Foebar makes history as first CNE state wrestling champion
By Dick Maloney
While her coach “cried like a baby,” Clermont Northeastern High School’s first individual state wrestling champion just wanted to eat her dinner.
Such was the scene at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center March 12, where junior Jesse Foebar won the 145-pound weight class in the first Ohio High School Athletic Association-sanctioned state tournament for girls. This was Foebar’s second appearance at the state level – she placed third at 145 pounds in 2022. That tournament was conducted by the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association. This from someone who took up the sport two years ago, when CNE formed its first girls team.
The significance of the moment was not lost on coach Scott Wells.
“I cried like a baby. I have not missed the state tournament since early ‘90s. I've been coaching now for 18 years, and I said every time I've driven home from that tournament, I've dreamed of that moment where they were walking in the parade of champions, dreamed of sitting on the side of that mat just in the finals, like I was dreaming of being in the finals. And then to win the state championship was surreal,” Wells said.
“I just wanted to sit down and eat my Chipotle (and) get to my seat,” Foebar said.
CNE’s only other state finalist was John Gilkerson, in 1983. Wells coached a Rocket, Nick Simpson, to a third-place finish in 2011, and Aaron Keough placed third in 2002.
In the finals, Foebar defeated Lebanon’s Lexi Fornshell by fall at 3 minutes, 47 seconds, reversing a decision from the regional finals a week earlier at Harrison High School, when Fornshell won 7-4.
“I didn't think I was going to lose, but I never thought that I was going to be the state champ,” Foebar said, adding that she had lost to Fornshell four times previously. “So I wasn't expecting to be able to beat her, especially pin her in the second period. I was very excited.”
Wells said Foeber’s mental strength, preparation and previous state experience were the difference in Columbus.
“We had very strict ideas and game plans. She executed extremely well this match. Honestly, I think the biggest difference was the even playing field with the nerves of the state championship match. And I think that Jessie was extremely strong, mentally and prepared for that moment,” Wells said.
“The first couple of matches were definitely very nerve-wracking, but as like the tournament went on I definitely calmed down a little bit,” Foebar said.
Schottenstein Center is the biggest venue in which Foebar has wrestled – it seats more than 18,000, and more than 66,000 attended the five sessions – more than 13,500 for the Friday matches. The 2021 and 2022 girls state tournament were at Hilliard Davidson High School.
Wells and his coaching staff, including girls coach Tom Donahue and assistant Taylor Shinkle and Ben Waldman, took Foebar and CNE’s other state qualifiers, Janelle Donahue, Liberty Johnson and Colby Johnson, through the arena the night before competition, helping them envision the walk through the tunnel to the arena floor and “how intense it really is,” Wells said.
There are 10 matches across the arena floor in early rounds, and a lot commotion and potential distractions for competitors.
“They get out there, I don't think they hear much of anything. In the tunnel though it's kind of quiet … you can really tunnel vision and focus in the tunnel. So there's a lot of communication that's happening beforehand. Once we get out there. It's kind of chaotic, and they get into their own zone,” Wells said.
State finalists participate in a “Parade of Champions” before the finals on Sunday, walking behind standard-bearers, much like in the Olympic opening ceremonies, through fireworks onto the floor, which can cause even more butterflies.
“I was just … trying to soak it all in. I mean, it was a lot. There's a lot of people. I didn't feel very nervous though. I think at that point, I was just ready to wrestle and wasn't really thinking about anything else,” Foebar said.
Minutes later, Foebar had that moment, when the referee’s hand hit the mat signaling the fall – a moment no one will be able to take from her. When the history of OHSAA girls state wrestling champions is recorded, her name will be the first in the 145-pound weight class. While Foebar may not have thought the accomplishment was possible, her coaches were not surprised.
“We knew you were going to be there,” Shinkle said.
“We've been telling her this for years now. And that was one of my first questions to her was, ‘Do you believe in yourself yet?’ As we all did, that was cool. That was a cool moment to where not everybody gets to see exactly what we see,” Wells said. “We all knew that you could. That's a special feeling as a coach when they actually finally get to see what we've been seeing.”
Foebar won three of the four matches at state by fall; her closest match was a 3-2 semifinal decision over Fostoria’s Ariana Espinsosa-Snowden. She finished the season with a 31-9 record.
Wrestling with the attention may be more difficult for Foebar than winning the state title. The school honored her with a parade around campus, in a fire truck, but she, her coaches and teammates broke out in laughter when asked if she would pose for a statue for being CNE’s first state champion.
“I think that's been her hardest thing with this is the attention,” Wells said. “She is definitely a very humble. I don't want to say antisocial because she's very social. but she does not like the attention. She does not like to be in that limelight. Which I think is great. I love to push her into that … make her uncomfortable as much as I can.”
Her opponents feel just as uncomfortable facing her on the mat.