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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.
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Girls wrestling boys draws attention, for good or bad
By Mark Kram
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA _ Inside the noisy wrestling room at Central High School, Overbrook High senior Stephanie Curry removed her hooded warmup suit behind her bench and prepared to square off against Henry Johnson. Once a cheerleader at Overbrook, Curry, at 119 pounds, summoned up her courage as a junior and came out for the boys wrestling team over the understandable concerns of her parents, who thought for sure Stephanie would come home at the end of practice covered with bruises. Grinning, Curry paused as she loosened up and observed: ``I look at myself as a feminine tomboy.''
Cheers erupted from the Overbrook bench as Curry strolled to the center of the mat. Even though she worked hard in the weight room to build herself up, Curry found that the boys she has faced have been stronger. She had gone 0-9 in her two-year career at Overbrook. Less concerned with winning and losing than with just participating in the sport, Curry has thought she would be far better today had she gotten an earlier start, had she not been told, ``No, you're a girl'' when she asked to come out for her middle school team.
Curry held out her hand for Johnson to shake.
Now, she crouched forward _ poised _ and told herself: ``Keep your eyes on his belly, not his eyes. He can fake you with his eyes.''
The referee blew his whistle.
Quickly, Curry found herself on the floor, her face jammed into the mat as Johnson lay on top of her. She spun her legs out and endeavored to wiggle free, but Johnson worked her shoulders in an effort to tip her over on her back. Curry tightened her arms in close to her body, but slowly _ forcefully _ Johnson turned her on her side and then her back. She struggled to roll over, but Johnson placed her head in the crook of his arm and drove her shoulders into the mat.
The referee peered in.
Then slapped his hand on the floor.
Curry was pinned.
In 1 minute, 50 seconds.
``He was really tough,'' a breathless Curry said as she toweled off on the sideline. ``I thought I could hang in there, but, oh well. I'm proud of myself. Going up against the boys takes guts.''
Word that a female wrestler at Germantown (Pa.) Friends School was seriously injured has left her Philadelphia-area peers concerned but undeterred. To the 14 girls in the Philadelphia Public League and dozens of others on varsity and junior-varsity squads scattered through the region, the thought of going head-to-head with the opposite gender is less alarming than it is challenging. While it is generally agreed the boys are stronger physically _ especially in the higher weight classes _ the girls take pride in offsetting that strength advantage with skill. To Curry, Overbrook teammate Shirlee Gilliam and others, the whole idea of beating a boy carries with it not just personal satisfaction but social significance.
``Women can do whatever men can do in this world,'' said Gilliam, a junior who has beaten three boys this year (one by decision, two by forfeit) and who is a second-degree black belt in karate. ``This is not the 1950s anymore. People have to realize: Women are equals.''
Others are driven by less grandiose factors.
They just have fun.
``Doing this challenges every part of me,'' said Alecia Zameska, a junior at Central who came out for the team this year. ``I feel it called to me. I told myself, `Oh, God, I have to do this!' ''
Central teammate Hannah Phillips echoed that.
``I just love it,'' she said. ``It takes more of me than any other sport, and I just enjoy being on the team. I have always gotten along better with the guys.''
Slinging them in a ``butt drag'' is something else altogether. While Phillips and others say that their teammates have come to appreciate their skills as athletes, it is not uncommon for adolescent boys, their coaches and even referees to become uneasy whenever competitors of the opposite sex step out on the mat. Girls have found that some teams or individual boys will not even compete, in part because of the presence of what some deem to be inappropriate contact between the sexes. Well aware of the controversy that surrounds coed wrestling, Maren Hill, a Central sophomore, contended she has found that ``nothing I have run into so far has been even remotely sexual.''
Agreed Curry: ``Some of the guys are uneasy with it. Some of them were afraid that they would get (sexually) excited or that they would hurt me, but once we got there on the mat, I have always been treated like I was a boy. This is a competition.''
One that is not always lopsided in the boys' favor. Some girls across the United States have done quite well against the boys _ especially at weight classes below 112 pounds. At Montesano (Wash.) High School, 101-pound junior Arielle Bradbury has a career record of 75-25 against the boys, of whom she observed: ``Usually, they come up to me afterward and say: `Wow, you can really wrestle.' ''
Drawn to the sport because she found it ``physically challenging'' and because she considers herself an ``independent person,'' Bradbury works out five days a week for 15 to 17 hours total, and offsets whatever advantage in strength she surrenders to the boys with quickness, flexibility and technique. Said Bradbury: ``Strength is not the only factor.''
But it can be a compelling one in the higher weight classes. Physiologically, wrestling experts say females possess a far greater percentage of body fat than males, who tend to add extra weight in the form of muscle. Consequently, Kent Bailo, director of the United States Girls' Wrestling Association, contended that the ``likelihood of injury (to the girl at higher weights) is far greater.'' While the girls themselves conceded they are at a strength disadvantage, few are eager to adopt the ``girl-against-girl competition'' Bailo advocates; nor are they convinced wrestling against males places them in potential danger.
Gilliam grinned.
``I can take care of myself,'' she said. ``I prefer wrestling the guys. Beating them is a bigger thrill. I remember I DID wrestle a girl once. I had her pinned and she bit me!''
When Diane Beres found out her daughter, Hannah Phillips, had joined Central's wrestling squad, she did not know what to think. It thrilled her that Hannah had the spirit to ``go for it,'' but a part of her recoiled at the idea.
``Part of me was scared that something is going to happen to her,'' Beres said. ``I wondered if it was a good idea.''
Is it? Beres concluded the pros far outweighed the cons.
``I totally support Hannah on this,'' she said. ``I had no clue that she would be drawn to a sport as physical as this, but I feel this has done wonders for her self-esteem. She is far more self-assured than she has ever been.''
Her ex-husband, Dr. Alex Phillips, also has found that to be true.
``Hannah comes home now and shows me her muscles,'' he said. ``Initially, I suppose I was bothered by (the body contact), but I attended a match and saw that it was well organized and observed. That eased some of the anxiety I had.''
Even in an age when it is not uncommon to see females take on the opposite sex in football, hockey, baseball and even boxing, the thought of them squaring off on a wrestling mat with boys who are perhaps far stronger than them takes getting used to for some. Ever since Carl Flaxman at Central coached the first girl who wrestled in the Public League in the 1980s, girls have trickled into the sport with varying degrees of success. Flaxman has remained somewhat uneasy with the whole issue but leaves it to be sorted out by the parents, some of whom shudder at the thought of their daughters being tossed to the ground and groped by boys. When daughter Alicia came home and announced her plans to wrestle for Central, George Zemeska remembered how he was when he was a teenage boy.
``Had someone told me in high school that I could wrestle girls, I would have thought: `Ohhhhhhhh, that sounds like fun,' '' he said. ``Of course I had reservations.''
Alicia chuckled.
``That is just fatherly instinct,'' she said. ``No dad wants to see his baby daughter even go out on dates.''
Beres is equally protective of Hannah, but has no problem with the close contact.
``Whatever contact occurs is just part of the sport,'' she said. ``From what I can see _ and I believe this _ the boys are more interested in asserting themselves than trying to cop a feel.''
Whatever initial concerns some parents had, they soon disappeared once they thought it through. Zemeska and his wife, Diane, decided that it was a ``positive thing to do,'' in part because, as George Zemeska observed, ``it is not inappropriate for girls to learn skills that could end up protecting them at some point.''
Phillips agreed. He even recommends it. He has encouraged Hannah and her sister to learn to defend themselves.
Contrary to how their daughters tend to feel, Zemeska and other parents agree with Bailo and would prefer the girls have a league of their own in which to compete. It sent a chill through some of them when word that a girl wrestling at Germantown Friends School had been seriously injured began circulating through the wrestling community. Central wrestler Maren Hill said that it was discussed at home, but that she and her parents decided ``accidents can happen to anyone.'' Other parents concluded the same: It just as easily could have happened to a boy. Curry has discussed the potential dangers of wrestling with her mother, Audrey, who said, ``She can take care of herself.''
That is not to say the athletes do not come home with injuries. They do. Curry has come home with assorted ``aches and pains.'' Hill and Bradbury say they each have separated a shoulder. Hannah Phillips bruised her nose. Her father saw it, winced and asked: ``Are sure you want to do this?'' She told him yes. He worried her braces would become loosened.
He laughed and said, ``Just like with any idea, you have to get used to it.''
Stephanie Curry would love to continue wrestling once she leaves Overbrook. She loves the sport _ and sports in general _ but only a handful of colleges have the sport for women. She said, ``I would hate to stop now.''
Odds are that in years to come, girls will not have to. Bailo said that he expects women to compete in the 2004 Olympics, and that when that happens, college and high schools will form leagues for female wrestlers. He added that girls who spend years developing themselves no longer will be at an unfair disadvantage once they get bigger.
Curry just came along too soon. She laughed and said, ``I could always try football.''