Women's wrestling club at SJSU to try out for Olympic team

By: Quang Do

Posted: 5/15/07

The San Jose State University wrestling club is more than just a bunch of dudes slamming each other - there is a women's wrestling division in the club sports program.

Robert Redman, head coach of the SJSU women's wrestling club, said that there are nine competing members and three are SJSU students.

The club has traveled to many competitions and tryouts this year, Redman said, including locations such as Detroit and Portland. The club also practiced at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado.

Redman said that some members saw Canada and that the club's season started in Arizona, where the women wrestlers began with the Sunkist International competition.

Redman said that the SJSU club sports program allowed students from other colleges to join because the sport is not offered at the student athlete's college or university.

Natasha Phinney, a senior majoring in communications at Fresno Pacific University, is a member of the SJSU women's wrestling club who represented her team at the Women's Wrestling National Championships, which took place in Las Vegas at the beginning of April.

Phinney, scheduled to transfer to SJSU in spring 2008, said that she placed 6th in the women's freestyle division at championships.

"I learned a lot," Phinney said about the championships where she weighed-in at "a little more than a 100 (pounds)."

The Las Vegas tournament also had several men's competition where Redman placed 2nd as a heavyweight under 56 years old, according to Jim Lucas, head coach of the SJSU men's wrestling club.

"I'm the only one ... at the Veteran's Nationals Championships that pinned everybody," said Lucas, an SJSU alumnus and wrestler from the first SJSU conference-championship team of 1973.

Redman said that the wrestling season for women ends in June - around the time of the tryouts for the world team of women's wrestling for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which Phinney is training for.

Phinney, who will come to SJSU to work on her masters degree in business management, said, "I know what I have to do," referring to her improvement as a female wrestler.