Butt Drag: The Horror (and the Lawsuit)

Not that there's anything wrong with that
Not that there's anything wrong with that

Disclaimer and disclosure: I wrestled in high school. Alas, JP, if this is how it goes down these days, will not (Ellie, too):

Preston Hill, the former Buchanan senior who has since been expelled, faces a sexual battery charge after police say he rammed two fingers into a teammate’s anus during a wrestling practice last summer. The trial begins Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court.

Hill’s father claims his son used a wrestling move called the butt drag that he learned from Buchanan coaches. The butt drag, when done legally and with proper technique, requires a wrestler to intensely grab his opponent’s butt cheek to obtain leverage and better positioning.

“It’s making wrestling look bad,” said Wheeler, who wrestled at Fresno State for two years before spending the past nine years coaching at the high-school level. “Some people already see wrestling as a dirty sport. Now people are talking about anal penetration and wrestling in the same sentence.”

Yes, that’s what’s making wrestling look bad!

Published by Theodore

Theodore Ross is an editor of Harper’s Magazine. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, Saveur, Tin House, the Mississippi Review, and (of course), the Vietnam News. He grew up in New York City by way of Gulfport, MS, and as a teen played the evil Nazi, Toht, in Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. He lives with his son, J.P. in Brooklyn, and is currently working on a book about Crypto-Jews.

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2 Comments

  1. Whether the move is legal or not the alleged victim claimed that Preston Hill threatened him with the move. He believed that it was in retribution to the boy standing up to bullying by Preston. If this is true its not about wrestling but bullyiing. The reported threat indicated intention and state of mind.
    .
    Why does the coach let boys of different ages and weights wrestle one another in practice. It was reported that Preston Hill had the opportunity to wrestle the nearest boy. I know my brother was severely injured wrestling in the wrong weight class.
    .
    If jamming fingers into the anus is good sportsmanship I don’t understand the word.

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