Not just one of the guys

Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

Looks of surprise splash across their faces when they learn that the injury was sustained via accidental head butt in a wrestling match with junior Phillip Porter.

It seems as though Milman’s spot as the 119-pounder on North Point’s varsity wrestling team is not such a well-known fact among her peers.

Nor is the fact that she has wrestled in junior leagues since the age of 10. Nor her 2-2 varsity record.

While Milman’s status as a high school wrestler may appear to be an anomaly to the students at North Point, female participation in the male-dominated sport has become nearly commonplace, both in Southern Maryland and throughout the country.

Female assimilation into wrestling can certainly be attributed to an increase in social tolerance over the past 25 years. But it has been further aided by a willingness of high school coaches to confront the surrounding difficulties and facilitate female involvement.

Breaking through

Twenty-two years ago, SMAC saw its first female wrestler. Lackey’s Tiffany Brizzi wrestled in exhibition matches as a 135-pounder and earned a varsity letter for coach Glenn Jones in 1986.

Initially, when approached by Brizzi, Jones was reluctant to permit a female to wrestle in his renowned program.

‘‘My first reaction was to laugh,” Jones said. ‘‘To be perfectly frank, I wasn’t the most open-minded cat in town. But her attitude was supreme; I couldn’t turn her down. She wanted no shortcuts made for her because she was a female. And it was quite a moment when she was presented her letter.”

As a wrestler, Brizzi had to cope with her natural limitations, as she was not always physically strong enough to wrestle with her male competitors.

‘‘Now obviously, even though she was quite physical as a young lady, she had trouble in the [wrestling] room,” Jones said. ‘‘There were certain things she couldn’t adapt to. We had to stop all of the time when she would hit her chest or get hurt. But she stuck with it.”

According to Jones, the first female wrestlers were not well received. They met resistance from fellow wrestlers and opposing coaches, and became a spectacle at tournaments.

But their participation in the sport grew as teams invited females to join as a way of filling spots in the lineup. Over time, they began to compete with teammates for spots on the mat.

‘‘It evolved to where there were other people in the weight classes, but the girls were the best on the team, so they got to wrestle,” said Chopticon head coach Dane Kramer, who has coached in SMAC for 26 years.

The challenges

Society has grown more tolerant of female involvement in wrestling since Brizzi’s time. Currently, there are three wrestlers competing in SMAC, but their participation remains shrouded in conflict.

Opposition to coed wrestling often centers on one primary issue, the inappropriateness of the contact that occurs between male and female wrestlers in a match.

Kramer is one of those who have expressed a problem with female involvement in high school wrestling.

‘‘I am old school, and I don’t think they should be wrestling,” said Kramer, who has never refused a girl an opportunity to join his team. ‘‘The physical contact that is permissible in a wrestling match would not be permissible in another situation away from the wrestling mat. I don’t think that girls and guys should be rolling around together.”

But the difficulties and conflicts centered on female participation extend further than the issue of contact between the wrestlers.

Females have to not only subject themselves to rigorous training and overcome potential handicaps in terms of physical strength, but also have to deal with gaining acceptance as a female wrestler.

‘‘It’s pretty difficult,” Milman said. ‘‘People always ask me why I would ever want to be a wrestler. They just don’t understand how much it means to me. But what I really can’t stand is when other wrestlers look at me like I am nothing because I am a girl.”

According to Dr. Amy Baltzell, the director of the sports psychology graduate program at Boston University, while the numbers of female participation in athletics have increased drastically, female athletes still face a psychological barrier that few can recognize at a young age.

‘‘Sport is a male-dominated world, and any woman involved in a sport is entering a world of male-based values,” Baltzell said. ‘‘While some may embrace that identity as an athlete, some women may struggle between being an athlete and being what is feminine, what is attractive.”

The situation is equally difficult for the boys involved, as they are faced with having to physically handle a girl, but also run the risk of losing to one.

‘‘It can be a lose-lose situation,” said Huntingtown head coach Terry Green. ‘‘You certainly get the locker-room talk. The other kids on the team are going to joke around that he lost to a girl or that he had to wrestle a girl. Sometimes that can lead to anxiety.”

Having to face the pressure and awkwardness of wrestling a female in front of a large crowd can place male wrestlers in a tough position.

‘‘Thinking of the psychology of it, I am sure it is very difficult for the male wrestlers,” said Baltzell. ‘‘They feel that they should beat the female regardless. I think that the embarrassment they might face is pretty clear, although you can’t assume that everybody feels that way.”

High school coaches are left to deal with these situations, but they must also address issues with team cohesiveness, as female wrestlers cannot freely spend time with their teammates away from the mats. Girls are not allowed in the male locker rooms, where the teams weigh-in and prepare for matches and practices.

Issues also arise from the rulebook, which states that wrestlers must weigh-in and be examined in front of the opponent, typically in the near nude. Currently an unofficial exemption is made for female wrestlers where they can weigh-in in privacy with a female administrator from an opposing school.

This leads to a double standard, according to Kramer, who hypothetically points out that perhaps a male wrestler should be entitled to the same allowance.

‘‘If she can weigh in by herself, then why can’t my 152-pounder, who is shy and bashful, go into a locker room with a coach and weigh-in?,” Kramer said. ‘‘There are all kinds of double standards that are set by doing it. They need to specify in the rulebook.”

Making it work

Despite the overwhelming obstacles, coaches and wrestlers ignore the easy solution and are making the situation work.

North Point head coach Richard Pauole has learned through coaching Milman that the resolution to these conflicts lies within how the female wrestler is treated by the team.

‘‘My perspective on female wrestling has certainly changed,” Pauole said. ‘‘When I first had a girl on my team, I didn’t know what to do. But this time, we treat her the same as the others. I treat her like a wrestler, not a girl.”

By coaching the girls this way, coaches are able to erase the gender-based differences in the minds of male wrestlers, who are then able to approach a bout against a female opponent as just another match.

‘‘It comes back to that philosophy,” Green said. ‘‘You wrestle them the same way you wrestle a guy. You are wrestling in a physical sport, and you have to take it to them.”

Green also points out that this philosophy promotes equality in the sport.

‘‘Heck, if the girl is out for the team and she wants to be a wrestler, then she doesn’t want some guy to come out there and take it easy on her,” Green said. ‘‘If she intends to be a wrestler, then she wants to be treated the same as others.”

But, as the coaches strive to accommodate females, they simultaneously hope that the girls who make the commitment to the team do it because of a desire to compete, a desire to wrestle, and not just to make a statement as a girl who can make the boys’ team. Some point out that, to a degree, the same is expected of male wrestlers.

“If it is going to give people an opportunity, an outlet to be able to participate and increase their self-concept, then I am all for it,“ said Jones, who coached at Lackey for 20 years. “They just need to understand the physical barriers. But at least, right now, the barriers in terms of non-acceptance are null and void. If they want to come out, they are allowed to come out. They are welcomed to come out.“