Austin's Doan Breaks Barriers

This my interview that i found today!! And I'm so soososoos happy!!
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(KAAL) -- The Austin wrestling team didn't have a season to remember, finishing under .500 and losing in the first round of sections. But one Packer will never forget it. Thao Doan made history this season, becoming the first female to wrestle on the varsity level in school history.

"She's not in it for the carnival atmosphere part of things, she's in it to learn and do well, as best she can," says JV head coach Terry Carlson.

The first year of high school can be overwhelming, especially when you move to a new city. After living in Atlanta all of her life, Thao Doan moved to Austin last year.

"At first, I was really nervous because I didn't know anybody or anything," says Doan.

She's a very quiet girl, but she soon became very well known.

"You really don't know what to expect the first day when you get a new person in the wrestling room, and her being a female, you really start to think 'is she going to stick it out, is she going to stay with it'," Carlson says.

"The first time we met, I asked the coach not to see me as just as a girl, just see me as one of the guys," says Doan.
- What was his response?
"Sure, I can do that for you," Doan says.

Doan says she feels comfortable on the Austin wrestling team. The rest of the Packers share the sentiment.

"We don't treat her any differently, she doesn't want to be treated any differently, she just comes up every day to drill and practice and do the best she can," Carlson says.

"I don't see her as a female, I just see her as another wrestler and you just have to wrestle, like she's a guy," says sophomore Lucas Akkerman.

"It's kind of always there but it went away real quick. The first two weeks I wrestled with her and it's just another competitor, she's just another one of the team," says junior Colin Sheehan.

But it wasn't always easy for Doan to fit in with the wrestling crowd, especially in her home state.

"In Georgia, they just think of me as a girl, just do whatever I want and they didn't really take me seriously," Doan says. "I was overhearing them, if he can get his hand down my shirt or singlet, they'll give him $20. And that really got me mad."

"I take everything so seriously, it just digs right into me, then when I get home I just cry it all out," Doan says.

And while she's gotten past that, she says every now and then she encounters some critics.

"Sometimes on the game days, when they have these flyers, those little mini posters on my locker, they just tear it down sometimes," says Doan.

But after one season with the Austin junior varsity team, everyone agrees she's just one of the guys.

"She's a freshman, she still has a lot to learn, but she's the same as any other freshman, she's just another team member," Sheehan says.

Doan spent most of the season wrestling for the JV team, where she won 4 matches. She wrestled for the varsity team a few times, although didn't win any matches. She says whenever she finally does, she'll be the happiest girl alive.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Austin's
• Doan
• Breaks
• Barriers
• Austin
• high
• school
• girl
• wrestler
• minnesota

[befunk9]

The media is basically selling you out just because you're the only active girl wrestler on the whole team.

[Tsukikio]

Well.. DUH

[01AlphaWolf25]

I know her! She's my cousin (barely)!

[AleezSwimmer28]

omg thao rocks

[ilikenintendo2005]

Thao fricken rocks!! Wish I could've seen one of your matches.

[freindlythomas]

fuck all you haters, thao is a good wrestler with alota heart more than me i quit but not for good im still going to be there next year untill i go to college

[AAUgymnast159]

YEAH GO Thao!! woow