Girl Wrestlers: Kicking Butts and Breaking Hearts

Cassy Herkelman is my hero. Heroine. Whatever. She’s the athlete I most admire at this particular point in time. Why? Several reasons, actually. She is one of the first girls to ever qualify for the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament. This, in itself, is a huge accomplishment. It is very difficult to make it to state wrestling and even more so if you are female. Female wrestlers can be quite competitive until they reach puberty (Josie certainly was), using their flexibility and coordination to their advantage. It’s when they start “developing” that they generally lose their competitive edge. When the hips start rounding, the center of gravity shifts, making it much more difficult to maintain the balance necessary to be a dominating wrestler. So, for Cassy to have this much success as a high schooler is an admirable feat in and of itself.

Cassy was also the first girl to win a match at the state tournament. She handled this unusual win with grace and class. Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you probably know that Cassy’s win came because her male opponent Joel Northrup refused to wrestle a girl and defaulted the match. The fifteen-year-old boy wrestles for Linn-Mar (where I did my student teaching), but is actually homeschooled. He said that he refused to wrestle Cassy—or any other girl for that matter—because the Bible told him so. “There’s no specific scripture or verse in the Bible that condemns wrestling girls,“ Joel told “Fox & Friends” co-anchors Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson. “It’s more of a Biblical principle of treating the opposite gender with respect… I don’t think wrestling should be a coed sport because of all the compromising holds and everything.”

There is so much there to argue against it is hard to know where to start. First of all, how is refusing to wrestle an opponent treating them with respect? Treating them with chauvinism is more like it. Secondly, if a girl chooses to wrestle—she knows what goes into it—including some of the—shall we say—uncomfortable holds and positions that happen during a typical match. If she can deal with it, I say that the opposing athlete needs to learn to deal with it as well.

That being said, part of me admires Joel Northrup, too. I am a big fan of accepting the logical consequences that come from a decision and also a big fan of standing up for what you believe in. Joel certainly stood up and was willing to accept the logical consequences of his decision. Joel had a 36-4 record going into the state tourney and with his default, gave up any chance he had to win the title. That’s an awful big thing to give up just to prove a point.

I’m betting this run-in with Joel is not the first time Cassy has had to deal with a boy (or his parents) not wanting to compete against a girl. I have at least some idea of the crap she has probably taken for choosing to compete in a male-dominated sport. The fact that Cassy didn’t leave the mat years ago is another reason I admire her so. I have personally seen adults behave abhorrently in regards to Josie wrestling (and often beating) their sons. I remember one dad in particular that refused to shake Josie’s 6-year-old hand after she pinned his son. One mother confronted me at the medal stand to tell me that she was “disgusted” I let my kindergartener be “fondled” by boys that way. I pointed out that she probably wouldn’t be quite so disgusted if her son wasn’t in fourth place, while my daughter was at the top of the podium. Touche’.

Josie and I sent Cassy flowers last week. We figure even a kick-butt wrestler deserves roses after competing under a nation-wide microscope. There are many more issues that could be examine in this column including why home-school parents think schools are such horrible places they refuse to send their children to them, but have absolutely no problem with the same children competing on the horrible places’ sports teams. We could also discuss if Iowa high schools need girl-only wrestling teams. Those issues, and more, will have to wait for another day—and perhaps for another state wrestling tournament. I am thinking that more girls will join Cassy and Megan Black (the other female qualifier) at state—particularly in the lower weights. Maybe one of these grapplers will come from SWG—we have a couple junior high girl wrestler that are tearing up the mat this year. Now—wouldn’t that be something??