Girl Wrestler Challenges Rule

TOPSHAM, Me. - Lisa Nowak draws a deep breath of sweat-drenched air, flips back her long, brown hair and prepares to pounce.

"OK, head and arm!" commands her coach.

Methodically, the 112-pound freshman grabs her opponent's neck, pumps her hips and drops him to the squishy blue mat in one swift motion.

When partner Matt Drouin emerges from the Ararat High School wrestling room, his bangs are plastered to his forehead.

"I'm usually not tired unless I wrestle Lisa," he said as Nowak lovingly brushed a piece of lint off another teammate's sweatshirt.

Nowak, 15, is the lone female on the 22-member wrestling team. Having sat out the year's biggest tournament because of her gender, on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, she is eager to pin her next opponent - the Maine Human Rights Act.

"It's not the kind of thing you can just give up. If they think I'm just going to stop, they're wrong," said Nowak.

Boxing and wrestling are the only sports from which schools are allowed to exclude girls under the Maine Human Rights Act.

Despite her coaches' pleas, Nowak missed out on the Jan. 15 tournament when Oxford Hills athletic director John Parsons told her he was sorry, but she wouldn't be wrestling that day.

"I was really upset. I almost cried, but then I remembered my wrestling team was there, so I didn't," she said.

With the school board behind them, Nowak's parents are filing a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission and the Maine Association of Principals to force other schools to provide competition for their daughter in junior-varsity exhibitions.

Dick Tyler, executive director of the principals association, said directing schools to allow girls to compete would be contrary to the Human Rights Commission's rules.

"It's within the opposing team's rights to say no. We're willing to live with that at this point," he said.

But the executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission said it may be time to revisit those rules.

"It will be investigated and then it's up to the courts to decide," said Patricia Ryan. "In 1984 it was the right thing to do. In 1996 it may not be."

Since junior high, wrestling has kept Nowak in shape for soccer and track, and the physical and mental challenge of the sport is beyond any other, she said.

"Just knowing I can do it, that I can take it, it's a good feeling," she said.

She'd rather not be called a pioneer, but Nowak said she's doing her best to pave the way for other girls.

"I'm even going to go to the junior-high practices and throw them around a little," she said.

Her father, Mark Nowak, was captain of his high-school wrestling team and frequently prowls the sidelines while watching his daughter and his son, a sophomore, wrestle. He's sure that some day soon his daughter will perfect her take-down move.

"She needs the competition to learn," he said. "I admire her for her tenacity. She's going to stick it out to the bitter end."

Her teammates, who spend their afternoons layered in sweatsuits trying to make weight, said she is sincere in her fight to compete.

"Lisa is a good wrestler. She puts up with everything we do. It gets me mad that they won't let her wrestle because most teams support it," sophomore Michael Townsend said.

"I think the kids I wrestle at practice understand that if there is a better wrestler at practice, then who cares if it's a girl," said Nowak.

Not everyone treats Nowak like one of the guys. On the first day of practice last year, she beat a seventh-grade boy and he quit the next day. Some of her female classmates have said her choice of sports is a bit odd.

Despite the occasional odd look or comment, competition makes it all worth it, she said. On those days, Nowak drowns out the big crowds and ignores the nausea. And when she steps on the mat, she is greeted by applause from even the opposing fans.

"If they come watch me wrestle," Nowak said, "I'd just like them to say, hey there's a girl wrestler out there and she's not that bad."