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Saturday, February 12, 2005
Marshwood's Rix looks to make history
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||
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But there's only one Deanna Rix. The Marshwood High senior has set the standard for a female wrestler in Maine. She earned her 100th win this season and will compete in today's Class A state tournament at the Augusta Civic Center. Now, as her high school career winds down, she pursues the loftiest of goals in Maine and the nation -- winning a state wrestling title, and winning it against a boy. "Placing at states, I wouldn't be satisfied," Rix said. "Winning, now that would be the ultimate." Rix believes her chances are legitimate, and so do her opponents. After Shane Leadbetter defeated Rix for the Western Class A championship last weekend, he made what some would consider a bold prediction. "Me and Dee Dee will be in the state final, and I foresee it being something like 1-0 or going into double overtime," said Leadbetter, who defeated Rix 1-0 in the regional final in Biddeford. Rix isn't the first female high school wrestler with a shot to win a state title. Last week in Alaska, Michaela Hutchison finished second against a boy in the 103-pound class. Still, the cliche is obvious in wrestling, that it's a man's world. Like women in law enforcement, engineering or in corporate board rooms, Rix is an uncommon entity. But like women who have succeeded in male-dominated fields, Rix has had the unconditional support of the people around her: her mother, father, brothers, teammates and friends. She also has gained respect. "I didn't see a girl out there wrestling me," Leadbetter said. "I have the utmost respect for her, especially for her to be doing all of this in a guy's competition." When a competitor is on the wrestling mat, gender doesn't seem to be an issue. "If an athlete is there for the right reason, it doesn't make a difference to me," said Neldon Gardner, Hutchison's coach at Skyview High in Soldotna, Alaska. "Girls I've had have been there for the right reasons, not to find a boyfriend but to wrestle." But there was that time in Michigan, during a boys' national Greco-Roman tournament, when Rix, then a fifth-grader, wanted to wrestle against boys but someone said no. Other people started saying no. Soon a meeting commenced, and Rix's father, who was also and still is her coach, argued for his daughter's case. Finally, Rix was allowed to wrestle. It's the only time she can remember that someone told her, "You can't do that." A TITLE IX PARADOX When someone does try to stand in her way, or even when there's the implication that someone doesn't believe in what Rix is pursuing, she simply turns the other way. "Most people have been very supportive, but some people say girls can't wrestle or that I shouldn't wrestle," said Rix, who enters the state championships with a 23-2 record (17-1 at 130). "I just ignore that." Still, she's wrestled primarily against boys. If she had wrestled against girls, she probably wouldn't have gotten so much attention. Rix is a paradox of Title IX, the 1972 landmark ruling that provided equal opportunities for men and women in federally funded education programs and activities, and which paved the way for women to have their own playing fields. Instead of benefiting from a sport such as softball or field hockey, Rix is flourishing in wrestling. "We're coming up with all this now," said Kent Bailo, the founder of the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association in Ortonville, Mich. "We didn't do that 30-some years ago. Men decided that women didn't want to participate in contact sports, and that's why Title IX was mishandled. "All they wanted was equal opportunity. We made up rowing, badminton, lacrosse . . . but bypassed wrestling and hockey. In the last 10 years, you see girls starting to do these (sports). Girls should have been doing this a long time ago." When others were thinking about it, Rix was doing it. In nearly 14 years of wrestling, Rix has succeeded at just about every level. She won two junior national wrestling championships, was twice named an All-American, traveled to China to compete against that country's top female wrestlers, was featured in Sports Illustrated as one of its "Faces in the Crowd" and entered the 2004-05 season as the nation's top-ranked female high school wrestler at 126 pounds by the U.S. Girls' Wrestling Association. THE FINAL HURDLE Today she will be among more than 300 wrestlers vying for a state championship in Augusta. For any wrestler to reach the state championships is difficult. On probability alone, the chances of a female wrestler reaching the championship match is even slimmer. "It's a very high achievement for a girl to make it to the state finals," said Gardner, who in 23 years of coaching at Skyview has only coached 12 females, all in the past 10 years. "That's a phenomenal feat, even for a boy. I wish (Deanna) the best." Before her Western Class A championship match against Leadbetter, Rix watched as Andrea Eisenhower of Massabesic took Rix's younger brother, Matt, to overtime in the consolation semifinals of the 103-pound class. Deanna Rix stood on the side of the mat, hands at her hips, watching intensely. Whether she was watching her brother or the next prominent female wrestler in Maine was uncertain. She wasn't sure who to root for, either. "I wanted my brother to win, but I also wanted (Andrea) to win," she said. "When I was a freshman, I hardly saw any girls wrestling, maybe one or two. Now some teams have five or six girls, and that's awesome." At the end of the day, Rix leaned over to sign the shirt of a young wrestling hopeful, a girl in boot-cut jeans and a bobbing auburn ponytail. Chances are, Deanna Rix was passing the torch. |
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