Rick Reilly, from Espn.com, has a new article addressing this topic in http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6136707. He basically demeans Joel as nothing but an scapegoat for religious beliefs for which Reilly believes should never interfere with athletic conquest. I imagine Reilly would also have harsh words for Sandy Koufax, who sat out Game 1 of the 1965 World Series for Yom Kippur.
First a little bit of background about the situation. Northrup and Cassy Herkleman, the girl he was supposed to wrestle, compete in the state of Iowa. For those that don't know, Iowa is the holy grail of high school wrestling. It's football in Texas, basketball in Indiana, and hockey in Quebec all rolled into one. Both Herkleman and Northrup wrestled competitively since elementary school. Both qualified for the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament that was held this week. While I am not sure of Cassy's credentials outside of qualifying for states, I do know that Joel was 35-4 and was ranked 5th in the state entering the tournament. He had a real chance based on his athletic ability to win a state championship and in Iowa that's as good as gold. He chose his morals over athletic victory. Joel chose to forfeit rather than being forced to wrestle a girl. Because "wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times," said 16-year-old home-schooled sophomore Joel Northrup, in a statement. "As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this matter".
So Mr Reilly feels it is okay to judge a 16 yr old boy because this boy has convictions in his faith. This boy does not want to be put in the position of groping Ms Herkleman in front of thousands of people. He does not want the humiliation of beating a female wrestler. He does not want the humiliation of losing to a female wrestler. Joel, who was just following his dream, was thrust into a lose-lose situation.
Now I am not saying that Ms Herkleman doesn't have the right to put that singlet on for her wrestling team. She does. But in certain aspects of Title IX, you not only create possibilities but you crush dreams. Joel Northrup's dream was taken away from him. Joel Northrup has respect for women and no individual woman or athletic conquest will take that away from him. It's just a shame that to prove a point and create opportunities, an innocent boy's dreams had to be taken away. In compliance with Title IX, I wonder if Mr Reilly would be okay with the next Chipper Jones playing softball instead of baseball. Equality right?
By the way, Cassy Herkleman lost her next two matches and was eliminated from the Iowa State Tournament.......
I'm Just Sayin
Cassy Herkleman was 21-14 against all males in her weight class. Pretty strong. So let me get this straight....I don't like to mess up the facts. Northrup didn't want to be put in a position where he might be groping Ms. Herkleman? That's a pretty lame excuse. If that's the case, then Mr. Northrup has some serious demons he needs to tackle. That means that he considers his sport to involve groping. It does not. At least that's what my high school gym teacher told me when he had me pinned. That's another story for another time....
ReplyDeleteHonestly, at 21-14 she may well have been qualified to wrestle in the tournament. It would have put her at the bottom of the pack though, as it seems it did, putting her up against the #5 wrestler in the state. That means that her two subsequent matches were also against stronger wrestlers. I'm not surprised or shocked or angered by the fact that she lost two matches after moving on from round one due to forfeit.
My problem is with Northrup garnering national attention for this petty attempt at fame. Wrestle the female, win, move on. Get your fame from winning the championship. Maybe he really didn't think he could beat her, and his only shot at being noticed was to pull this stunt. I really think that's the issue at hand.
If a woman can throw a 95 mph fast ball and a slider that would make Chipper Jones look like a chump at the plate, would you give her a shot at the bigs?
And another thing, you really think Northrup had a shot being #5 in the state? When was the last time you saw someone seeded 5th or lower with the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament? I'll give you a while to research this one...
Messed up in the last paragraph. Supposed to say: "You really think Northrup had a shot at winning the tournament being a #5 seed?"
ReplyDelete