WRESTLING: Women’s program begins at King College

BRISTOL, Tenn.—Jason Moorman doesn’t see any differences between coaching men’s or women’s wrestling.

They’re all treated the same in the wrestling room, he said.

All the wrestlers have to prove themselves, whether they wear a jock strap or a sports bra.

Once they toe the line on the mat, they all need to have the intensity and that touch of nerves that keeps them “even keeled.”

Then there’s the giggling.

“Ah,” he said. “We’re dealing with that. I’m not going to get used to it. We’re working on a no-giggle policy.”

As if on cue, King College wrestlers Anna Cummings, Andrea Dorner and Samantha Lopez all giggled.

In all aspects (including the giggling) Moorman is right. The inaugural King College women’s wrestling team’s practice the Thursday before its first meet Saturday was ran with the same intensity as any men’s team.

Moorman didn’t lighten his voice either, barking instruction and words of wisdom in between the cadence of bodies slapping mats and grunts as they worked on escapes and defense.

“You have 15 seconds to weather the storm,” he told his wrestlers. “It’s gonna hurt. Bite the bullet. Beat the pain. You just got to weather the storm and get to your feet.”

He ended practice with a conveyer-belt conga line of twitching calves and flexing forearms as he blew the whistle to signal the girls to find a new opponent.

“Ready,” he said as the girls ran up the line to find their next match. “Wrestle.”

Followed by a rhythmic thud of bodies hitting the mat that thundered through the room.

“We told them they were going to be treated like men,” he said. “One reason they survived their high school [wrestling] rooms is because they were treated that way.”

Cummings, Dorner and Lopez all wrestled in high school. They’re used to the treatment.

“I was always treated like one of the guys,” Cummings said. “They were all like buddies to me. I never really felt any different.”

Lopez, who wrestled on her West Covina (Calif.) high school team with the boys before a girls team was initiated, went so far as to look as other girls on the team (there were three
others) as enemies.

“I was never allowed to wrestle the girls,” she said, breaking out into a sly smile. “My goal was to get them out of the room.”

Getting themselves into the room on the high school level was another challenge with a large opponent standing in their way – dad.

“I told my mom and she was OK with it,” Cummings said. “Told my dad and he said, ‘No you’re not.’ ”

Cummings let dad know she was already on the team. He relented, but didn’t want to see her crying on the mat, she said.

“That first match he sees you’re hand being raised, you look out and your dad is smiling,” Dorner said. “Yeah, my girl just beat your son.”