Recordpub.com - Mantua Girls Wrestling Club excels at national tournament

By Tom Nader

Record-Courier staff writer

MANTUA -- Six years ago the Mantua Girls Wrestling Club was founded, and since, the club has helped put area female wrestlers into a national spotlight.

The club, now known as the Northeast Ohio Girls Wrestling Club that consists of 19 girls, includes junior Lisa Light and freshman Paige Nemec from the Crestwood Red Devils program, as well as other area female wrestlers.

The club's head coach, Dean Olson, wrestled at Aurora High School, where he finished second in the state in 1971. He then went on to wrestle at Defiance College and was a conference champion, and he has been coaching Crestwood youth wrestling for the past nine years.

His group of girls recently participated in the Girls Wrestling Nationals and proceeded to further expand on the club's success on a national level.

Of the nine girls from the club to attend the national tournament, eight qualified as All-Americans. Six other girls from the club could not attend the tournament this year because of injuries, three of whom were All-Americans last year.

Light placed ninth in the competition and was one of the members recognized as an All-American. She is also a four-time Ohio girls state champion, which includes two titles at the middle school level and two more at the high school level. Light's list of accomplishments also includes winning the West Virginia Girls State Tournament in March.

Meanwhile, Nemec is a five-time Ohio girls state champion, a streak that dates back to Nemec's time as an elementary student-athlete.

Alongside their state championships, both Light and Nemec are ranked nationally for girls competitive wrestling by Wrestling USA magazine. Light is ranked sixth, and Nemec is seventh

"What sets Lisa and Paige apart is their willingness to work so hard to be as good as possible," Olson said. "They do whatever is asked of them, and they do many extra workouts at home. They are like all the girls in the club in the sense that they want to be the very best they can be."

As for girls wrestling as a sport in general, it continues to grow to a level that Olson said most people probably never could have expected.

At this year's national tournament held in Detroit, 673 girls participated in a tournament that saw the largest turnout in history in the elementary age group. Also, at least 43 states were represented in the event.

"Following the 2004 Olympics, the sport has really taken off," Olson said. "I think having the sport be a part of the Olympics gave it a lot of respect around the world. No one would ever believe that the sport would have grown the way it has now, or that it would have become so popular. The interest level and popularity is only going to continue to rise.

"Paige used to be the only girl in the area wrestling, and she certainly has become the most well-known in Northeast Ohio," Olson said. "But now the numbers are definitely growing, especially at the elementary level."

Olson said that the national tournament is more than just about wrestling.

"After the girls get done wrestling against each other, they exchange a small gift from their hometown state," Olson said. "It might be something as small as a bottle of maple syrup or candy buckeyes, but it is something that is really neat to see, and it is a special part of the whole experience."