Old Speech on Women's Wrestling

[REDMAN]

My dad coached in California & Arizona for years and we were clearing out boxes and found this old speech. Maybe some of you remember or know the wrestler he was talking about.

I started coaching wrestling 28 years ago and at the time very few women wrestled throughout the country and those that did took a lot of abuse, criticism and on several occasions the male wrestlers that they were required to wrestle would attempt to injure them.
13 years ago I took over a small high school team of 8 wrestlers and 2 of them were girls, that was my first encounter with female wrestling and I had no clue what to do with them.
I decided the first thing I would do is treat them like every other wrestler, push hard, demand a lot, pound and ground like I would every male wrestler in the room and I expected that they would drop from the program just like half the boys would that found out wrestling was to hard.
It took about three practices to realize that one of the girls was one of the best wrestlers in the room and about two weeks to realize that they were the best athletes in the room.
In competition the girls were still taking abuse and criticism from parents and coaches and those of us that coached the girls also took a lot or criticism as well, but the girls kept coming, 5 the following year and 11 the year after that.
So it does not surprise me that I am now standing here giving out an award for wrestling to a Female Student Athlete.
As a coach you always hope that this will be the year an Olympic level athlete walks into your room, Most of us never get that gift but we keep coming back each year hoping and at the end of every year we are notified by our Athletic Director that we will be required to show up for an awards ceremony and hand out awards to our top athletes and students and sometimes it can be tough to pick one.
But it is very rare that a coach has the opportunity to hand out an award to an athlete that has the credentials to be listed as one of the greatest athletes in the schools history, especially when the school is 150 years old.
In the near future someone will be standing up here introducing her as a member of the San Jose High Hall of Fame as one of the best of the best, but before we get to the statistics let me talk about the person.
First you have to get the athlete to buy into your system and she did, The athlete has to make the commitment and dedication required to become a Champion and she did. The athlete has to have a big heart and she does, the athlete has to be able to lead and she can and the athlete has to be able to understand the value of defeat and she understood. A Champion is often cocky and she is, Mouthy and she is and a lot of times a pain in the butt and she was.
Off the mat she took a leadership role that all Senior athletes should. Jocelyn took care of all club responsibilities of having a team, taking care of the paperwork, coordinating the fundraisers, car wash, lunch line, snack program and so on.
In the mat room we had several Freshman and first year wrestlers, a few upperclassmen that had not reached  their potential yet and a few coming back from injuries from the previous year so Jocelyn took on the responsibility of running the mat room warm ups and the skills and drills session of practice and with all of the new wrestlers she stepped in and helped teach technique or was often the coaching staffs throwing dummy when we were teaching technique.
At tournaments not only was she expected to preform at the highest level, which she did but she was also the women's team Capt.. Responsible for making sure the other girls on the team were ready to wrestle and to help coach in the corner when more than one girl was on the mat at the same time.
The reasons above is why the coaching staff, the wrestling parents and the team know Jocelyn deserves this award. Not only as an exceptional athlete and a supportive teammate, but also as an incredible person with a bright future.
But success in sports is measured in statistics so this is why the rest of you will understand what an incredible young lady Jocelyn is.
She helped lead the team to a 6 and 1 record this season, second in the BVAL beating wrestling powerhouses like Independence and James Lick. That is one of the best finishes in a long time for San Jose "No Longer Academy" High School.
She had 26 wins-Highest season win total since 1969
She had 20 wins by pins - The most in a season in school history
She wrestled in 8 tournaments and placed in all 8 - No other wrestler at San Jose High has ever come close to that record. Of those 8 tournaments she was in the finals of 4 winning 2 - Another Record
She was awarded Out Standing Wrestler in 1 tournament - Only 1 other wrestler in 150 years at San Jose High was awarded O.W.
She is a 2 time Central Coast Section Placer - The only other 2 time placer was over 30 years ago.
So I would like to thank Jocelyn for the opportunity to work with her the past 2 years and I would like to Thank her for making me look good 26 times that she took the mat this year.
Congratulations, This award is well deserved, Best of Luck with your Future.

Not sure how old this speech is or who the wrestler was, but I thought with all the craziness going on these days it was worth sharing one of my dads memories.

[coachdavis]

Very cool!  Thanks for sharing!