High School girl wrestler nearly lost her life.

[multigraincracker]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/attorney-calls-firing-okemos-athletic-222019220.html

Body slammed by a male, more than twice her size, wrestler 3 times is lucky to be alive.

Story made me sick to my stomach.

[Heidi]

1. Notable points:

• The coach paired the girl with a boy three weight classes heavier, who had a history of injuring partners.
• The boy allegedly body-slammed her repeatedly while the coach merely told him to “settle down.”
• The girl vomited and struggled to breathe, but neither the coach nor the athletic trainer called 911 or gave her medical attention.

If these allegations are true, the involved adults need to be held accountable.

[JMCKUSICK]

32. And not just civilly FFS

[Heidi]

39. I assume the school district and its employees are insured

against civil liability but I hope a local/state criminal investigation ensues. This also smells like a hate crime AND a federal Title IX violation because if these allegations are true, the district and its agents failed to accommodate this young woman’s interests. I’d *love* to hear from DU attorneys.

The school’s athletics program fully and effectively accommodates the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.

https://nwlc.org/resource/quick-facts-about-title-ix-and-athletics/

[Abstractartist]

2. Ok so I'll say it...

Ok, I’ll take the rap and say it…. Sometimes it may not be the correct thing for females to participate in male sport activities.

This is just my opinion stated for safety reasons only, and has ZERO to do with women rights, free speech and expression. It also does not reflect the extreme views of the right on trans and LGBQT rights and freedoms.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. It's not a gender issue. The coach made her practice outside her weight class, which exist for safety reasons.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

23. As a father of a former college wrestler, you don't always get to train in your weight class.

Let's assume this girl is 108 lbs (the lowest weight class). If the guy was 3 weight classes above her, that puts him at 130. That's a lot, but not inherently dangerous if the heavier guy isn't an asshole. Which he clearly was. 130 has a different style of wrestling than 108 to some extent, but it's not night and day.

The coach isn't wrong for having her practice with someone heavier. There are a lot of reasons for doing that. He is at fault for not immediately stopping the guy from intentionally injuring her. Which is a weird thing to do to a teammate.

[ToxMarz]

37. Just based on weight class alone, I agree

But three weight classes AND the gender difference is another issue. For a male and female wrestler in the same weight class, the female wrestlers would in most cases be at disadvantge. Combining the two is another story and if it is done, extreme caution should be exercised. This is a new phenomonon in sports these days, and there is absolutley not enough experience, research and data to reliably say what is and isn't safe and what generally accepted practice should be. Combined with assholes, 'common sense wisdoms', and probably a dash of misogyny in a petri dish style experiment (practiced by people who disdain science and proven scientific methods) it is a recipe for disaster.

[Heidi]

43. Furthermore, under Title IX, the school district has a legal obligation

to protect the underrepresented athlete’s interests. It’s like they set this female athlete up to “learn a lesson.”

[WhiskeyGrinder]

38. True, but high school leagues generally have more restrictive rules around practice and matchups for precisely this

reason.

[lostnfound]

59. She was only 94 lbs, according to a second article

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/okemos-female-wrestler-sues-district-095833746.html

This says most states use 14 classes and boys and girls have different classes
https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/6745821-high-school-wrestling-weight-classes

NFHS Boys Weights - 14 Weight Classes
106 lbs., 113 lbs., 120 lbs., 126 lbs., 132 lbs. 138 lbs., 144 lbs., 150 lbs., 157 lbs., 165 lbs., 175 lbs., 190 lbs., 215 lbs., 285 lbs.

NFHS Girls Weights - 14 Weight Classes
100 lbs., 105 lbs., 110 lbs., 115 lbs., 120 lbs., 125 lbs., 130 lbs., 135 lbs., 140 lbs., 145 lbs., 155 lbs., 170 lbs., 190 lbs., 235 lbs.

So when they say 3 classes up, do they mean a boy of 121 lbs to 126 lbs? While the girl at 94 lbs would be in the lightest category whether a girl or a boy, but against another girl, “3 classes up” would max out at 115? Whereas if her competitor were a 126 lb girl, the competitor would actually be 6 classes up (126 to 130)?

[Heidi]

7. She apparently *had* been safe

Last edited Mon Aug 25, 2025, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

when responsibly paired with male wrestlers in her own weight class. There’s plenty of blame to go around in this case but I don’t think any of it rests with the gravely injured athlete (or her parents/guardians).

[EdmondDantes_]

14. You can train even responsibly outside of your weight class

If the physically bigger person is responsible. I'm a big guy who trained martial arts who never injured anyone because being bigger and often more experienced, there's a respect and consideration that you owe someone training with you. Both the other wrestler and the adults involved should all face consequences for this.

[Heidi]

15. I agree.

Thank you for your reasoned and experienced voice.

[CrispyQ]

17. +1000

This shows how much hatred there is out there toward women/girls. The heavier student is an uncaring brute, & probably a misogynist, & should be suspended from school & kicked off the team. The coach should be fired & criminally charged. The school should be sued.

That poor girl.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. She would have been fine in her own weight class

Instead the coach paired her with someone much bigger and older than she was because he wanted to see her get taught a lesson.

There are girls who try out for boys wrestling a lot of places and do just fine, some even win. But there are weight classes for a reason in wrestling. And as someone who wrestled the weight classes aren't all there is to protect young and inexperienced wresters, when I started wrestling as a freshman, my coach knew I couldn't hang with some senior state level guy even if he was my same weight so he'd pair me with someone closer to my skill level so I could learn without getting hurt. I was 112 pounds as a freshman, there was a 112 pound senior on our team who would have broken me in half had the coach asked him to go all out. Instead I practiced against guys my age, and some a little smaller until I could go against more experienced wrestlers safely while learning from them.

Wrestling practice isn't about slamming your teammates to the mat to hurt them. It's about drilling to learn skills, communicating, and learning an incredibly complex craft. My coach wouldn't have dreamed of pairing me with someone 3 weight classes bigger who had experience unless it was for a drill and he was right there to make sure I'm learning something. And sure, there's a toughness to wrestling, we dealt with pain, cross faces causing bloody noses, and extreme fatigue. But allowing the type of body slamming that is described here just isn't part of high school wrestling practice and never has been. And I wrestled in the 80s.

[Irish_Dem]

11. I agree totally.

My daughter was a third degree black belt at age 11.
She was brilliant at Tae Kwon Do sport.

Her first competition she was paired with much larger older male national champions.
My daughter is only 4 ft 10 inches and weighed 90 lbs.

Prior to this event these national champions had sent their opponents to the
hospital via ambulance which I did not know about.

She entered the competition and managed to beat the national champion.
He cried like a baby when a girl beat him and I knew these boys would be
out for blood the next competition. So I refused to let her compete in
any more competitions against these boys.

She then went into competing with swords and board breaking etc.
No opportunity for the boys to kill her.

[Torchlight]

13. I don't think this story's context provides you the hill you want to stand on.

The coach erred and wholly ignored weight classes.

[Irish_Dem]

16. This female child was almost killed. That is the only context I need to make a gd decision.

Killing and raping females seems to be fine with many people.
Not me.
I am going to scream bloody murder to protect females.

[Torchlight]

20. I doubt anyone on this board is fine with "Killing and raping females"

I also doubt no one believes a school wrestler should be put in the ring with someone of a vastly different weight class. I hope people scream about that as well.

[Heidi]

24. We can rail against both in parallel.

See how that works?

[obamanut2012]

19. "Females" is not a noun, it's an adjective.

[Tanuki]

27. "Female" has been used both as a noun and adjective since the 14th century

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female

..."The word female comes from the Latin femella, the diminutive form of femina, meaning "woman", by way of the Old French femelle.[7] It is not etymologically related to the word male, but in the late 14th century the English spelling was altered to parallel that of male.[7][8] It has been used as both noun and adjective since the 14th century.[7] Originally, from its first appearance in the 1300s, female exclusively referred to humans and always indicated that the speaker spoke of a woman or a girl.[9] A century later, the meaning was expanded to include non-human female organisms.[9]"

[Ilsa]

44. True, but it feels dehumanizing because

it can be used to describe non-humans.

I've been in office meetings where the men were called "men" and the women were called "females". I swear, one time the speaker seemed afraid to say "women", like it was a dirty word or something.

[obamanut2012]

53. Yup, because it is

It is a huge incel/misogynistic tell.

[Doodley]

56. Really? We can't use the word female anymore?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

64. It rankles as a noun.

[Demovictory9]

55. Until about the 1980s, it was "ladies", women was like a dirty word

It was "men and ladies"...

[obamanut2012]

52. You don't use it as a noun with humans -- it is a huge misogynist thing done by incels and others

There is even a subreddit with examples: Men and females.

Use woman or girl. Not Female.

You don't need to be condescending to me, I know the definition.

[Doodley]

58. Please explain when we should use woman or girl? For example, if a female looks 16, should we say woman or girl?

What about 17 or 18?

[obamanut2012]

61. OMG you know exactly what I mean -- you just did what you did on purpose

My God, this place sometimes.

[Doodley]

63. With all due respect, are you not able to answer the question?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

65. You could say person.

if a female looks 16, should we say woman or girl? What about 17 or 18?

why does this feel like someone determining whether they can sleep with someone or not

[druidity33]

71. How about young woman? nt.

[Doodley]

72. That sounds good to me, but there's always somebody who will object. Call sixteen year-olds a girl and

some will be not like that, as they want to be called a woman. Call them a woman, or even a young woman, and some won't like that either. I just asked my wife, and she that that would be weird to be called a young woman at sixteen Now I learn that you can't even call anyone a female.

[Tanuki]

66. How was it condescending to point out that the word

has a centuries-long history of being used as both a noun and a verb, in response to your erroneous statement that it is not a noun, but an adjective? No need to reiterate what you've subsequently said about it being used as a noun by "incels and others." I agree that a phrase like "Men and females" is asymmetrical and weird, but do you think it is inherently sexist to say "males and females?" Is it offensive to refer to a man or boy as a "male"? I am a woman, btw, but in this context I would not think I was insulting myself if I had said "I am a female," although you would obviously disagree.

[AStern]

40. I'm not a sexist but...

[Heidi]

46. Thank you!!!

[Random Boomer]

45. This wasn't normal participation in a sport

This girl was targeted for physical abuse. She was deliberately set up by the adults in the room, in a way that would have been harmful for any boy in her position.

[Bettie]

4. Made me sick too

the coach and athletic director should be fired and the boy who harmed her (and has harmed others) needs serious counselling and not to be doing that sport until he's better able to control himself.

Everyone involved should be fired.

[haele]

8. If that boy was already found to have unnecessarily hurt other wrestlers

There is no way in hell he should have been allowed to continue even with competitors his own weight class. Putting an out of control, aggressive hulk of a youngster against smaller children will end up in serious or fatal injuries -not "toughen them up" or whatever Guess thought it would do (which in this case, was probably "I'll show those uppity feminists whose boss, see how she handles a real boy...&quot .
It shows this"coach" doesn't have the discipline, sportsmanship, or any concern about the idea of a team or wellbeing of the students in his charge, he's probably only a coach just to relive his own HS "glory days" and still be able to get paid as well as some form of respect.

[Srkdqltr]

9. The coach was at fault here. He put a person much smaller with a very much larger person.

Girl, boy it doesn't matter. There are weight and experience levels for a reason. Men or women, dosnt matter, the coach was extremely at fault here. I hope they sue the living shit out of him. Too bad they couldn't prosecute him for attempted murder.

[LostOne4Ever]

12. Sounds like they set her up to punish her

For daring to join a “boys” sport. So they set her up with a boy 3x her weight class with a history of injuring people.

I expect the bigots to try and make this about girls having no place in boys sports or an attack on trans girls or both.

It needs to be emphasized that the fact is that he was 3x her weight class and had a history of injuring others and that the coach was indifferent to that.

[Iggo]

22. Bigots already are.

[Ferrets are Cool]

18. This is a hate crime. Parents should sue.

[sl8]

30. Most of the article is based on that lawsuit and that lawyer's statements. nt

[Heidi]

48. Surely you noticed the number of "if true" comments in this thread.

Or not?

[Iggo]

21. He was teaching her a lesson.

Big man with a big point to make.

[Rebl2]

25. Hate

wrestling be it women or men as well as boxing.

[milestogo]

28. I hate these also.

Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" was horrific.

[uponit7771]

26. Why was she outside her weight class in the first place?!

[Heidi]

29. Did you read the article? The coach paired her with a teammate three weight classes heavier.

SHE was not “outside her weight class” but her teammate—who had a history of injuring other wrestlers—*certainly* was outside her weight class.

[cab67]

31. This is on the coach.

Or whoever else decided to have this girl wrestle someone that large.

There's a reason wrestlers (and boxers) compete against others of similar weight.

[Johonny]

33. The reason why there are weight classes

Sue everyone involved

[Heidi]

34. Additional info that cuts to the heart of this case:

“Girls in Okemos are being told, ‘You can play — at your own risk,’” said attorney Jamie White. “This case is about more than sports—it’s about equal protection, basic safety, and the right to be free from retaliation."

https://www.wilx.com/2025/08/21/high-school-girl-sues-okemos-school-district-after-suffering-severe-injuries-during-wrestling-practice/

[uponit7771]

69. Ah, so they wanted to prove a point

[Wiz Imp]

35. First of all, a person with a history of injuring other people should not be allowed on the wrestling team.

Second of all, "Body slams" in general are illegal in high school wrestling so wh is a coach allowing a wrestler to do that to another wrestler on his team? Sounds like a sadist to me.

https://www.indeewrestling.com/folkstyle-wrestling-rules/#:~:text=Penalty%20Points%20%E2%80%93%20P1%20or%20P2,first%20penalty%20is%201%20point.

Folkstyle Wrestling Rules

Penalty Points – P1 or P2 – 1 or 2 points – A wrestler in any of the three scoring positions can earn one or two penalty points when their opponent breaks the rules of wrestling. These rules include no stalling (one stall warning “S” is given before penalizing for stalling), no swearing, kicking, scratching, biting, hitting, body slamming an opponent to the mat, bending any body part beyond its normal range of motion (the referee will try to stop these situations as “potentially dangerous” before someone is injured), or using holds from the illegal holds’ list. On the penalty chart, any first penalty is 1 point. Any second penalty is 1 point. Any third penalty is 2 points. Any fourth penalty is disqualification. Unsportsmanlike conduct and flagrant misconduct can lead to immediate disqualification.

see this video starting around 2:00

&t=93s

There is a clearly false statement in this story though. It says the guy who injured the girl was twice her size. He was only 3 weight classes above her - clearly much bigger but it's a big exaggeration to say he was twice her size. In Michigan where this happened, in high school wrestling, 3 weight classes (at weights under 165) represents at most 20 pounds. (though I guess she could be at the lowest weight class which is 106 but weigh less than that, while 3 weight classes higher would be 126.)

https://www.mlive.com/highschoolsports/2022/05/mhsaa-announces-new-weight-class-divisions-for-boys-and-girls-wrestling.html

[Heidi]

41. Sounds like the adults involved were sending a message to this female athlete.

[Scrivener7]

60. First thing I though of. The coach doesn't want to waste his time with girls, so he

thought he'd teach her a lesson.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

51. In college, too. You have to go to the mat with the opponent.

You can't just throw them onto the mat while still standing.

Clearly the guy was out to hurt her and the coach didn't care.

Also, fully agree that 3 weight classes in no way becomes twice her size.

[Maninacan]

36. Me Too

Gym class Phy, ed teacher put me against someone on the wrestling team who picked me up overhead and slammed me. I am wiry and light weight against a gorilla build.

[Heidi]

42. I hate that that happened to you.

That was wrong.

[multigraincracker]

47. I've always been in favor of removing most if not

all competitive sports from schools. Make them club sports like they do in Europe.
These inter school sports programs lead to hate among communities. Also, many of these coaches are outright bullies.
Just my opinion and have found very few agree with me. I have my own reasons.

[Heidi]

49. It's *not* just your opinion.

I’ve lived in Switzerland for 25+ years—no competitive sports in the schools. Competitive sports here are community organized. It’s a very athletic national culture in general but competitive sports aren’t part and parcel to primary education; in middle school kids can apply to sports-focused schools. I’m okay with that because it’s a a choice.

[Bettie]

57. I'm not a sports person at all, but

if sports moved to clubs exclusively, rather than at school, poor kids would never be able to participate.

There are clubs, traveling teams, but they are for kids whose parents have transportation to get them places, money to belong to the team and pay for all the travel and uniforms, etc. School sports also keep some kids who would otherwise drop out in school longer.

It's sad, but it's the way this country is.

My kids were band kids....and there wouldn't be marching band without sports either.

ETA: Oops, one is still a band kid! Bad Mama, forgetting youngest child!

[multigraincracker]

62. Good argument for keeping it this way.

But, I see no reason for club sports not to support poorer kids. Much of the money now used goes to kids that don't need it. A club would or might be better at distributing those funds to poor kids that need it. I had a family member that was more than able to afford college, yet he got a scholarship and that money might have been better spent on a kid that needed it more.
Seems to work in other countries. Now there are many of the pros are coming out of countries that work on the Club sports systems. Lots of those are poorer kids too. Some of those scholarships go the athletes that are only interested in sports and never finish the school part. In other words they are only there for the sports and not the education. It might be better to give college scholarships to poorer kids that want to go for the education.

I think money for education would be better spent on those with need and ability than on how fast they can run or shoot a basketball or hit a baseball.

[Bettie]

70. I have no faith in the ability or

desire of well-off people to allow "the poors" into their clubs.

Middle class people are that way too.

People in the US LOVE to exclude people of lesser means to make themselves feel better.

Yes, I am pretty disillusioned about our society in general

[hunter]

67. I agree with you.

I have especially horrible memories of wrestling in middle school.

Our P.E. class was divided up by weight and there was only one kid in the school who weighed less than I did, so we were put into own weight class.

I was a very skinny, squeaky, highly reactive autistic spectrum klutz and the other kid could have passed as a third grader.

I'd already been given the nickname "Queerbait" by the class bullies.

When we started wrestling the entire class gathered around and started cheering and jeering like it was the best freak show they ever saw, some of them even yelling "Queerbait!"

The coach seemed to look a little amused at first until he realized things were going in an ugly direction that might get him in trouble, so he broke us up and sent us to the showers, with some of the guys shoving me around for ruining their fun.

I have a lot more stories like that and can't count the number of times I was told by supposed adults that I'd get into less trouble if I'd just "be a man." That just wasn't in the cards for me then; not for a few years anyways.

I didn't learn to appreciate sports until I started playing coed recreational softball in college. Until then, other than cross country running, my forced participation in school sports was misery.

Our schools should be teaching an appreciation for physical activity that will serve people throughout their lives. Competitive sports like football where "winning and losing" are a huge component of the game are not going to accomplish that for most people.

[Jose Garcia]

50. Why was the boy permitted to continue on the team if

he had a history of injuring his teammates?

[Lancero]

54. Schools, especially in communities with nothing else to have pride in, go through hell and high water...

To protect their 'star athletes'.