Lebanon's Bloom, one of Oregon's best female wrestlers ever, sees career end

By Matt Crownover, Lebanon Express writer

At first, Jim Bloom strongly opposed the idea of his daughter wrestling.

Being a former high school wrestler, he just knew it would be too tough for his daughter, Amy.

After a little pleading, he finally agreed, based on the idea that she would soon lose interest and quit.

She never quit.

Bloom, a senior at Lebanon High School, recently returned from her fourth consecutive state tournament appearance.

The fact that she was a female was never a concern of her teammates.

"Since the first day they've always accepted me and never treated me any different," Bloom said.

That wasn't always the case with opposing teams.

Bloom said she won a majority of her matches by forfeit during her freshman year as many opposing teams refused to wrestle her.

Bloom thought nothing of it.

"It never really bothered me because it meant our team got those points," she said.

Michael Cox, LHS wrestling coach since Bloom's sophomore season, admitted he didn't know what to expect with Bloom.

Cox said he never coached a female before and wasn't sure how to approach it.

"I was a little worried and unsure whether or not I needed to treat her any differently," he said.

But once Cox found out what type of person she was, he was worry-free.

"I realized right away that I didn't have to worry about her getting hurt or anything like that because she was tougher than the rest of the guys," he said. "And at the time, her commitment to the program was better than everybody else."

As Bloom looked around the mats at tournaments and duels throughout her career, she saw only a few other females.

But because she is competition-driven, she had no desire to prove herself against the other females.

"I didn't really like to wrestle girls at the tournaments because I feel like wrestling a guy is more of a challenge," she said.

The problem of opposing wrestlers refusing to wrestle her was rarely an issue during her last three seasons as Bloom continued to prove that she belonged.

She finished eighth in the 103-pound weight class at the 5A state championships as a sophomore in 2007.

In 2008, she won her third and final state match over Churchill's Russell Pascual at 112 pounds.

She lost her first two matches at state during her freshman and senior seasons.

Bloom was the first Lebanon wrestler of any gender to make four straight appearances in the state tournament since Chomo Santana in 1991.

"I'd say she's one of the top female wrestlers ever in the state of Oregon," Cox said. "Everyone knows who she is."

Cox said it's rare for a female to make the varsity team at a larger school, let alone make it to the state tournament.

"There's just not many females because it's harder for them to be successful at the larger schools because there's a lot more kids," he said

Bloom said it takes an extreme amount of effort to make it to the state tournament four years in a row.

"I'm going to miss it a lot," she said. "But I'm also really glad it's over. It's a lot of hard work."

Next year just won't be the same without her, Cox said.

"We're going to miss her presence and her leadership," he said. "She's always there working hard and always has positive things to say to her teammates."

Bloom, who will go into the Army next year, said she received a lot of support from the citizens of Lebanon, her coaches and her parents, Jim and Debbie Bloom.

And if one day her daughter wants to wrestle, she would welcome the idea.

"If she wanted to, I would say go for it," she said.