The Beaverton Library has moved a few doors down the street and is now located in the Beaverton Community Center.
That is important to know, because if you show up at the old place hoping to check out the latest novel in John Sanford’s “Prey” series, you are in for a surprise.
Instead of carpet on the floor, there are wall-to-wall colored mats.
Instead of mandatory silence, there are shouts and whistles.
Instead of readin’ and ritin’, there is rasslin’, and when the folks inside start talking Greco-Roman, they don’t mean the works of Aristophanes and Cicero anymore.
The old library is the new headquarters of the Beaverton wrestling team and, just like in a big match, timing and execution were key when the Beavers pinned down their new home.
“We practiced in the mezzanine at the high school last year, and we were looking for a new place,” said Beaverton coach Bryan Cassiday. “We wanted to practice with no interuptions and, especially on basketball nights, it was tough to keep up the intensity.
“We wanted an isolated area, where we could think about nothing but wrestling.”
There wasn’t enough room at the school, so the search began for a nearby spot. With the cooperation of the school district and the city government, the emptying library emerged as the place to be.
“When the library moved, this place was vacant and kind of in limbo,” Cassiday said. “We ended up getting some of the kids together and helping move a few shelves and desks to the Community Center and, when they were gone, we rolled in the mats.”
There are still a few remnants of the building’s more cerebral past, notably a desk and (relatively) quiet area where the athletes tend to their homework before practice.
Otherwise, wrestling rules.
Cassiday runs a youth program right after school for kids age 5 through eighth grade. The varsity guys are on hand to help train the youngsters for an hour or two before their own practice begins.Cassiday said there are about 20 regular participants in the youth program, six of whom placed in a recent tournament at Gladwin.
The varsity has 18 on the roster, which isn’t bad, considering that high school wrestling at Beaverton is a rather novel idea (pun intended). The program is in just its second season.
It all started a couple years ago when Cassiday was approached by one of the school’s football coaches about how to get the sport started.
Cassiday wrestled in high school at Gladwin and had been coaching in Gladwin’s youth program for 10 years.
His son, Kyle, was competing nationally at youth tournaments, and sending him to a high school with no wrestling program was not appealing.
“We were thinking about moving,” said Cassiday, “but then we approached the school board about getting a wrestling program started, and they were supportive, and it just kind of took off from there.
“The whole community has been supportive. A lot of local businesses have stepped up to help us, along with the parents and the Booster Club, and we’ve even had a few anonymous donors.
“We didn’t go out begging. People just heard about what we wanted to do and stepped up, and now the city is involved, by helping us get into the library. The kids really appreciate it.”
The Beavers don’t have the depth up and down the lineup to compete for the Jack Pine Conference crown just yet, but they are heading in the right direction, and they are cutting their teeth against some pretty tough customers.
“It seems like every team in our league has one, two, or three kids who are ranked in the top 10,and Roscommon is the No. 10 team in the state, so it’s a tough league,” said Cassiday. “We have some holes to fill, but we are progressing aboout the way I expected.”
Senior Wade Sturgeon is ranked sixth in the state at heavyweight, according tomichigangrappler.com. Kyle Cassiday is 10th at 135 pounds, and fellow freshman Jack Owens is among the best in Division 3 at 152.
Roscommon leads the league in the standings, with an undefeated dual-meet record, and also inthe number of ranked wrestlers. Sophomore Ethan Noreyko received honorable mention at 119; senior Gage Major is No. 7 at 140; and senior Donald Jernigan is 10th at 160.
Junior Hart Smalley of Clare is ninth at 171, while freshman Kyler Schaaf got honorable mention at 112.
Meridian senior Mason Schultz is fourth at 285.
Gladwin senior Owen Ritchie is seventh at 171.