Kari Krushes

When Junior Kari Sickles arrived at the Call Out Tournament (COT) at, Ft. Lauderdale High School she wasn't happy, "I was kind of frustrated. It's hard to get a match at call-out tournaments when you're a girl." The COT is where you ask an opponent if he will wrestle you. Its not an important school tournament, and even the periods are shorter than normal.

In order for Kari to get a match, her coach was going to have to do some hard work, “"My coach ended up having to talk to the other school's coaches in order to get me a match.” Her first match was against a boy from University High. Kari says the boys parents were very happy that their son would face her, "They were sitting between my mom and another rival team. When the coach told them who he was wrestling, they said 'Oh, an easy win to begin the season.' " However their son didn't seem to happy to be facing Kari, “He looked pretty nervous to be wrestling me haha.”

It turns out, he had reason to as Kari cruised, "Almost immediately after the whistle blew I snapped him down and got 2 points. I kept trying to pin him, but he was really squirmy and I couldn't quite get it, hahaha. He ended up getting one point for an escape in the second period because when he stood up he elbowed me in the nose and I let go out of pain. It wasn't too hard to take him back down though, so I kinda dominated him the entire match." Kari ended up winning the match, 11-1. “I felt pretty good afterwords because I'd wrestled well and won.”

Kari then wrestled another boy and lost by one point. “I just made a stupid mistake and underestimated him, and that's what happens."

While Kari was successful in getting the first two boys to say yes, the third boy proved to be more tricky. The boy she wanted to face didn't seem to want to face her. But luckily for Kari, his teammates started riding him. Kari says, “They said the usual taunts, things like "Are you really that scared of a girl? Is she really that much better than you? How much of a chicken can you be?"

But it was the boy's response that upset Kari. "One of my teammates was warming up for a match right next to them. My teammate told me the boy tried to act tough and say, “Of course I'm not afraid, she's just a girl, winning will be easy.” Kari did not fully believe her teammate.

“When he told me I thought he was exaggerating, but when I walked by them to get to the mat they were still talking about it. Also, we were on the mat right next to them - so I could see them talking and laughing and looking at me.

Kari was not pleased, “I was pretty mad - he was actually one of the first boys to really talk crap about me.” It wasn't just going to be a match now, now it was personal. “Winning became really important to me. I didn't want to lose to someone like that.”

But while Kari was confident based on her 11-1 route in her first match, she didn't really know how this match would go, “"I wasn't 100% sure I could crush him, because I hadn't really seen him wrestle, and didn't really know anything about him. All I initially thought of was winning."

Kari stepped on the mat and another thought came to her, “I'm not gonna lie, I wanted him to be embarrassed.” They shook hands and Kari gave him a firm hand shake, “I wanted him to be a bit intimidated.” Kari was met with a wet noodle, “That's when I thought 'I can definitely crush this kid.' "

While many times the girl is at a strength disadvantage, this time she felt her gender gave her an edge, "I think he was intimidated before we even shook hands. He was psyching himself out over the probability that he could lose to a girl haha."


The match started and Kari felt his disrespect grew. “The only time I've ever seen a wrestler just stand there at the start, it's been out of disrespect. And that's what he did. When the whistle blew, he kinda stood up a bit - like he was expecting me to just stand there and not know what to do while he took me down.”

That isn't what happened. “Well, I've never been very good at taking shots, so I lunged at him and attacked his head, trying to snap him down while showing him that I knew exactly what I was doing. Her opponent put a lot of effort into trying to get her down. But he was unsuccessful, "He wasn't really in a good position to get the take down, it was really easy for me to flatten him out.” But Kari still had work to do to get the two points, “It wasn't so easy getting his arms off and spinning behind. I put all of my effort into spinning behind him, but my team does a lot of conditioning and I didn't exhaust myself. After I sprawled, I had to get all the way behind him to get the two points."

It was extremely early in the match, and it was only 2-0, but Kari could feel her opponent had nothing left. “Once I had him down I knew I had him. He gave up on trying to base up after about 10 seconds. His coach was yelling at him but I just kept tilting him for back points.

"I was pretty excited that I'd gotten the 2 points, and when he kinda gave up it made me feel pretty confident that I would be winning the match - especially since he gave up so early in the match."

Then her opponent's coach started getting frustrated, "At that point, his coach started getting really mad at him. No coach wants to see their wrestler give up a minute into the match."
The first period ended and it was a romp, 10-0. While Kari was unsuccessful in getting the pin, she wasn't upset. “Where I live I actually never got too much disrespect from guys, so usually I'm not going into a match with the goal to embarrass someone lol, I just want to win.”
But this was a different case, Kari had been disrespected, and now she was going to return the favor, “At the end of the first, I was just thinking of a way to embarrass him - as mean as that may sound haha - so being in the lead by 10 points was fine by me, even if didn't have the pin."

Kari was not worried about her opponent making a comeback, “"When we stood back up he took his time and kept looking at the ground instead of at his coach or me. He did try harder for a take down in the second period, but it went a lot like the first period and he gave up a bit quicker. I knew he couldn't beat me at that point because he was mentally broken."
It was now 12-0, and it was getting dire for her opponent, “I was trying to turn him over, but since it was a call out tournament the 2nd period was shortened to a minute and I didn't really have a lot of time left. I got another near-fall for 2 points, and then with 10 seconds left I turned him again." Kari was having the time of her life, "I was enjoying myself, and I was enjoying beating him so badly hahaha. I was in my own world."

But there were still 10 seconds left in the 2nd period, and the score was 14-0. One more point for Kari, and it would be a tech fall. "When I turned him over, I knew that I would be getting the win because he wasn't really even trying to bridge off his back at that point. Unfortunately, I had lost track of the time towards the end so I didn't realize that there was almost none left. When the ref slapped the mat at the same time as the end of period buzzer, I just thought 'man, now I have to go into the third period because that probably didn't count.' But it turned out that it didn't matter, because I got enough points from the near-fall to give me a technical fall. The ref wanted to give me the pin, but wasn't really sure if he could give it to me, so he asked my opponents coach what he thought. The coach looked at the score and then looked at me and said 'I don't care, ask her what she wants.' " "So I chose the tech because that would be a more embarrassing way to lose, in my opinion.”

Kari had accomplished her goal, "I was smiling, because I was pretty happy with the outcome of the match. He just kinda stood there though - I'm sure he was embarrassed, because he'd talked crap and then lost 16 - 0."
It was time for the winners arm to be raised, and Kari couldn't wait. "It felt as good as it did the first time I ever got my hand raised. I don't really remember if I said anything to him, but I don't think I did, he just walked off to go sit with his teammates."

They would see each other again, but this time, her opponent had nothing to say, "I didn't see him again until counties, and when I walked by him his teammates said 'Hey, isn't that the girl that destroyed you?' and whenever he saw me after that he would turn and walk away from me. I guess his teammates made fun of him for losing."

Kari to this day doesn't understand the big deal about why it was such a big deal to lose to her, "It just seemed kind of stupid to me, honestly, because counties was a month later and he was still embarrassed about losing." She also thinks if they meet again, the goal will be different, “I've proven my point the first time , so if we ever wrestle each other again my goal won't be to embarrass him, just win."

Asked if she ever sees him again what would she want him to think, Kari says, "I guess I'd want him (and his team) to know that, just because I'm a girl, it doesn't mean I'm going to be a bad wrestler. Being a girl has nothing to do with my ability as a wrestler."

Does she think he knows that now? “I think he does.”