Girls who choose to pursue wrestling face solitude long before they step on the mat. Competing in a sport supercharged with high doses of testosterone and cultural bias, they are relegated to their own locker rooms and scales to dress and weigh in apart from their teammates. Then, often their male peers will refuse to compete against them, forfeiting a match rather than wrestling a girl and risk losing."The fact that they make it through the boys program really speaks highly of their discipline and inner strength," Cloquet HS wrestling coach Al Denman (who is also Jolynnes father) told Duluth News Tribune writer Rick Lubbers. "A lot of guys quit because they cant handle it, and these girls have not quit. Against all the odds, they keep at it. I wish I had a hundred of them."
But Kristina Erickson and Jolynne Denman accept the challenges of competing in a male-dominated sport and focus on its rewards, such as gaining discipline and self-confidence, making lifelong friends, staying fit and learning how to accept both victory and defeat.
Erickson, 14, and Denman, 15, followed up a season of wrestling mostly boys for the junior varsity team at Cloquet High School with a strong showing against girls. Erickson, an eighth-grader, and Denman, a ninth-grader, finished first and second, respectively, at the USA Wrestling state womens tournament, and Erickson brought home a national title from the USA Wrestling national womens tourney in her 135-pound weight class in Oklahoma City last month.
Labels: school, teenagers, girls, sports, wrestling
Posted By: Aspen/CRC
