There was a high school sports report that I really liked. It had to do with a female high school wrestler in Iowa winning in the state tourney for the first time ever.
I didn’t like it because I think it is swell that a girl is wrestling in the state tourney. I find that highly inappropriate. I liked it because of the reason she won. The young woman, Cassy Herkelman, won when her opponent Joel Northrup, the fifth seed at 103 pounds who came in third in the state tourney as a freshman last year elected to forfeit the match. Here is why:
Northrup, a sophomore at Linn-Mar (Iowa) High, cited his personal faith as the motivating force for his forfeit. The withdrawal ensures he can finish no higher than third at the tournament, which follows his third-place finish in the 103-pound classification as a freshman.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan [Black] and their accomplishments," Northrup said in a statement given to the media following his official forfeit. "However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times.
"As a matter of conscience and 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."
That is praiseworthy indeed. In a world where personal accomplishment trumps many values, this is a wonderful stand by this young man. I wrestled in high school and getting to the state tourney is a dream and lifelong goal for many of these young men. To willingly forfeit against an opponent as a matter of conscience takes an incredible display of conviction. Wrestling is a violent and close contact sport and Joel is precisely right that it is highly inappropriate for boys and girls to be wrestling against one another. I hope he wins out in the tournament and gets to compete for third place. As a sophomore he will have two more years to pursue a state championship but at least for this year his convictions triumphed over his ambition and for that I applaud him and his family.
1 comment:
Our son Ben wrestled through high school, and occasionally they would wrestle against a team with a girl wrestler. I can tell you the boys hated it, Ben was glad he was in a higher weight class, the guys in the low weight classes would sometimes have to wrestle a girl. First of all what kind of parent thinks it appropriate for their daughter to do this sport???? Secondly, the singlets worn by wrestlers leave very little to the imagination. Thirdly the boys just hate it, if they win they feel stupid because they just beat a girl, and if they lose they feel humiliated because they just lost to a girl.
Fortunately in the six years that Ben wrestled I think girls showed up to wrestle only a handful of times.
I think the young man in the news story did the right thing and I commend his decision.
Post a Comment