News Page

OSU student keeps focus on 2004 Olympics

By Justin Wilmeth
Sports Writer

Published: Thursday, November 11, 1999

Oklahoma State University has a two-time national champion in wrestling on
campus, yet she isn't on the varsity squad.

With five years of wrestling, experience isn't an issue.

Megan Andrews, eighteen-year-old undecided freshman, is a member of the
United States World Team and has her sights set on the 2004
Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, where Women's Wrestling is expected to
become a competitive medal event.

Andrews has been wrestling for five years and is among the top three girls
on the World Team.

Andrews said the World Team will go on tour and gain international
experience. Next weekend, they will compete in Toronto.

OSU wrestling coach John Smith does not have her as part of his team, but he
has witnessed her talent.

"She's a tough competitor," Smith said. "She's willing to put a lot of
effort into this and she's come a long way."

Andrews participates in the club wrestling team and is also on a stipend
from the World Team, which automatically disqualifies her from
NCAA competition because she isn't a true amateur, Smith said.

Andrews is from the Napa Valley region of Calif. Her parents were both OSU
graduates and coming to Stillwater for school seemed like an
easy choice. She has been taking part in the two-week long intensive
wrestling training camps that take place over the summer break since
after her freshman year in high school.

"I was the first girl to make it through the training camp they have here
during the summer and I did that for three years in a row," Andrews
said. "And I was the only girl."

She entered OSU summer wrestling camp shortly after winning the Cadet
Nationals in the 132 pound class as a freshman in high school and
continued to participate three years in a row.

Andrews said she had only been wrestling for one year, but she had the
confidence to attend the camp because of her success in the Cadet
Nationals.

She said "Looking back, most people probably thought 'what the heck is she
doing?' But in my own mind, I thought I was just great.

"I was really naive that first year, but that's probably what helped me get
through it."

She ended her high school career with another national title, the Girls
National Championship, in her senior year. It was the biggest girls'
competition with over 300 girls participating in the event.

With such success at a typically male sport, Andrews was concerned about the
reception by her classmates.

"All the girls thought it was really cool and most of the guys did too,
except for the ones that happened to be in my weight," she said. "The
response I usually got was positive."

Andrew said she enjoys the sense of independence that wrestling gives her.

"It just makes me feel really strong and when you go out there, it's just
you," she said. "You can't blame it on someone else. If you do
poorly, it's your own fault. But if you do well, there's nothing that can
top the feeling of knowing it was because you trained hard, went out
there and did well."

She said she also loves competing and calls it "a real sense of power and
strength."

Andrews' latest tournament win came in the 15th annual Sunkist Kids/Arizona
State University International Open, under the guidance of
former wrestler Teague Moore.

Smith was not able to prepare her for the competition, so Moore volunteered
to help Andrews train.

"He's been helping me out a lot," she said. "He is awesome."

Andrews said her father's encouragement of karate since she was seven led to
a second degree black belt and paved the road to wrestling.

"We have a family system of karate," she said. "Ever since I was little, I
just grew up with it. Everyone in my family is a black belt now."

That includes herself, her parents, her younger sisters and her younger
brother. She said her dad involved the family in karate so they all
could protect themselves.

With her mother, a non-practicing lawyer, and her father, a cardiologist,
Andrews said much is expected of her and her siblings
academically.

"Education is really important to my parents and they've raised us with a
real focus on it," she said.

She said her father is particularly supportive of her education and that she
and her siblings have always been told they "just need to take it as
far as we can."

Andrews is considering majoring in English and pre-law and she is also
studying Russian.

She said excelling in academics relates to competing well in wrestling
because she considers preparing for her matches "a mental thing."

"I'll visualize what I want to do," she said. "I try and visualize my take
downs. I'm pretty much a take-down person."

She also said verbal affirmations she learned in karate help calm her nerves
before matches.

"I say, 'I return the strength of my spirit to train my heart, mind and body
to never give up. I resolve to do my best.'"

Andrews said she is confident that she will be chosen for the 2004 Olympics,
and believes that her young age might allow her to compete in
two or three different Olympics.

But she said her confidence has not led to laziness because she still
realizes that she "only has four years to prepare" to win the Olympic gold
medal. 1999

--------------------------------

Less depth adds challenge to Sam Houston's quest to defend title

THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

November 9, 1999, Tuesday ARLINGTON
EDITION

LENGTH: 418 words

ARLINGTON - The memory of Sam Houston winning the first
state-sanctioned girls wrestling team championship last
season remains vivid in Texans wrestler Brenda Malott's mind.

Even if it didn't, the University Interscholastic League state
championship team trophy that sits in a Sam Houston trophy case
would sufficiently serve as a daily reminder about one of the
school's most memorable athletic accomplishments of last school year.

Nevertheless, memories of last season have the Texans thinking
seriously about doing it again.

"Right now, we don't have the overall numbers that we had last
year, but we've still got a good team," said Malott, the defending
128-pound girls state champion who posted an 18-0 record last
season. "It's going to be a challenge to win state again. "

Sam Houston wrestling coach Roy Shultz, who arrived from Oklahoma
to replace Nick Purler as the Texans coach this year, said a lack
of depth will make it difficult for the Texans to repeat as state
champions.

"If they think it's going to be a cakewalk, I've got news for
them," Shultz said. "I've got five good girls back from last year.

But I've got to find some wrestlers for several weight classes. "

A dozen girls have been working out the first two weeks of the
season with Shultz, whose practice routine primarily focuses on the
basics of the sport. At this point, he lacks wrestlers for three
weight classes, including the 95-pound division that has been left
void after defending state champion Veronica Rodriguez transferred
to Martin.

Along with Malott, Cathy Cotter ('99 state runner-up) at 110
pounds, Ember Brettman ('99 3rd-place) at 148 and Brandy
Killingsworth ('99 state champion) at 165 head into the season as
the team leaders.

Killingsworth, who recorded a 10-2 record a year ago, said she
remains positive heading into this season, much the same way she
approached every match last season.

"I expect to do good, but I also expect all of us to do good as a
team," Killingsworth said. "I think it should be easy for us [to
win state] because it will be all the same teams from last year
coming back this year. "

However, Shultz hasn't yet created space in the Sam Houston
trophy case for another state championship award.

"I always tell them just because they won state last year doesn't
mean they're going to win again this year without hard work,"
Shultz said.

--------------------------------

Ready to rumble

By Derek Wilson World Staff Writer
11/10/99

Two female wrestlers try out for Coweta squad, a first
COWETA -- Both Andi Adair and Alicia Bomboy are cute and petite, but the girls want to add another adjective to that description: tough.
Adair, 13, and Bomboy, 12, are the first girls in Coweta to try out for the wrestling team, Coweta Public Schools Athletic Director Timothy Johnson said.

"I feel that, if they want to do it, they should be given an equal opportunity," Johnson said. "They're getting treated just like the guys are getting treated: when the guys are doing push-ups and pull-ups, they're doing push-ups and pull-ups, and when the guys are hitting the weights, they're hitting the weights."

The girls, though, are allowed to use the female locker rooms.

Johnson pointed out that in California public schools and at Southwest Missouri State University, there are all-female wrestling teams.

"It's picking up across the country," he said. "Right here, it's still in the early stages."

The truly surprising thing, though, is both girls are sweet, shy and unassuming.

"I thought this would be a challenge, so I decided to do it," Adair said.

"I just thought it would be fair for a girl to try a guy's sport because I think every girl should have the same opportunity as the guys," Bomboy said. "I wanted to see if I could be treated fairly in this sport."

Adair was already playing sports such as soccer, track and volleyball, and Bomboy plays volleyball and softball.

"I thought maybe if I tried this sport, I would be harder and faster, and get enough muscles to be competitive in this sport," Adair said.

"So, I tried it out and I liked it."

Adair said wrestling is similar to soccer and track only in that all three require tremendous stamina.

Adair admitted it can be hard to keep up with the boys on some exercises.

"It's kind of hard, but there are some moves we need to learn," she said.

However, as both girls grew up with brothers, they're not new to contests of strength.

"Well, my brother was a lot rougher," Adair said. The other boys "are kind of hard to wrestle, but they're not as hard as my brother."

As for her sisters, Adair fist-fought with them.

"My older half-brother used to really get rough with me," Bomboy said. "I just wanted to see if I could learn to beat him one of these days."

The girls use standard wrestling equipment, except that their singlet has shoulder pads, and is cut higher around the arms and at the neckline.

Adair's mother told her if she wanted to try out for a guys' sport, she had to stick with it. Her father only found out last weekend.

"My mom was pretty shocked when I first told her, but she was OK with it whenever we started," Bomboy said. Her father said it was OK, given it was OK with her mother.

Both girls' wrestling careers have brought them fame in their classes.

"I think almost the whole school knows," Adair said. "They call me 'Xena.'"

Though Adair's peers do gently tease her, they don't go too far, for fear she'll throw them to the ground.

And both girls haven't seen any reason why they shouldn't stick with their new sport.

"If I got good enough, then I would continue through high school," Adair said.

"Both of them have fantastic attitudes," Johnson said.

Coweta's wrestling season opens on Dec. 2 against Muskogee, but the girls will wrestle at other tournaments before the regular season.