Pueblo's wrestling team has a femi nine touch.
Dawn Uthe, a svelte 17-year-old girl
complete with blue eyes blonde hair and a
foot-long ponytail is a full-fledged Warrior
wrestler.
Uthe, a senior'on the Junior varsity
said support and encouragement comes
from family, coaches and teammates
"Treat me differently? Not really.
Some people, my friends, they say I' m
really glad you're doing this.' Other people
may think you shouldn't be doing this, or
I'm doing it for different reasons. But I
wanted to try it. There's nothing for me to
lose. I can only gain from this experience,
Uthe said.
"I just want to thank all the guys for
helping me out and: telling me to stick with it. They're always telling me, 'Come on Dawn, you can do it.'They're not letting me slow down. They keep pumping me up."

At practices Uthe generally trains with
Pueblo's best wrestler, 125-pounder Adolfo
Diaz, who Placed third In the state last
year.
"Look at her, the toughest kid in MY
room Adolfo Diaz, and there she Is working
with him," said John Mulay, coach of the
Class 5A champion Warriors "that's what
I mean. The guys here are all great about it.
He teaches her a lot"
Uthe, 5-foot-5, has participated In vol-
leyball, basketball and track. Last year's
Pueblo girls basketball team was 0-20, so

uthe looked for a new challange
"Actually, she did It to lose weight, and
it turned out she liked It," said her mother,
Wendy Lotito. "If she wanted to play foot-
ball, I would say no; wrestling, OK. She
wanted to play football, but you get hurt in
football too much."
Reaction to a girl wrestler has been
mixed, Uthe's parents say.
"I have no qualms at all," Wendy
Lotito said. "Everyone else did. 'Why are you
letting her do this? Because she wants to do
it..'"
"We got a lot of negative response
from friends and some people I work With
but you're going to get that'said Frank
Lotito, Dawn's step-father.
"If she's able to compete on the same
level as the boys (its good). Im basically
concerned if she can withstand some of the
takedowns and things like that . Im just
hoping she doesn't get hurt. She has always
been a good competitor, and she wants to
win. But there's times I'm worried about
the issue of male/female strength, but
that's about it. But I still have the thought In

the back of my mind."
As for Dawn, whose only previous
wrestling experience was against
her brother, she's not worried In the
least.
"It's a challeange. It is different
than baskball, so I just wanted to
try it out. A few say, 'Oh my god I've
got to wrestle a girl. What am I going
to do?' But to most of them, I'm just
one of the guys, and that's the way I
am, too. I go into it trying to wrestle
to the best of my ability," she said.
"Volleyball gets you In shape for
different muscles, but nothing gets
you in shape like wrestling. I think
it's more Intense than a lot of sports.

It also depends on the person, how
motivated they are. For me, I'm a
more go-at-it type of person, and
that's how you have to be," said
Uthe, who also works taking catalog
orders for Sears, Roebuck and Co.
While Uthe Is accepted on the
team there Is some light-hearted
humor about the situation.
"Probably one of the hardest things is

trying to change the termi-
nology," said Mulay. "I'm constantly
saying 'you guys.' At the Salpointe
meet I said, 'All right you guys, fire
up,' and she says, 'Guys and ladies.'
If you don't have a sense of humor
with It, It would be a tough situa-
tion."
Because of her hair length, Uthe
wears custom headgear for
matches. A boy can't wrestle with
hair that long, but she has pemis-
sion from the Arizona Interscholas-
tic Association.
"I come up her behind her all the
time with a pair of scissors and say,
'One snip Dawn, and it'll be legal.,
And she says 'No, my mom would
kill me,"' Mulay said.
Uthe has wrestled three times In
the 130-pound weight division and
lost each match. Her longest time on
the mat is about one minute, two
weeks ago against Dessert view.
"I think Dawn can win some
matches," Mulay said. "The two
things that are lacking are her (lack
of) experience and lack of strength.
The opposing coaches have been
real nice about it. The kid from Des-
ert View came up to me and said,

'Hey, tell her she's tough.'l think the
barriers are being broken. I think
it'd be real neat to have enough of
them to have a girls team."
Pueblo had another girl wrestle
for three weeks, but she transferred
to soccer because of parental
pressure, Mulay said.
"I felt sooner or later it would
happen," Mulay said. "As far as
Dawn goes, I just wish she would've
come out when she was a freshman."
Uthe has-learned much and is
considered an equal member of the
team by Diaz, clearly the Warriors'
leader.

"She's progressed a lot. The first
day she rolled around and fell
around on her back. But she was a
little scared," Diaz said. "She just
needs more time on the, mat.
Strength she She has the skill,
but she's been overpowered.

.'We're goig to get her tough.
There's nothing different. She's
human. She's got the right to try.
We'll be there for her. Everyone in
here is an equal. In here, everyone
sticks up for her. It's all equal.,'