I bet you all have seen the article by now. Religious reasonings? I think he didn't want to lose, but in the end it makes him look worse or sexist. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6136707 Remember the HS female soccer player who won it for her Football team earlier this year? She kicked the game winning field goal. She was regarded as a hero. I just don't get why he just didn't wrestle and possibly lose. So, what he could redeem himself in another match. Sure he would be teased, but I don't know whats worse, him losing or forfiting.
what was his reasoning? Is it against his religion to pop a boner while wrestling a girl he's not married to?
I wrestled one year in HS. Considering some of the wrestling moves (crotch move, just to name one) I would pass as well. Also, I saw a kid get a dislocated shoulder being slammed to the mat. It could be much worse for a girl. It's stupid and disrespectful to have a girl in this.
Are you seriously criticizing this guy because he didn't want to wrestle a girl? You think he was scared of losing? Typically men are a lot stronger than women...if he's a wrestler...I'm pretty damn sure he could easily over power her. Some people are old-fashioned...maybe it really was religious reasons and he didn't want to harm her? Wrestling can get pretty physical. There is no story here, nothing to see..nothing to criticize. He made a decision and dropped out of the tournament because of his beliefs. So what?
It's a no-win situation for him. If he wrestles, he has to be very careful where he puts his hands or he'll be condemned for perverted groping. She on the other hand would be admired for grabbing him between the legs and bodyslamming him.
I think his image is more trashed now. He should have taken the match regardless of the outcome. How about the female soccer player who suited up on the football team and kicked the winning field goal for her HS. What happened if the other team knew about this and forfited the game if they knew if she suited up. I think it goes beyond religious. The wrestling coach should have known this and picked an alternative or not have that HS boy be in the tournament if there was a female involved. I think its chicken shit on his behalf. P.S. Aren't they wearing jock straps on anyways? So who cares on grabbing who. Its obvious shes used it. P.S.S. She looks buff, and she won against a few boys.
So then that's fine. She had won other matches against boys. I doubt she was going to bust home crying because she lost. She's a warrior and he's a cop-out and used religion as an excuse.
If he was that much better than her he wouldn't have to hurt her to win the match. Wrestling is hardly about hurting an opponent, it definitely can happen though. I wrestled in high school and there was a story similar to this in our league. But, it wasn't at the state level and no one gives a shit about wrestling in the Northwest like they do in Iowa, so no one really made a deal about it.
then she knew what was she was getting into. It's not like they put guys in pile drivers or suplexes. And it's not like she was wrestling someone who outweighed her by 100 pounds.
My son just finished his first year of westling. Middle school. Several female wrestlers. What I noticed about the boy vs girl matches was that the boys seemed to naturally take a totally different approach. By that I mean they were VERY careful with where and how they placed their hands. Observing this it appeared to put them at a disadvantage, though most of the time the boys won easily. I did see a couple of boys lose though. My son never had to wrestle a girl and I'm glad he didn't. BTW, that article is terribly written. I guess it's an "opinion" piece, but he slams on the kid, parents, god, religion pretty hard with no remorse or attempt to understand the kids and parents reasoning.
Rather than posting a trashy opinion piece writing by a smarmy dumb-ass like Rick Reilly, consider the AP article ESPN posted more immediately after the event. This was a religious conviction. Say what you want about religion, and most here (myself among them) have, but this is someone making a decision consistent with his beliefs. Can't fault him for that. As for the suggestion that he was doing this to avoid losing to a girl, his record was 35-4, her's was 20-13. He won his next match and she didn't. While I have no expertise in Iowa HS wrestling, I would speculate that he would have won had they wrestled.
This post is so completely different than the way I think that I literally wonder if you see a car coming and just want to run out in traffic and try and get hit. Find me a 350 lb girl to wrestle and I will pick her up and throw her all over the place. I would prefer that she be tall so I can get my arms around her. It would be like Kramer taking karate "Jerry, I am DOMINATING"
I admire the kid and his parents for raising him right. He put his beliefs before winning; he's an honorable young man.
