Cassy Herkelman tries to turn Lucas Brockman of West High during their match Thursday. Herkelman would eventually get her first pin of her varsity career, improving her record to 3-2. (photo by Eric VanSickle/Cedar Falls Times)
C.F. 112-pounder one of few girls to wrestle varsity in Iowa
(Note: This article was published in the Dec. 11, 2010, edition of the Cedar Falls Times. I am the author.)
CEDAR FALLS – She is a current national champion, and is ranked eighth nationally in her division among all girls.
This season, she’s testing her mettle against boys at the high school varsity level.
No, it’s not East High volleyball player Haley Eckerman or West High standout athlete Jadyn Spencer. Cedar Falls freshman 112-pound wrestler Cassy Herkelman is trying to show that athletes are athletes, no matter how they’re built.
Herkelman has a 3-2 record. She defeated Iowa City High’s Alex Lemus, 7-2, and Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s Cody Hensel in a 9-0 major decision last week in a double duel at City High before dropping her two matches at the Keith Young Invitational last weekend. After receiving a bye in Thursday's first duel against Cedar Rapids Xavier, she pinned Waterloo West's Lucas Brockman, who jumped up from 103 pounds, in the meet's nightcap.
Previously, she won the 105-pound girls’ middle-school championship in April at the USGWA Open National Championships on the strength of a 3-0 decision over Shelby Hall of Ohio. She also won the Iowa girls’ middle school 105-pound championship in March with a 9-0 victory over Iowa City’s Jasmine Bailey.
Herkelman is one of three girls across the state who are wrestling at the varsity level. Talia Goodale of Osage also competes at 112 pounds, and has a 3-2 record, while Megan Black of Ottumwa has a 5-2 record at 119 pounds. There also was a girl on the Urbandale team two years ago who weighed in at the state dual tournament, according to Alan Beste with the IHSAA.
Wrestling was a family passion on Herkleman’s father, Bill’s side of the family.
“My grandma really said I should, so I did,” she said. “She just said one day, when my sisters and I were messing around, that I should, and I decided I wanted to (wrestle).”
When she made the commitment to wrestle, she joined the Cedar Falls Kids’ Wrestling Club in second grade, Bill recalled, and then also joined the West High Kids’ Wrestling Club later.
Initially, there wasn’t many concerns of Cassy taking on the other boys, Bill said.
“We didn’t see that until she was in ninth grade,” he said.
At that point, three boys refused to wrestle Cassy, only because she was a girl.
“It just makes me feel like it’s their fault,” she said. “They can’t get away from facing a girl in the middle of the high school season.”
She added that as more people see her on the mat, the more wrestling fans support her in her endeavor.
Cassy said going from the middle/junior high level to high school varsity has been different, but she’s starting to get used to it.
“It changes a lot once the meets start going,” she said. “I’m used to (the rigors of the sport) because I’ve been doing it for a while.”
C.F. coach Wil Kelly said the Tigers are happy to have Cassy in the room.
“She’s had a tremendous amount of success at the kids’ level,” Kelly said. “She works really hard, just as hard as our older kids. She’s a talented young girl.”
Kelly said when one puts Cassy’s talent together with hard work, she will be successful.
In recent years, the media has focused on the struggles the average girl has in regards to weight. Usually, this is in regards to the ideal of beauty, perpetuated by fashion models on the runway and in magazines like Vogue or Cosmopolitan.
However, Cassy has to struggle with weight so that she can “make weight” and compete in her ideal weight class. If she’s a pound or two more than 112 pounds, she’d have to wrestle at 119 or not at all.
“It’s hard to get down there,” she said about making weight. “Once you’re at your weight, you have to maintain it.”
Bill said whenever he sees his daughter on the mat, he feels pride more than worrying about how she does.
“It’s just because she’s competing, always being active and pushing herself to be better,” he said.
The elder Herkelman wrestled for four years, at the 138, 152, 160 and 171 weight classes. He also qualified for state his senior year.
Bill doesn’t try to push his daughter too much, and leaves everything up to Cassy as to how many or which tournaments to participate.
“There was one year when we went to probably 40 tournaments in one year, when she was younger,” he said. “After that year, we just let her decide if she wanted to go, she’d wrestle. If not, then we’d stay home.
“She’s always wanted to go to tournaments. Sometimes, we’d go to two in a weekend. We’ve slowed it down to one a weekend.”
Beste said no girl has qualified for the traditional state tournament. Bill Herkelman said whether Cassy becomes the first – or even joins Black and Goodale – to qualify depends on how well the Tigers do with her.
“It all depends on how much they help her and push her,” he said. “The coaching staff here at Cedar Falls has been good.”
The Herkelmans go to national tournaments each March and April, and Bill said they plan to enter Cassy in the USA Wrestling Freestyle Nationals in Fargo, N.D., in July. He said his daughter has the potential to be a national champion at 105 or 112 pounds throughout her high school career.
Kelly would like to see Cassy do more freestyle matches, as that is what women do at the international level.
“That’s something I’m trying to push her into a little bit,” Kelly said. “She does have a little bit of experience in that. For women, to go on to the next level, it’s about freestyle wrestling.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunities for women’s freestyle wrestling. It’s a pretty neat opportunity for us to have a young girl who so talented as she.”
As far as being a member of Team USA for the Olympics in either 2012 (if eligible) in London or 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Bill said Cassy’s result in Fargo would determine her future in freestyle.
“I think her drive is there,” he said. “Her abilities are there. She’s got some good coaches in Wil and the other coaches here at Cedar Falls.”
Being an Olympian is one of Cassy’s goals.
“Every match, I get closer to it,” she said.
Cassy Herkelman tries to finish a take-down against Mason City's Andres Gonzalez in the consolation quarterfinals during Saturday's Keith Young Invitational. (photo by Eric VanSickle/Cedar Falls Times)
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