February 27, 2011

Wrestling with Morality: Boys vs. Girls on the Mat

By Selwyn Duke
Imagine that you're a young adolescent boy.  Like many your age, you're shy around girls, perhaps to the point at which even talking to one might make your heart race.  You also like sports, so you go out for your school's wrestling team.  Then, lo and behold, you're at a meet, and something hits you like a load of bricks.Your opponent is going to be a girl.  You're going to have to grapple with her.  In front of spectators.  Touching -- and being touched in -- intimate places.  You'd have to be touched to think this is okay, but it's precisely the situation that confronted sophomore wrestler Joel Northrup at the recent Iowa State Championship.  His response, as many of you already know, was to default his match against 14-year-old Cassy Herkelman and relinquish the chance to win a coveted wrestling title in deference to his moral convictions. While this story made national news, it wasn't even close to the first time a schoolboy wrestler found...(Read Full Article)