When head coach Cassandra Bowdre and senior Lillian Gaiser stepped onto the wrestling mat for the first meet of the season, there was not anything unfamiliar about the action. Both had done so many, many times before, both were ready to compete. This time, however, was a bit more meaningful than in the past. This was the first time they could represent their school and their town on the mat. They had the pride of their community behind their backs and represented across the chest of their wrestling singlets.
In bold, red capital letters, “LISBON.”
“I was excited, but I was a little bit nervous because I was like, what if I don’t do good? What if I let their expectations down since Lisbon is such a big wrestling place,” said Gaiser.
Lisbon’s first season with a girls’ wrestling program in the high school was a major success. In large part due to the community of wrestling fanatics and die-hards. Lisbon is right up there as one of the strongest and proudest wrestling communities in the state and they fully embraced the addition of the girls wrestling high school team.
“I think it was different because at Lisbon you know everyone in the crowd,” said Gaiser, “They watched you grown up. So, it makes wrestling here more connected to the community.”
Prior to this season, a couple of girls would make the 2.8 mile drive down US-30 from the Lisbon high school to the Mount Vernon high school. For the wrestling season the girls would change from Lions to Mustangs. While the transit itself was not too big of a put off, competing for a different school with students who went to another school turned some girls away from the sport.
The Lisbon Lions created a middle school girls’ wrestling team in 2023. Two years later, they added a varsity high school team. A small group of upperclassmen helped lead the Lions through their first season, but the majority of the 11-person team was made up of freshmen and sophomores. However, those underclassmen had a tough decision to either play basketball or wrestle during the winter season.
“We let that first week be a trial run and they were eventually like ‘wrestling is so much better,’” said Bowdre, “It was like a domino effect. Once one girl was like, yeah, I’m going to do it, then others were like, ‘ok I’ll do it too.’”
The tough decision paid off as the first season of Lisbon girls wrestling was seen as a major success. Not just building a winning program, but building a great culture for the girls to not only compete but have a good time doing so.
“Having our seniors be so committed to including everybody and going out of their way to create these little team bonding and stuff of that nature really helped people want to be in the environment,” said Bowdre.
These wrestlers took a major chance on joining the brand-new team. But they looked at it as an opportunity to set the expectation that Lisbon girls wrestling will be great.
“You want to set good standards for the upcoming teams and show them that if you work hard, you can get places,” said Addie Clark.
For the Lions, that started during practice. Even though they would have the occasional day of fun with dodgeball, the Lions took each day seriously. They wanted to prove to themselves and the community that they would be great.
“I think pushing the pace in the room and setting the practice expectations was the thing that needed to be set high,” said Gaiser, “If it was set low, then people might overlook what Lisbon wrestling could be.”
In the team’s first year, they qualified two wrestlers at the state meet. Gaiser, who placed eighth, and freshman Emma Dietsch who did not place, but managed to go 1-2 at the meet.
“It was a lot, there were so many emotions,” said Gaiser, “I think it proves that if you work hard and have the right mindset, you can go so much farther than where you think you can.”
The story of the season was how the community embraced the new program and how the wrestlers embraced Lisbon’s rich wrestling history. They took pride wrestling for the Lions and will continue to grow the program during its next season.