Girl Grappling for a Chance to Go to the Mat With Boys

It’s not feminism or trailblazing or publicity that motivates Kerry Hanley’s bid to become the first girl on a San Diego Unified School District boys wrestling team. The truth is much simpler than that.

“I like to wrestle,” Hanley said Wednesday as she crossed the Mira Mesa High School campus where she is a sophomore. “I like the sport.”

Given wrestling’s reputation as one of civilization’s more brutal pursuits, that remark seems somewhat incongruous coming from Hanley. At 4-foot-11 and 93 pounds, the 15-year-old is hardly a Hulk Hogan. But, like girls around the country who have asked to join boys’ football and baseball teams, Hanley believes she is equipped to fight for a spot in a previously all-male sport.

Her request 10 days ago to try out for the Mira Mesa wrestling team has prompted the school system to reconsider its stand prohibiting girls from wrestling and playing football with boys. Supt. Thomas Payzant said Tuesday he intends to change the policy in time for wrestling team tryouts on Nov. 18 unless it meets strong opposition from Board of Education members when they review it next Tuesday.

School board members will again get to review and ratify the change at the end of the school quarter, said Christina Dyer, general counsel for the school board.

Hanley is asking only for the chance to compete for a spot on the team. “I’m going to try,” she said. “I can’t make any speculation (about making the team). I’m not going to be guaranteed a spot on the team.”

Her potential teammates Wednesday offered mixed reviews of Hanley’s quest.

“I think it would be great,” said 17-year-old Dan Durkovich, a brawny 195-pound senior who intends to try out for the team. “There’s nothing wrong with it. If a girl wants to go out for wrestling, that’s her choice. Nothing’s segregated anymore.”

“I wouldn’t like it,” countered Otto Marion, a 17-year-old junior. Even “with all this equal rights stuff, that’s a guy’s sport only, I think.”

Tim Gilmartin, a 110-pound sophomore, said, “I’d probably be a little more nervous wrestling her . . . because she’s probably pretty good.”

While wrestling coach Jon Talbott supports Hanley, Mira Mesa High Principal Jim Vlassis does not.

“I don’t believe girls ought to be playing contact sports like football and wrestling,” he said. “The potential for injury is considerably different than it is in other sports.” Vlassis, a former wrestling coach, said that girls “are biologically not as strong as boys.”

School board member Kay Davis, who supports girls’ right to try out for contact sports teams, had the same concern. Board member Susan A. Davis also said girls should be given the opportunity to test their ability in contact sports.

But all those notions make little difference to Hanley, who said her parents are behind her decision “150%.”

She is not afraid of being hurt. “If you worry about getting hurt, then you’re putting yourself in a position to get hurt,” she said.

She is unfazed by the idea of hanging around a wrestling room with a bunch of sweaty boys. For three years, she kept statistics and was cheerleader for her school wrestling team in Cincinnati. Team members taught her what she knows about the sport by wrestling her.

And she does not believe she is overmatched. “Leverage is real important,” Hanley said. “It’s kind of like a feel; you’re born with it. You can feel if somebody’s pushing a little too far and take advantage of it.”

Asked if she believes the boys will treat her too gently, Hanley responded with a quick smile. “They might in the beginning,” she said, “until I start getting the better of them.”