Tradition — a Precursor to History at the 2019 NAIA Women’s Wrestling National Invitational

As a precursor to the historic National Invitational on schedule for 8 a.m. tomorrow, a number of events carried forward traditions from sports with NAIA National Championships. Women wrestlers took part in their first ever, formal, student-athlete experience before participating in a champions of character event.

Student-Athlete Experience

The student-athlete experience featured a red-carpet entrance at the Harold Newman Arena, hors d’oeuvres and a handful of speakers that delivered grand messages in succinct style. There was a lot of power behind words in a short hour. Albeit tired and potentially cranky from cutting weight, the ladies and coaches had an opportunity to gather, socialize and listen to some words that championed their efforts in an atypical environment for being at a wrestling tournament.

Sandy Stevens is a global wrestling announcer & NWHOF inductee. With her impressive background as a wrestling announcer, Steven’s MC skills moved the hour along and we are fortunate to have her broadcasting tomorrow’s event. Stevens took time to note three reasons she is dedicated to and loves the sport of wrestling.

• Wrestling is the most inclusive sport there is. Inclusion was expressed through examples of wrestlers Steven’s has personally announced — wresters that were male, female, all different weights, deaf, blind and without limb(s). As a board member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Stevens solidified her examples of inclusion with the NWHOF’s campaign, Wrestling for All.
• Wrestling saves lives. Stevens shared a personal story of her late husband, Bear. Coming from a poor neighborhood in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Bear was one of three people in his sixth grade class to earn a bachelors and then master’s degree. Bear attributed his success to skills learned through wrestling and coaches that believed in him.
• Wrestling teaches life lessons unlike any other sport. “Our world is better because of you . . . 13 U.S. Presidents wrestled at some point in their lives”. Stevens shared examples of individuals using skills and attributes learned in wrestling for their success off the mats and is excited for the day when a woman wrestler uses wrestling skills to gain success, prestige and honor beyond the mats to obtain an Outstanding American Award.

Dr. Polly Peterson, President of Jamestown University, championed characteristics found in wrestlers and stated that she values “ . . . deeply passioned perseverance, also known as grit”.

“It’s up to you and it’s up to here [your mind] to persevere. It will be that person who decides to persevere that will be on the podium tomorrow”.

Tamyra Mensah-Stock is a decorated member of our U.S women’s freestyle wrestling team. As she stood before the women experiencing what she never was able to experience at an NAIA school she offered attendees a laugh while breaking the ice. Mensah-Stock humbly listened as Stevens announce her LONG list of wrestling accolades, including being the first American to win not two, but THREE Yarygin gold medals before delivering her message. Tamyra’s message was not only for the athletes, but also for a greater audience as she discussed the need to offer women’s wrestling at all levels of NCAA Division programs along with the NAIA so that young women have more options.

While she loves her alum status from Wayland, Mensah-Stock, presumably along with many others in her age range, feel a little bit like, wow, I wish I could have had that opportunity. It brought an interesting dynamic, having such a young speaker at the student-athlete event. Her presence was a testament of rapid growth and the fact that women’s wrestling can’t be ignored any longer. When I think of Tamyra I think of energy, life and the pursuit of passion. She is a STRONG woman.

Mensah-Stock mentioned that wrestling helped her build grit, resilience, respect, repetition, confidence, competitiveness and the ability to get back up and go at it again.

USA Wrestling partners with the U.S. Marine Corps because of the parallels brought out in wrestling to the Marine values of honor, courage and commitment. Here are some key takeaways from Captain Randow, Officer Selection Officer of the United States Marine Corps:

• You have to put yourself in adverse situations in order to know how you will respond.
• You must train your mind as you train your body. Create scenarios that make you uncomfortable so that you can be ready when the scenarios present themselves.
• There is a point of weakness in the mind where mental and physical fatigue meet — we must get there and then recognize that there is always more in the tank — the mind is capable of extraordinary things.

Champions of Character

Representatives of each participating school, not stuck in winter storms, took part in an hour-long Champions of Character service event where they packaged meals for the Orphan Grain Train. These meals will be sent to Liberia, and are just a small effort the ladies got to be a part of as a sport rather than just a team within their own communities.

“The vision of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Champions of Character program is to change the culture of sport. Its mission is to provide training to instill the values that build character so students, coaches and parents know, do and value the right thing on and off the field” (NAIA, 2019).

All NAIA coaches have been trained on the Champions of Character program and their respective institutions are rated on a scorecard for meeting NAIA program criteria. The five core values of the Champions of Character program are integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership.

FloWrestling will live broadcast the historic event hosted by Shauna Kemp and the Jamestown Jimmies.

Get ready for some great wrestling!