Sports Editor
Senior night festivities at Williamsburg High School on Jan. 13 turned out to be more than just a celebration of the young men who had spent countless hours on the mat over their four-year careers. Instead, the guest of honor was five-year-old Alayna Musselman of Owensville, the team’s honorary captain, who has been battling a rare form of pediatric kidney cancer.
The Wildcats’ link to Musselman was two-fold: Brandon Dean, Williamsburg’s varsity head coach, and Alayna’s mother, Amy, were classmates at Clermont Northeastern High School; and Alayna’s cousin, Jordyn Holden, wrestles for the Wildcats’ youth team.
“The family has wrestled in Clermont County for years,” Dean explained, citing both the Musselmans and the Lays — Amy Musselman’s maiden name is Lay. “Alayna’s dad (Scott) wrestled at Batavia and Amy’s brother, Jeff, was a senior when I was in junior high at CNE. Jeff took the time to work with me when he didn’t have to and that just left an impact on me that their family was just really good people.”
Alayna was diagnosed on April 21, 2015 with pediatric kidney cancer and had surgery to remove an 11-centimeter tumor just three days later.
Having seen a post on Facebook about Alayna’s fight, Dean subsequently came across Holden making a poster to send to his cousin while she was in the hospital. From there, he went to his team with an idea.
“As a coaching staff, we’re always preaching to our kids that we don’t want them to leave our program and just be good wrestlers; we want to see them leave our program and be good people,” he said. “We want them to realize that life is about more than themselves and we want them to get involved in things, be proactive in their community. So, I went to the wrestlers with it and they said, ‘why don’t we make (a poster) too?’
“We made her up a big poster, bought her a Frozen pillow and sent it to her to tell her, ‘we’re behind you. You’re not in this alone.’ We wanted to be a part of it.”
Dean emailed Amy Musselman asking if they could put Alayna’s name on their shirts this year to show their support. She responded very graciously, Dean said, saying that would great. The Wildcats warm up shirts bear “A.M. Strong” on the back.
With Alayna’s name on their backs, the Wildcats have had a stellar season that features a pair of tournament wins and an 11-1 dual record.
As the season wound down and with no guarantees of hosting the team dual tournament, the Wildcat wrestlers wanted to invite Alayna to their senior night dual match against Clinton-Massie and Walnut Hills.
“I talked to the boys about it and they said, ‘let’s have her our, let’s make her a captain for the night,’” Dean said. “All the boys went up and introduced themselves to her. They told her that we’ve been thinking about her everyday and we feel like she’s a part of the team. She came down and they all held hands and walked out to the center and did the coin toss.
Alayna was able to captain the Wildcats to a pair of victories over Massie (41-31) and Walnut (72-6).
“(Amy Musselman) sent me a really nice message the next day and told me that (Alayna) really felt like a princess with all that attention from all those older kids, so it was good.”
As the Wildcats continue their march toward the postseason, they keep Alayna on their backs and in their hearts while their five-year-old captain continues to fight.
For more information on Alayna and to help support her, you can log on to her Facebook page, Adorable Alayna Fund, at facebook.com/adorablealaynafund. You can also donate to her cause at youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/adorable-alayna-fund-help-her-mussel-through-cancer/343384.