Treat her like a lady?

By Joe Mason
Times Sports Editor

Constance Jennings Brosnan is your regular high school girl.
Known simply as "C.J." by her friends and family, the George Washington High School senior enjoys the things your typical 18-year-old girl would enjoy.
Upon waking in her Somerton home each morning and getting ready for school, Brosnan stands in front of her mirror, making sure her hair is done perfectly.
She makes sure to accessorize.
Then she heads to school and acts like the perfect lady.
Later in the evening she’ll rush home and head to the Boyle Recreation Center, where she teaches ballet to children. There are times when she’ll show up with a noticeable bruise, perhaps a slight limp, maybe even a black eye.
Teaching ballet isn’t that hazardous. But there are times when life as a high school wrestler can be.
Brosnan is the 103-pounder on the Washington High School wrestling team, which has 20 members. This is her first year in the circle, but it’s not her first year around the program.
Last year she served as the manager, keeping the stats, helping with the scoreboard and getting water and towels for the wrestlers.
This year she does just one thing for the team. She wrestles.
Brosnan has competed in three varsity matches so far. She has been pinned all three times, but each match has given her some insight on technique and strategy.
Brosnan doesn’t worry about it all that much. She’s glad to be competing and having fun.
"I love it. It’s such a great feeling to be out there," Brosnan said. "It’s scary, it’s a lot of hard work, a lot of running, a lot of drilling and really hard practices. But I still love it. I’m so glad I decided to give it a try."
If you’re the wrestler, those six minutes on the mat during a match can seem like an eternity. To build her stamina, Brosnan joins her male teammates and runs laps. In fact, she spends close to three hours every day, running, sweating, drilling and honing her ability.
Constance Jennings Brosnan doesn’t get special treatment because she’s not one of the boys.
"She’s a wrestler . . . a lot of times we forget she’s a girl," Washington coach Mike McKinney said. "You know how boys are, and sometimes when we’re at practice, the boys are talking like boys. You have to stop and say, ‘Hey, there’s a lady in the room.’
"But she doesn’t get any special treatment," the coach added. "She works just as hard as any guy. She’s still learning, but she’s done a great job so far.
McKinney recalls when Brosnan approached him about her desire to wrestle with the team.
"She came to me last year and told me she wanted to join," he said. "I knew she was a dedicated manager, so I was all for it — the guys were all for it too. I’m glad that’s how everyone felt."
Brosnan knows that her teammates respect her. She has the bruises to prove it.
As with all Public League sports, if there is no girls sport and a female athlete wants to compete, she’s eligible to play with the boys teams. Brosnan is the first Public League female wrestler to take the mat since Central had a female participant during the 2001 season.
"They treat me like their sister," Brosnan said of her teammates. "They’re all really cool about it, they don’t take it easy on me. I don’t want them to go easy on me because if they did, I’d never get better. I love being a part of this team, and I’m really happy the guys treat me like a teammate and not a girl teammate."
Washington High’s opponents may not be so welcoming. During the preseason, when the Eagles were wrestling teams from the suburbs, Brosnan heard that some of them were a little leery about grappling with a girl.
This can be . . . uh, a sensitive matter. Wrestling tends to put the combatants in provocative positions. And then there’s the matter of pride and reputation. A male wrestler who defeats a female wrestler does what he’s expected to do. But if he loses that match . . . transferring to another school might seem an appealing option.
Brosnan understands that, for the guy, the whole thing may seem like a no-win situation. You beat a girl . . . how macho! You don’t beat the girl . . . what a wimp!
"If I were a boy, I don’t think I’d want to wrestle a girl, so I know where those guys were coming from," Bronson said. "But I know how hard this girl is working and belongs out there.
"I’m not out there for any reason . . . I’m not trying to make a statement or anything like that, I just want to wrestle," she explained. "I just love competing."
She thinks it’s worth all the sacrifice.
Coming into the season, Brosnan, who stands 5-feet-6, weighed about 110 pounds. To make the weight class, she had to drop at least seven pounds to wrestle.
"Before I wrestled, I could eat whatever I wanted and I never really gained any weight," she said. "Making weight was the hardest part. I had to give up a lot of food, had to be a lot pickier."
On Jan. 5, Brosnan made her Public League debut.
In Washington’s 43-33 loss to Frankford, the 10-time defending Public League champs, Brosnan was pinned by the Pioneers’ Khalil Stokes in the second period of an entertaining bout.
During the tilt, Brosnan scored eight points before getting stuck. She also wasn’t just battling Stokes; she was battling a strong case of stomach butterflies.
"I puked before I went out and almost puked again during the match," she said with a smile. "I was just nervous. We had a good crowd, we were wrestling the best team . . . I think it really got me a little too excited."
Brosnan is happy to note that her father Pat is her biggest fan. C.J. is the youngest of three girls — she also has a younger brother — and she’s the only one who plays sports.
"My family thinks I’m a little crazy," Brosnan said. "My older sisters are both girlie-girls. My brother is a skateboarder. None of them played any sports.
"My dad comes to the matches, he loves it," she said. "My mom (Kate) thinks I’m crazy for wrestling, but she’s supportive. She knows I love it and she wants me to be happy."
Joining the wrestling team has done a lot for the 18-year-old. She sees it every time she gets ready for school in the morning . . . you know, when she’s doing her girlie routine.
"Sometimes I’ll look in the mirror and see muscles I never knew I had," Brosnan said.
She has endurance, too. And she seemingly has the respect of her teammates.
Now, she just wants to win.
Just cracking Washington’s lineup is an achievement, and right now she’s penciled in as the team’s starter. But it would be nice to get that hand raised in triumph.
"I really want to win a match, and I think if I keep getting better, I have a real shot," she said. "I think it helps so much that I have the support of the guys on the team. They’ve been so good about me being here. It means a lot that they support me and they treat me like a wrestler. I’m just one of the guys."
Almost.
A few years ago, McKinney instituted a rule that wrestlers must wear a shirt and tie on days the team wrestles. Brosnan doesn’t have to follow that dress code.
"I always look pretty," Brosnan joked. ••
Sports editor Joe Mason can be reached at 215-354-3035 or jmason@phillynews.com