Takedown Report

Amateur Wrestling Reports

Minnesota adds girls’ state tournament

TDR Editor’s Notes ; Over 30 states will offer and host state tournaments for girl wrestlers on the high school level. The stories below are from last week up north in Minnesota. Big news for the growth of wrestling. We hope that the boys’ volleyball program effort is successful in their quest next year.
Contact us at the Editor’s office at martinkfleming@gmail.com
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1 } – Minnesota girls’ wrestling state tournament approved; boys’ volleyball plan narrowly fails
In a matter of mere minutes Tuesday morning, the Minnesota State High School League dealt one high school sports advocacy group a serious blow while answering the hopes of another.

The league’s Representative Assembly voted narrowly to reject a proposal to add boys’ volleyball as a league-sanctioned sport. Not long after, the 48-member body, tasked with considering amending league bylaws, voted overwhelmingly to add a girls’ wrestling state tournament starting next school year.

In what Chad Shilson, director of Minnesota/USA Girls and Women’s Wrestling, called “the biggest news for female wrestling in Minnesota ever,” the vote creates a girls’ division within the wrestling state tournament. Girls will remain part of each school’s boys’ program for regular season training and competition.

Boys’ volleyball advocates were disappointed by the outcome, which fell just short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the measure. In all, 29 region reps voted yes and 18 voted no, with one person abstaining. … rest of story at https://m.startribune.com/minnesota-girls-wrestling-state-tournament-approved-boys-volleyball-plan-fails/600055977/?mc_cid=ce60503c93&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

2 } – MSHSL Approves Girls Wrestling Postseason Division
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A Girls Wrestling Division during the postseason was approved today when the 48-member Representative Assembly legislative body of the Minnesota State High School League met for its annual meeting. In other action, the Representative Assembly fell two votes short of approving the addition of Boys Volleyball as a League-sanctioned activity.

Proposed bylaw amendments require a two-thirds majority vote for passage. Both amendment proposals were approved by 9 of the 16 administrative regions prior to reaching the Representative Assembly for consideration.

“Today’s meeting demonstrated the significant desire for youth sports programs to be adopted by the Minnesota State High School League and for students to have the opportunity to represent their school as they compete,” said Erich Martens, the League’s Executive Director. “The decision by our membership to offer our girls in wrestling the chance to compete for individual honors in their own postseason division is a big step. Minnesota now joins other regional states like North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Missouri in offering this opportunity for girls wrestlers.”

The addition of a Girls Wrestling Division in the postseason will be enacted during the 2021-2022 school year. The amendment proposal was approved by a 44-4 vote. … rest of story at https://theguillotine.com/2021/05/mshsl-approves-girls-wrestling-postseason-division/?mc_cid=ce60503c93&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

3 } – MSHSL to vote Tuesday on adding boys volleyball, girls wrestling for 2021
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota State High School League will be voting Tuesday to determine if boys volleyball and girls wrestling will be high school sports as early as the 2021-22 academic year.
The 48-member MSHSL legislative group is scheduled to meet virtually at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, and among the agenda items are to consider proposed amendments that would add boys volleyball and girls wrestling as sports. The panel needs a two-thirds majority vote (32 votes) to approve the sports, and they would be added as early as next fall if they pass.

GIRLS WRESTLING
There’s also a push to make girls wrestling a high school sport, starting in the winter of 2021-22. Nine of 16 administrative regions approved a request for a vote to have a girls varsity division as part of the winter wrestling season. Girls currently wrestle with boys in sanctioned wrestling programs, and compete in team and individual events at the high school level.

Under the proposal, girls would continue to train and compete with boys’ teams during the regular season, but would have the top to participate in a girls-only individual section and state tournament. It would run at the same time as the boys tournament. Girls would also be eligible to be on boys’ teams for dual tournaments at the section and state tournament level. … rest of story at https://www.fox9.com/sports/mshsl-to-vote-tuesday-on-adding-boys-volleyball-girls-wrestling-for-2021?mc_cid=812142449d&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

4 } – MSHSL Representative Assembly to vote on adding boys volleyball, girls wrestling
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — The 48-member Representative Assembly legislative body of the Minnesota State High School League is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 11 in a virtual format at 9 a.m. Included in its agenda is the consideration of proposed amendments to add the sport of Boys Volleyball and a Girls Wrestling postseason division to the League’s programming of co-curricular opportunities.
A two-thirds majority vote is required for approval. If approved, the activities will be enacted for the 2021-2022 school year.
Here is a look at the amendment proposals:
Boys Volleyball
The request was approved by the required 9 of the 16 administrative regions during the winter of the 2019-2020 school year to advance to the Representative Assembly for consideration. By request of the authors of the proposed amendment, this was tabled until the Spring of 2021 for consideration and a vote. …
Girls Wrestling
This request, also approved by 9 of the 16 administrative regions, seeks a Girls Varsity Division as part of the winter wrestling postseason. Currently, girls wrestle with boys in the fully sanctioned wrestling programs and compete in team and individual competition. Under the proposed amendment, girls participants would continue to train and compete with the boys’ teams during the regular season, but would have the option of competing in a girls-only individual section and state tournament that would occur simultaneously with the boys postseason individual tournaments. As part of the proposed amendment, girls would be eligible to remain a part of the boys’ team for dual tournaments at section and state tournaments.
Twelve weight classes are suggested as part of the proposed amendment: 95, 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 160, 170, 182 and 220.
During the 2019-2020 season, 153 girls in Minnesota participated in high school wrestling. More than 21,000 female wrestlers are competing nationally. Thirty states have sanctioned girls wrestling as a high school varsity activity. … rest of story at https://theguillotine.com/2021/05/mshsl-representative-assembly-to-vote-on-adding-boys-volleyball-girls-wrestling/?mc_cid=812142449d&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b&doing_wp_cron=1621356759.9932460784912109375000

5 } – Minnesota joins national push for more female wrestling opportunities
By Mary Rominger| May 14, 2021 at 7:44 PM CDT – Updated May 14 at 9:00 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (KEYC) — Minnesota joins the nationwide effort to increase opportunities for female wrestlers.
On Tuesday, the Minnesota State High School League reached a vote of 44-4 to approve a postseason format for girls wrestling next winter.
“It’s like anything that’s new, we need to communicate the opportunity and make sure everybody’s aware of exactly what the addition means. It won’t change a whole lot, certainly not immediately. We have a female football player, we’ve had those opportunities taken advantage of in my time here. The unique part of this one is it will eventually grow to a point where it becomes its own category and can run its own state tournament,” Mankato East activities director and MSHSL board member Todd Waterbury said.
Girls will continue to train and compete with the boys’ teams during the regular season, but will now have the option of competing in a girls-only individual section and state tournament.
In the Mankato East High School system, Waterbury says, there have been a small number of female wrestlers in the past.
The high school league reports that 153 girls in Minnesota competed in wrestling during the 2020-21 season. “It’s not just a Minnesota thing, I think it’s nationwide. You look at the success of a lot of our athletes at the Olympic level and the opportunities leading up to that have been pretty limited, unfortunately. … rest of story at https://www.keyc.com/2021/05/14/minnesota-joins-national-push-more-female-wrestling-opportunities/?mc_cid=89b2bf9d78&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

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May 18, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hand Raised – 4th Season, Column 4: Going All Upper Body; Left Coast Lunacy; And an Olympic viewpoint

USA MENS GRECO ROMAN TEAM READY TO BODYLOCK OLYMPIC SPOTS

As of the last weekend in April and a scant few months prior to Tokyo 2021 our Greco Roman team has qualified four of six wt. classes for the Games. The USA needs veteran 130kg Adam Coon and suprising, supremely talented 77kg Jesse Porter to finish top 2 at the last chance Olympic Qualifier this month in Bulgaria to get in. Odds are against them, especially it seems against Coon. The giant 3x AA and 2x NCAA finalist for Michigan was a Senior World Championships finalist his first time up on that stage, pinning his way to the finals and securing a Silver medal for the USA. For reasons unknown to this author Coon, and indeed many of America’s young GR stars, have seemed to shine brightest at their first international outings. Afterwards a disturbing trend of diminishing returns seems to emerge. Adam (on Instagram adam_coooon) did secure a 2019 Pam American Championship Gold(1) but since then it’s been slim pickings for the 6’5″ future astronaut. Its more likely that he will bring a medal home at the World Championships that will be held late this year after the Games. That is IF he can hold off our hard charging young superstar GR heavyweight, Arizona St’s Cohlton Schultz. Cited as a once in a generation talent and a wrestler who makes everyone around him better, Cohlton placed 4th at the NCAAs this year, his RS freshman campaign for the Sun Devils. Add that to his 3 medals in GR World level competitions before he turned 20 and his barely acceptable 188-2, 4 state titles record for Ponderosa (CO) HS, and you can easily see why so many people are still in doubt. Thats a joke, BTW. What’s seriously accurate is that the USA has really good GR big guys who need to show that several years running. Standing salty at #3 is Jacob Mitchell, who went the Clackamas (Oregon) CC/Colorado State-Pueblo route before linking up with the Army WCAP.(2) Ohio States Tate Orndorff will push to break through soon for us as well. The Buckeye, a Utah Valley transfer, was a National Runner-up in 2019 and a 2X United States Champ at age group level competitions. With all that high quality flesh Arbys is the logical sponsor for this weight class. At 77kg Jesse Porter came from WAAY back in the pack as he claimed our #1 spot from the 10th and last seed. There’s fascinating storylines attached to the affable Porter, and one of the more interesting ones concerns his sister, American FS star and wrestling Twitter personality/podcaster Alexis Porter. Big younger bro, a grad student at Northern Michigan, has been the top dog for the US at the U-23 level four years straight. Find him on Twitter @jporter_2015 and in Sofia, Bulgaria, in May as he, Coon, and FS 65kg American rep Jordan Oliver all attempt to qualify their wt class spots for Tokyo. It’s called the Last Chance Qualifier for a reason, folks. Wish them luck! The rest of Team USAs upper body bombers line up this way…60kg, Ildar Hafizov, WCAP. Thats SGT. Ildar Hafizov, US Army, thank you very much, former superstar and 2008 Olympian….for Uzbekhistan. This #StraightOuttaTashkent terror took multiple years off in the prime of his career to become an American citizen-soldier. He’s carried the Red, White, and Blue into battle since 2015. Can he medal? Maybe. He’s already won his biggest and best triumph, and you know what that was. 67kg: Alejando Sancho, WCAP. Sense a trend here? Our military men and women have been at the forefront of our World wrestling squads for a minute now, actually then some. SPC Sancho traces his roots back to a tough part of south Florida where Judo piqued his interests and helped put him off the streets and in the sights of a Sunshine State Hall of Famer. Albert Pardo terrorized opponents in the mid 80s as a South Miami Sr. High Cobra, going from there in 85 to graduating from SJSU in ’92. Pardo came home and built a juggernaut that ran 25 years. This real Cobra Kai was the 180 degree opposite of the movie version, as through a quarter century of wrestling intensity exactly NONE of Pardos … rest of story at https://morewrestlingplease.wordpress.com/2021/05/04/4th-season-column-4-going-all-upper-body-left-coast-lunacy-and-an-olympic-viewpoint/?mc_cid=f2268a753e&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

May 18, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment