- December 14, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
At first, they weren’t very good.
But at least they finished better than where they started.
A couple dozen teenagers stood Dec. 4 in the dining room of the Cypress Springs Gracious Retirement Living community, their feet sinking into the taupe colored carpet.
In front of them sat an audience of 70-, 80-, and 90-year-old residents, eagerly awaiting the show.
Or maybe the residents were just ready for dinner, which was to be served after the event. Nevertheless, they were still there, watching.
The teenagers were members of Lakewood Ranch High boys and girls wrestling teams.
They wrestlers had shuffled in some time before, having come to sing Christmas carols to the local residents. It was a premeditated learning experience, said boys Head Coach Pat Ancil. Not only would this be a good thing to do in the community, but it also forced his wrestlers to get out of their comfort zones.
So they began, tentatively at first, led by sophomore Daxton Martin. Their eyes cast downward as they read the lyrics off their phone screens. While the wrestling team apparently shares some of its members with the school choir, it wasn't readily apparent. After the first carol, it was evident the team couldn’t carry a tune.
The residents looked at one another. Was this really delaying dinner?
What the Lakewood Ranch athletes could do, however, was carry their weight in good intentions. The Mustangs plugged forward, finding a collective voice, and becoming more in sync with every song.
The team’s commitment did the trick, and by the time they reached Feliz Navidad three-quarters through their program, the Mustangs had that residents rocking. The seniors beamed at the kids and at each other and the wrestlers smiled, too, not out of self-consciousness or embarrassment, but out of something more pure: joy.
When the Mustangs closed out the presentation with Silent Night, their time spent at Cypress Springs had shifted from awkward to well-meaning to genuinely enjoyable for all parties involved.
The wrestlers later wandered about the area, introducing themselves to the residents and engaging in conversation. These weren't the stereotypical teenagers of 2024, with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They were sociable, friendly, and kind.
The residents, it turns out, didn’t care if the wrestlers were capable of carrying a tune. They just enjoyed that the wrestlers seemed to care about them.
“It felt good to give back to the community, even though my singing isn’t too good,” said senior Alre Storbeck, a member of the girls wrestling team. “It’s fun to go out and socialize and get out of your comfort zone.
Leaving their comfort zone is exactly what Ancil and his coaching staff wanted.
“Wrestling forces you to get out of your comfort zone because it’s not a team sport,” said former Lakewood Ranch wrestler Nate Lancaster, who is the head coach of the girls team. “It’s literally a 40-foot circle with you and one other person on the mat. You are going to perform solely based on your own actions. There’s no one else to lean on.”
This season, Lakewood Ranch is an inexperienced team. The boys wrestling team, which won the district title for the first time in program history last year, graduated 11 seniors in 2024, including Will Moran, the district champion in the 285-pound class.
“We had a tough team thanks to those seniors,” Ancil said. “This year, we’re going to have an exciting team, a very fun team, an enjoyable team, but they’re young and they’re going to take their licks. They’ll bounce back though — they’re like sponges.”
The girls team is only in its second year of existence. Both teams, however, have plenty of reason to be optimistic about the 2025 season. The girls wrestling team placed second in the district last season and will return individual district champ Francesca Bisordi, a sophomore.
The boys varsity team is loaded with young talent, including 106-pounder Aiden Sanders, a junior who placed second in the district, and is ranked in the top 20 of the state. Junior Shawn Maestre, a 165-pounder who finished 15th in the state last season, is an explosive, talented athlete who’s shown tremendous promise in what was his first season of competitive wrestling. Martin a 126-pounder, can do more than lead the Mustangs in song. Ancil said the sophomore is “tough as nails.”
Learning about the ins and outs of Lakewood Ranch High’s wrestling program wasn’t what made the afternoon at Cypress Springs special. It was more how full of life the space was. It’s a strange thing to see — a group of high school students looking across the room at a collection of senior citizens — 30 feet and 60-odd years of life experience separating them.
The feeling of warmth from the event hadn’t just come from the caroling. It’d hit me as soon as I’d walked through the doors.
Beforehand, I wondered if part of me would’ve left feeling sad. I’d assumed that the residents' lives were quite insulated and circular. But it was clear that life came from the residents, not at them. It's a sentiment I hoped will stick with the wrestlers until the day comes when it's their turn to sit across from a group of teenagers and listen to them sing Christmas carols.
