Lancaster Terminates Doctor’s School Contract, Thousands Come To Trista’s Side

Trista Blasz, front and center, with her girls’ K-12 team “Superior Purple” that competed at Cornell on Saturday. Her team took this shot to show support.

by Derek Levendusky, AWW staff writer

LANCASTER, NY - “Girls don’t play boys sports in Lancaster,” said the handwritten note on the APP school report by Dr. Michael Terranova, the school physician for Lancaster Central Schools in western NY that denied Trista Blasz the opportunity to wrestle for the school’s male wrestling program.

On Saturday morning, the Lancaster School Board voted unanimously to terminate their contract with Dr. Terranova, who has been with the school for over ten years. The School Board had a special “town hall” meeting Saturday morning to discuss the issue.

“I have a daughter myself,” one Lancaster school board member told WGRZ News in Buffalo. “Whether I did or not though, girls can do anything boys can do, and they should be told that and should be encouraged to do that. And then when they succeed, as Trista clearly has thus far, they should be celebrated and congratulated. And we should be moving forward and not backward.”

The news of the injustice done to Trista went far and wide since Thursday, when AWW posted our original story. Since then, the article link was shared all over the internet on social networking sites.

“I am utterly shocked by the way Trista was treated and stand behind her,” one comment said.

“Wow! Shame on Lancaster,” wrote another.

Scores came to Trista’s side. One supporter started a petition on change.org that received over 2,200 signatures, and another young female wrestler, 12-year-old Teegan Sibble from Bolivar, NY started a “Singlet Challenge”—challenging female wrestlers to take pictures of themselves in singlets and post them. There were dozens of pictures posted on NYWAY Girls Division’s Facebook wall.

Meanwhile, local news stations in Buffalo featured Trista’s story on their networks, and on Saturday, even CNN featured the story.

The board also voted to begin a new contract with a new school physician, who will review Blasz's request to wrestle JV with a new panel.

Meanwhile, Blasz traveled to Cornell University to wrestle for a girls’ K-12 team competing at the FLWC (Finger Lakes Wrestling Club) Duals. The referee for her first match was 2x Cornell NCAA Champion, and one of the most famous wrestlers in the world, NY-native Yianni Diakomihalis. Blasz won the match and he raised her hand high.

Blasz’ mother, Danielle, stayed at home to attend the special meeting.