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Wrestling Guys Not Her Biggest Battle
By AARON DORKSEN

"Quit" is not a word in West Holmes Junior High School student Samantha "Sam" Collett's vocabulary.

It's doubtful if the eighth-grader understands the concepts of "rest," or "boys only," either.

Like an ever-increasing number of girls in this equal opportunity sports generation, Collett is taking advantage of an age when girls sports are more accepted and more popular than ever.

However, what makes Collett unique is that she's pushing the bar even further, competing against not only fellow girls but also the boys.

Collett has participated on girls teams in cross country, track, basketball and softball, but really started to attract attention in seventh grade when she played football and wrestled.

As the only female first-string wrestler at WHJS, Collett went 9-9 as a seventh-grader and 5-5 this winter.

The 118-pounder then used that experience to her advantage by taking first place at the inaugural Ohio State Girls Wrestling Championships held March 20 in Mount Vernon.

"I really didn't think it was that big of a deal (taking first place)," she said. "I guess I didn't think much of it because I'd wrestled against girls a few other times and had never lost.

"Other people were making a big deal about it, though."

Although the tournament included Ohio and high school in its title, athletes from junior high and out of state were permitted. Collett beat 11th-grader Karen Tankersly of Nashville, Tenn., in the championship bout.

One of those making the biggest deal after that match was Kelly Collett, Sam's mother.

"I cried and cried," Kelly Collett said. "I just couldn't believe it after she beat three girls that were all in high school, all older than her."

Mom had the typical reasons to be happy for her kid -- knowing how much hard work, time and sacrifice was put into it.

However, the championship meant more than even that because of how sick Sam was just five years earlier.

"She had open-heart surgery in 1994 at the Cleveland Clinic, an atrial septum repair," Kelly Collett said. "She had a heart murmur at birth and it was discovered she basically had a hole in the heart."

Now perfectly healthy, Sam Collett is just hitting her stride.

The week after winning the state girls meet, she placed 12th in the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association Championships in Lake Orion, Mich.

Although Collett switched from football to girls cross country last fall, she plans on continuing her wrestling career in high school for the highly competitive West Holmes Knights.

The reactions Collett has received to her mat career have been understandably mixed.

"Some guys for the other teams really don't like wrestling against me and some don't seem to mind," she said. "My season ended early this year because I dislocated my shoulder.

"The guy slammed me earlier in the match and then I ended up hurting my shoulder. He wasn't too happy about wrestling me."

One of the opponents from a Mohican Area Conference school who Collett beat three times as a seventh-grader, used the setbacks as motivation.

"I beat this wrestler for Clear Fork three times and he got so mad he lifted weights all summer and is really good now."

As for plans to compete in the traditionally all-boys sport at the high school level, the opinions are also mixed.

"Some are for it and some are against it," Collett said.

For someone that grew up wrestling, it's just as natural as a female mechanic who grew up around cars or a carpenter who has known nothing but 2x4 boards.

Collett started her mat career six years ago, wrestling with an older and younger brother, in the West Holmes youth program.

Beyond even high school, Collett hopes that by the time she's ready for college a team somewhere will have a girls squad.

"Wrestling is just a sport you learn to like," she said. "You better like it a lot to do it because it's not the easiest sport in the world.

"I've switched from a lot of different sports, but wrestling has been the one I've stuck with since third grade."

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WWF rocks Oakville
by Sheela Shrinivas

Oakville has been marked by many landmark events: the addition of our commons area, block scheduling, and now...the WWF. No, not Hulk Hogan. Not Jake the Snake. Instead, Oakville is proud to introduce the Women’s Wrestling Federation. Gone are the days when women weren’t allowed to play sports. Now, the WWF of Oakville attempts to show us what real wrestling is all about.

Come watch the Golden Girl/Cheerleading squads and Girls Athletics take it to the mat. The historic day is Friday, Jan, 29,1999. The historic place is Gym A. Not only will $3 cover the cost of watching feminism in action, but you’ll also be able to see the guys cheering for a change-literally. The male wrestlers of Oakville will assume the role that their female fans have usually taken during matches: the role of cheerleader.

Mr. Rocky Streb, the chosen referee, has some advice for the girls: “Be aggressive, girls, be aggressive.” When asked who he might choose as the victor, Streb said, “Well, the cheerleaders have watched the wrestlers the most, they should have picked up on some moves.”

The proceeds of the wrestling match will go towards relieving some of the expenses that Ms. Sue Caton’s Economic class used for their tee shirt project. After the tee-shirt business failed, the class realized that the wrestling match would be a big seller.

“It’d be cool to have a girls wrestling team. I’m a big proponent of girls wrestling. Girls do Judo and Karate, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have girls wrestling,” said Streb. Streb will likely have some serious recruiting to do after tonight’s dogfight.
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Wrestling grows in second year of competition

by Mark Cousins
Assistant to the Athletic Director

Things are easier the second time around, isn’t that what people say? As we
begin the second year of UIL Wrestling you would
think things would be easier.Not likely. As with every UIL activity, a new
school year brings new challenges and new
opportunities. Opportunity comes in the form of increased participation.
This year there are 152 schools with a boys wrestling
program, up from 128 last year, and 76 schools, up from 49 last year, with a
girls wrestling program.

In case you didn’t know, Texas and Hawaii are the only states in the nation
that have a separate program for boys and girls
wrestling all the way to the state championship level. Allowing boys to
wrestle boys and girls to wrestle girls has led to
increased participation in both activities as we strive to increase the
wrestling program in Texas. Research has consistently
shown that students who participate in extracurricular activities perform
better in school than students who do not participate.
The more students we can involve in our activities the better, as long as we
do it the correct way. How the program is
administered at the local as well as the state level will be the key to a
successful program.

I urge coaches to use this new school year as an opportunity to become more
involved in the wrestling program. The Texas
High School Wrestling Coaches Association is developing a website to provide
wrestling coaches with a forum to contact each
other and stay in touch with what is happening in wrestling across the
state. The site is currently under construction and will be
available in the coming weeks. The web address is www.texwres.com.

I cannot stress enough the need for wrestling coaches to become involved in
the direction of the program. Proposals for
alterations or changes regarding the wrestling program must be presented to
the UIL Legislative Council for study and
approval. I know this is a transition from the less stringent structure of
the TIWA, but wrestling is now a UIL program and will
follow UIL guidelines. The UIL will not make exceptions for wrestling just
because it is a new activity. Working through a
coaches organization to draft proposals is an effective way to create
awareness of a particular problem or situation that needs
to be addressed.

Speaking of opportunities, let me take this one to give wrestling coaches a
few pieces of information for the coming season. The
first day for dual meets or tournaments is Nov. 8. No school or individual
representing a school can wrestle a match against an
individual from another school until this date. Weight classes for boys and
girls will be the same as last year, with a two pound
growth allowance beginning Jan. 5, 2000.

There are few changes in the weight control plan as well. The process for
establishing the minimum weight class is the same.
Student athletes must be weighed during the first after school practice in
which they participate to get their scratch weight.
Minimum weight class for wrestling is determined by that scratch weight
minus 10 percent of the scratch weight. The biggest
change is that wrestlers must wrestle at least half of their regular season
matches at the minimum weight they will wrestle in the
state championship series.

Weekly weigh-ins can be done as competition weigh ins and the weekly weigh
in form is filed with the athletic director of the
school. All documentation concerning the UIL weight control program must be
available if requested by the District Executive
Committee or the UIL. Violations of the UIL weight control program could
result in severe sanctions to the school and school
employees. We will not take a chance on the safety of student athletes. All
I can say is that if weight control records are
requested, they better be there. Coaches have the primary responsibility of
maintaining these records and ensuring that
wrestlers are in compliance with weight control provisions.

The district certification deadline is Feb. 5, 2000. Regional Wrestling
Tournaments will be held Feb. 11-12, 2000. The State
Wrestling Championships will be held again at the Austin Convention Center
on Feb. 25-26, 2000.

Best of luck on the upcoming season.

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