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Girls Wrestling Boys Takes Center Mat

Girls Wrestling Boys Takes Center Mat - Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 5:12PM EST

Reported by: Kyla Campbell
Sunday, Jan 4, 2009 @ 05:12pm EST

BLOOMSBURG, COLUMBIA COUNTY -- Megan Troup is a seven-year-old girl with eyes movie stars are made of. She just happened to take up a male-dominated sport when she was five. Her brother is a wrestler, and she followed suit, joining Bloomsburg elementary school's program.

"They said she could only wrestle her brother or another girl," said her father, Denny Troup.

But there were no other girls, her brother out-weighed her by 100 pounds, and she lost interest -- until this year.

"We got her in a tournament, and she won her first match against two Southern Columbia boys," said Denny. "And we've just gone from there."

Bloomsburg doesn't let girls wrestle boys, so she joined through Central Columbia, where gender is overlooked. Parents we talked with say Megan should be allowed to wrestle boys -- at least for now.

"I think it's okay while they're young," said Michael Craig of Berwick. "I just find it awkward for teenage boys and girls to be rolling around on a mat."

Other parents and kids agreed.

"If they're little, it's fine," said Sarah Masteller of Berwick. "But when they're older, girls should probably wrestle girls."

Like Megan, Masteller took after her older brothers and wrestled as a kid.

"I wrestled for Central in 5th grade," Masteller said. "I wanted to wrestle in high school, but they didn't allow girls to do it."'

And that's why many parents say the girls and boys should be allowed to wrestle, or schools should create all-girl teams.

"I have a 13-year-old girl, and if she wanted to wrestle, I'd say, 'Go for it," said Heidi Albertson of Berwick. "I have a son in this league, and have no offense to him wrestling a girl."

Bloomsburg area school district superintendent Joe Kelly tells us the police is a couple years old, and they'll address the issue this week.

But no matter the decision, Megan Troup's parents will cheer her on.

"If she wants to do it, she can," said her mother, Tamsen.

Megan took her first match of the day 6-2.