Kansas Wrestling
Olympic hero visits King


Recently, Sara McMann stepped back on the mat to impart her vast knowledge of wrestling on some up and coming high school wrestlers at the King College Women's Wrestling Camp. Though not all camps have Olympic Silver medalists and legends of the sport for instructors the opportunity to learn for experienced veterans of the sport is everywhere. Practicing improves your moves, but sometimes that little extra time you take to go to a camp can really pay off. Every athlete is different and when you go to a camp you take the chance of meeting a clinician that may show one small difference(seemingly unimportant difference) that becomes very important and makes a move click for you. Even in state or camp around area can have this impact. There are great opportunities near and far and at a relatively low cost a lot of times.

Olympic hero visits King

By Spencer Campbell
Sports Writer / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: June 17, 2009

BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

BRISTOL, Tenn. – A visiting professor stopped by King College on Wednesday. Her lecture, however, strayed from the college’s typical curriculum.

“The conventional way to get into a gut wrench,” Sara McMann told 18 students inside King’s Student Center Complex, “you’re hooking her in the right armpit. I don’t think the referee would notice if you grab her by the throat. Just be quick about it. All this choking stuff, you didn’t get from me.”

In fairness, McMann’s area of study isn’t geology, business or mathematics. It’s wrestling. And she’s at the top of her field.

McMann was the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in women’s wrestling, and on Wednesday she attended King’s first annual women’s wrestling camp to impart some of her hard-earned experience to the group of mostly out-of-state high school wrestlers.

As the students broke into pairs, McMann reminded them: “This is a painful move, so it’s going to be painful. If you’re not hurting, your partner’s not doing it right.”

McMann’s presence at King’s women’s wrestling camp was the work of the Tornado’s first-year coach, Jason Moorman. The upcoming year will serve as the inaugural season for the King women’s wrestling team, and after assisting the Tornado’s men’s team for two years, Moorman’s strategy for success does not include patience.

“We want to compete for a national championship our first year,” Moorman said. “That’s why we have Oklahoma City scheduled [on Oct. 31], because they’re the current national champions.”

That’s also why Moorman asked McMann to attend his camp.

“She’s an icon,” Moorman said. “She’s the highest Olympic medal holder in our country. [Students] look up to her, we want them to know that whatever they want to do, they can accomplish it.”

McMann is no stranger to this part of the country, having attended high school in Marion, N.C., before graduating from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania. McMann is a six-time U.S. Nationals champion, two-time Pan-American Games champion, and the 2003 and 2007 World bronze medalist.

But the climax of her current wrestling career came at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece – the first time women’s wrestling was featured in the Games – when McMann took home silver in the 64-kilogram weight class.

She currently wrestles out of Limestone College in South Carolina, where her husband is the head men’s wrestling coach.

“There [are] not too many camps for females,” McMann said. “I really like the opportunity to give back to our sport. I always like to set a good example through technique, and show these girls how excited we are for the sport.”

Also, being a woman in a predominately male sport, McMann realizes that she has the opportunity to guide young girls beyond the wrestling mat, where she can discuss the pressures of competing on boys’ teams. Although women wrestlers are still the minority, and even if grappling has yet to appeal to the Tri-Cities’ female population (there was only one at the camp on Wednesday), McMann just hopes her fervor infects one young girl.

“We thought after it was made an Olympic sport, it’d be more popular, but it’s been the same,” McMann said. “But you have to love it to do it. If it ends up being a bunch of dedicated girls, we’ll love that, too.”

scampbell@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2543
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