Girls just part of the gang in high school wrestling

lfreedman@tribtown.com

No sweat In the Victorian era, the notion that girls sweat out of time in public has been deeply rooted, but this phenomenon has continued for more than a century.

Girls should wear long skirts instead of shorts, hem down to the ankles.

"It's crazy to think about it," said Kylee Nowling, a senior at Seymour High School who participated in the third season of wrestling. "I definitely sweat every day."

In the early 1970s, once women’s performances were inspired by the Olympics and won the ninth championship, the perceptions of American society changed. But even so, advocates who provide women with more opportunities for sports may not have thought of men and women living together in wrestling.

In some places, dancing at close range is socially unacceptable. It's okay to try to place members of the opposite sex on a mat.

Girls’ participation in high school wrestling is increasing at an alarming rate. Although they are still relatively rare in pure numbers, they are not unique. Another college student, Celeste Huddleston (Celeste Huddleston) is another girl competing for an owl.

As of the 2018-19 season, a total of 21,124 high school girls participated in wrestling competitions, about one-tenth of boys. According to "American Wrestling", the number of girls has increased by 6,134 over the past ten years, the 29th consecutive year of increase.

The average sports fan may not be aware of this recent and ongoing phenomenon. Even if they know more participation, they may not understand certain dynamics.

"I don't think people understand this even now," Nolin said. "They are gone,'Are you fighting the boys?' They were taken aback. They were like, "Wow! How does that work? '"

Norin (126 pounds) and Hudston (138) often fight each other in practice, but although there is only a women's championship, they compete with boys from other schools in the competition.

In her two seasons with the Owls, Hudston said on many road trips: "I have many people asking if I am a manager."

There was a time when women’s only role in high school wrestling was as support staff.

It is an intimate sport like high school, and wrestling has been greatly affected by the coronavirus. Seymour's itinerary has been revised several times, and athletes will definitely choose the left hole in the enemy's weight class.

Due to misfortune, Noring and Hudston met, and their victory raised their hands. In some competitions, there are people who wrestle but not.

However, both of them wrestled in the women's zone, each winning 2-2. Women's wrestling is not a sport of the Indiana High School Athletic Association, but a women-only competition organized by the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association. It is called a reward for Seymour coach Adam Wolka, and it is also the success of most girls. Best opportunity.

Volka said: "I hope they can point out some suggestions at the end of the year."

The girls began to wrestle and participate in youth competitions in kindergarten. About 40 universities have women's teams. Woka said this is an encouraging development. He once participated in a heavyweight competition with a weight of 240 pounds, but did not encounter a female opponent.

The 26-year-old Wolka was his first season as chief operating officer at Seymour, and he grew up in a more equal America. He said that he never felt that girls should be excluded from the mat.

Volka said: "If you want to cross that line, then you have to compete." "They have all the power. It didn't bother me. I was not a high school student."

Greg Musser, a 36-year-old assistant assistant to the Owls, said that when he was playing in high school in Michigan, girl wrestling seemed strange to some teammates who did not welcome women.

Musser said of the girl’s participation: “When I was in high school, I was not encouraged.”

But he did have two female teammates before graduating in 2002, and said that girls are at the core of the progress that girls have made in fighting for the parallel roles that women play in society.

Musser said: "This is a narrowing of the gap between men and women." Who can do? You will find that sports have changed over time. The athletes and the parents of boys wrestling girls remain worrying. This is a hands-on exercise. "

In other words, worry about improper touch.

Musser said: "There are more girls in the room, you can alleviate this worry."

About twenty years ago, Musser said that losing to a girl must have an attitude stigma. His teammates want to show who the boss is.

He said: "They want to go out so that the girls shouldn't wrestle."

Wrestling is almost at its extreme when it comes to activities that are not considered a ladylike activity.

Women should wear skirts instead of pants. Women are expected to ride horses. Most of the predicates are laid down by a widely circulated poem "Angel in the House".

It was written by Coventry Patmore in 1854 and spread in the United States and England. His wife was a perfect woman. Her job was to please a man, take care of him, and show completeness. Piety and tolerance. Some have portrayed it as an idealized version of a Victorian woman, that is, wife, mother, and master of the home.

No mention of wrestling.

WWE, performance skills, and women in light clothing are all amateur wrestling advocates like WTV. They are afraid of being confused with WWE's wrestling. Chairs, weird plot lines and bold verbal insults.

Dating back to the 1930s, 1940s and beyond, professional wrestlers were the first and only women in the sport. Like women in other fields, they face many of the same types of survival challenges, gender discrimination, being underestimated, underestimated or taken for granted. The hunks don't want them to go everywhere, the promoters only care about making money.

However, a few pioneering women struggled on the ring and fought under bright lights, winning the cheers of the crowd.

Mildred Burke participated in a wrestling match as a bystander and was captivated. She is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds. She started wrestling in the 1930s as a sideshow on the carnival circuit. If Burke can be fixed within 10 minutes, men will be offered $25, but they cannot.

After years of this lifestyle, she competed in a women's world championship one-on-one with another woman. Burke and Grace Mortensen broke up and Burke won the rubber competition. Burke served as the professional queen from 1937 to 1951.

Then came The Fabulous Moolah, which was active from 1949 to 2004. Her real name was Mary Lillian Ellison, but when she was bad enough about why she wanted to participate in this strange sport, she said, "I want to fight for Moolah." She did a lot of green things.

Rene Marlette, the Greek (aka Sable), sued the Old World Wrestling Federation for sexual harassment and took nude photos for Playboy magazine. Mink played the role of a young woman in distress, needed to be rescued in the ring, and confronted another woman one-on-one in a so-called bikini fight match.

Nowling and Huddleston are serious athletes, they will feel very painful after participating in other sports.

Hudston's first fighting sport was judo.

She was in the fifth grade of elementary school and her brother Dunigan wrestled. Her father fell, and her grandfather fell.

Despite her ancestry, her mother Amanda doesn't think her daughter will participate in this sport, but feels that learning judo is good for self-protection. Judo leads to wrestling.

Celeste said: "My arms and legs are very powerful," Celeste threw discus and shot puts at the discus team, even though she was only 5-4 tall. "Judo means that I have done sports. Judo shows me how to use motivation. Some things are similar."

Hudston said that most people who knew her would not be surprised that she completed the second season of wrestling.

She said: "They said,'This sounds like something you are going to do.'

People have heard some silly remarks about wrestling girls, but Hudston said: "I didn't listen to them. Someone told me, "Aren't you afraid that someone might touch you improperly?" "I don't think I have ever met. I feel respected because what I do is beyond the norm. To you, I am just another athlete."

most.

She said: "Sometimes there are obstacles." "If I were a girl, I would not be a good wrestler. This is what I encountered."

Hudston is happy to hear that more and more girls across the country are participating in this sport. The first girl to win the state championship against the boys championship was in Alaska. Recently, a girl performed this feat in North Carolina.

Hudston said: "This is a victory for all of us." "When I see something like that, it's'Wow! I'm so proud.'"

Amanda Huddleston (Amanda Huddleston), although a few years older, never expected to have a daughter on the male high school wrestling team, but was not surprised.

"There are no more obstacles," Amanda said. "There are girls on the football team. Going back to women can do anything men can do. All this is thrown out the window. The lower graders saw that the higher graders did it, and it opened their eyes."

They may still feel like pioneers, but Hudston and Norling were not the first Seymour girl wrestlers.

A few years ago, the team was numbered, but did not insist. Between 2015 and 2018, wrestler Rachel Hokoana-Yamiguchi (Rachel Hokoana-Yamiguchi) became the first girl to be shortlisted for the entire Owl season.

She is now 20 years old and grew up in Hawaii until she was 15. My father is surrounded by wrestlers in the family, including his cousin.

"Oahu is a big wrestling ground," Hokoana-Yamiguchi said. "I have always been curious. It runs in my blood as a fighter."

Compared with the Hawaiian, Seymour’s acquaintance made her start wrestling more surprised.

Hokoana-Yamiguchi said: "Many of my friends are shocked because it is not common in the mainland." "I want to do this and test my strength. When they said: "Girls don't fall," I said: "What ? "

She found an acceptable environment where the owl wrestled with a weight of 152 pounds, while the assistant coach Wolka at the time accompanied her to a girl-only party.

"This taught me a lot of discipline," Hokoana-Yamiguchi returned to Seymour after bringing the saints to California, and then back to Seymour. "It makes me feel comfortable when I feel uncomfortable. Life is like that."

The hair was wrinkled, and the officials were puzzled.

Going back a few years ago, any team photo of boy wrestlers could be a photo of a bunch of Air Force recruits. Crew cutting the city. The girls don't want to do that, so they wear hats. The rule is that the hair cannot reach over the shoulders or fall on the eyebrows.

The referee suspended the game for the long-haired wrestler to tuck the strand back into the block. This also affects boys who like wild appearance. This year, this rule was dropped, although there are penalties for pulling hair. Nowling's golden braids (not braided or braided) kept receding. Hudston's blond hair was spilled on her shoulders.

The guy with the thickest hair on the team is 132-pound Ben Kriete (Ben Kriete), who likes the freedom to let his hair grow thick and thick.

Crete said: "It must be longer than before." He has not had his hair cut since the COVID-19 school quarantine last spring.

Once, in the eighth grade, he was pulled aside and asked officials to cut it correctly during a meeting.

"After that, I'm sure," Crete said.

In the third grade, Kriete used girls as teammates in high school. He is convinced that the change in hair rules is due to the number of girls participating in the sport. He pointed out another change. Those people want to know if they feel too heavy for their class, they don't have much leeway.

He said: "In the past, you can usually weigh underwear."

Nowling said that instead of being weird with only two girls in the owl house, it is better to share her hard work in the practice room and make her feel like she has a group of brothers.

This season, Seymour fights North Knox, who has seven girls in the lineup that night. Kriete, 17, is different from men who may be more chauvinistic. He gave an example of how girls can become strong in wrestling.

Crete said: "It did take off." "I've seen it."

Nowling is mainly a football player who has invested in the sport for three years and has seen more girls take the baton from her and Huddleston and push it forward.

The old school seems to be a dying school.

No one covers the surrounding area like Seymour, Indiana, or the Tribune.

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