Early lastweek Sarah Eikleberry brought to her class' attention events that transpired the very past weekend in Iowa where the high school state wrestling tournament took place. Within the tournament and for the first time in history of the sport, girls were allowed participation.
Though they were allowed to participate during the dual meets, I am thinking to myself that the only reason why these young ladies were allowed to compete in the first place was the premise that they would fail. Basically being set up to fail is what i am getting at here.
What is more amazing in my view is that the girls competing in the dual matches racked up enough points and victories against their male counterparts allow which qualified them outright for tournament... on their own skill, strength and determination i may add.
Megan Black and Casey Herkelman qualified in the 112 pound category: http://www.hswrestling.net/2011/02/15/first-female-wrestlers-to-compete-at-iowa-state-tournament/
But Casey Herkelman's road was to be marred by a little controversy, adding more to her story. Joel Northrup who was scheduled to wrestle Herkelman but defaulted citing religious beliefs of not having contact with a female in a contact sport. Both athletes and families have no ill will toward one another, there are religious components also added to the story and it must be respected, despite contrasting ideologies.
It was admirable by Northrup to stick to his guns, but I personally would have preferred he wrestle Herkleman and either win or lose instead of not wrestling for reasons of religion. Maybe he was scared or ashamed, or maybe just maybe it was religion.
http://billingsgazette.com/sports/high-school/blogs/gazprepsports/wrestling/article_ca820231-e8b6-520c-a1d8-51618775e1e4.html
In C. Vivian Stringer's autobiography who has been coaching Women's basketball pre and present Title IX (banning discrimination gender discrimination and affording equal advantages and participation in sports as males) believes that it is a good thing but there are problems within the system, mainly female coaches numbers are lowers than that of male coaches of female sports, but that is not an issue at the moment. Title could be an issue in this instance with a girl wanted to wrestle and the only avenue to do that is against boys. However, i do not see that as the issue, in fact the rule helped her to be there in the first place
But with religion aside, if a girl is there to compete and whom earned her spot to be there among the states best, for goodness sakes wrestle the girl. No matter what the result may be both Black and Herkleman are champs in book and i think of them highly, as we all should.
http://qctimes.com/sports/article_680ae56e-3f45-11e0-a937-001cc4c03286.html
No comments:
Post a Comment