BHS. They work as miners for the Newmont Mining Company.

"This is all pretty exciting for a parent," said Kris in an interview Tuesday. "We're quite pumped up with pride."

Nicholson said both she and Jim are veterans. "We served in peacetime, and we never thought Jessica would go to war when she signed up. She's done us proud."

Jessica was back home in Winnemucca, where she graduated from Lowry High School in 2000, for a two-week leave granted in October.

Kris isn't certain if her daughter, who seems to have what it takes to defend her country, plans on making the Army a career. Comments Jessica made during her visit have led Kris to think not.

"She wants to go to college, she wants a family and she's seen the hardship military families go through," explained Kris.

"She said some of the men she serves with have newborn babies at home they've never been able to hold."

For now though, Kris is walking on air. "Not many women have that medal, it's just one below the Bronze Star," she said.

Jessica's heroic actions that day came with an unintended consequence - the apparent saboteur was shamed. "She told us an interpreter asked the man how it felt to be taken down by a woman. I guess it's quite an insult because he crawled into the fetal position and cried like a baby."

Kris said she and her husband, who both worked at the Barrick Bullfrog Mine near Beatty until the operation closed down, continue to walk on air. "When I heard what she had done I was shaking and crying and laughing and swelled with pride all at the same time. All these emotions were surging through me. We're so proud."

Jessica is five-feet, six inches and weighs a whopping 120 pounds. She said her Army training, her experience on the wrestling team at BHS, and for a brief time at Lowry until she decided, "the boys were getting a little too strong," helped her react the way she did on June 7. "I guess I kind of grew up in the middle of nowhere," she said to Staff Sgt. Conrad College, who interviewed her for The Old Ironsides Report. "I just always had to do whatever needed to be done."

The Nicholsons, like all Americans who have a loved one in Iraq, worry about their daughter and all of the troops serving their country. "I just want her to come home safely. I want all of our troops to come home safely ... obviously not all of them will come home."

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Hatta in running for Olympic wrestling coach spot

11/05/03

Mary Schmitt Boyer Plain Dealer Reporter

Former St. Edward assistant wrestling coach Tadaaki Hatta of Elyria is one of six finalists for coaching positions on the first U.S. women's Olympic freestyle wrestling team that will compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, USA Wrestling announced yesterday.

"I am excited," said Hatta, 60, currently a freelance wrestling coach who also is an assistant rugby coach at St. Ed's and art teacher at Ravenna. "If I get the position, I want to see four Olympic gold medals for the United States. That is what I will work for."

Other candidates for the two coaching positions are Joe Corso of Des Moines, Iowa; Chris Horpel of Stanford, Calif.; Townsend Saunders of Phoenix, Ariz.; Tricia Saunders of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Troy Steiner of Madison, Wis.

A decision is expected in mid-December.

Hatta was the head coach of the 1991 U.S. women's world team that placed fifth in the World Championships, and he was also assistant coach of the 2003 U.S. women's world team that finished second earlier this fall in New York.

The U.S. did not lose a match during the first two days of competition.

Hatta, a native of Tokyo, Japan, was a member of the coaching staffs for the 1988, 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympic men's wrestling team.

He was also a coach of the 1968 and 1984 Japanese Olympic team, as well as the 1972 Mexican Olympic team.

Having coached men and women, Hatta said he found working with women fulfilling.

"It's more rewarding," said Hatta, who won an NCAA title in 1965 as a 115-pounder at Oklahoma State.

"When they learn something and use what they learned in a competition, you can see the results right away."

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How nations qualify participants in wrestling for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

11/6/2003
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, there will be 344 wrestlers total. This includes 280 men (140 each for men’s freestyle and men’s Greco-Roman) and 48 women and 16 wrestlers whose gender is not yet specified.

There are seven weight classes for men’s freestyle, seven weight classes for men’s Greco-Roman and four weight classes for women’s freestyle.

That means each men’s weight division will have 20 athletes and each women’s weight division will have 12 athletes. There are an additional 16 wrestling spots that could increase the size of the weight class in some cases.

The most important qualifier is the 2003 World Championships in each style. There are 10 men athletes and five women athletes from each weight class that qualify their nations for the Olympics from the 2003 World Championships.

There will be two more additional Olympic Qualifiers for each style, held during February and March 2004. Only nations that are not qualified at each specific weight class can enter these events. For the men, the first qualifier adds five nations to the field at each division, and the second qualifier adds four. For the women, each qualifier adds three nations to each weight class.

Please remember that the athletes do not qualify themselves for the Games, they qualify their nation. Each nation may choose to enter whatever athlete they want at their qualified weight classes in the Athens Games. No nation may enter more than one athlete in each weight class, which has always been the case in wrestling.

We will show the qualification numbers from each of the Olympic qualifying events, by style.

MEN’S FREESTYLE (20 per weight division)
2003 World Championships in New York City, Sept. 12-14, 2003* - 10 qualify per weight
Athlete from host Greece - 1 qualify per weight
Men’s Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Bratislava, Slovakia, Feb. 1-2, 2004 - 5 qualify per weight
Men’s Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Sofia, Bulgaria, Feb. 14-15, 2004 - 4 qualify per weight

*- if an athlete from Greece places in the top 10 of any division at Worlds, the 11th place athlete in that division qualifies his nation as well.
Men’s Olympic weight classes: 55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg

MEN’S GRECO-ROMAN (20 per weight division)
2003 World Championships in Cretiel, France, Oct. 2-5, 2003* - 10 qualify per weight
Athlete from host Greece - 1 qualify per weight
Men’s Greco-Roman Olympic Qualifier, Novi-Sad, Serbia Montenegro, Feb. 28-29, 2004 - 5 qualify per weight
Men’s Greco-Roman Olympic Qualifier, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, March 13-14, 2004 - 4 qualify per weight

*- if an athlete from Greece places in the top 10 of any division at Worlds, the 11th place athlete in that division qualifies his nation as well.
Men’s Olympic weight classes: 55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg

WOMEN’S FREESTYLE (12 per weight division)
2003 World Championships in New York City, Sept. 12-14, 2003* - 5 qualify per weight
Athlete from host Greece - 1 qualify per weight
Women’s Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Tunis, Tunisia, March 6-7 - 3 qualify per weight
Women’s Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Madrid, Spain, March 20-21 - 3 qualify per weight

*- if a women’s athlete from Greece places in the top 5 of any division at Worlds, the 6th place athlete in that division qualifies her nation as well.
Women’s Olympic weight classes: 48 kg, 55 kg, 63 kg, 72 kg