Over the weekend, all of the best names in high school wrestling brawled it out at Ford Field. At FHC, though, community members had their eyes on one athlete: two-time all-state wrestler, sophomore Ashley Schenck. 

Ashley wrestled her heart out on March 4 and 5 and came out with a 3-2 record. Her valiant effort landed her in seventh place for the 2021-2022 season, earning her the title of “Hometown Hero” in the Forest Hills Central community. 

“It still hasn’t overly set in yet, but I am starting to feel a little nervous since all the pressure is on me. But, with only me getting to wrestle for the school, I will do my best to represent myself and to represent the school,” Ashley said before her campaign at states. 

This was an impressive move up in the ranks for Ashley, considering she placed eighth last year at states. This is also only her second season of high school wrestling; with all the young talent she possesses, who knows how far she will make it next year. 

“Ashley had a great weekend of wrestling,” head coach Brad Anderson said. “She placed seventh in a tough weight class and really earned her all-state status.”

Ashley’s first opponent of the day was Adiliea Carr from Linden High School. After butting heads for two periods, Ashley came out victorious with a strong 4-3 win in the third period by decision. This victory secured at least one more match for Ashley, but her fight was just getting started.  

As the only Ranger competing at the state level, Ashley was extremely excited and nervous for the battles that followed her 4-3 victory over Carr. In the matter of a few hours, her second experience at states was heating up. 

“I felt really excited about all of the competition, and I thought it would be a lot of fun,” Ashley said. “I felt a little nervous, considering I will be going up against the best wrestlers in the state, but it still was a ton of fun to go up against them.”

The second match on Ashley’s agenda was against Grand Blanc’s steadfast grappler Faith Burgess. Sadly, for Ashley, she fell 12-4 to Faith, knocking her out of the runnings for first and second place. Although she lost this battle, she could still fight for third place on the other side of the bracket, which is exactly what she planned to do. 

Ashley’s third matchup was known as her’ blood round’ and would determine what she would get to do next. Luckily for her, she used every ounce of strength that she could grasp and defeated Linnea Britton from Escanaba High School with a 3-2 win in the third period. This win was a huge success for Ashley and set her up for success looking ahead. 

After that, it was time for her fourth matchup of the two-day competition. This one turned the tables on Ashley’s rankings completely as she went up against Jaime Cook from DeWitt High School. At this point, Ashley was 2-1 for the weekend, meaning a win in her next match would inch her closer to third place. Despite her hard work to power through the first period, Ashley got pinned in the second by Jaime, which meant that Ashley would only have one more fight left in the competition. 

It was the final match of her season, and all the pressure was on Ashley to see what place she would claim. Adiliea Carr from Linden High School was forced to face Ashley for the second time in a row and contend for the number seven spot on the leaderboard. Both girls being the talented wrestlers they were, knew that they had to outwrestle the other by a safe amount to stay in the lead because anything could happen in the span of 15 seconds—good or bad. At the end of the third period, though, Ashley heroically came out on top with a 7-2 lead to win the seventh-place ranking for her weight class, as well as all-state honors. 

With all the excitement surrounding Ashley’s amazing weekend, many of her teammates and family members, including her brother Alex Schenck, have spoken out about how proud they are of Ashley and how far she made it in the state tournament this season. 

“I am really proud of her,” Alex said. “She put in a lot of work, and she worked extremely hard for this. Ashley has put in so much time and effort both in practice and out of practice to prepare for it, and I am so happy that her dedication got her to states.”

At the end of the day, Ashley finished her season with a 19-11 record and is now a two-time all-state wrestler, placing eighth overall in 2021 and seventh overall in 2022. 

Along with all the excitement surrounding Ashley, another member of the FHC wrestling room got recognized on the state level. Long-time assistant coach Rick Kacher won the Girls Assistant Coach of the Year Award for the state of Michigan. 

“Coach Kacher is a friend, mentor, and pillar of the community,” coach Anderson said. “I’m really glad he was honored by the fellow coaches of Michigan. He has traveled many miles and helped many young wrestlers achieve their goals; he deserved it.” 

With everything in the books for the 2021-2022 wrestling season, Ranger Country has many things to celebrate. The team had an impressive season, which was followed by an outstanding all-state performance from Ashley and a historic award for coach Kacher. All in all, each wrestler did a fantastic job at what they do best. It is only a matter of time before the next season comes around for the athletes to once again prove themselves worthy of being a mighty and powerful Ranger. 

“We are incredibly proud of Ashley and her efforts; she represents Ranger Country with pride, class, and integrity,” coach Anderson said. “She is one tough young lady!”

Editor’s note: Being new to the sports scene in general in the world of sports coverage, I had big shoes to fill to prove myself worthy of covering a sport as big as wrestling. So, this year, as I entered the wrestling scene, I had no clue what to expect; I had never been to a wrestling match before. In order to learn about the sport, I studied the sport as much as I could before the first competition. Going into it, I was a little unsure if I would like it and had no idea where the season would bring me. But, I am so overjoyed that I stuck with it and got to work with all of these brilliant athletes during their journey through the season. Now that the season is over, I would love to send a huge thank you to the whole wrestling community for all of the support and kindness you showed me throughout the season. From the athletes who put up with my multiple texts or emails about quotes and details to the wrestling parents who took pictures and helped me out when I had questions about scores or how the points were decided, all of your behind-the-scenes work was the foundation of every story that I wrote. To coach Anderson and all of the other coaches who supported me every step of the way with quotes, updates, and everything I could ever need to write the stories that I wrote, thank you for making this season so amazing. Until next season, FHC.