Photo Gallery: Making History
June 7, 2009 by YH-R Sports
Yakima Herald-Republic photographer Gordon King followed the YVCC women’s wrestling team for over six months as the team came from obscurity to become national champions. Here are some of the images:
Tamika Jones jumps on the back of teammate Katelyn Marks as she celebrates the first win ever for the Yakima Valley Community College women's wrestling team in a Nov. 15, 2008 match against Pacific University. This was the first year for the women's team which saw women come and go throughout the first months of the program causing turmoil for coaches and remaining team members. Jones was one of the first wrestlers to join the team; Marks wrestled only one match for the team and never returned. Jones went on to win the 103-pound national championship and the YVCC team won the national collegiate women's team title.
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- Tamika Jones jumps on the back of teammate Katelyn Marks as she celebrates the first win ever for the Yakima Valley Community College women’s wrestling team in a Nov. 15, 2008 match against Pacific University. This was the first year for the women’s team which saw women come and go throughout the first months of the program causing turmoil for coaches and remaining team members. Jones was one of the first wrestlers to join the team; Marks wrestled only one match for the team and never returned. Jones went on to win the 103-pound national championship and the YVCC team won the national collegiate women’s team title.
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- Coach Tito Pimentel coaches the YVCCC women’s wrestling team at its last practice before leaving March 10, 2009 for the national junior college wrestling tournament in Virginia. Four days later, the women won the national title.
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- Coach Mike Schmitt shows to the YVCC women’s wrestling team and coaches the plaque they earned for winning the national women’s collegiate wrestling championship in Virginia March 14, 2009. The team and coaches, along with some members of the men’s team, gathered for an end-of-the-season pizza party to celebrate the championship.
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- YVCC wrestling coach Mike Schmitt uses team member Rachel Segura to demonstrate moves as he and coach Tito Pimentel do some last-minute coaching for the team before the start of a Feb. 5, 2009 match against Simon Fraser University. YVCC lost to SFU this night but under the coaching of Schmitt and Pimentel, along with other coaches, YVCC went on to win the national women’s collegiate title two months later.
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- Jo Ielu was the first woman to show up for the first YVCC women’s wrestling practice ever on September 15, 2008. She sat alone in the hallway outside the wrestling coaches’ office as the men’s team gathered for their first practice of the season. She was expecting more women but only three were there for that first practice. Ielu said later she wondered at the time “What have I gotten myself into?” At the start of the season some members of the men’s team resented the presence of the women. By the end of the season, however, the men became supporters of the women.
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- Rachel Segura, right, watches Cady Chambers, left, and Monique Dilliner demonstrate techniques during her first practice as a member of the YVCC women’s wrestling team on Dec. 4, 2008. Though she had played high school sports, Segura had never wrestled before. With the help of her teammates and coaches, Segura went on to take third in the nation in the 139-pound class.
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- Tamika Jones laughs at teammate Jo Ielu as she checks her weight on a scale in a south Seattle shopping mall Nov. 1, 2008. The team killed time at the mall as they waited to wrestle Pacific University later in the day. Staying at her wrestling weight of 103 pounds was seldom a problem for Jones while others on the team, including Ielu, were often forced to cut weight for matches.
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- Jo Ielu, left, and Cady Chambers take a moment to re-arrange their hair before resuming wrestling at an Oct. 28, 2008 practice. Coach Robert Espinoza calls it “the hair thing” when the women must take this short break. It’s one difference between coaching men and women, he says.
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- Early season practices were difficult as both men and women wrestlers ran miles, including wind sprints, in the mid-September heat. Jo Ielu takes a moment to recover after a set of sprints on the first day of practice on Sept. 15, 2008. Coach Mike Schmitt said he never expected a woman could endure the torturous physical demands of the YVCC wrestling program but admitted the women proved him wrong.
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- Following a season’s-end pizza party on March 19, 2009, wrestler Tamika Jones, left, says goodbye to coach Robert Espinoza while coach Tito Pimentel and wrestler Cady Chambers hug before saying goodbye. Jones and Chambers were among the core group of women wrestlers who started with the team in September, 2008 and finished the season in March, 2009.
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- Monique Dilliner wrestles Taylor Dick of Simon Fraser University on Feb. 5, 2009. Dilliner won in overtime but the YVCC team lost 30-9 to SFU that night. Two months later at the national collegiate women’s wrestling tournament, Dilliner won the 159-pound class title and YVCC beat out SFU for the national team title.
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- The YVCC womens’ team (l-r) Christina Stanley, Tamika Jones, Cady Chambers, Jo Ielu, Rachel Segura and Ashlee Phy cheer on teammate Monique Dilliner in her Feb. 5, 2009 match against Simon Fraser University. Dilliner was the only one to win a match that night for YVCC.
Filed under All, College, Featured Stories, YVCC Wrestling
