The clock has finally reached 0:00 in the third period of the wrestling season, and with the end comes an announcement: I’m taking off my metaphorical ankle bracelets for the last time as I write my final blog post for the Canon-McMillan Wrestling Alumni Association.
The journey began in July of 2016 when the CMWAA decided that a website would benefit the program. With the help of previously compiled statistics from Slack, Paul Amic, and other internet sources, I built the website. Around the same time, I decided to pursue a degree in Marketing, mostly focusing on the digital field. The summer of 2017 came, and I was, unfortunately, rejected from many internships that I worked hard to get. Luckily I received advice from a professor to “create my own internship.” Thinking back to my days as a wrestler, I brought back a fire within myself to push forward and find a way to win. I found my “win” on the CMWAA website by increasing my knowledge in the field of Digital Marketing while also helping out the wrestling program.
Those who have followed the site this season know that it was a historic season. The program celebrated 90 years, hired a new head coach, took 4th at the PIAA team tournament, and crowned an individual State Champ. Personally, it was one of my favorite seasons to watch as a fan of the sport. Throughout the season, the Alumni Association highlighted wrestlers of the past, present, and future with individual bios, video interviews, and performance updates.
Creating and curating the content of such a historic program has been an honor. Over the past few years as the Founder of the Alumni Wrestling Camp and Content Marketer of the CMWAA, I had the opportunity to meet many fantastic people. I also came to realize that those people carry many awesome stories that flow through the program and tie the different generations together. Though I heard my fair share of stories this year, I haven’t even cracked the surface.
Since June of 2017, we’ve published over 50 articles and 26 videos that have highlighted many of the community’s stories. Additionally, the fans participated in the 12 Days of Chris-Mas, Mat Madness, Fantasy Wrestling, Alumni Night, and our camp and golf events that showed off the program. With the support of the fans on the website and an incredible performance by Havelka’s squad, crowd attendance grew this season for all home matches.
When I was not in class, I was finding a way to improve the website and please the fans. It was my goal to engage the many different eras and circles within the CM wrestling community through the different mediums in the digital spectrum. This website has been recognized by the local community, but also by members of PA Power Wrestling and FloWrestling, two major wrestling news outlets. By working hard on the website I was able to earn my current job right out of college.
Making the journey from having no website to creating weekly content has been very memorable and fulfilling in my professional career and personal life. After three years of helping the program as much as I could, it’s time for me to move on. I’m proud of my work, and I’m glad that I could share all of the content that I did in CM’s historic season. My aspirations for this season was to inspire the youth, teach the current generation, and spark up old conversations, and I hope that I accomplished that.The website will continue to be available, but I will not be producing any additional content.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank the Canon-McMillan wrestling fans and the 8.3 thousand people who have visited the site since 2016. I want to personally thank the coaches, wrestlers, parents, fans, and my family who have taken this journey with me and the CM Wrestling Alumni Association for allowing me to create this website. If you bought the 90th anniversary gear or donated to the program, thank you. Whether you read the content daily or watched a video once, thank you. If you came to the matches or watched via our live stream, thank you. To those who took the time out of your busy days to message or talk to me about wrestling, thank you. I have appreciated every conversation that we have had together about wrestling.
My departing piece of advice for the fans is to embrace the history flowing throughout the local community because you don’t know when those stories will be gone and forgotten.
Sincerely,
