MADISON, OH — In the Madison Local School District in Lake County, the community is rallying behind a common cause.
Coaches, booster club members, parents, and students are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work for the girls wrestling team.
And as Head Coach Andrew Tomaso made clear, “It’s going to take a little bit of work.”
Alyssa Cameron started wrestling in the 7th grade. There wasn’t much competition back then.
“We went to one school, we went to Perry,” she told News 5. “That’s kind of all we had; it was like Perry, you’d get a couple matches, but you weren’t getting a lot.”
Now as a sophomore, she’s seen the girls team grow.
“We’re going to all these tournaments, and it’s like, they’re growing. Like, they’re just huge,” she said.
They need a space of their own.
“They were behind the bleachers for a couple years, to kind of keep their own spot,” Tomaso said.
Now they have just that. Their own spot. But it needs some work.
Sophomore Kate Bleppy is pitching in.
“That’s clean, sweep, mop, paint, throw the mats down, get it ready for November 13th, our first day of practice,” she said.
She’s been pitching in to help transform a space from storage to practice room.
“I think it’s amazing all the work that’s put in,” she said. “All the stuff behind the scenes, we’ve been working to get this room for so long.”
All week, volunteers and students have been working to get the space ready for the team. It’s grown from having one female student in 2016.
“They should be pretty close to filling a full varsity lineup, which would be the first time that we’ve had a full girls’ team here,” said Tomaso.
They’re on a tight deadline, but they’re getting it done.
“Their girls come in, and they were, you know, vacuum, sweep,” Tomaso said. “One of the girls and I took down all the side beams and stuff like that one day.”
Tomaso says these girls deserve their own space.
“Our girls team is two-time, back-to-back CVC (Chagrin Valley Conference) champs the last couple years.”
Practice is co-ed until 7th grade. After that, well, you heard about the bleachers.
“As our numbers grew, it wasn’t feasible to have both boys and girls in the same room,” Tomaso said.
Now they’re working to step out from behind the bleachers and onto the mat, putting in the work to reclaim their space.
“It’s going to take everybody,” Cameron said. “I know some of the boys are helping. It’s going to take us to clean up this room because, if you guys saw it before we got started, it got really messy and it was really bad.”
They’re giving up their spare time.
“We have so many girls that have such great work ethic,” Bleppy told News 5. “I come in here during my free periods with my friends, and we just help out as much as we can.”
And they’re already dreaming even bigger.
“Next summer we’re going to try and get it pretty and look like the other room,” said Bleppy.
Because wrestling has taught them more than how to pin their opponent on the mat. It’s taught these girls that they can pin their hopes and dreams on each other.
“No matter if you win or lose,” said Cameron, “the team’s always there.”
