When Gilroy High
’s Vanessa Gutierrez wrestles her male counterparts, it always
seems to play out the same way. “Before the match starts out,” the
senior said, “they’ll be over there laughing at me, and saying
‘This is going to be so easy.’” And then? “Then,” GHS junior
varsity coach Marty Serran
o said, “she just goes out and beats most of them.” It’s a new
world out there, South Valley sports fans. Slowly but surely, that
male-dominated sport of high school wrestling is opening its doors
to female participants – whether some in the old guard like it or
not. While Gutierrez has rece
ived the most recognition – the 189-pounder is ranked No. 6 in
the country – three area high schools are represented by a female
wrestler: Live Oak (Moriah Hernandez), Sobrato (Jenenetta
Marisclan) and Hollister-San Benito.
When Gilroy High’s Vanessa Gutierrez wrestles her male counterparts, it always seems to play out the same way.
“Before the match starts out,” the senior said, “they’ll be over there laughing at me, and saying ‘This is going to be so easy.’”
And then?
“Then,” GHS junior varsity coach Marty Serrano said, “she just goes out and beats most of them.”
It’s a new world out there, South Valley sports fans.
Slowly but surely, that male-dominated sport of high school wrestling is opening its doors to female participants – whether some in the old guard like it or not.
While Gutierrez has received the most recognition – the 189-pounder is ranked No. 6 in the country – three area high schools are represented by a female wrestler: Live Oak (Moriah Hernandez), Sobrato (Jenenetta Marisclan) and Hollister-San Benito.
“What I’ve noticed is the technical and physical development of girls over the last few years,” Live Oak High varsity coach Rob Fernandez said. “It’s really been unbelievable.”
Female wrestlers were practically non-existent a decade ago, Fernandez said.
Now the sport has become an Olympic event – starting with the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. Starting with the 2006-07 school year, it will become a certified high school sport by the California Interscholastic Federation.
And just two weeks ago, Gutierrez, Fernandez and Marisclan were among 336 participants taking part in the Girls’ State Championships in Vallejo.
When the three are participating in the same tournaments, they’ll often cheer each other on – forming a interschool bond that’s quite rare on the male side of the sport.
Despite a growth in number, though, it’s still not always easy for female wrestlers, especially when they cross over to take on the boys.
Gutierrez just won her second straight girls’ state title at the 189-pound weight class and will compete at nationals in Michigan next month. Come April, she’ll be among 14 female wrestlers taking part in the USA Dream Team Classic Dual Meet in Arlington, Texas.
She was even included in the latest edition of Wrestling USA magazine.
At first, though, her teammates on the junior varsity squad weren’t exactly receptive of the idea of a girl in the group.
“The guys on the team were just not used to it,” said Gutierrez, who first started wrestling in the seventh grade. “They didn’t like it much.”
Her first couple years at Gilroy High didn’t make for a great experience.
“A lot of the time she was disappointed because she felt like she was left out,” Sandy Gutierrez said. “I think mostly the other kids thought she was just in it for fun … so that kind of made it hard for her.
“I think it was really more me being sad for my daughter. I would’ve pulled her out, but she really pushed on because she really wanted to wrestle. She’s a pretty tough girl.”
Gutierrez persevered and eventually gained the respect of her teammates.
“She’s a part of the team like anyone else,” freshman Travis Sakamoto said.
When asked about her talent, Sakamoto said Gutierrez was “really good.”
Good or the proverbial “good for a girl”?
“She’s good, period,” Sakamoto quickly responded. “She beats a lot of the guys.”
Against girls, Gutierriez is 21-0 with 21 pins. Because of her competitiveness, though, she said she prefers wrestling boys.
That, of course, doesn’t mean the boys are always receptive to wrestling her.
At a tournament in Cupertino earlier this season, a boy she faced became frustrated as it became clear the contest wasn’t going to be the cakewalk he’d anticipated. So he decided to headbutt Gutierrez, who kept her cool and – here’s a shock – ending up winning the dual.
“They especially hate it when I’m beating them,” Gutierrez said. “They don’t think girls should be allowed to play a guy sport, so they say.”
Fernandez, a 14-year-old freshman, still remembers beating a boy for the Northern California Freestyle Championship as a nine-year-old.
“I just remember pinning him and seeing the look on his father’s face,” she recalled. “That look will last a lifetime. He just couldn’t believe his boy had been beaten by a girl.”
As Rob Fernandez remembered, both the boy and his father looked “like they were going to commit suicide.”
At the time, that kind of reaction was common. Now, he said, “the stigma ‘that if you lose to a girl you quit wrestling’ has started to fade away.”
The times are indeed changing.
Even some colleges feature once-unheard-of women’s wrestling teams. At the moment, Gutierrez is considering carrying on with her sport at Menlo and Lassen junior colleges.
In the meantime, though, she’ll continue to face the whispers and the rolling-of-the-eyes from the old guard of wrestling – many of whom don’t believe girls have any place around a mat.
“Yeah, I’ve heard people make comments,” said Gabriel Gutierrez, who coaches his daughter when she’s wresting girls, but sits in the stands when she’s going up against boys. “I say those people are living in the old days … this is the now.
“We’ve got women going to war and fighting alongside the guys. I want her to be able to defend herself.”
As a longtime participant and fan of the sport, Rob Fernandez also defended the inclusion of females in wrestling.
“What those old guard coaches need to realize is that wrestling needs new blood,” he said. “Having 336 girls at a state tournament means a lot of participation and a lot of money raised and a lot of excitement.
“Let’s face it, wrestling is going through a little lull these days. And to tell you the truth, it really needs an infusion of new energy.”
Just take a look around.
Whether some like it or not, that new energy has arrived.
