There are ways to look at Cassandra Schmidt and Gabe
Doherty that overlook the hole in their lives.
One is to see them,
respectively, as the senior class president and student body president of Big
Sky High School.
Another is to look - marvel, really - at their high
school accomplishments.
Schmidt is a virtual whirlwind of action - a 4.0
grade-point average, member of the Model United Nations, secretary of the
National Honor Society, president of the student business club DECA, treasurer
of Key Club. She plays in the band and sings in the choir.
And oh, have
we mentioned that she's wrestles? Against boys?
She also works for her
dad's business in her spare time.
“I guess I sort of have to schedule
time to sleep,” she said with a laugh.
Doherty is not much
different.
Student body president, member of the National Honor Society,
works with the Flagship Program. He's a budding guitar player who is taking the
next year off to study Spanish in both Mexico and Spain.
The two seniors,
who will graduate Saturday, are thoughtful, inquisitive, polite and inspiring.
Still, beneath the luster of their bright futures, they share a common grief -
both of their mothers died in their mid-40s.
Doherty's mother, Tami, died
in December 2007 of lingering complications from a previous surgery.
“She
went to sleep that night and just didn't wake up,” her son
said.
Schmidt's mother, Diane, died in October 2008, not long after her
oldest daughter started her senior year.
One day she was alive and well,
the next she was told she had two weeks to live. Liver cancer.
She died
15 days later, at age 44.
Her daughter tears up as she remembers her
mom.
“One of the things she said she was going to miss the most was
seeing me graduate,” Schmidt said. “I have to feel like she'll be there with me,
one way or the other.”
For better or worse, we all carry our parents
inside. It's easy to look at Schmidt and Doherty and see the inspiration their
mothers left them.
“Explore, explore, explore,” said the son who will
head off to Mexico and Spain. “Be yourself, put your own stamp on
things.”
Anyone who's ever listened to the comedy routine that sometimes
serves as the morning announcements at Big Sky knows Doherty's verbal stamp. And
he'll have something to say on graduation day, too, when he speaks at the
ceremony.
“I'm not sure what it's going to be, but I want to make it my
own and make it special for everybody,” he said.
When the next school
year starts, Cassandra Schmidt will be a pre-law freshman at Jamestown College,
a small liberal arts school in North Dakota. She could have gone almost anywhere
with her GPA and list of extracurriculars, but Jamestown had something special -
women's wrestling.
“My mom told me to stay strong and follow my dreams,
and for whatever reason, wrestling is one of them,” she said. “And it is going
to be nice to wrestle against girls finally.”
When her mother died,
Cassandra remembered precisely what her mother had been telling her and showing
her for years - be strong, be ready. And she lived it, stepping in to help out
with her mother's role in the family business, taking on some of the
responsibility of caring for her brother and sister.
“You don't really
realize you are ready to handle things until you have to,” she said with a tear
in her eye. “But I was ready. As I go on, I'll always have her with
me.”
Gabe Doherty feels his mother most acutely with his guitar in hand.
He picked up the instrument after her death; it was something that always
offered comfort.
“I feel like my thoughts are always with her when I'm
playing,” he said. “I just hear her voice saying, ‘Be curious, be interesting,
make what you're doing yours.' So that's my plan, no matter where I am.”
======================================================================================
Washington
Making History
by Gordon King
Yakima Herald-Republic 6/5/09
YAKIMA, Wash. -- There was no master plan, no great vision, no
enthusiasm.
Only desperation. And from that desperation came greatness.
The Yakima Valley Community College women's wrestling team, started in
September, 2008, made history as Washington State's first-ever women's
intercollegiate wrestling team.
In making history, the women's team won the national title. This is a story
of that team and its historic season.
Yakima Herald-Republic photographer Gordon King followed the YVCC women's
wrestling team for over six months as the team came from obscurity to become
national champions.
Experience the historic season by clicking the images.
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CHRISTINA STANLEY
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ASHLEE PHY |
JO IELU |
MONIQUE DILLINER |
TAMIKA JONES |
CADY CHAMBERS |
RACHEL SEGURA |
THE COACHES |
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USA
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Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
06/04/2009
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|
 Sue
Hesser of Hillsboro, Ind., a respected pairing official and longtime wrestling
volunteer, has been named Woman of the Year by USA Wrestling, the national
governing body for wrestling in the United States. This award recognizes an
outstanding woman for her contributions to the sport of wrestling.
“I am
honored to be chosen among so many exceptional people in all areas of wrestling,
and to represent our great wrestling family,” said Hesser.
Hesser is one
of the nation’s most respected pairing officials. She is on the U.S. Wrestling
Officials Association Executive Board as an at-large member, serving in her
second term. Within pairing, she serves on the evaluation committee and the
assignment committee, and was involved in the revised bylaws for the
organization.
She has been a pairing official since 1975. Her U.S. rank
is P1E and she is also a licenced FILA pairing official.
She is the
former Pairing Director for USA Wrestling in Indiana, and is a lifetime member
of Indiana’s Board of Directors. Hesser serves as the pairing representative on
the Events and Scheduling ad-hoc committee for USA Wrestling’s Junior Olympic
Wrestling Committee. She also regularly consults on terminology for pairing
operations.
Hesser has worked hundreds of events on the local, regional,
state, national and international levels. She was one of the pairing officials
that worked the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. She has also worked at
numerous World Championships, including both Senior and age-group World events.
Hesser has also worked at numerous U.S. Olympic Team Trials as well as Regional
Olympic Trials.
She is a past winner for the Bernie Norris Award as the
pairing official of the year.
Her family has been involved in wrestling
at many levels. Husband Jan was one of the nation’s top mat officials. All three
of their sons wrestled, and her son Cody is a national and international mat
official.
“It was something we started as a family, and the whole family
would be involved each weekend,” said Hesser. “It has developed beyond that to
our friends who are our wrestling family. It is as much seeing all my friends
who are my family as it is being involved in the actual
wrestling.”
PAST USA WRESTLING WOMAN OF THE YEAR WINNERS
2008 -
Sue Hesser
2007 - Dr. Lin Miller
2006 – Sharon Dowden
2005 – Kim
Martori-Wickey
2004 – Patricia Miranda
2003 - Kristie Marano
2002 - Pat
Short
2001 - Paula McGahee
2000 - Sandy Stevens
1999 - Sue Siar
1998
- Nancy Schultz
1997 - Tricia Saunders
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