2012-13 Results and Media Coverage
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| Doyline's Brittany Bates holds her own with the boys |
12:00 AM, Feb. 14, 2013 EST| Jason Pugh jpugh@shreveporttimes.com |
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DOYLINE - By all accounts, Brittany Bates should not have spent the last four-plus months preparing for the Louisiana state wrestling championships that begin today in Kenner.
Two years ago, as a seventh-grader, Bates joined the first wrestling program at Doyline High School and did not win a match.
"There was one (thought about quitting)," Bates said. "I thought I was dragging them down. Whenever we lost a dual meet, I thought it was because of me."
As the state's top wrestlers descend upon the Pontchartrain Center for the two-day tournament, Bates is still wrestling and wrestling well. Doyline coach John Smith did not have to recruit Bates when he started the Doyline program three years ago. She made the choice to put her name on the open sign-up sheet Smith distributed.
"I had some parents that had some young ladies who were friends of Brittany's that said, 'That's a tough girl, a feisty girl. She'll make a good competitor,'" Smith said. "She turned out to be everything they said." After her trying seventh-grade year, Bates has rattled off 89 wins, 25 of which have been by pins in the 2012-13 season.
The pin total leads the Panthers and helped make Bates a No. 4 seed in the 113-pound Division III bracket. Smith is a hardcore wrestling fan as well as a coach, and his appreciation for what Bates has accomplished runs deep. |
Unlike Texas, which has separate boys and girls wrestling divisions, Louisiana makes no such provisions. If a girl wants to wrestle, she is allowed, but she must face mostly male competition.
"From a young man's perspective, it's a no-win situation to compete against a young lady," Smith said. "If you win, 'Oh, you beat a girl.' If you lose, your teammates are going to razz you. Up to this point, there have been five or six who have quit, probably because of that factor. It happened last year, and it's happened this year.
She doesn't consider herself as a girl. She considers herself a wrestler."
Bates said she has heard snickers from opposing coaches referring to her as "that girl wrestler." The same goes for opponents. After three years on the mat, however, Bates has learned to block out the negative comments and focus on her foe inside the circle.
"Honestly, after a while, you don't notice it," Bates said. "All you want to do is not lose. They've always said, 'Oh, he got beat by a girl.' I view it as I'm tired of hearing, 'He got beat by a girl.' If you got beat by a boy, should it be any different than getting beat by a girl?"
As Bates' victories have accrued, Smith put a sizable goal in front of the athlete he said likely will be his captain next season. Two years ago, Evangel's Matt Kimmel set the state record for career victories with 216. With the state meet remaining, Bates has averaged just 29.7 victories per season. "He first told that to me on the way to Ken Cole my second year," said Bates, who became the first female to place at the Brusly Invitational in 27 years.
"I remember Matt Kimmel winning that match to set the record. I thought about it, and I was like, 'That would be cool, but it's not a huge goal of mine.'"
Despite being one of the few female wrestlers in Louisiana, Bates had no problem finding a role model. "I look up to Marcie Van Dusen," said Bates, who carries a 3.7 grade-point average. "I met her at a camp at Wayland (Baptist University). She was the perfect person to look to for female wrestlers. She's a 2008 Olympian."
When Bates started wrestling alongside her male teammates, she heard some of the same comments her opponents uttered. Three years together altered those attitudes. "They're pretty protective," Bates said. "Our first year, they were like, 'Oh, it's a girl on the wrestling team. Blah blah blah.' We were all first-year (wrestlers), so it was still awkward. Second year, they got used to me. Now, we're just brothers that protect each other." Bates has answered the question, "How did you get into wrestling?" about "a million times." Her response is simple. "The only way I can answer it is I'm just crazy enough to sign up for it and just crazy enough to keep going with it," Bates said. Regardless of her reasons, Smith is thrilled to pencil Bates' name into his lineup for the past three seasons and for the next three as well. "I'm her biggest fan," Smith said. "Besides being her coach, it's inspirational to me. It tickles me every time she beats one. She treats them all as an opponent. It's remarkable to me."
