This blog is devoted to primarily covering college sports. By now, most of you likely already know this. However, since today it my rant day, I’d like to write about what I’m really ready to rant on. It’s not college basketball. It’s not a college sport of any kind for that matter. I will also not be taking a step forward to professional sports either.
In fact, I’m doing just the opposite. Today, I’m taking a step back to the world of high school wrestling.
Perhaps you’ve heard over the course of the last week or so the saga that has unfolded in the heartland of our country. A fourteen year old freshman in an Iowa high school has become the center of a controversy that hardly limits itself to high school athletics.
Meet wrestler #1, Cassy Herkelman. Yes, she’s a girl, and she’s a wrestler. If you didn’t know that some girls wrestle, now you do. I happened to know one female wrestler during my time in high school, and it happened to be a girl I was very close with. She was built very small and wrestled in the smallest division- 104 lbs and under. She was tough, but she was a girly girl too. She wore skirts and dresses and had routinely had sleepovers with her girlfriends. Cassy Herkelman is no such girl. She’s broken her collarbone and done severe damage to her septum while wrestling. Her father refers to her as “his son,” and one writer who wrote a piece on the story calls her “as dainty as a forklift.” Needless to say, I don’t want to see her in a dark alley regardless of which set of anatomical parts she has.
What I didn’t know when I first read about this story is that wrestling in Iowa is kind of like football in Florida or Texas. Wrestling is your meal ticket if you’re good. It can pay your bills and it can get you into college. Many of the top wrestling prospects come out of the state of Iowa on an annual basis. So when I tell you that Cassy Herkelman won 20 of her 33 games and made the state wrestling tournament, it means that she is very good at what she does. At this point, I don’t know what is more impressive- that she does all of this against what some might say is “superior male competition,” that she has such a good record in arguably the most competitive state for her sport, or that she does all of this as a 14 year old freshman. It is all for naught. The bottom line is that Cassy Herkelman is a hell of a wrestler.
Just as any Iowa wrestler would be, Cassy was understandably ecstatic at the opportunity to compete in the state tournament. Add in the fact that she was the first female wrestler to ever make it to the state tournament, and young Miss Herkelman must have been feeling quite the rush of anticipation for her first round, a historic matchup where the she could become the first girl in Iowa wrestling history to win at the state level. If I was her, I would be pumped. I would be psyched. The only thing that would stop me from the wrestling equivalent of a bloodbath would be my own death via (insert violent wrestling move here).
You can imagine her disappointment, then, when she was granted a default win in her first round.
Sure, it’s a win. And sure, she did officially become the first girl to win at the state level. But when you’re a passionate athlete, you don’t want to leave any doubt. You don’t want to be awarded a win, you want to earn it. You want to prove your worth. Cassy has that kind of passion for what she does, and such a turn of events completely tainted her state wrestling performance, regardless of the W next to her name. What could possibly drive someone to forfeit at the state level, anyway?
Meet wrestler #2, Joel Northrup. In some ways, he is the exact wrestling equivalent of Cassy- not only are they in the same weight class, they both way exactly 112 pounds. Joel is 16, however, which makes him two years Cassy’s elder. That experience proved the difference over the course of the regular season as Joel held an exceptional 35-4 record. Yet just as they were about to go to the mattresses, as the Godfather might say, Joel tapped out before the bout even began. Why would he do such a thing? You probably know where I’m going with this.
“As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner,” Joel told the media. “Wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times.”
Good looking out, Joel. I’m glad you informed Cassy of the fact that wrestling is a sport that is intrinsically violent. After all, Cassy had probably not yet figured out the nature of wrestling after the 33 matches that she had participated in this year. That deviated septum of hers probably wasn’t enough of a hint that this was a violent sport.
The fact of the matter is that Cassy Herkelman knew exactly what she was getting into in the state wrestling tournament. She wasn’t pushed, shoved, or otherwise forced into the violence. She made a conscious decision to get involved in a physical sport and then kicked a lot of ass in the process. To deny her the opportunity to prove she was worthy of being there on the grounds of gender inequality is naïve at best, and chauvinistic at worst. I’m not a feminist or anything, but COME ON! This is just ridiculous! Sure, as a guy, I can admit that wrestling a girl might be a little awkward, but awkward is not the same as immoral. If I’m a wrestler and my opponent is a legitimate competitor such as Cassy, the only reasonable response to strap up and wrestle. Let skill decide who’s better, just like any other competitor in any other sport. Awkwardness be damned!
“We believe in the elevation and respect of women,” Joel’s father told a reporter as a media firestorm descended upon Des Moines.
Don’t we all? Is there anyone reading this blog that actively believes in not respecting women? Do you go out of your way to purposely disrespect them? No one? Yeah, didn’t think so.
Young Mr. Northrup should have gone out there and honored the accomplishments of Cassy by squaring off with her. Instead, Joel and his family sent the message that Cassy wasn’t worthy to compete. He may have not meant to come off in such an elitist manner- but this is ultimately how his words and actions were perceived. Do you want to elevate and respect women? This probably wasn’t the way to do it.
The truth is that the most respectful thing Joel Northrup could have done was to go out on the mat and try his best to beat the crap out of young Cassy. Or pin her. Or make her tap. I admittedly don’t know very much about wrestling. What I do know is that it shouldn’t matter if Cassy is a girl or boy, white or black, green or purple, tall or short, a freshman or senior. For a supposedly religious family, they seem to like playing God an awful lot. It is not for Joel, his parents, or anyone else to decide what Cassy Herkelman is or isn’t capable of. It’s not for them to decide what is or isn’t appropriate for her. And it certainly isn’t up to them to decide whether or not she should win or lose what could have been a historic match.
That’s what the mat is for.
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