Grace Hurst

In small towns like Nelsonville, Ohio, sports are more than just an extracurricular; they are the soul of the community. If there is one force that can unite a town, it’s the unwavering support for its high school athletes. As soon as August arrives, Friday nights belong to the football team, and the rest of the school year brings weeknights spent in Gymnasiums and on fields. Yet, despite this deep rooted passion from the community, certain athletic legacies have drifted into obscurity.

 

David Wyatt, a Nelsonville native, baseball legend, and sportswriter, understood all the aspects of being an athlete, specifically an underrepresented one. In his time as a sportswriter, he emphasized one specific thing about athletics: telling the story is just as important as playing the game.

 

While athletics and athletes are highly regarded in their time at Nelsonville, sometimes the stories slip our minds upon graduation, specifically those feats of female athletes. For decades, female athletes have moved through Nelsonville-York High School as dominant competitors, earning their way to the collegiate courts, fields, and tracks. Their journeys reflect a core piece of Appalachian history, one built on grit, hard-work, and a resiliency all Appalachians know too well.

 

Bringing their experiences out of the shadows isn’t just another sports story, it's an opportunity to grant women their permanent place in Nelsonville history.

 

Appalachian Pride

 

Through conversations with athletes spanning over several decades, one thing was clear: there is nothing quite like being a Nelsonville-York Buckeye. After speaking with 12 former athletes who took their respective skills to the next level, it was evident that being an athlete in Nelsonville is no small feat. It demands hard work, dedication, grit, and the support of their coaches, teammates, and community. These young women didn’t have easy access to elite facilities, high-exposure showcase tournaments, or private training, but they did have determination, resiliency, and an unyielding desire to be better.

 

Recruiters don’t often knock on many doors in Athens County, leaving these athletes to build their own paths forward, despite whatever hurdles lie in their way.

 

Airah Lavy, a 2024 graduate and current Division I basketball player at Florida Gulf Coast University, left her mark on Nelsonville-York basketball, and hopes to make her community proud during her collegiate years. “I never really felt like I was carrying the weight of the community, rather I felt a constant need to make the community proud. I knew that it was very hard to make it out of the town we lived in and I knew what it would take to leave a legacy behind in Nelsonville while carrying it over to college,” Lavy said in an interview.

 

Extra exposure is not always easily accessible for individuals in rural Appalachian areas, and recruitment requires a lot of extra leg-work from the athletes themselves. This means parents driving long hours to competitive club teams, athletes editing their own highlight reels, and players putting in countless hours of extra work to make themselves better.

 

Honoring Legacies

 

The legacy of female dominance at Nelsonville-York stretches across decades of multi-sport athletes who made their mark before ever reaching the collegiate level. On the track, Kristin Inman set TVC Records in 100m hurdles, along with school records in the 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, 400m dash, and 4x4 relay. This earned her back-to-back All-State honors in 1993and 1994 before running for four years at Bowling Green State University.

 

On the basketball court, Lisa Meade was a four-year letterman and finished her high school career with 980 points, helping the Buckeyes win the TVC in 2005 and Sectional Titles in‘05 and ‘07. Meade had many more accolades, along with some in volleyball and track and field, before moving on to compete at Ohio University Lancaster.

 

This dominance was just as evident on the volleyball court, where Whitney Maiden earned Tri-Valley Conference honors from 2002-2004, and District Player of the Year in 2003.Maiden was a formidable force in basketball and track and field as well, where she collected more accolades before moving on to play volleyball at Ohio University.

 

Joining Maiden in this era of success was Jordan (Bateman) Gasper, a 3 year varsity captain and multi-sport letter winner. Gasper earned First Team All-TVC and All-District honors from 2002-2004, while also leading NY to capture two TVC titles and a regional runner-up finish before playing four years at Cleveland State.

 

Together, with several other standout alumni not mentioned, these women established a standard of excellence that paved the way for generations of Buckeye women.

 

Making the Transition

 

Being an athlete at Nelsonville-York provides a distinct foundation, one built on resiliency and self-motivation, and the steady support of coaches, peers, and community.

 

While this environment equipped these athletes with valuable life skills, collegiate athletics remains an entirely different game.

 

Mackenzie Hurd, a 2022 graduate who went on to play Division I basketball at Youngstown State and later at Ohio Dominican, highlighted the sharpest contrast: college athletics are akin to working a full time job.

 

In high school, athletes naturally transition from fall to winter and spring sports. In college, there is a year-round dedication to a single sport. Across decades of athletes, the time commitment and exhausting schedules were the most jarring adjustments.

 

Kyla Henderson, a 2019 graduate who played volleyball at Mount St. Joseph University, experienced a similar culture shock regarding the competitive depth.

 

Playing alongside teammates who came from larger metropolitan areas, it was clear that they grew up with access to high-level club teams.

 

“Cincinnati has so many opportunities and clubs and things up here, that once I got to know some of these people, I learned a lot while in college that I didn't necessarily learn in high school,” Henderson noted, explaining that her teammates had higher exposure to different levels of play.

 

In rural Appalachian areas, the local talent pool is only so deep, making the transition to college a sudden exposure to different game speeds.

 

Despite the steep learning curves, time demands, and initial isolation, every alumna traced their perseverance back to Nelsonville-York.

 

The culture shock was real, but the athletes were well equipped. The work ethic and resiliency instilled in them during their time as a Buckeye prepared these athletes to take on the hurdles of being a collegiate athlete and representing their small town.

 

Community Opportunity

 

While many alumnae felt there was no deliberate gap in support between boys and girls sports at Nelsonville-York, others noted subtle disparities. None of the women doubted that their school and community respected them, but many identified a clear shift in the attention and resources, especially outside of fall sports.

 

Several athletes noted that community attendance often depended on the success of the girls team, while the boys events were consistently filled with supporters regardless of record. Haley Hurd, a 2020 graduate who threw shot-put and discus for the University of Charleston, shared her observation on community support. “Female athletics at Nelsonville-York were supported in a way that I would compare to the tides of the ocean: support would rise and fall depending on a team’s success.”

 

Scheduling also reinforced this imbalance. Fall Friday nights are reserved for football games and winter Fridays almost exclusively go to the boys basketball team, leaving girls with the late weeknight slots.

 

Emmie Fowler, a 2025 graduate who committed to Lawrence Technological University to play softball, experienced this contrast firsthand.

 

In the summer of 2022, the softball field was bulldozed to put in a practice football field and a new softball diamond.

 

“The practice football field got done quickly, within the same year, and the softball field took three years to get completed, just enough time to play four innings on,” Fowler recalled. "My senior year, me and two other seniors spent hours trying to help our coach get the field good enough to play on it.” The field still wasn’t completed by the next softball season, resulting in the first few games being played elsewhere.

 

These contrasting memories do not diminish the affection these alumnae hold for Nelsonville-York, but they do reveal the reality of being a female athlete.

 

Not only were these women fighting to earn collegiate attention and stay committed to their sports, but they were also pushing against the assumption that their efforts were secondary to male sports.

 

For Fowler and her teammates, picking up the tools to make their own field playable was an extension of the same grit that made them competitive athletes. Their willingness to put in that extra labor only further proves the need to re-evaluate how a community defines equal support.

 

Supporting Nelsonville-York’s female athletes requires intentional, sustained backing from both the school and the community. In practice, this means finding a balance between facility maintenance, equitable scheduling, and crowd turnout between boys and girls programs.

 

A community’s support should never depend on a winning or losing record. Filling the seats for women’s athletics shows these young athletes that their dedication is just as valued as their male peers. Brittlyn Call, a 2020 graduate who played volleyball at Ohio Christian University, and Delaney Dean, a 2025 graduate who plays volleyball at Hiram College, shared similar sentiments as to why community support is so pertinent for young girls. Both athletes expressed that support stems from just showing up and encouraging these athletes. This support doesn’t only just boost their confidence, but it also shows them that they are valued by their community.

 

By taking these steps and consistently highlighting the successes of female athletes and teams, Nelsonville can transform the culture surrounding girls sports for generations to come.

 

David Wyatt understood that in order to be a meaningful sports writer, one must uncover and tell the stories that might otherwise be forgotten. The 12 women who shared their journeys, along with every Buckeye alumna before and after them, have proven that athletic talent in Appalachia knows no limits. By backing these athletes today and preserving what they’ve done in the past, Nelsonville ensures their stories aren’t another piece of overlooked history, but rather a piece of its legacy.