Wrestling and Gender

Since my daughter Jessica won the match in her last duel meet, she
went on to wrestle in the Varsity League Finals tournament last
Saturday. She lost her matches there so regretfully she will not be going
on to the next level of competition
(CCS Championships).

Jessica was one of three girls wrestling at Saturday’s tournament (all from
different schools). One
of the three (weighing 103 pounds) is going to CCS. The girls
all wrestled boys in the regular matches but Jessica and Rihanna (both in
the 125 pound class) wrestled each other at the end just for fun. They
had been in tournaments together several times but never matched with each
other. Rihanna won but it was a good match for both.

Wrestling is perhaps the only sport that sorts contenders only by weight,
not by gender. All of the tournament’s schools offer mixed gender wrestling teams
except one, a parochial school that only allows boys on the team. One of
the girls was told last week by coaches from the parochial
school that it was immoral for boys to wrestle girls unless they were
engaged to be married. Nonetheless, that same parochial school sent one of
their boys up against Rihanna on Saturday and he is going to CCS because he
won the match. The girls were disgusted with the sanctimonious
and duplicitous behaviour of the school’s coaches.

Part of the fun in being a spectator at a wrestling tournament is watching
the variety of contenders. The weight classes go from around 100 pounds
to well over 200 pounds. On Saturday, we saw every color skin, from cherry petal
pink to milk chocolate brown. We also heard names originating from all over the
world announced for matches. Some of the names on our daughter’s team
and at Saturday’s tournament: Goodman, Lao, Schwartz,
Mui, Hoffman, Olila, Davis, Spitters, Rao, Campbell, Peterson, Wang, Nguyen,
Taylor, Singh, Ramirez, Lozano, Kahn, Gold, Reed, Lee, Kwan, Park,
and Kowano.

Also fun are the t-shirt designs and slogans worn at tournaments. Most teams
have new wrestling shirts each year but wearing old shirts is encouraged.
Our former priest (Rev. Kathy McAdams) passed on her wrestling t-shirts to
Jessica just to keep them in current use. Some of the slogans we saw
at Saturday’s tournament:

• There is no easy way
• Catch me if you can
• Competition is the process, domination is the goal
• Wrestler Nation
• Never Give Up
• We Don’t Take Bull (for the Matadors team)
• Cats (for the Los Gatos team)
• Wresters Score in Every Position
• DWD – Desperate Wrestling Dad (also Wife of DWD)
• Combat Training
• Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever

Jessica looked at this list and said her all time favorite
wrestling t-shirt said:

Yeah, I’m a Girl

Yeah, I Wrestle.

Yeah, You Lost.

Deal with it.