A Colorado wrestling coach has been dismissed following the circulation of a video depicting the coach taking part in the hazing of a freshman.

As reported by the Denver Post, Chaparral wrestling coach Rocky Johnson was fired following the emergence of a video from a Jan. 27 practice where Johnson is seen encouraging a prank called, “The Ultimate Sit-Up,” a disturbing hazing trick where a wrestling is blindfolded and then tricked into completing a sit-up that finishes with the athlete face-first in the rear end of a teammate.

The incident was filmed by the parent of a sophomore wrestler on the team, who was reportedly so disturbed by the incident that he immediately turned the video over to school administrators. Those officials immediately suspended Johnson before eventually firing him as of Thursday evening.

Johnson was in his first season leading the Chaparral program, and Andrew Stubbs, the parent who filmed the practice, said that the program had already taken a notably disturbing turn under Johnson’s leadership, a tone which had since bled into social media threats against his son and himself.

“I was going to deal with it through the school and all that, but my son has started to get threatening social media posts,” Stubbs told the Post. “The social media message that the team captain sent to my son says, “You and your dad are lame excuses for men. You better avoid me and my family like the plague.’ So I just got a real problem that I don’t think this is being taken seriously.

“It’s a huge change from last year—he berates kids, and yells at them, and makes them not want to wrestle anymore. Now, because of the backlash, my kid can’t go to wrestling practice anymore. How is he supposed to go to practice now when the team captains and the coach are the ones doing the prank?”

Now a new leader will come in and try to re-establish a different tone again, one which ideally is devoid of hazing actions like the one that has now cost Johnson his position.

Check out the best takedowns from around the prep wrestling world, courtesy of Hudl.

MORE: See the Super 25 wrestling rankings

Cactus Shadows senior heavyweight wrestler Tyler Collins keeps racking up wins and medals, but it is his life-saving medal as a Boy Scout that will forever stand out in his life. (Photo: Richard Obert, azcentral sports)

After each of his 38 pins, becoming Cave Creek Cactus Shadows’ all-time record-holder for consecutive wins, senior heavyweight wrestler Tyler Collins picks his opponents up and pats them on the back.

“I’ve always been taught to show respect,” he said. “If you don’t, you can’t expect anything in return.”

Holding a 50-0 record and No. 1 seed heading into this week’s state tournament, Collins’ biggest win didn’t come on a wrestling mat.

It came five years ago, when he was 12, as a Boy Scout. Deep in the Grand Canyon, he saved a friend, who was caught in an undercurrent in a pool under a waterfall.

On a backpacking expedition with his Boy Scout troop through the Grand Canyon, fellow scout Michael Barnett went for a swim in a pool under Mooney Falls at Supai. Barnett was overwhelmed by the current.

NOMINATE: azcentral.com Sports Awards Athletes of the Week, Academic All-Star

Collins jumped in and swam to Barnett, who was able to get on his back. Collins got to the wall for safety with Barnett.

“He’s my angel,” said Barnett, who is a junior goalie on the Cactus Shadows soccer team. “Tyler has always had a big heart.

“I realized when people say, ‘I’ll be there for you,’ I know that Tyler really is there for you.”

Collins, now 6-foot-1, 270 pounds, was 5-9, 188 that day in the Grand Canyon. Collins, who had previously swam in that spot, remembered how strong the currents were under the fall where Barnett was stuck.

“The vortex of water crashing down sucked him in,” said Tom Collins, Tyler’s father. “He battled to stay afloat. He said, ‘I cant do it.’ Tyler yelled out, ‘You never give up.’ … The current was quite tumultuous. I was there to assist, and I was afraid.

“… Boy Scouts have been around 100 years, and maybe 1,000 Boy Scouts have been honored with a life-saving award, and Tyler was one of them. It was amazing.”

During the national life-saving Boy Scout recognition process, Tyler Collins wrote in his report:

“Michael said, ‘l don’t want to die,’ and, ‘How did you get out before?’ All I could say to Michael was, ‘No, don’t give up hope. Don’t stop. We can do this!’ I wanted to say more, but I was tired.

“I never truly gave him the answer of how I got out before because I knew he wouldn’t be able to do it since l am 5-9 and about 188 pounds, while Michael is less than 5 feet tall and half my weight. You had to get a good foot hold and push off the rocks with all your strength and swim like crazy until the current doesn’t have you in order to get out.

“Since Michael was so tired already, I knew he couldn’t swim out on his own, and I didn’t have the strength to carry us both out. We got up to where I was before and there was a rock you could stand on, so we took the advantage to gain energy. As we were gaining our energy back, I was calling for help as loud as I could. My dad heard me and swam out ahead of where we were so Michael and I scaled the wall to get to my dad. Michael went first since he was more tired than me, and in case if he fell, I could catch him.”

COACHES: Arizona’s best high school wrestling coaches

It is something that forever connects him with Barnett.

“I didn’t really think of it that much at the time, but when I saw his parents, they were like, ‘Oh, my God, thank you so much,’ ” Collins said.

Collins’ story was featured in a Boys Life article, “A True Story of Scouts in Action.”

Both of Barnett’s parents, Stacey and Philip, led the Scouts then.

“Michael comes up to us, and tells us what Tyler did, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Stacey Barnett said. “We went to the award ceremony for Tyler. It’s very rare for a Boys Scout to receive such an honor. About 2 percent of all Eagles Scouts receive this medal.”

It didn’t really sink in with Collins until about three months later, when he saw a June 2012 article in The Arizona Republic about a 16-year-old Boy Scout from Utah drowning in the same area below Mooney Falls.

Collins thought of becoming an Eagle Scout, but he became too involved in football and wrestling when he started high school.

Read more on AZCentral.com

It was another perfect week on the mats for No. 1 Blair Academy (Blairstown, N.J.). The Bucs were 4-0 in dual matches, improving to 10-1 on the season, which keeps them atop the latest USA TODAY/National High School Coaches Association Super 25 High School Wrestling Rankings.

MORE: See the full Super 25 rankings

For the first time in several weeks, there’s a new team in the Top 10. Nazareth (Nazareth, Pa.) breaks in at No. 10 after defeating No. 8 Bethlehem Catholic (Bethlehem, Pa.) for the District XI dual championship. These two have now split their dual matches this season and there’s a chance that they could meet again for the Pennsylvania Class 3A dual championship.

In Ohio, No. 3 St. Edward (Lakewood, Ohio) has a big weekend ahead. The Eagles will look to defend their Ohio Division I dual championship against a very tough eight-team field that includes No. 14 Elyria (Ohio) and Brecksville-Broadview Heights.

There’s one new team in the Super 25 this week as Lockport Township (Lockport, Ill.) enters at No. 25. Lockport began the season ranked in the Super 25.

Jonathan Garcia was a team manager for the Del Norte (San Diego) wrestling team. His goal, though, was to one day compete on the mat.

Last week, the teenager lived out that dream. Garcia, who has cerebral palsy, competed in a match against nationally ranked Poway. San Diego’s KGTV 10News first reported the story.

Del Norte wrestling coach Lucas Factor was working in a special education classroom when he first met Garcia.

“Jon has cerebral palsy. To even walk is a challenge for Jon,” Factor told KGTV 10News. “Doctors had told him he’d never stand on his own or walk.”

Despite Garcia’s limitations, Factor thought he would be a perfect fit for the wrestling team. After practicing with the team, Garcia took to the mat during a varsity meet last week.

“Once he stepped out there I knew that he would give it his all,” Factor told KGTV. “Regardless of the results he was a champion just by getting out there on the mat and willing to wrestle on the varsity spot against the toughest team around.”

For his efforts, Garcia earned a letter and a varsity letterman’s jacket. He is also a nominee for the Cullen Fitzgibbons Award as California’s most inspirational wrestler.

While being an inspiration to many, he has earned much more.

“I thank wrestling for saving my life,” Garcia told KGTV. “And teaching me how to not quit or give up.”

Kathleen Janis and Gabbi Serrao are ninth graders at Central Davis Junior High School in Layton, Utah. Tuesday night, they dressed for the school’s first wrestling match of the year.

The battle to get to that spot has been waged not just on the mats, but in the courts. And, as reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, the battle is still ongoing.

“To get here, it’s been tough,” Kathleen told the Tribune on Tuesday. “But we’re good. Me and Gabbi, we’re going to get through what’s happening.”

As the Tribune reports, Janis and her family have been fighting the administration for more than a year to be allowed to try out for the once all-male wrestling team, but had been denied by officials who said it was against district policy. Last month, her mother, Kelly Janis, filed a federal lawsuit, seeking to declare the policy unconstitutional as a violation of her daughter’s 14th Amendment rights. With the case being litigated, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby recently ordered the school district to allow girls to wrestle while the lawyers argue.

As her daughter and her daughter’s classmate did Tuesday on the mat, Kelly Janis is confident that they will prevail in court.

“The fact that they told her no because of her gender,” she said, “that’s wrong.”

Tuesday’s match, the school’s first of the season, was not Kathleen’s wrestling debut. After going with her older brother to his wrestling practices, she has spent the past four years training and competing with clubs in northern Utah. But she was denied a chance at wrestling for Central Davis, as the district permits female wrestlers at the high school level but not in middle schools.

According to the lawsuit, females could only serve as team managers because officials had concerns about “inappropriate or sexual touching.”

After the judge’s ruling, Kathleen tried out for the team and earned a spot. For Tuesday’s opener, though, she had no opponent in the 175-pound class. Serrao, meanwhile, wrestled and won at the 104-pound class with a second-period pin.

“She helped get girls to be able to wrestle,” Gabbi said of her classmate.

“It’s not just about my daughter — it’s about all of them,” Kelly Janis told the Tribune. “It’s about giving them the opportunity.”

Davis County School District spokesman Chris Williams watched as Gabbi emerged victorious from her first match.

“We are following the judge’s order,” he told the Tribune. “Of course, we hope no matter who the athlete is that the athlete is treated like every other athlete. So was it exciting to watch [Gabbi] win the match? Yeah, it was exciting.”

It’s the last wrestling postseason for Hunter Garstin as an Independence (Franklin, Tenn.) senior, and it would have been his fourth as a competitor.

He will not watch, even though he remains close to coach Jared Grindstaff and the wrestling program, and despite the fact that friend and Region 6-AAA Wrestler of the Year Brady Ingram is going after a state championship. Garstin might have been right there with him.

“I have no doubt he could have been a very successful wrestler,” Grindstaff said of Hunter, whose father is a former standout at Brentwood Academy and Appalachian State. “What he’s done instead has been absolutely amazing.”

The made-for-TV story here would be the former athlete, paralyzed in competition and now chipping in to the team as a volunteer coach and source of inspiration. The reality is an 18-year-old who would do anything – and is trying everything – to walk again and can’t really be around the sport anymore.

“I’ve needed to distance myself from it,” Hunter said. “I love Coach (Grindstaff) and everything, love the team, but it’s just, I don’t know. Watching it is a post-traumatic stress disorder kind of thing for me. It’s just hard to watch, and sometimes I think back on the accident.”

That happened Dec. 7, 2013, in a tournament at Huntsville High, an awkward landing while grappling with an opponent and a dislocation of the C-6 vertebra at the base of the neck. Nobody’s fault. Instant realization of a problem. Paralysis from the neck down.

“Our life changed in an instant,” said Hunter’s mother, Emily Garstin.

“It was just like someone unplugged the light in the wall, and everything just stopped,” Hunter said of an injury that was witnessed by his father, Christian Garstin. “I could feel it, right at that moment, like my brain was just disconnected from everything.”

After emergency surgery to fuse the C-6 and C-7 vertebrae, a move to Shepherd Center in Atlanta and word from doctors that he probably would need a caregiver for the rest of his life, Hunter got to obliterating those expectations.

“He has blown everything away,” Grindstaff said.

Hunter has use of his upper body, with some impairment of his fingers – he can text but can’t pinch objects or play video games – and he has some sensation in his legs. He does not have enough strength to stand but is doing what he can to acquire it.

Hunter Garstin (Photo: Andrew Nelles, The Tennesean)

He does physical therapy sessions six days a week at the YMCA in Franklin. Starting next week, he will have a two-week stint at Shepherd to make sure he is ready for college.

Already, he has attained the independence doctors said he wouldn’t have. He drives and he will be off to Middle Tennessee State in the fall to study psychology.

His progress has been “unusual, remarkable and inspiring, mainly because of the perseverance he’s shown as an athlete,” Emily said.

And it has been aided by frequent trips back to Atlanta, for sessions at both Shepherd and Project Walk recovery center. He has been to Switzerland three times for stem-cell therapy.

He had bone marrow removed and then injected back into his body with the stem cells, at a cost of $20,000 per session. The first trip was covered by fundraising, with donors from all over the world.

The first two trips made more of an impact than the third. Hunter took his first steps in 2014, on an underwater treadmill at H3O Aquatics in Murfreesboro, shortly after the first stem-cell session.

But Hunter does not believe in stagnation. And there is really no choice in his mind. You either keep training at a brisk pace or risk letting your muscles atrophy.

He keeps working, the squats he does each day at the Y while gripping a bar with all his strength counting as the most difficult of his therapy endeavors.

“I would probably do anything to walk again,” Hunter said.

He also realizes that might not happen, because this is not a movie. This is a story that first gripped greater Nashville three years ago, and hopefully a few years from now it will be the story of a C-6 paraplegic who has overcome long odds to walk again.

If not, it’s already the story of a young person who has responded as positively as could ever be expected to a cruelly unfair break. And of a community that has responded with him – YMCA patrons, the wrestling team and others have helped pay for therapy sessions, and about 19,000 folks are following along with Hunter on Facebook.

“We still get emails and letters,” said Emily, a kindergarten teacher who tutors on the side to try to keep up with the therapy bills. “We’re so happy and proud to be from this area, with so many people who care. That’s a big reason Hunter keeps going, because people keep encouraging him.”

Hunter always wanted to be a marine biologist, but the events of the past four years have convinced him to go into psychology. Counseling has helped him through this. And he has provided it – to families in similar situations who have sought out the Garstins, and to new patients at Shepherd when he returns for physical therapy.

“To help people, I think it’s my calling,” he said.

Hunter has had to deal with emotional ups and downs on this journey that only he can fully understand. In the early days after the injury, he would wake up terrified, thinking he couldn’t move because someone had buried him under heavy objects.

Then he tried getting involved again with wrestling on the sidelines, but that didn’t work for him. He had to get away.

That doesn’t mean he won’t inspire the Eagles this week. And they shouldn’t be the only ones.

“You’ve got to show people that this doesn’t have to control you or beat you down,” Hunter said. “Life is what you make it. If you want to sit there and be miserable about your situation for your whole life, well, that’s up to you. That won’t be me.”

A Texas teenager has taken a bold step in declaring his gender identity while simultaneously competing in the sport he loves, against athletes of his gender at birth.

As reported by the Dallas Morning News, Euless Trinity student Mack Beggs, 17, captured the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 6A Region II girls wrestling title in controversial circumstances when Coppell’s Madeline Rocha forfeited the final.

Beggs was competing in the event while undergoing testosterone treatment as he transitions from female to male. He has previously competed against multiple Coppell wrestlers, but was the subject of a lawsuit brought by a Coppell wrestling parent less than two weeks before the meet alleging a risk of bodily harm because of Beggs use of testosterone. The lawsuit urged the UIL to suspend Beggs because of the testosterone.

Jim Baudhuin, the parent who brought the suit against the UIL, said the suit has nothing to do with Beggs being a transgender male.

“I respect that completely, and I think the coaches do,” he said.  “All we’re saying is she is taking something that gives her an unfair advantage. It’s documented. It’s universal that it’s an unfair advantage.” Note that Baudhuin’s daughter is not in the same weight class as Beggs and would not have faced him.

Beggs would rather wrestle against boys but is not allowed to because of a pair of UIL regulations, one of which demands that teens wrestle in the gender class identified on their birth certificate. That meant Beggs would have to continue competing as a girl, which also requires verification of medical records to ensure the safe administration of a prescribed steroid. Beggs received that both before and during the 2015-16 season.

UIL regulations also prevent from boys from wrestling girls and girls from wrestling boys.

“Today was not about their students winning,” Nancy Beggs, Mack Beggs’ grandmother and guardian, told the Morning News. “Today was about bias, hatred and ignorance.”

Two wrestlers forfeited against Beggs in the regional tournament. One — Rocha — could still face him again as the two both qualified for the state meet via their top-four finishes at the regional meet.

Needless to say, that would make for an interesting litmus test in moral code vs. practical impact, all in front of a backdrop of UIL bylaws and regulations that forced the situation to come to pass in the first place.

No. 1 Blair Academy (Blairstown, N.J.) put itself in perfect position to defend its USA TODAY/National High School Coaches Association Super 25 national championship by advancing all 14 wrestlers to this weekend’s Prep Nationals at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

MORE: See the full Super 25 rankings

The Bucs crowned 12 champs last weekend plus two runners-up at the regional qualifier that was held at Blair.

The Bucs will be challenged this weekend by No. 6 Malvern Prep (Malvern, Pa.) and No. 9 Wyoming Seminary (Kingston, Pa.). Both teams qualified all 14 wrestlers at last week’s Pennsylvania regional qualifier. Wyoming Seminary had eight champs with six runners-up, while Malvern Prep crowned five champs with six runners-up.

The top twenty teams in last week’s rankings held their spots in the latest rankings. No. 21 Pomona (Arvada, Colo.), No. 22 Pueblo County (Pueblo, Colo.), No. 23 Southeast Polk (Pleasant Hill, Iowa) and Lockport Township (Lockport, Ill.) all moved-up one spot this week.

New to the poll is Montini Catholic (Lombard, Ill.) at No. 25.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man has sued to overturn a ban that could keep him from attending his son’s high school wrestling tournaments at a rival school.

Liberty High School in Bethlehem sent Ken Fenstermacher a letter barring him from its gymnasium for unspecified “offensive behavior” during a Feb. 2 match.

“Numerous Bethlehem Area School District and community adults witnessed you displaying inappropriate and offensive behavior towards Liberty High School students,” Liberty Principal Harrison Bailey III wrote to Fenstermacher.

Fenstermacher’s son, K.J., is a senior wrestler from Northampton Area High School, but previously attended Liberty and wrestled there in grades 9-11.

He is expected to compete in district and regional matches at Liberty starting Friday.

A Northampton County judge has scheduled a hearing Thursday at which Liberty must “show cause” why Ken Fenstermacher should still be banned from Liberty’s gym.

The ban came without warning, the suit said, and Fenstermacher is “unaware of any conduct on his part which could be misconstrued as offensive or inappropriate.” No school district official or security officer cautioned Fenstermacher about his behavior at the Feb. 2 match, nor was he given an opportunity to defend himself, said his attorney, Victor Scomillio.

Fenstermacher had a harassment charge dismissed after he apologized for allegedly shoving a Bethlehem Catholic coach in 2014, while his son wrestled for Liberty.

As a singer, Cole Lewis is a natural.

As a wrestler, he’s had to work a lot harder.

But this year, the Cypress Lake High junior has excelled at both. He earned tenor lead with the school’s chorus while the 285-pounder is 31-3 in the heavyweight division and was crowned district champion last weekend.

“It’s a cool contrast,” Cypress Lake High vocal director Gary Stroh said. “That independence with going out for wrestling brought him out of his shell. In music theater class, we made him have a solo part. He reluctantly did it and by the end of the number, he did it full out, and it was fine.”

Lewis performs in front of his teammates — raps, beat boxes, anything that comes to mind.

“He sings all the time,” Cypress Lake coach Paul Rothenberg said. “I wish he wouldn’t.

“No, he’s good. He’s definitely entertaining.”

Jalen Soto, defending state runner-up at 132 pounds, said while Lewis is a better singer than wrestler, he also was quick to say he’s the most improved grappler on the team.

“He started scrapping better and became tough,” Soto said. “Wrestling turns you into something.”

Early singer

Lewis comes from a musical family.

His mother Heather played trumpet for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corp, a World Class competitive junior drum and bugle corps based in Concord, California. “She’s really good,” he said.

Father Robert played trombone, which his son played when younger. Robert now judges marching bands all over the country and runs marching band clinics in the Midwest.

And Michelle, Robert Lewis’ second wife, was a piano player as well as band director at Fort Myers Christian School before cancer took her life. She persuaded Cole to audition with the vocal program before his freshman year at Cypress Lake.

“Cole started singing on pitch when he was 3-, 4-years old,” Robert Lewis said. “At 8 or 9, we are Phantom of the Opera fans, and he used to sing those songs in soprano and nail it. In seventh grade, he changed to tenor, but he can do falsetto.”

Lewis can be shy but his pride breaks through when talking about his ability where he can sing Italian, contemporary or just about anything.

“Since I was a little kid, I was real musical,” he said. “When I wanted to choose a high school, I saw Cypress Lake as a center for arts and a top-notch choral program.

“I played trombone but I’m better at singing. I’ve sang in all the concerts. We do a spring concert and another one around Christmastime. It’s magical.”

As a tenor leader, Lewis is responsible for making sure other tenors have the right pitch and are singing the right notes. Stroh said he’s also working with younger singers.

“I have to memorize everything first,” Lewis said. “It’s actually surprisingly easy.

“Sometimes I get a little frustrated when they don’t know what I mean. But it’s really fun.”

Wrestling turnaround

Lewis also is finding wrestling a lot of fun this season after a frustrating freshman year where more than half his seven wins came by forfeit.

“I thought he’d quit after that first year,” Robert Lewis said. “When he said he was going out for wrestling, I thought, ‘Oh boy, it’s a brutal sport physically.’ He dabbled in T-ball, soccer and volleyball. But he has a perseverance, a stubbornness.”

After winning half his matches as a sophomore, Lewis joined teammates for a three-day camp in Fort Lauderdale with N.C. State wrestlers.“They basically beat the crap out of me,” Lewis said, but Rothenberg said it showed him what he needed to do to get better while giving him more confidence.

This season, Lewis has been the one dominating.

“I felt like I deserved it,” he said of the district title. “I’ve put so much time in the sport. I worked so hard.”

Lewis said he needs to keep working hard to have a shot at another Cole, Riverdale’s Cole Schneider, the top-seeded heavyweight in the state.

The optimistic Lewis said if he could get Schneider at state and take him into overtime, he feels he has a chance to win.

“I’ve got a vision,” he said. “The first time he pinned me in about five seconds. The second time, I took him to the second period but he got really frustrated with how resistant I was. I’m not really aggressive but if you throw something, I’ll counter it.

“But he’s an explosive guy.”

First, Lewis must get through regionals.

The guy who can carry a tune has been offered a huge incentive by his vocal coach.

“I’ve told him, if he wins the state championship, we’ll make a life-size Fathead and put in the choir room,” Stroh said.

Then he’d really be large and in charge.

Mack Beggs, the Texas transgender teen in the midst of transitioning from a girl to a boy, won his first state tournament match Friday morning.

The Euless Trinity standout captured the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 6A Region II girls wrestling title last week when his opponent forfeited prior to the match.

EARLIER: Transgender teen wins regional wrestling title amid firestorm of opposition

Beggs has been the subject of intense media scrutiny all week, but the Dallas Morning News reports his first match was largely uneventful, and he left the mat immediately without speaking to reporters.

Beggs’ opponent, Clear Springs’ (League City) Taylor Latham, didn’t speak with reporters, either, according to the paper.

The UIL’s policy states that an athlete must compete as the gender on his or her birth certificate.

Beggs is scheduled to wrestle again Friday afternoon.

HOUSTON – Euless Trinity wrestler Mack Beggs wins the Texas 6A Girls wrestling title Saturday.

Beggs faced Chelsea Sanchez of Katy Morton Ranch High School in the state final match.

Beggs, 17, the transgender teen who identifies as male, advanced to the state final after pinning Kailyn Clay of Grand Prairie High School in a semifinal match Saturday morning.

After his win, Beggs family and teammates cheered as did a majority of the spectators at the Berry Center in Cypress just northwest of Houston.

As you can see (and hear) in the video below, however, there was at least a smattering of boos.

The University Interscholastic League passed a rule overwhelmingly in early 2016 that dictates athletes must compete based on the gender listed on their birth certificate.

Sandy Gonzales says she could hear a smattering of boos directed at her stepson.

“Everyone has their own opinion,” Gonzales told News 8.

Beggs spoke with reporters following the win.

USA TODAY High School Sports contributed to this report

Mack Beggs went from a little known Texas trangender wrestler to a national celebrity overnight. It isn’t what he wanted, but it happened.

When Beggs captured the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 6A girls 110-pound championship, he ignited an enormous debate about the fairness of a girl transitioning to a boy wrestling against female colleagues competing without the aid of testosterone.

Despite Beggs wanting to compete as a male, UIL regulations bar anyone from competing in a gender that doesn’t match their birth certificate. For his part, Beggs and his grandmother have continued to provide testosterone testing results to ensure that Beggs is legally within the range required to compete in the girls category.

That didn’t deter MMA commentator and stand-up comedian Joe Rogan from weighing in against Beggs on Twitter, quote vociferously at that, though he did support Beggs’ quiet crusade to compete against boys in the future.

For their part, some of the girls who were vanquished by Beggs defended his right to compete against girls, again pushing most of the culpability for the situation on UIL’s regulations.

“I really feel that it’s unfair that everybody is so against Mack because we are still just wrestlers. I’ve wrestled him before,” Arlington Sam Houston wrestler Destiny Dominguez, a past competitor of Beggs, told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s nothing strength-wise. As a wrestler, it’s not how strong you are, it’s your mentality, how you wrestle. It doesn’t matter who you wrestle, it’s how. I think with Mack, it’s an inspiration for everybody. Despite how many people are against you, to be out here and for him to win is such a great things. It’ll open up maybe for more kids to feel confident for doing sports.”

Lisa Latham, the mother of a wrestler defeated by Beggs in the tournament, also offered support for Beggs to the Morning News in light of his plight.

“Mack wants to wrestle boys and he’ll never be recognized as a boy because of the birth certificate in the state of Texas. And female wrestlers don’t have a chance. …The UIL needs to get up with the times.”

In fact, the near-universal show of support for Beggs to compete as a boy could even force the UIL to change it’s standards; according to the Amarillo Globe-News, Amarillo Tascosa wrestling coach Joe Stafford expressed confidence that UIL would fix the situation in the future.

“I don’t feel like it’s my position to make those calls,” Stafford told the Globe-News. “I’ve read the rules and the UIL is in the process of figuring out the right thing to do. It’s not something that’s going to be solved overnight. It’s going to take a lot of people working together to come to a reasonable solution. … I have no doubt it will get solved. It’s just going to take some time. This is all still very new.”

I would have thought in 2017 – or maybe I just hoped in 2017 – we would be done arguing about birth certificates… but obviously we’re not.

Seventeen-year old Mack Beggs, a junior at Euless Trinity who was born a girl and is now in the process of becoming a boy, wins the girls’ state wrestling tournament Saturday. So the argument has started again.

Mack wanted to wrestle against the boys. The UIL says he had to wrestle the girls. And that’s not fair for anybody involved in this argument.

Mack has been taking testosterone and it shows. There’s a reason we have rules in sports against steroids, and it was an incredibly unfair advantage for him. It was also unfair to the girls who had to wrestle him.

EARLIER: Reaction mixed after Mack Beggs wins Texas state wrestling title

The question is, “When does a girl become a boy, and when does a boy become a girl?” or “When can you play games against those you identify with and not what a piece of paper says you are?”

That answer is way above my pay grade. But someone has to find a better answer than what we’re being given now.

As I said when I wrote about Missouri football player Michael Sam, I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he’s gay. I don’t understand his world. But I do understand he’s a part of mine. And I am saying the same thing now about Mack Beggs.

RELATED: Joe Rogan weighs in on transgender Texas wrestling champ

Transitioning is a struggle I cannot imagine. It is a journey I could not make… and it is a life that too many cannot live.

The problems that Mack Beggs is facing and dealing with now remind me again that I don’t have any problems. He needs our support, and he does not need a group of old men in Austin telling him who to wrestle because of a genetic mix-up at birth.

We have argued long enough about birth certificates. It’s an argument that needs to end. You don’t have to understand – I myself don’t understand. But Mack Beggs is not the problem so many people make him out to be. He’s a child simply looking for his place in the world, and a chance to compete in the world.

Do we really not have the simple decency to allow him at least that? Because it seems to me it’s the very least we can do.

Dylan Geick, a senior at Stevenson (Lincolnshire, Ill.), is one of the best wrestlers in his state. He recently placed fourth at 160 pounds at the all-state meet and is headed to Columbia University in the fall, where he will be part of the Lions’ wrestling team.

Geick is also gay. Outsports has the story.

Last year, a couple weeks after beginning to date his boyfriend, Geick told Outsports his story of coming out to those closest to him.

“I really didn’t like having to sneak around,” Geick told Outsports, “so I came out to the kids at my lunch table one day after last season.

“It kind of exploded from there.”

A wrestler that many on his team and in the state look up to, Geick has been “the face of the program” at his high school for the last two years, Stevenson coach Shane Cook told the Chicago Tribune last week.

Last year, he was fourth in the 152-pound class. As a sophomore at Vernon Hills before he transferred to Stevenson, Geick finished second in the North Suburban Prairie and the Class 2A Vernon Hills Regional at 145 pounds.

“He’s an incredible athlete,” Cook said of Geick last year to the Chicago Tribune, according to Outsports. “He has great wrestling speed, is very strong, extremely talented.

“He has a dynamic personality. People are drawn to him.”

Geick got a good read on the environment at Stevenson when he arrived at the school in 2015.

“It’s an amazing environment [coach Cook] has put together,” Geick told the Tribune. “The motto for Stevenson wrestling is ‘Always Together.’ We live it, we share it. We’re a family.”

And Geick is as strong a member of the family as anybody. This season, he was 42-3 on the mat.

You can read more of Outsports’ fantastic feature on Geick here.

While there are two weeks remaining in the 2016-17 high school wrestling season, Blair Academy (Blairstown, N.J.) has defended its USA TODAY/National High School Coaches Association Super 25 national championship by winning its 37th National Prep team championship last weekend.

RELATED: See the full Super 25 rankings

Though Blair locked up the Super 25 title, there will still be one more Super 25 ranking to be released March 15.

Blair won the team title by outscoring No. 9 Wyoming Seminary (Kingston, Pa.) by 30 points and No. 6 Malvern Prep (Malvern, Pa.) by 80 points.

Six Buccaneers won individual titles. Ohio State-bound Chase Singletary won his second straight National Prep title at 220 pounds. Also winning a second title were sophomore Chris Cannon at 126 and junior Andrew Merola at 160.

Capturing their first titles were freshman Trevor Mastragiovanni at 113, senior Zach Sherman at 132 and junior Malcolm Robinson at 138.

“The guys raised their intensity and competed extremely well in the medal round,” said Blair head coach Brian Antonelli. “Nick (Incontrera) got the team off to a great start and Trevor sparked the moment with his huge overtime win. Overall, the team made great progress over the past several months and team members are better wrestlers than they were at the beginning of the season. A great deal of our wrestlers’ success came from their hustle and dedication in the wrestling room.”

Aside from Blair locking up the national title, there are no changes in this week’s rankings.

There won’t be any rankings next week, and we’ll release our final Super 25 March 15.

Mack Beggs wants you to know that he’s perfectly comfortable with who he is, both as transgender teenager and a state champion wrestler. He’s really just surprised so many other people care about it.

RELATED: VIDEO: Reaction mixed as Mack Beggs wins Texas state wrestling title | Joe Rogan lashes out at Mack Beggs, foes offer support

In an extensive interview with the Dallas Morning News, Beggs spoke on his long transgender transition, when he first realized he might be suffering from gender dysphoria, and the brief period when he spent time in a mental hospital as a seventh grader, when he was first coming to grips with his gender identity.

“I was so glad I got out of that state,” Beggs told the Morning News. … “My masculinity doesn’t define who I am. I define who I am.”

For now, that’s still defined in a significant part as a wrestler. While Beggs would rather compete against other boys, the University Interscholastic League, Texas’ sanctioning body, won’t allow that. It’s that confluence of circumstances that thrust Beggs into the spotlight, particularly after he captured a girls wrestling state title.

The teen insists his title – and undefeated season — isn’t because of testosterone treatments as part of his transition. Rather, it’s because of hard work.

“This is a bigger, more complex situation,” Beggs said. “There’s so many variables. People just don’t understand that.”

As for all the attention he’s received, he described it as “nuts.”

Beggs has posted a lot of photos from the state meet on his Facebook page and also included this message, “Never ever give up on what you love!”

There’s much more from the Morning News piece by the always terrific Michael Florek right here. We highly suggest you read it all.