Wrestling: It’s Not Just for Boys
NEIRAD enilno edition
With the first match of the 09-10 wrestling season right around the corner (December 16th against Bridgeport Central), the Darien wrestling team has recently added six surprising teammates. Six DHS girls, juniors Cindy Gaete and Lili Balian, sophomores Stephanie Gaete and Meg Richter, and freshmen Natasha Green and Hayley Rissalo have given the team added depth. Not only do the six girls allow Darien to compete in more weight classes than before, but they also help the Wave cope with its senior losses last year such as James Geddes, Tom Bassford, and Matt Liguori. This now makes wrestling the second sport featuring both boys and girls to go along with squash.
Darien Wrestling Head Coach and FCIAC Chairperson of the Wrestling Committee, Joe Vano, felt that the team would benefit from the added members, but also that they would be treated just like any other wrestler. “There is no special treatment by the FCIAC or coaches to girls who decide to wrestle. In Darien the girls are given a varsity locker, uniform, the same chances to wrestle for a varsity spot and to earn a varsity letter.” However, Vano also added that despite the increasing interest that girls have in wrestling, there still needs to be more interest in order for discussions to create a separate girls’ league to take place. “To my knowledge there hasn't been any discussion about creating a FCIAC girls wrestling league. I believe there isn't enough interest in wrestling within the FCIAC to expand the sport to have a girls division. In my 15 years coaching wrestling in Darien I only have seen four other teams in the FCIAC . . . have girls wrestling.”
In addition to the local intrigue about girls’ wrestling, it has also become somewhat of a national issue. The popular ESPN investigative reporting show Outside the Lines (OTL) ran a report in January of 2008 about the increased interest in girls wrestling. The report featured not only high school girls’ competing in wrestling, but also that the NCAA had yet to create a separate league for women’s wrestling. (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=3298522) In addition to Outside the Lines coverage, this issue has also gotten national attention via news articles. Major papers such as The New York Times have published articles on the increase in girls taking part in wrestling.
Karen Morrison works for the NCAA Gender equity and Title IX department, which helps create a list of emerging sports for girls, a list that girls’ wrestling is not on. On the NCAA website, it describes what an Emerging Sport for Women is. “An emerging sport is a women’s sport recognized by the NCAA that is intended to help schools provide more athletics opportunities for women, more sport sponsorship options for institutions and help that sport achieve NCAA championship status.”
Morrison, along with Jennifer Royer, the Associate Director of Public Media Relations for the NCAA, stated in an interview with Neirad that the NCAA has not received any proposals for women’s wrestling to become an NCAA sport. “I’m not aware of any discussions within our committee structure to add women’s wresting as an NCAA sport.” Royer also added that, “For women’s wrestling to become an NCAA sport, it would have to go through the process of becoming an Emerging Sport for Women.”
Only time will tell if girls’ wrestling will ever become an official sport, and how the new six girls on the DHS team will do. The increased interest in the sport and national media attention that this issue is receiving will continue to add fuel to the fire.
For more information of emeging sports for women visit:
(http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ncaa/about+the+ncaa/diversity+and+inclusion/gender+equity+and+title+ix/contact_emerging-sports.html)
