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Opportunities for girls in sport are growing
By Nate Ulrich
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Thursday, Jan 24, 2008
Some people say they don't belong. Others say they shouldn't be allowed. Paige Nemec, Lisa Light and Jamie Kager don't let that negativity deter them from wrestling for Crestwood High School.
All three girls have been competing in the predominantly male sport for several years, so they've heard parents, coaches, opponents and teammates voice their disapproval. They've heard that they're too fragile to compete against boys. They've heard that teenagers of different sexes rolling around together is just too, well, awkward.
''I don't really worry about it,'' said Nemec, a sophomore who has been wrestling since she was 5. ''If they think I shouldn't wrestle, I don't care. I'm just here to wrestle. I'm not here to prove anyone wrong.''
Nemec, however, unintentionally has proved many people wrong by achieving an unprecedented level of success for a girl wrestler in Northeast Ohio. She has an 18-4 record and has won three tournaments in the 103-pound weight class this season.
Nemec might be the star, but Light was the pioneer at Crestwood. She became the first girl to wrestle for the Red Devils when she took the mat as a freshman.
''Some of the guys were not very happy with it,'' said Light, who has been wrestling since she was 11. ''But they all kind of started to grow used
to it, and they started helping me and were pretty cool about it toward the end of the season.''
Kager, a freshman who has been wrestling since she was 9, is 9-13 this season in the 103-pound weight class.
All three girls have handled the pressure of being at the center of an ongoing controversy with grace, and their community has started to accept them.
''It was a tough pill to swallow, at first, but it's something that I've come to accept,'' Crestwood coach Dave Wrobel said. ''And they've made it easier just because they work so hard. They're here for the right reasons.''
Nemec, Light and Kager said they have stuck with wrestling for so long in part because of the support they've received from their first coach, Dean Olson.
''I always felt that they're kind of an underdog, so I've always been for them,'' said Olson, who has been the head coach of the Mantua Youth Wrestling Club for the past 10 years. ''And also, I had done some international wrestling over in Europe in 2001, and there were girl wrestlers there from countries all over the world competing.
''After seeing that, I realized there are huge opportunities for girls out there, and they shouldn't be held back. And I think it's been a totally enriching experience for our whole team here at Crestwood.''
The opportunities for girl wrestlers are not only growing, but they also are becoming more mainstream.
Nemec, Light and Kager are members of the Northeast Ohio Girls Wrestling Club, which Olson started seven years ago. The club competes in such tournaments as the United States Girls' Wrestling Association National Championships, which featured 707 participants last year, making it the largest girls wrestling tournament in the world.
Kent Bailo, the founder and director of USGWA, said girls wrestling is a sanctioned varsity high school sport in Texas, Washington and Hawaii. Six colleges in the United States have women's wrestling as a varsity sport, and several others are in the process of converting their clubs to varsity teams, Bailo said.
Competing against boys
Nemec, who already has won three national girls titles, Light and Kager don't have the same opportunities as girls in other states. They need to compete against boys to stay active in the sport on a regular basis simply because there aren't nearly enough girl wrestlers in the area.
Wrobel, who is in his seventh season as the Red Devils' coach, said that situation causes the most complaints.
''A lot of people take issue because it's girls wrestling boys,'' Wrobel said. ''A common thing that I hear is, 'I have no problem with her wrestling, but she should be wrestling other girls.' ''
Olson said he thinks girls wrestling will eventually become a high school sport in Ohio, but it's going to take some time for attitudes to change.
''I think we're 20 years away,'' Olson said. ''I think it takes a mind-set of parents and coaches to allow that to happen. There are several schools that won't allow their boys to wrestle girls or won't allow any girls in their wrestling clinics.''
That's the way it used to be at Crestwood. Light initially was turned down when she tried to make the transition from practicing with her eighth-grade team to working out with the Red Devils.
''In eighth grade, he (Wrobel) wouldn't let me come up to practice,'' Light said. ''Some of the eighth-grade boys came up to practice with the high schoolers after our season was over, and he wouldn't let me. But he has grown used to it.''
Olson said Light, who wrestles in the 125-pound weight class, paved the way for other girls at Crestwood by earning respect through her dedication.
''I have the highest admiration for Lisa because she always had guts and has gotten beat up tremendously and has never lost her determination and her hard work,'' Olson said. ''She was voted the hardest working on this team two years ago. She was the first girl to break into this room and has handled herself very, very well.''
Overcoming objections
Now that Light is a senior and Nemec has proved to be a phenom, people at Crestwood are accustomed to having girls on the wrestling team. Some of the Red Devils opponents have shown that they still object.
''It's difficult when another team won't wrestle them and they forfeit,'' Olson said. ''I just try to be a motivator to them and tell them that they can overcome the negativity. We have people who say that girls wrestling is ruining wrestling. And I laugh and I say, 'It's making it that much better because now everybody has to compete a little bit harder.' ''
Do people who oppose girls wrestling boys have valid concerns? Has the sport led to any inappropriate situations or sexual harassment at Crestwood?
''Sometimes you're going to be in awkward positions,'' Wrobel said. ''It's part of the sport, but I try not to even bring that attention to it. In the four years, I've never heard one complaint about that.''
''A lot of people are concerned about what I call 'the grope factor,' '' Bailo said. ''The competitors never even think about it. They just want to win. They're not looking for a date to their prom because getting beat by Paige Nemec is embarrassing. It shouldn't be because she's a great wrestler, but that's the way some men think about it.''
Paving way to state
The girls at Crestwood said they've been wrestling so long they're not fazed by many of the concerns and stereotypes outsiders perpetuate.
They're focused on other things, like following in the footsteps of successful Cleveland-area women wrestlers: 2004 Olympian Toccara Montgomery and two-time world silver medal winner Tina George.
Nemec, whose cousin Sean won three state titles while wrestling for Lakewood St. Edward, seems to have a legitimate chance to create her own legacy. A girl never has qualified for the state tournament in Ohio.
''It used to be that the coaches didn't want them there,'' Bailo said. ''But when they see the Paige Nemecs of the world, they want them there because they see she works as hard as anybody.
''If Paige qualifies for the state tournament, there will be a different attitude in Ohio about girls wrestling.''
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nateulrich2007@yahoo.com. Read the high school blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/varsity_letters/.
Some people say they don't belong. Others say they shouldn't be allowed. Paige Nemec, Lisa Light and Jamie Kager don't let that negativity deter them from wrestling for Crestwood High School.
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