Letting Lizzie watch Brian Williams Nightly News on NBC is one of those things that keeps this marriage together. It shows my concern for her well-being and happiness. Williams ran a story toward the end of the show and Lizzie said, "I feel a blog coming on". She's correct. I was seething. The Iowa High School wrestling championships are taking place this week. Wrestling, in Iowa, is a damned big deal. Dan Gable, Cale Sanderson, Iowa State, Iowa Hawkeyes; they have won numbers of championships and sent many athletes to the Olympics. Were you aware that the long time University of Kentucky basketball coach, Adolph Rupp, got his start as a high school wrestling coach in Marshalltown, Iowa? One of my best Iowa buddies started a world renowned wrestling magazine called the Predicament. It's the bible for wrestlers and it came out of Iowa. In the words of Joe Biden, "that's an F'ing big deal".
Anyway, the story on the news was about a young male wrestler named Joel Northrup. The sophomore had an outstanding season going into the tournament, 35-4, so it's not like he's a schleb wrestler. His high school is Linn-Mar of Marion, one of the largest schools in the state. His opponent in the first round was Cassie Herkelman. Cassie is a girl. Yep! You read this correctly. Cassie from Cedar Falls H.S. also qualified for the tourney along with another girl named Megan Blake. Both girls matriculate at schools larger than Marion. The downside for these schools with girls wrestling has to be----with upwards of 2,000 in the student bodies couldn't they come up with a guy or two to compete? That's more than embarrassing.
So, what did Northrup do? Well, he forfeited his match to Herkelman. He is a strong Christian and he felt it was a matter of conscience and faith not to wrestle. His mind set was that boys and girls should not be engaged in competition where there bodies would be in such close contact and there would be a danger of Herkelman getting hurt. If you think this is silliness you should know that Megan Blake did wrestle a kid from Bettendorf and she was pinned in 52 seconds.
Now, if you read this blog frequently you know what's coming next. What in the hell is wrong with the Iowa High School Athletic Association to let girls compete with boys? After all, there is a girl's athletic union in Iowa. If the girls can wrestle with the boys why not let some boy try out for a girls basketball team. At the age of 65 ol' MH Hawkeye could still put some big time moves on a
5'2" point guard. How about softball? It'd be the same thing. What are the outfield dimensions for softball, something like 180'? I'd be the Babe Ruth of girls softball. I'd be in the Iowa High School girls Hall of Fame.
And to think this all start with Title IX, the worst piece of legislation to come down the pike since the New Deal. But that's a story for another day. In the meantime I'm going to honor the integrity of Joel Northrup. He got screwed---big time!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment