Staff file photograph / Preston Byers
Lakeview head wrestling coach Ryan Williams celebrates a pinfall victory in the course of the Bulldogs’ house meet vs. Leetonia and Austintown Fitch’s B workforce in Cortland on Dec. 17.
When Ryan Williams stepped down because the Liberty head wrestling coach in 2024, he admitted that it was not for a scarcity of ardour for the game, however relatively a time dedication he may now not make whereas elevating younger kids.
A year later, issues had modified considerably.
“My wife finally gave me the green light,” Williams stated. “She made me take that year off because of the kids, and she saw that I was miserable.”
His spouse’s solely situation for Williams to return to the game, he stated, was that it needed to be near their house in Cortland. So he started working.
Lakeview, like many faculties within the space, didn’t have a wrestling program, which Williams advised ought to change. He stated that he initially met with the principal and athletic director, who warned him that the district wouldn’t present any funding to a workforce if he created one.
Undeterred, Williams agreed and shortly determined that he didn’t wish to wait round as issues labored their manner up the chain of command.
“They said, ‘Yeah, well, then we’ll meet with the superintendent, see what kind of progress you make over the next couple months.’ I was impatient. I didn’t let it go a couple months. So I secured a mat and uniforms the same day I talked to the AD and principal,” Williams.
By mid-April, a bit of over a month after receiving the go-ahead from his spouse, Williams acquired the assembly that he wished.
“I just kept telling them to get me in front of the superintendent,” Williams stated. “She was very hesitant at first, but I don’t think she fully realized at the very beginning that I wasn’t asking for money for coaches’ contracts; we’d completely fund it. She’s like, ‘Well, yeah, go ahead.’”
With the wrestling membership and its donors masking bussing, uniforms and nearly all the things else, what Lakeview supplied was its approval and a spot to follow; Williams stated they’re at present in the highschool cafeteria. They had been a particular classroom to maneuver into, he stated, however that plan would possibly already be no good.
“Since our match against Liberty, I’ve had nine new kids show up. So it just keeps growing, and now I’m starting to wonder, I don’t think the room is going to be big enough. We might have to stay in the cafeteria,” Williams stated.
These are positively good issues to have for the nascent wrestling membership, which is sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) however technically not one of many college’s varsity sports activities.
Williams stated that he had initially thought of beginning on the youth degree to construct the Lakeview wrestling program from the muse, however the buzz across the neighborhood, he stated, made him determine to tug the set off on beginning youth, center college and highschool girls and boys groups all of sudden.
“So far, it hasn’t backfired,” Williams stated.
When he began out, Williams hoped he may get about 50 youngsters to hitch the packages. But 4 months for the reason that first fundraiser, 90 have come aboard, he stated, with many from close by Scrapyard Wrestling Club.
Williams credited the attain of social media, notably Facebook, and the help of Lakeview head soccer coach Ron DeJulio Jr. for the fast progress of wrestling within the space.
“That goes a long way,” Williams stated. “Anytime the head football coach backs a wrestling program, it benefits both programs. … He realizes we’re a smaller school district and we have to share athletes.”
On Dec. 17, the Bulldogs hosted their first house meet vs. Leetonia and Austintown Fitch’s B workforce, two very completely different squads.
Fitch, one of many largest and greatest wrestling packages within the space, dominated the competitors regardless of bringing none of their greatest expertise. Leetonia, then again, had fewer than a half-dozen wrestlers to compete with the expansive Lakeview and Fitch rosters.
Still, Williams stated then that the expertise was an excellent one, and that his wrestlers may see up shut what they may doubtlessly turn into with time. The meet additionally served as a beneficial expertise for these not on the mat, such because the scoreboard operators and followers in attendance, a lot of whom are new to the game totally.
“I guess the biggest difference is nobody here knows anything about it as far as what to expect on match day or tournament day,” Williams stated. “So it’s kind of like my phone rings off the hook answering questions leading up to events. But there’s a ton of parent involvement.”
Williams’ ambition has not solely been supported by these in the neighborhood, however Fitch head wrestling coach John Burd additionally made it clear that he hopes to see the Bulldogs and his buddy succeed.
“They’re doing an excellent job building it from the ground up,” Burd stated. “… Hats off to Ryan, he’s getting a lot of good people around him, getting support from their administration. I know their athletic department, principal, staff, all of them have been behind him, helping him and supporting him along the way.”
While lots of the Bulldogs are successfully pups on the subject of wrestling, Williams stated two of his wrestlers have been standouts to this point this season.
“Aurora Hall, I have full confidence that she’s going to make a run to the podium at state,” Williams stated. “Dustin Corbett, he’s got some prior experience from where he lived prior – he came from Greenville – but he hasn’t wrestled in four years. But he’s wrestling lights out.”
Either Hall or Corbett having success this season, particularly in February and March, may show to be large for the Lakeview program as Williams tries to maintain curiosity in his membership excessive through the inevitable rising pains.
“[I want to] get them hooked, maintain the numbers, keep them excited,” Williams stated. “It’s been difficult, , since you go into most matches anticipating to lose, proper? Everybody has far more expertise than us, however they go on the market and battle, and so they’re making an attempt to win and never simply cowering down.
“They show up the next day. They’re excited. They want to learn where they can improve. This group of kids, especially, has been awesome.”