Meet the Cumberland Valley Eagles girls wrestling coaches
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — In its inaugural year as an official school sport, the Cumberland Valley (CV) girls wrestlers are quickly becoming top of the card locally and statewide. Getting them ready for the mat are three coaches whose experiences and tenacity are what’s driving these female athletes to achieve big goals.
Head coach, Colonel Ryan Seagreaves is no stranger to the art of wrestling. The Pennsylvania native spent his high school years squashing his opponents before he went on to wrestle at West Point for four more years. After a stint as an assistant coach at the military academy, Seagreaves then went on to become an army officer. He spent the next 24 years on active duty, living in various countries and states. Yet throughout his time he always found an opportunity to coach some sort of sport. It was natural for him, “from a leadership perspective there is not a whole lot of difference between coaching sports or coaching a tank company or calvary squadron getting ready for combat.”
In the summer of 2018, Seagreaves arrived back in Pennsylvania, this time as a student at the Carlisle War College. Soon after he was hired at the military campus for the next three years. His own kids entered the CV school district and Seagreaves made a promise to his family that they would not move again. “So I had to prepare for life after the army. Outside of the war college, my networking was being a volunteer coach of wrestling and football. That’s how I met a lot of people in the community. The timing just kind of magically worked out that the senior army and JROTC position became available at CV. At the same time, the school was able to generate the right numbers in the girls wrestling program for it to become an official school sport,” remembers the coach.
To lead a successful team, Seagreaves shared that his assistant coaches are instrumental in helping him put a good comprehensive plan together for the girls.
Rachele Dominick is an 18-year veteran teacher at CV high school, currently teaching 12th-grade English. “My role as a coach is to support these young athletes on and off the mat, to cheer and guide them during drills and during matches, and to be an example of a strong female athlete. Specific practices that I lead are our outdoor runs, yoga sessions, and guided mediations on recovery days,” describes the first-year assistant coach.
“She really helps us with recovery, taking care of our bodies, and having a positive mental and emotional outlook on where we are every day. She has great relationships with the athletes and she makes sure that I don’t drive them into the ground,” Seagreaves explained.
Dominick affirms, “Working with Ryan and Matt has been a great experience: we respect each other’s areas of expertise, we listen to each other, and we are all learning a lot. Plus, we have fun. For me, personally, I feel incredibly lucky to be coaching with such all-stars.”
Matt White, a two-time all-American wrestler at Penn State, and Pan Am Games champion round out the coaching team. Matt is the owner of Visionary Training Systems, a personal training and movement training center where he primarily does group training. Because of his background and career, he is the main guy who puts the strength and conditioning programs together. “Last year I was training a team of one. I was training only my daughter Eliana White-vega. I was also a volunteer coach at a D3 training center in Harrisburg as well as Primus wrestling club in Dillsburg. When Cumberland Valley School District decided to invest in a girls’ varsity team, we decided to move into the district and I applied for the assistant coach position. I wanted to provide this amazing opportunity for my daughter.”
“I love coaching this team,” Matt White explains, “it has been incredibly satisfying to see these girls transform before my eyes. I see a level of confidence in the eyes of the girls I did not see before. I see a level of care and respect for each other that has grown as they have embraced the process of transformation as they each develop as an athlete; this involves the development of perseverance a very necessary life skill. I look forward to coaching these girls every day. They are some of the most coachable athletes I have ever worked with, including my daughter Eliana.”
“Our strength and conditioning work is elite-level programming for the girls,” head coach Seagreaves boasts.
The three of them keep each other balanced. “It’s awesome for me because all I have to do is give my two “big blue arrows” (a military term used to explain objectives) and point us to the goal,” says Seagreaves. “All have to I to say is, ‘hey we need a strength circuit to keep us strong and help prevent injury,’ Matt plans it from A-Z. And if I say, ‘hey on this day, we need a good recovery session,’ Rachele builds it and runs the session from start to finish.”
“There are days that Matt or Rachelle make suggestions to me about changes in the program and as soon as they say it, I think, ‘thank God they are here because that was better than what I was thinking.”
With 50 athletes on the team, it is important in maintaining meaningful relationships where the girls feel comfortable about whatever they need. Each coach provides a different dynamic of support for the girls.
For the coaches, the rewards for their hard work build each time they work with the girls. “I enjoy seeing these girls show up as their authentic selves and owning their strength and their athleticism. I love that this is a sport for any “body” and that it promotes growth, resiliency, mental toughness, and humility. It makes me smile every day to see them support each other, lean on each other, and learn from each other. There is a sisterhood that is being created day by day, and that is a truly special thing to be a part of.” voices Dominick.
Seagreaves continues, “Personally, I’m fired up just being around the team on a daily basis. It’s great to watch these young ladies become serious athletes. Their drive to succeed and their determination and their willingness to share hardships with their teammates are as strong as any other group of soldiers or athletes that I have ever coached. That makes for a pretty good life.”
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