One small step…

The North Carolina State Wrestling Championships (male divison) saw a new face this year as the first female wrestling REFEREE made her way to the mats to call their match.

 Former wrestler Anita Reed made an impact on last week as she became the first woman in North Carolina’s history to be refereeing a wrestling match–a State wrestling match at that. Is this the beginning of a new trend? I sure hope so!!

I think this is an excellent opportunity that not many women explore after high school wrestling days. It’s truly an inspiration for all young female wrestlers to look forward to if they chose not to fight for women’s wrestling at their local universities and colleges.

Although I still hope to see women continue with the sport if they truly have the passion for it, we can see that there are more and more opportunities opening up regarding the sport. You can be a particpator, a spectator, a mat maid, a score keeper, a coach and more recently–a referee!

I’d personally like to say WAY TO GO ANITA REED! I hope many young women follow in your footsteps.

Where’d State Go??

As a former high school wrestler and current female wrestling coach at a local high school, I highly encourage my girls to participate in the Arizona Girls State Wrestling Tournament. This state-wide tournament brings together girls from all over Arizona to compete girl v. girl rather than girl v. boy for the title of Female [insert weight class] Arizona State Wrestling Champion. Although not nearly as large as Boys State, this tournament has rapidly grown in numbers from approximately 54 girls my Freshman year of high school to 109 girls my Senior year.

Typically, Coach (and good friend) Dave Severn hosts the State tournament at Deer Valley Middle School sometime in late February, early March. He’s had special guests come and speak to all the female wrestlers attending such as 4x World Champion Tricia Saunders and 2004 Olympics Silver Medalist Sara McMann .

Picture from amateurwrestlingphotos.com

Despite all the excitement however, I have recently heard that this State Tournament, which was scheduled for March 13, 2009 this year, has been canceled and I have no idea why! Many other states have their Championships scheduled except Arizona now.

My girls are distraught, I’m pissed and it really comes down to, is this a lack of funding once again for the girls program? We’ll see.

The Man Behind the Rebellious Woman

Behind every passionate go-getter is a person or group of persons supporting their sometimes chaotic lifestyle. Recently, my boyfriend and quite possibly future husband has been with me 24-7  as we learn and grow with each other in our new home together. For the past 2 years he has supported my passion for the sport of wrestling, attended all the tournaments he could and even made it to a few practices. He could care less what other people said about me being a wrestler, he loves me for me and to him, I’m #1. I honestly do not know how I would have made it through all my injuries, my emotional breakdowns, my stressful and painful situations or my broken hearts after leaving the mats without this tremendous man by my side. He’s absolutely perfect! BM+RR Always and Forever.

Mi Amor, Randy Ivan. Photo taken by Bryana Maupin

The Gray Areas. Photo taken by Bryana Maupin

He's one of a kind. Photo taken by Bryana Maupin

Wrestling is…

It’s fascinating how uneducated some people are. As a prime example, at work the other day a co-worker made a comment about sports and I informed him that I loved wrestling and that I had wrestled in high school and you know what he said? “Wrestling’s fake…all wrestling.”

Now, if someone can please explain to me how working extremely hard at dieting, continuously working out and constantly learning new ways to improve our skills of going out there on the mats day after day, stretching our body to the point of intolerance and inflicting or being inflicted with constant pain is fake–then my good man, I will bow down before you.

Wrestling is NOT just a sport, it truly is a way of life. You must eat, sleep and breathe the passion to compete in such an intense sport. And being a female in a male-dominated community only makes it even more appetizing.

In regards to my previous post on the idea that small colleges adhere to women’s desire to compete in this particular sport, rather than universities and highly populated colleges, is this a form of telling women we’re insufficiant enough to wrestle?

Some would say that’s a little far-fetched and I agree. It just may be. But with the rapid growth of women’s involvement in the sport, it also may not be.

Women are wrestling–plain and simple. We’re wrestling men and we’re wrestling other women. In today’s society I believe it is quite important to press for women to become involved in some form of physical self-defense and wrestling would contribute a great deal to this knowledge and may promote more interest in other forms like MMA, Karate, etc.

It’s time to open our narrow-minded personalities.

Women and Opportunities

And so it begins. The push for what many (mostly women) consider the future for wrestling. For years wrestling has been considered a “male” sport, however, the rapid growth of females deciding to take on one of the toughest sports at the high school, collegiate and national level is highlighting the need for reconsidering this stereotypical branding of this individual sport.

Picture from Leavenworth Times, KS

This 21st century has been predominately the era for recognition of more and more females hitting the mats. Being a former high school wrestler (and the only female on the team) I can highly relate to the pressure many women feel with just the first thought of taking on this challenge. There’s the fear of getting hurt, the fear of being ostracized, the fear of losing and the list goes on. However, these fears are nothing short of what this intense, aggressive, individual sport would create for any other person, male or female. We make a choice, we go to practice and we work to our fullest potential for perfection, the pain-blood, sweat and tears is just an added bonus.

I find it upsetting how limited womens choices are for pursuing wrestling outside of elementary, junior high and high school. At those levels, women can compete against the men without fear of being held back or “not allowed” (given they’re willing to put up with possible chauvinistic attitudes from coaches, team mates, etc.). But when it’s time to make that leap to a college or university–no can do. Instead, women are limited to creating a “group” on campus which they must find a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Sponsor before being recognized. Many ask, what about Title IX? And I just have to laugh at that remark. Instead of creating a female wrestling team at the college level, some universities (cough*ASU*cough) would rather get rid of wrestling completely. Although wrestling may not be as funded as, we’ll say football, simply because of attendance to the tournaments does not mean it’s not worth having. Wrestling creates a chance for students or people out of school to go and learn how to have strength, independence and discipline as an individual. It’s a little more far-fetched to say a team sport is able to do all that.

I read this article on how small colleges are attempting to create more womens wrestling programs after being under pressure from the women who want to be allowed to interact in this sport beyond adolescence. So is this the only effective way? I must go to a small college that may not offer the major I am looking for simply to continue my passion for the sport I solely chose?

This proposes an interesting idea, one of which I’ll get back to! 🙂