Audrey's Story: The Dark Path from Youth Wrestling Success to Varsity State Champion
Audrey moments after winning a state title in Tennessee as a freshman. Photo courtesy of Ryan Vinson.
by Derek Levendusky
This picture. Thank you photographer Ryan Vinson for capturing this moment. So much behind it. For those of you that don’t know her, that’s my daughter, Audrey Levendusky. You may know her older sisters, Joye and Esther. They both wrestle, too.
Audrey started wrestling when she was 5-years-old. She’s always been “touched” athletically. By the end of that first season in 2014, she’d won her first girls youth state title in New York. She was so happy and we were thrilled.
Then she started beating everyone.
Within two years, she was ranked #1 in the state in a boys’ ranking. She was a little star, tossing anyone she could get her hands on. She was having fun.
We have more than one story about overhearing a poor, unsuspecting boy seeing her name in his weight class on the posted paper bracket, making a comment about an easy win coming his way. “Poor kid,” I’d say to my wife Heidi Jo. “He has no idea what’s coming.”
Within a few years, Audrey started succeeding at the national level, wrestling on duals teams for New York with her older sisters, winning runner-up one year in the boys and girls divisions at NUWAY Nationals. We were over the moon when she pinned a male Ohio state champ in the national semis one year. I can still hear her grandfather laughing in disbelief in the background of the video.
Eventually Audrey won 6 state titles in youth and middle school wrestling, and was runner-up at four national tournaments, including Oklahoma Folkstyle Nationals.
This all sounds wonderful, but over the years, it stopped being fun. The matches got harder, the stakes were higher, her emotions got more tangled, the boys got tougher and meaner, and she had a target on her back. “I‘d like my son to get a shot at her,” I saw on one comment thread.
She was seen by a lot of people as a phenom and some from other clubs (especially moms) would even go out of their way to come watch her matches at tournaments. But the pressure of it all was unfair and removed so much joy from the sport.
We knew being involved in wrestling was providing a great benefit for her, her character and her faith, but her heart was drifting from the sport. She continued to rack up amazing results and wins over girls and boys, but eventually she lost any joy she once had in the sport. Wins seemed to be a relief at best and losses would devastate her.
As parents, our approach is to create some expectations for our children and not give all our authority away to them. In other words, we reserve some discretion over their activities and don’t allow them to make all the decisions about how they spend their time. The reasoning is that, though we leave some discretion up to the child, we have a sense of what is good for them that they might not have for themselves. We knew wrestling was providing some great things for Audrey-–community, friends, discipline, courage, confidence, faith development, to name a few-–so we didn’t let her stop wrestling completely. That being said, Audrey began to do the minimum and pursued other interests, which was fine. She stayed connected to the sport, but we began to wonder where she’d be long term. It was hard to watch her lose her love for wrestling because I knew how talented she was and how many opportunities she could have in the growing movement, but we held on loosely and asked God to guide her heart.
Then Covid.
For almost two years, she hardly wrestled at all. She was on the modified team at Avon Middle School in New York, but had to wrestle the boys, only got four matches during the pandemic season, and had to wear a mask. (I know, ridiculous, right?) At the same time, we were excited about her growing love for volleyball, something her mother loves as well, and Audrey began to invest a lot into that sport.
One day I asked her if she wanted to keep wrestling and she said yes, that she knows it’s good for her, but only wanted to be involved in a limited way. She wasn’t excited about being on the boys team at Avon (girls wrestling was not sanctioned in New York), but gave me permission to challenge her to stay involved in the sport in the future.
In 2021, we moved to Tennessee. One of the many things that drew us to this state was the fact that it had sanctioned girls high school wrestling. We wanted that for her, an opportunity to experience the sport with her own gender, to perhaps find community in a girls’ program. After looking at a number of options and visiting Tennessee, we landed at Montgomery Central. We found an open door and cultural fit with Steve Heberer, Corey Wright, and what they were doing “below the river” in Clarksville.
The move was hard for her. There were some dark days of sadness as she said goodbye to old friends and stepped into a whole new world. It took a while for her to find her smile in Tennessee.
They don’t allow middle school kids to wrestle on varsity in our part of Tennessee. They enter the program as high school freshmen. So last year in 8th grade, Audrey wrestled AAU regionals and AAU States in the girls division. She did well, winning the regional and taking 2nd in the state, but she struggled with the whole youth wrestling scene that surrounded it. The pressure and chaos maybe gave her a little PTSD so-to-speak. After she took a first round loss to the eventual champ, she broke down and said, speaking of the suffocating youth wrestling scene, “I really hate this whole environment! I hate the pressure I feel! I can’t do it anymore.” Eventually, she calmed down and steadied herself to grind her way back to take 2nd in a True 2nd match. We were so proud of her.
Once summer hit after 8th grade, it was varsity time. She attended our high school camp and began to make friends in the varsity program. Once fall rolled around, she embraced the everyday grind. Her love for her teammates grew and our program’s culture began to win her heart back to the sport. Meanwhile, I was trying to coach her mindset. “You’re just a freshman,” I told her. “You’ve got nothing to lose this year. Just have fun.”
When competitions started, she loved being there with her team. Her technique was sloppy and unrefined, still carrying in some old habits from youth wrestling, mixed with the fact that she hadn’t really had a full season of wrestling for three years. She took some losses, but we’d demoted the results. It was all about development, enjoying the experience, and glorifying God.
As the season progressed, we began to see huge gains in her technique, her mindset, and her confidence. She started racking up wins, and a few of them against some pretty good opponents.
Then she came to us about the possibility of dropping to 126. As a freshman, the mature-bodied 132-pounders were a lot to handle and she thought perhaps both smaller bodies and the statewide landscape at 126 was better for her. We agreed. She embraced the cut with discipline and a workman’s mindset.
It took 5-6 weeks to settle in, but eventually she seemed optimized at that weight. She looked great, and started dominating most of her matches.
Going into regionals, we still knew that we were in the toughest region in Tennessee for girls, and that it might even be hard just to get through the regional to qualify for States. Once all area girls decided their weight classes, the outlook seemed favorable for her. She won the regional and earned a #3 seed at the TSSAA State Championships.
I needed her to believe in herself. “You’re a storm,” I told her. “They can’t stop you. Believe and take it to them! Foot on the gas.”
After her second pin, a win in the quarters, we were thrilled. She was going to be on the podium as a freshman! But I knew she could do more. “Don’t be satisfied,” I told her. “Go get more.” She wanted it. I could see it in her eyes.
Audrey won her semi, putting her in the finals. “Stay greedy,” I said. “You can do this!”
She’d have to face returning state champ Verena Pate in the finals, a young lady that seems like a great person…and also a super tough wrestler. Audrey was 1-2 against her during the regular season, but had lost the last one 6-0 about six weeks before States. Pate had controlled that match though Audrey was still settling into the weight at the time.
We worked on a plan and tactics. Pate was a familiar opponent. But don’t overthink it, we said. Just wrestle.
Once the scene was set, thousands of people in the arena, the three mats on the floor for the finals in the three Tennessee divisions, the walkout with Audrey’s picture on the big screen, she was nervous but focused. It wasn’t too big of a moment for her.
“You’ve been here before,” I told her. “You’ve been on big stages. You’re ready for this.”
Pate was a handful, but Audrey wrestled smart, technically well, and won the match 7-0. (The young scorekeeper at the table didn’t award her final reversal even though the referee did on the mat and TrackWrestling says 5-0.) If Pate ever reads this, thank you for the great match and your remarkable attitude.
At first, Audrey stayed on her knees and lifted her hands to give God glory in the moment.
Then this picture. So much emotion. So much work. So much faith. It was an almost ten-year journey to this moment. A journey with so many valleys. A journey that almost included walking away from the sport. But the whole time, God had this moment planned in her life, and Vinson captured it.
I don’t know what the future holds, and I hope she’ll have more state titles, but even if she doesn’t, this was such a special moment for her and our family that we’ll treasure the rest of our lives.
In the end, we’re grateful for so much. Honestly, being in a sanctioned state in a girls program, facing her own gender, created the potential for this fantastic experience for her. I hope other states that don’t sanction girls wrestling will recognize this. We’re so thankful for the opportunity. And we’re thankful to all those that have supported her and our family on this journey. Thanks for reading and I hope her story inspires your own journey, that God knows how to get you where He wants you.
A big thanks to all these organizations, individuals & clubs that have impacted her career along the way:
Wrestle Like A Girl
Gary McDowell & NYWAY Girls Division
NYWAY
USA Wrestling
Slingshot Wrestling Club
Rick Stewart & the Batavia Youth Club
Craig Remchuk & the Hornell Club
Heath Macaluso & New York Women’s Wrestling
Nick Kubinski, Andy Englert & the Avon program
Scott Winseman
Dan Chase
Michael Maczynski
Sisters Joye Levendusky & Esther Levendusky
Mason Gray
Brother Reese Levendusky