Posted on 02/25/2011 5:27:05 AM PST by Kaslin
It's so easy to look at teenagers in general today and sigh. They're more than a bit lazy, a bit spoiled and more than a bit morally compromised. Two teenagers made national news. One showed common decency and sportsmanship, two virtues seemingly uncommon in that generation. Hope is restored.
Sixteen-year-old wrestler Joel Northrup faced a dilemma when he was scheduled to wrestle Cassy Herkelman, one of only two girls to make it to the state tournament. Even though he entered with a 35-4 record, Northrup forfeited rather than violate his religious principles.
Cassy's father, Bill Herkelman, praised the Northrup family: "That's their belief, and I praise them for sticking to it. This is the biggest stage in wrestling in the state, I would say, and they stuck to their beliefs when it probably tested it the most," he said. "It was probably a tough pill for him to swallow."
That's putting it mildly. High-school wrestling is very popular in Iowa and other Midwestern states, where the state tournament is televised.
Northrup then made the rounds of national TV talk shows to address the decision. "There's no specific scripture or verse in the Bible that condemns wrestling girls," Joel told the "Fox & Friends" show. "It's more of a Biblical principle of treating the opposite gender with respect ... I don't think wrestling should be a coed sport because of all the compromising holds and everything."
Northrup didn't say anything about discomfort over wrestling a girl because it was personally embarrassing or sexual in any way. It wasn't about the bad publicity that would result if he gave her a broken forearm or a concussion. It was about elevating the woman. Shoving a woman's face into the mat is undignified. He told CBS it gets "violent at times ... I just don't feel it's right that a boy should engage a girl ... like this."
Only in our stupid popular culture is such a position considered controversial. CBS put this question on screen: "Chivalry or Chauvinism?" But these aren't really opposites. For many years, the feminists have waged war on the idea that men would "stoop" to chivalry, like opening doors for women or giving up a seat on a subway train for them. Being a "gentleman" was another word for being a patronizer -- a chauvinist.
Sadly, you knew some ink-stained wretch would think Northrup's decision was sexist, demeaning and religiously obtuse. Enter ESPN.com columnist Rick Reilly, who slammed anyone and everyone who respected this moral decision, including Cassy Herkelman and her father: "Does any wrong-headed decision suddenly become right when defended with religious conviction? In this age, don't we know better? If my God told me to poke the elderly with sharp sticks, would that make it morally acceptable to others?"
In Reilly's moral universe, "Body slams and takedowns and gouges in the eye and elbows in the ribs are exactly how to respect Cassy Herkelman. This is what she lives for ... She relishes the violence."
Herkelman's dad boasts: "She's my son ... She's always been my son."
Reilly then bizarrely claimed that it wasn't cruel to gouge her in the eye; it was cruel to send her into a "national media hurricane" -- identified as about 20 sports reporters and columnists -- to be asked not how she wrestled, but how she advanced without wrestling.
The ESPN columnist ended this sneering diatribe by suggesting this 16-year-old boy "wasted" his dream of a championship and was just uncomfortable with girls being on Earth. After Northrup was eliminated in an overtime match, Reilly wrote, "He was reportedly on his way back home to Marion, Iowa, where his mom was about to deliver her eighth child. For the kid's sake, I hope it's a boy."
Northrup didn't deserve the wave of national abuse he received from so-called defenders of women. It was additionally unnecessary when his female opponent wasn't offended. But it won't be the first or the last time that sports writers from New York City come to Iowa to lecture the hayseeds.
No one, of course, seems willing to ask the other question: What was the Herkelman family doing encouraging their teenage daughter for years to wrestle competitively with males -- with every implication, physical and sexual?
I design a sports magazine, and I have to say that your comment is far overreaching. I’ll grant you that most sports writers are a breed all their own, but I’ve known a few that write sports stories even I want to read. There are lots of “journalists”...true writers are harder to find.
Reilly has written some funny stuff in the past. But, now he shows an ugly side. So long Rick!
Rick Reilly is an incredible jerk and a big liberal. A few years ago he took time to blast both the Iraq and Afghanistan war efforts. In a supposed sports magazine.
Liberals, especially left wingers are so predictable
why would there be coed wrestling in the first place ???
I understood you meant the slap and tickle type of wrestling.
Very well said.
Why is there co-ed wrestling? See Title XI.
When my son wrestled varsity, there were a couple of girls that wanted to be on the team. The first few weeks of conditioning convinced them to be stat girls instead. I don’t know if the coach was trying to discourage the girls (wink, wink), but we had a pretty good team that year!
She did not look like a tomboy, but that may have just been the photog.
From the sound of it, this girl is a pretty good wrestler. You don’t make it to the state finals in Iowa on a cakewalk. If she’s good enough to compete with the boys — which she obviously is — then she can win (or lose) fair and square.
I’ll leave it to individual conscience to determine the implications of girls wrestling at all, not as an issue of ability but one of social propriety. Personally, I believe social roles, while occasionally arbitrary and confining, do have value, and one violates them at one’s peril.
Heh ... the mat in the middle of the gym is usually the wrong place ... especially when the lights are on and everybody's watching.
I agree. I don’t fault the boy for not wanting to wrestle the girl. Mine had to go up against a very tough girl when he was 12 (google Hannah Bloom, Webberville, Michigan). What gets me is the double standard... Let girls compete in wrestling, but don’t you dare let a 6’ 8” boy try out for the girl’s volleyball team!
My son had to wrestle a girl when he was in middle school. He had the most puzzled look on his face. How could he possibly grab, grope and roll around with a girl? We could tell his heart wasn’t in it and he just went through the motions. He said she was the nastiest wrestler - pulled hair, scratched him, etc. Plus it’s a complete lose-lose for him. He either beats a girl, so what? or he loses to a girl....it’s just really stupid to expect a kid who was taught not to grab, push, fight with girls and treat them respectfully to put that all aside.
In a country of 300 million, with a small select elite comprising our armed forces, we are told that we MUST have women as a significant percentage of them (in combat units no less) or we will lack sufficient volunteers to fully staff them. Now we are finding controversy as to whether or not it is appropriate to inflict violent activity upon a female in other than justifiable self- defense. Protecting women and children from undue violence has been a major tenant of most civillizations and particularly Western civillization.
Is there any more doubt as to how cultural marxists have shaped and are continuing to distort and destroy the cultural agenda?
It’s the temporary triumph of PC over reality.
The next real war will come as quite a shock.
Well said at 17.
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