Girl Wrestler : This 126-Pounder Gets Much Attention at Jim Thorpe High

In a city and a high school named for an American athlete who found the rules of sport as difficult as the competition, a young wrestler has been struggling with both opponents and tradition.

She is Michelle Green, 17, a 126-pound wrestler for Jim Thorpe High School.

Acceptance of a girl in the once all-male domain of high school wrestling has come slowly in this scenic, snow-coated region of the Pocono Mountains.

At the start of the season, coach Rich Flacco said, few members of the Jim Thorpe High squad would wrestle with Green in practice. Now, he said, most of Green’s teammates willingly help her with techniques and offer encouragement.

Having seen wrestling programs dropped for lack of interest at other similarly-sized high schools, Flacco took a pragmatic view of Green’s tryout.

“If we’re going to have a wrestling program, we gotta have bodies,” said the coach, who must fill 24 varsity and junior varsity positions from a student body of about 300.

Others have not shared Flacco’s tolerance.

Ed Papernan, a columnist for the local MidWeeker, wrote, “Pinch me, it has to be a bad dream.” The Northwestern Lehigh School Board ordered Pleasant Valley High School to forfeit a bout, rather than put a boy wrestler against Green.

Pleasant Valley wrestling Coach Ken Santoro said his first response was to take on the challenge by sending a wrestler out with orders to “rip her arm off.” But he eventually agreed with the board’s decision, on the feeling the match might create an awkward situation for a wrestler at an age where some boys are still nervous around girls.

“Some kids at that age have never kissed a girl, and they’re supposed to go out there and wrestle her?” said Santoro.

Although a lean roster has forced Santoro’s team to forfeit up to six out of 12 varsity matches this year, he said he would oppose having a girl on his team. He doubted whether a girl could endure a rigorous practice session.

“We’re talking about a good cross face, bloody noses, ripped skin from really grabbing into a hold . . . “ he said.

Flacco dismisses any suggestion that a female opponent might confuse a male wrestler’s competitive instincts.

“If anything, I think they would be wrestling tooth and nail because they don’t want to get beat by a girl,” said Flacco, who was a 112-pound high school wrestler at Cheltenham, Pa.

When Jim Thorpe school official Virginia Wells-Smith was informed of the Pleasant Valley decision, she said she understood the “no-win situation” an inter-sex match might pose for a boy wrestler.

“Either they will be accused of beating up on a girl in a bout or they would be totally embarrassed should they lose a decision to a girl,” she said.

So far, none of Green’s opponents has had to face the agony of such a defeat, although her Palmerton High opponent endured some hooting from the crowd when the match went into the second round. Her only victory came in the Pleasant Valley forfeit.

Green, the wrestling team’s statistician last year, said she likes “rough sports.” Her first choice was football, but she figured a 126-pound girl would have no chance of making the team. Encouraged by her boyfriend from last year’s team, 18-year-old Lance Malatak, she chose wrestling.

The attention has occasionally been irritating, she said, such as the reporter who asked her “questions about my makeup, things like that . . . nothing about wrestling.”

But Green readily acknowledges a close-contact sport like wrestling, with combatants frequently intertwined in pretzel-like maneuvers, carries the potential for awkwardness in a match between the sexes.

“Sure, there’s a few moves that I would be embarrassed to use,” she said. “You avoid those unless you absolutely have to.”

Flacco said Green has been going through the normal learning process of a novice wrestler. And she has company on the Olympians, who are 0-5 in dual matches.

“Some coaches say their team is young and inexperienced, but don’t really mean it,” Flacco said, while in the background the team goes through a warmup regimen equally suitable for wrestling or breakdancing--a rapid succession of crab-like walks, gorilla-like lopes and snail-like crawls.

“We have an inexperienced team,” he adds. “Young or old, they’re inexperienced.”

The practice sessions, the school cafeteria, are loose-knit and spirited, and Green always has a partner. Like the other wrestlers, Green receives shouted sideline instructions from Flacco and tips from her partner while they’re engaged in neck holds.

On the mat, gender seems to disappear. Green is treated like any other wrestler in gray sweats.

During one break, Green’s partner shakes off his headgear, pops open the cafeteria door and lets out a loud whistle.

“Who was that?” another wrestler asks.

“Cheerleaders,” he replies.