Lower Burrell author Girardi takes up cause of girls sports in her works

Tamara Girardi writes fictional sports stories that are based on her observations of the sometimes polarizing, always changing landscape of female sports.

Things she has seen, heard about and even experienced are woven into the fabric of seven books the Lower Burrell author has published in the last year.

The first, “Gridiron Girl,” which follows a high school girl’s conflicted journey through football and teenage love, came out about year ago.

A more recent story in the “Iron Valley” series — Iron Valley High is a take on Girardi’s alma mater, Valley High School in New Kensington, where she was Tamara Simpson, volleyball and basketball player — is a deeper dive into a sport that is growing among girls.

“Ultimate Takedown” focuses on the only girl on the school’s wrestling team who ends up going against a rival as part of a co-op with a neighboring district.

The PIAA is set to sanction girls wrestling, with a third and final reading set for May 17 in Mechanicsburg.

More than 100 schools statewide have formed programs for girls, so the vote is expected to pass.

In the past, girls wrestled on boys teams.

Girardi attended the first girls tate championships at Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg. She talked to dozens of wrestlers, their parents, coaches and spectators.

Her interest grew with each story, each match, every takedown and every pin.

“I learned that wrestling has become a toxic environment for girls and boys that are competing against each other,” she said. “Girls who hold their own against boys or even score a few points are often abused on the mat. They get their hair pulled or their bodies pinched. I watched with my own eyes a boy push a girl’s face straight into the mat when the match ended, and he hadn’t been able to pin her.

“I talked with parents who were uncomfortable with the concept of girls wrestling boys at that age. I also heard from boys who had to wrestle girls whose teammates had warned them, ‘They had better not lose.’ Girls are also competing in two different styles, so for them to specialize and really advance, they have to work even harder.”

Girardi, 40, an associate professor of English for Harrisburg Area Community College who teaches remotely, wants to see wrestling grow in the area. After all, it is one of the most successful and popular sports in Western Pennsylvania.

The WPIAL has been called the mecca of high school wrestling, not unlike its label as the “cradle for quarterbacks.”

Girardi hopes to have a voice in the girls wrestling movement.

“Several girls said they still wrestle boys because it’s better competition,” Girardi said. “As girls wrestling continues to grow, I hope that will no longer be the case. That’s why the sanction movement has been so critical, and the quickness with which the organization has achieved the required 100 girls wrestling programs shows how serious girls are about this sport.”

Girardi, who is married to a former Valley quarterback and Highlands football coach in Dom Girardi, kicked off her writing career with “Gridiron Girl,” her best-selling piece so far.

“My publishing journey was so difficult that I was really looking for a book that could grab the attention of agents and editors,” she said. “Writing about a female quarterback interested me, but it wasn’t until I thought about a female quarterback that was competing against her boyfriend for the position that I really thought I had something special.”

After the release of “Gridiron Girl, though, Girardi received criticism. Her main character, Julia, was labeled as misogynistic and selfish.

“That really bothered me,” Girardi said. “I felt that Julia should be able to choose herself as a senior in high school. At that age, young adults are about to enter a world where responsibilities only grow. Surely they’ve earned the right to make choices because they want to. In reading those reviews, that’s when I realized the responsibility I had in writing these books.”

A friend and fellow author told Girardi she could not wait for her young daughters to read the books because she believed in the spirit and message behind them.

Tamara and Dom have four children: Frank, 11; Clara, 9; Gabriella, 8; and Domenick, 4.

“That was probably the best compliment I’ve gotten as a writer and a feminist,” Girardi said.

Girardi’s other works include, “Disorder on the Court,” “Shot Through the Heart,” “Above the Fold,” “Behind the Mask,” and “Why, Daddy? Why?”

The most recent printed work is a children’s book.

The stories share similar qualities, Girardi said: snarky humor, the ebb and flow of sibling relationships and overcoming fears as the underdog. “Know what you want and who you are,” she said.

While fascinated with the sport, Girardi said she would never have tried out for wrestling if it were offered to girls at Valley in the late 1990s, early 2000s.

“Gosh, these girls are so tough,” she said. “They are so intense and inspiring. I have this huge sense of pride watching the girls I interviewed wrestle.

“I did not have a passion for conditioning or strength training. I loved the fun parts of sports: jumping to crush the perfect set or diving for a play that nobody thought was possible to make in volleyball, sneaking in a pump-fake and then an easy layup, or reading an opponent so I could steal the ball and pass it off to my teammate on a fast break. I also preferred team sports in the sense that the players are interacting synchronously.”

Asked whether fiction imitates real life in her stories, or if that is reversed, Girardi leaned toward the former.

“I’ve actually had some high school friends ask if they were ‘in’ the stories,” she said. “Of course, I told them, but they had to read to find out. Some of the scenes or pieces of dialogue are pulled directly from life experiences that have stood the test of time. Several of the characters are modeled after my closest friends in school. Or, in most cases, are a mash-up of a couple of my friends.”