Girl wins state title in boys wrestling

[mrhnau]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/more/02/06/girl.wrestling.champ.ap/

Just thought this was quite interesting. Was suprised at how many girls are actually wrestling now. My hats off to her!

Thoughts? Opinions?

 

[Lisa]

I think that story is inspirational to all young females who participate in wrestling and in other male dominated sports. Cudos to her for working so hard to achieve her goal!

 

[mrhnau]

Do you think eventually all sports will become integrated? Should we do away with gender in -all- sports? No longer have female only teams too? Think there will always be a place for single sex sports, either male of female?

I've known a good many girls who could easily compete in most sports, at least in a high school level. Getting to college, it would be a bit difficult. You rarely see females physically develop to the strength levels of males, so sports like Football (aside from some kickers I've seen) would be a difficult sport to integrate. Basketball, at least certain positions, would be excluded. You rarely see a female over 6'6, and even when you do, you don't get the same leaping ability. Even point guards these days are getting around 6'6... granted, some females are great ball handlers, but I wonder how they would fair in an NBA game these days?

Alot of sports have inched towards integration lately... golf and wrestling being the most notable... I can imagine the days of seeing at least certain positions being integrated in pro teams. I do think its kinda cool and interesting to see them compete, but I do wonder what the future would hold...

 

[michaeledward]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/more/02/06/girl.wrestling.champ.ap/

Just thought this was quite interesting. Was suprised at how many girls are actually wrestling now. My hats off to her!

Thoughts? Opinions?

While there have been some unfortunate unintended consequences, this is an excellent example of the Federal Government in action.

Prior to 1972, this young lady would not have been allowed to participate in the sport.

No, sports will never be totally integrated. Because equality of opportunity does not equal equality of capability. In this case, the weight category was 103 pounds ... that is a big equalizer in capability. I believe it would be more difficult to find a 170 pound woman to competing favorably against a 170 man.

To ignore the differences in anatomy and physiology is to self-impose prejudice.

 

[terryl965]

One of my teenager wrestler for the local high school she is about 160 lbs. and won district at that wieght, she is a senior and has been offered scholarships at some of the smaller schools in wrestling and she is probaly going to accept one she said. Came in 5th in state not bad.
All in all I believe woman can be competitive against men in most cases in sports.
I also believe the womans of today are well rounded athlete and have been making great stides over the last twenty years to get to the top of athltics.
Terry

 

[Makalakumu]

I'm glad this was posted. Sometimes girls can get even weirder then boys with the "touchy feelly" sports. We had two girls on my wrestling team in high school. They were twins and they wrestled at 135. That dynamic duo could really kick butt. I like this girls comment after recieving a bloody nose in the championship match...

"Awesome!"

 

[Brother John]

GOOD FOR HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's Great!



Your Brother
John

 

[Lisa]

I'm glad this was posted. Sometimes girls can get even weirder then boys with the "touchy feelly" sports. We had two girls on my wrestling team in high school. They were twins and they wrestled at 135. That dynamic duo could really kick butt. I like this girls comment after recieving a bloody nose in the championship match...

"Awesome!"

My youngest daughter wanted to give wrestling a try, just for something different from grappling. The city puts out a "leisure guide" where they offer 8 or 10 week courses on all sorts of sports and activities. We found a wrestling program in there but it said if the student was female they had to find their own female partner to sign up. My daughter was absolutely PO'd. She has grappled guys for years and really couldn't understand why it would make a difference.

 

[Eternal Beginner]

I'm glad this was posted. Sometimes girls can get even weirder then boys with the "touchy feelly" sports. We had two girls on my wrestling team in high school. They were twins and they wrestled at 135. That dynamic duo could really kick butt. I like this girls comment after recieving a bloody nose in the championship match...

"Awesome!"

Yes, some girls are just incredible with their attitude.

We have a girl in our BJJ club who also plays hockey and competitive archery and exclusively competes in male divisions for the challenge of it. She used to compete in the female leagues and win consistently but changed over to the male leagues because there was a greater number of competitors and she really wanted to test herself.

I thought it was impressive that the winning wasn't important (which she was guaranteed in the girls divisions because of lack of participation) to her, but the competition and learning opportunity. She also switched to our BJJ club for the same reason. She used to grapple at a considerably smaller club but found winning against the same three kids wasn't enough challenge. She chose to be a small fish in a big pond so that she could grow as a grappler.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I think it is great that more girls are competing in the formerly all
male dominated sports like wrestling, hockey, football, etc. My hat
goes out to anyone willing to compete and enjoy their chosen sport.


Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

 

[Eternal Beginner]

I think it is great that more girls are competing in the formerly all
male dominated sports like wrestling, hockey, football, etc. My hat
goes out to anyone willing to compete and enjoy their chosen sport.


Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

I bolded part of your comment because not only are more girls competing but I have noticed an increase in us, um, ahem "older" girls competing as well. I think it is great that women who have never competed before, or even been atheletic at all, are now finding themselves comfortable enough to enter grappling competitions.

I was even at one tournament where they had enough of us "older" women to have a masters division (35+)!!

Hopefully all of us oldsters will keep it up and have a lot of fun doing it! We have a tourney coming up soon and the response from women and girls has been great for such a relatively small city.

 

[arnisador]

This is a great story. I watched a PBS special last year on a female wrestler and it discussed the difficulties they face, including that where she was (Texas?) she could only compete against the boys up to a certain age (around 12, maybe?), after whcih she could only compete against girls (of which there aren't enough for a league). I don't know what I think--pound-for-pound, boys have more muscle, so it seems unfair...yet, if they choose to compete anyway, I say let them!

 

[michaeledward]

One of my teenager wrestler for the local high school she is about 160 lbs. and won district at that wieght, she is a senior and has been offered scholarships at some of the smaller schools in wrestling and she is probaly going to accept one she said. Came in 5th in state not bad.
All in all I believe woman can be competitive against men in most cases in sports.
I also believe the womans of today are well rounded athlete and have been making great stides over the last twenty years to get to the top of athltics.
Terry

I stand corrected.

Title IX is a good thing.

 

[mrhnau]

Title 9 has had some very good aspects, but also some disasterous effects on some colleges... alot of "mens" sports no longer exist because of it. If a school tries to field a football team (around 100 or so players) you have to generate a -bunch- of female sports to compensate... for instance, my school has a womans rugby team but not a guys team. reason? title 9. It just seems odd how its applied... don't get me wrong, I think equality is a great thing, and I applaud the girl who won the state title. Without title 9, things like this would not have happened, so I'm kind of torn...

 

[green meanie]

Very cool. I'll be taking a copy of the article with me to wrestling practice tonight. I have a couple of girls on our team that I would like to have see it.

 

[Jagermeister]

I had to wrestle a girl once in my first high school tournament. I was so nervous because I felt like there was nothing to gain and a lot to lose. I think my teammates had a lot to do with that, though. Luckily for me, she wasn't that good, and I got a pin out of it, but I got so much crap from my coach for working the "high-crotch" on her.

Back to the Alaska 103-lb. champ, I think it's great for the girls out there to be competitive with the guys when, generally speaking, they're naturally at a physical disadvantage. Good for her.

 

[TheBattousai]

Great to hear the news, I wonder when the next border will be broken.

 

[Kacey]

I think it is wonderful to see more girls going out for traditionally "male" sports - although I suspect, in the long run, that if the numbers keep increasing, eventually, there will be enough female competitors to form female leagues, which will resegregate the genders again. Still, wider open horizons for all are a good thing!

 

[Sarah]

Title 9 has had some very good aspects, but also some disasterous effects on some colleges... alot of "mens" sports no longer exist because of it. If a school tries to field a football team (around 100 or so players) you have to generate a -bunch- of female sports to compensate... for instance, my school has a womans rugby team but not a guys team. reason? title 9. It just seems odd how its applied... don't get me wrong, I think equality is a great thing, and I applaud the girl who won the state title. Without title 9, things like this would not have happened, so I'm kind of torn...

Im sorry...could someone explain what Title 9 is??

 

[Kacey]

No problem - Title IX is the ninth section of the Educational Amendments of 1972, whichrequired equal spending on men's and women's sports, in response to concerns about significant disparities. Look at this link for the text of the amendment.

[SIZE=-1]www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/titleix.htm[/SIZE]