Why would a girl want to wrestle?

This is the question Dominique Smalley was asked during sorority rush. A question she has had to answer since she was in the seventh grade. This year she will be answering the question as a member of the Iowa State wrestling team.

Smalley, sophomore in management from Iowa City, is the only woman on the ISU wrestling team. She said she feels being at ISU will give her the best opportunity to excel with “support from every direction.”

Smalley previously wrestled on the women’s wrestling team at the University of Minnesota at Morris. Morris has the top-ranked women’s wrestling team in the country, but Smalley said it still was not at the level at which she wanted to work.

Smalley said her coaches in junior high and high school were people who had wrestled at the University of Iowa, so she was used to the “Hawkeye style” of wrestling. She said this meant working hard, not giving up and being aggressive.

Chris Bono, ISU assistant wrestling coach, said Smalley has continued that style.

“She has shown heart and has a great work ethic … She hasn’t missed a beat,” he said.

An athlete all her life, Smalley said she stumbled into wrestling while looking for a sport to play in the winter so she would be active year-round. She said she had enough of basketball, the typical winter sport, so she decided to try wrestling.

Smalley said her father thought she was joking at first, but when he realized she was serious about this new sport, he took her to open wrestling at her junior high school. There, Smalley was able to learn the basics, and she decided to go out for the team.

Smalley said the wrestling coach thought she wanted to be a manager or cheerleader when she approached him, but Smalley wanted to wrestle. The coach let her on the team, and Smalley’s wrestling career began.

Many people saw Smalley as somewhat of a pioneer, but she said she has never really thought of it that way.

“I didn’t think I was doing anything outrageous, just what I knew,” Smalley said.

Smalley is one of about 2,000 female wrestlers in the nation. As a woman, she has had to deal with varying attitudes about her presence in a male-dominated sport.

Smalley said many of the males she’s wrestled with and against had negative attitudes toward her. She said she believes this came from “fear of the unknown and fear of losing to a girl.”

The negative attitudes also came from parents — mostly the fathers — she said.

“Women don’t wrestle on the mat, only in the bed,” Smalley said one father told her.

Despite the negatives, Smalley continued to wrestle. She was a member of the 1997-98 U.S. Women’s National Team and was ranked No. 2 in the United States. She placed third in the World Team Trials and was a member of the Winter Tour to Poland.

Smalley is now waiting patiently for the 2004 Olympics, where Women’s Freestyle Wrestling will be introduced.

“I’ll be in the 2004 Olympics because I work harder than anyone I know,” Smalley said.

Smalley said being on the team at ISU will bring her one step closer to this goal.

“[Having her here] is good for women’s wrestling, ISU and Dominique,” Bono said. “She can do nothing but get better here.”

Smalley said she sees many benefits to being at ISU, including “training under one of the best coaches in the country, an amazingly supportive team” and facilities that will help her be in the best shape ever.

Smalley said she is extremely excited to be wrestling with ISU and for Coach Bobby Douglas. She said Douglas has been very welcoming.

She also has been welcomed by her new teammates and other students. Smalley said she has never had such a positive reaction as the one she has received at ISU.

Many of the ISU wrestlers had never been on a team with a woman and see it as a welcome change.

“Having her here makes the team more diverse,” Bono said.

It also has been good for Smalley, who said she has been given more than she ever could have asked for. She said when she contacted Douglas in the summer, she was only looking for a place to “be at the mat.”

Smalley said she does the same workouts and can use the same facilities as the men. She said she feels she gets a better workout and learns more when she wrestles men.

“I get so much more out of wrestling guys,” Smalley said. “They’re stronger, so I get stronger; they’re better [than the girls], so I get better.”

She also said she sees more of a team atmosphere with men and appreciates how supportive and accepting the team has been.

Some of her teammates said if other teams give her flack, they will stick up for her 100 percent.

“A teammate is a teammate,” said Corey Stevenson, team member and junior in sociology. “We always back each other up, no matter who it is.”

Stevenson said Smalley’s dedication and positive attitude has helped the team work harder.

Dwight Hinson, four-time All-American and senior in sociology, said Smalley also had helped him.

“I drilled with her last week, and she corrected me on my positioning,” he said. “To come into a male-dominated sport is hard, but to come in and last longer than some of the guys is even better and brings her more respect.”

Although she trains just like everyone else, Smalley said she is not sure if she will be wrestling as a member of the ISU team.

Smalley also has decided to wait to wrestle until she can get closer to her weight class so she does not have to worry about cutting weight.

Smalley said it is more difficult for women to lose weight, even if it is just water weight, than it is for men.

Bono said the ISU community may get a chance to see Smalley in action this year, however. He said the coaching staff is trying to set up an exhibition match between Smalley and another female wrestler.

Smalley said one of her goals for the year is to beat one of the men.

“[If she beats me], I’ll have to accept it like a man,” said Zach Thompson, and team member and sophomore in exercise and sport science. “At any tournament, on any given day, anyone can win.”