Iowa wrestling standout refuses to face girl

Associated Press ^ | 2/17/11 | LUKE MEREDITH

[Nachum]

DES MOINES, Iowa – A standout Iowa high school wrestler refused to compete against a girl at the state tournament on Thursday, relinquishing any chance of becoming a champion because he says wrestling a girl would conflict with his religious beliefs.

Joel Northrup, a home-schooled sophomore who was 35-4 wrestling for Linn-Mar High School this season, praised his first-round opponent, Cedar Falls freshman Cassy Herkelman, and Ottumwa sophomore Megan Black, who became the first two girls to make the state wrestling tournament in its 85-year history.

But in a news release, he said he defaulted on his match with Herkelman because he doesn't think boys and girls should compete in the sport.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times," said Northrup. "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. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa."

[Nachum]

Good for your son.

I knew another girl who wrestled on a boys team in here in California. She's the daughter of a friend of ours. She was pretty good too, had a winning record.

There are seldom outlets for women's wrestling on the high school level. She eventually wrestled in College for about a year and was nationally ranked for women's collegiate wrestling. Her team mates 'adopted' her and watched over her like she was their sister.

Now she's into Karate. :)

[LearnsFromMistakes]

I know this kids dad, and this kids pastor posted this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2675399/posts

[skeeter]

I get it.

You'd be amazed at how many don't.

They seem to believe a guy can be conditioned to to put 'em on a pedestal one minute, then take 'em down & half-nelson pin 'em the next.

[DaxtonBrown]

I wrestled 7th 8th and 9th and was undefeated in the city. Even at that age, I broke a kids arm once, I was mean. I went out for track in high school, those high school wrestlers were animals.

If this was a true high school level match, the boy should have just crushed the girl. All you have to do is watch the difference between boys and girls high school basketball to know the potential outcome.

[Vendome]

That should have read Tae Kwon Do...

Fat fingers today.

[Nachum]

If this was a true high school level match, the boy should have just crushed the girl. All you have to do is watch the difference between boys and girls high school basketball to know the potential outcome

Exactly.

[DaxtonBrown]

[She’s going to get pinned to two seconds flat- and a lot of bruises.]

Or worse. I broke a kids arm and that was just an 8th grade match.

[a fool in paradise]

[Nachum]

I understand.

I also wrestled in Jr. High and High School a witnessed some very nasty injuries. Heck, our state ranked high school soccer team was nasty. I played 4 years of high school soccer and three years in college. Saw horrible bone breaking injuries there too. We had NO problem with females wanting to play with us. They saw the contact/blood and wanted no part of it.

[muawiyah]

It's a contact sport. Many of us don't believe "contact" with women is appropriate except under very special circumstances.

End of story.

People of a different opinion are perverts whose opinions in the matter need not be respected.

[nitzy]

When I wrestled, there were two occasions that I recall girls participating in tournaments. The first involved the girl having to go to the hospital after the match. The second involved the moves "the grapevine" and "figure four head lock" (look them up) and a lot of high fives from the victor's buddies.

My son is currently in youth wrestling (8 years old) and at that level there is not very much difference between girls and boys. There are a couple girls who I have witnessed destroy most of the boys they wrestle. That will change as they get older. There is no way I would let my daughter, regardless of how tough she was, wrestle a post-pubescent boy.

[buccaneer81]

He did the right thing. He was ranked fifth in the state. She had ZERO wins in over 100 matches.

I applaud this young man.

[pfflier]

I admire his courage, he may have forfeited scholarship opportunities and may have earned the wrath of his coach and team as well because of lost team points.

This isn't about winning, losing or teaching women a lesson. It's about committment to one's beliefs. If draft dodgers, pacifists and apologists can do it why can't we get one for the good guys?

[Revolting cat!]

Slim

[boop]

Hah! Andy Kaufman almost got beaten, too, by some gigantic woman. Remember how he promised to get his head shaved if he lost?

[Paco]

This is a no win situation for him. In Nebr they don’t have boys volleyball but they have girls volleyball. What would happen if a boy went out for girls volleyball? Would he be allowed?

[Hodar]

I took Tae Kwon Do for 4 years; got to my 1st Brown before I had to quit (braces on teeth and hand-to-hand combat don’t mix well).

You did the girl an injustice. Martial arts are a skill of deflecting a blow before the ‘power’, and re-directing it. Block, counter-attack, ect. When you spar, the object is NOT to hurt your partner; that’s why contact stops at the skin (Red Stripe on belt in my discipline). It’s about control.

By holding back - you gave her a ‘false sense of security’ that could get her badly hurt by an opponent who truly means her harm. The only thing worse than jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, is jumping with one that doesn’t work. On the flip side, women have a speed and very narrow target range for scoring points in the midsection. Below boobs, above belt - it’s a small target. So, you kinda missed a challenging contest yourself.

My partner, Laurie was well endowed. Kicking her chest was simply rude, so the training was to get a kick in to touch her stomache and get out before she could counter. She was skilled, and very good. Sex shouldn’t stop you from teaching and learning from each other. Hand-wise; she was much faster than I - so I learned to block fast punches; as well as fight someone faster and smaller than I.

Any woman, deserves to truly know what her abilities are; because her life may depend upon that skill at some point in time.

After all, isn’t the point of this discipline to compete against what the best you think you can be? It’s not to defeat your opponent, but to measure yourself against what you once were, and where you want to go. Every day, the goal is to go to bed smarter than you were when you woke up.

[count-your-change]

The females won’t be able to compete so the only answer will be to hobble the males in some way, maybe give the females a few freebie points just to even things out, you see, in the name of fairness and all that.

The whole notion is absurd.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Evidently, this girl is quite a good wrestler:

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/high-school/cf_tigers/article_711a5ad8-149b-11e0-ba86-001cc4c03286.html

Herkelman started competing in second grade and began a schedule of 30 to 40 tournaments a year in third grade. Wrestling against the boys, her best AAU record was 49-3. She went on to capture three girls’ state titles and owns four girls’ national championships.

Herkelman’s name even appeared in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd section last spring as she won the 105-pound middle school division of the U.S. Girls’ Wrestling Association national championships one week removed from winning a girls’ national folkstyle title.

[buccaneer81]

My stats for her came from a comment board at the Des Moines Register, so they are to be taken with a grain of salt. HuffPo days she’s 34-13; I’ll trust the comment board ahead of HuffPo.