Wrestling

I am the former head wrestling coach at El Camino College, and now part-time head coach at West Torrance High School. John Marks’ Feb. 27 commentary (“Sports- manship Finds an Opening in a Wall of Mistrust”) on the meet between the U.S. wrestlers and Iran struck a familiar chord with the many supporters of amateur wrestling. Wrestling has always been a sport in which the politics of not only the governing bodies of nations but also those of the sports organizations themselves have taken a back seat to the competitions.

But the epic battles of wrestling now are not on the mat but instead in athletic directors’ offices and courtrooms across the country. Title IX and gender equity is all but eliminating wrestling from the high school and collegiate sports scene. In this battle there are no agreed-upon rules and no alternative model for how wrestling could interact with the goal of gender equality in sport. There needs to be a common ground found between the need of sport and gender equity and the continuation of the world’s oldest and greatest sport.

TOM HAZELL

Professor, El Camino College