Thursday, February 1, 2007 Older Editions

Meryl Draper wanted to join a sports team... She chose boys wrestling

By Brian Messenger

Andover High School senior Meryl Draper had never played sports on a team before.

"I wanted to experience that before I graduated," said the 17-year-old native of Germany, who moved to Andover with her family in 1999.

So after playing a few games of powder-puff football with her classmates - an AHS senior girls' tradition - Draper, hungry for a little more competition, did the next logical thing. She tried out for the boys' wrestling team.

"I had such a great time. I said, 'What the heck, I'll join wrestling,'" recalled Draper. "I guess I didn't really know what I was getting myself into."

With a dozen matches of grappling for the high school-level club-squad under her belt, Draper can now proudly say she's part of a team. She's even won a few matches, pinning a few boys in the process.

"I've heard a lot of, 'Are you crazy?' " she said, undeterred. "I'm one of the guys on the team.

"As a team it's just unbelievable. The effort people are putting in, I've never seen it. It's just awesome," said Draper. "I've just never done anything like this."

Draper had a little sibling rivalry to fuel her desire to stick with the squad, she admits. Her 19-year-old brother, Eric, an AHS graduate and former soccer and track athlete with the school, didn't think she could do it.

"That's another reason why I joined wrestling," said Draper, telling the story of her older brother. "He told me I couldn't last a week. I kind of had to prove him wrong. He's always been the athletic one."

It hasn't been easy for Draper, or any of the upstart Andover High School wrestlers. Head Coach Sobhan Namvar, formerly a Division 1 college wrestler himself, likes to challenge his team, running his practices at a grueling rate.

"The practices, I've seen some football players drop out because the practices we're so tough," said Draper. "Going to those intense 21/2-hour-plus practices is just crazy."

The team gets put through their paces three times during the week and early on Saturdays. But that's simply the work that needs to be done when you're only a club team trying to stake a place in the Merrimack Valley Conference, known for both its talent and competitive consistency.

"I'm definitely hoping it becomes a varsity sport next year," said Draper. "It definitely deserves that title because we've definitely worked hard, as hard as any other wrestling team, if not harder. Because we've got something to prove."

Although it's a team sport, Draper, who also has two younger sisters, knows more than anyone on the team that when it's your turn out on the mat, you're out there on your own.

"It's also emotionally exhausting," she said. "Going out there and having to wrestle men is so intense. I don't know how to describe it."

With four wins in 12 matches, Draper has chalked up some well-deserved respect.

She won her first match of the year.

"I was under so much pressure, I didn't know what I was doing," said Draper. "I had to go out there and prove myself. It always feels good to win."

At a tournament match in Woburn, Draper was the only female wrestler out of the 16 participating teams and wrestled three young men that day.

"It was just so intimidating to go out into this huge gym and wrestle these three guys," she said. "It's just difficult to walk out there during any match. Especially as a girl."

Draper has found a way to perform through the pressure, and now, with only a few weeks remaining in the season, those first days of practice seem a long time ago.

"Quitting was in my head every day for the first couple of weeks, just because I had no Idea it was going to be that hard," she said. "Just the support from everyone made me stick it out."

Draper hopes her story can act as motivation for other females looking to compete.

"I think some girls are intimidated by it," she said of wrestling. "If I can pave the way for even just a couple of girls, that would be just fabulous.

"It's just so great to be able to say I'm a girl wrestler on an all-guys team. It's just such a confidence boost. How many people can say that?"