Elyria Sports Hall of Fame: Ricky Lewis had no choice but to be a wrestler, and the Pioneers are glad about that

Ricky Lewis had a strategy for staying out of the shadow of older brother Wilbur, who won a wrestling state championship at Elyria High in 1967. Fortunately for Ricky and the Pioneers, nobody else wanted in on his plan. "It's kind of funny because I wasn't going to be a wrestler," Lewis said. "I was going to play basketball. I didn't want to go behind him because everyone would say your big brother did this so you're going to do it. I wanted to play basketball but the rest of the coaches wanted me to wrestle. So (the basketball coach) told me not to even come out for basketball because I was going to be cut, because they all wanted me to wrestle." Ricky did indeed follow in Wilbur's footsteps, winning a state championship his senior season, but he also was the catalyst of the Pioneers' and Lorain County's only wrestling state championship team in 1973. "I'm looking at the (team) photo right now. I have it here on my wall," said former Elyria wrestling coach Bill Pierson during a phone interview from his home. "Ricky is right there in the middle right by the state championship trophy. A lot of kids played a role (in winning the title) but Ricky was right up there near the top for sure." Lewis, along with Emily Taylor, P.J. Mahone, Alexis McCall, Ron Trout and Elyria's 2009 state championship softball team will be inducted into the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. Longtime Elyria trainer Ann Hamker will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Lewis was a true old-school wrestler. He didn't learn the sport on the biddy mats or compete for a club team as a youth. He sharpened his skills while wearing his school colors. "I was strictly school wrestling. I didn't know anything about AAU or the Y teams or anything like that," he said. "We just wrestled for Mr. (John) Hollett (in middle school). He taught us everything and then when we got to high school, Mr. Pierson and Mr. (Jim) Westbrook taught us even more. They just added on to what we already knew." Lewis said he was forced to become a better wrestling because he was always challenging stronger teammates. He constantly battled with close friend Gene Madison, and the two of them tried to team up against one of the biggest guys in junior high. "I had a friend, Bruce McElroy, and he passed a few years ago, but he used to take me and Gene on at the same time," Lewis said. "He'd beat us, too, because he was so much bigger than we were. And we used to tell him, 'We're going to get you one day,' and going into our sophomore year we tore him up." Lewis knew the Pioneers were special during his senior season — the only year he wrestled varsity — and it was mostly due to the bragging from their coach. "We were the group that Pierson was waiting for," Lewis said. "He knew in the ninth grade and he was waiting for us to come up as sophomores because we were all mixed from some pretty good junior high teams — Northwood, Eastern Heights and Franklin — so once we all mixed together he had a bunch of superstars." Lewis was one of four Elyria wrestlers who advanced to the Class AAA state championship at St. John Arena in Columbus. Lewis won 3-1 over John Steele of Oak Hills to capture the 126-pound state title, while Kenny Redd, Larry Beal and Mike Sittinger also finished as state placers and the Pioneers edged Akron Garfield by two points in the team race. "I could look at this picture and name all of them," Pierson said. "I still remember all their names after 51 years or so. They were a very, very special team." Lewis said there were no nerves heading into the state tournament or even before his finals match. He simply had no room for anxiety. "Yeah, I already knew that I was going to be a state champion," he said. "When we were in Columbus, me and my mom were talking and she was like, 'Are you scared?' and I said, 'No.' She said, 'You think you're going to win?' and I said, 'I know it … I don't have no choice but to win.' I knew Wilbur had won so if he won, I knew I had to win, too. "I'm not trying to brag but it was just the feeling that I had. We were groomed to be champions because that's all Mr. Pierson ever told us. He said, 'This is the best team I ever had. This is the team I've been waiting for.' So he installed that in us … this is our team, this is our year." The 1973 Pioneers wrestling team was inducted into the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, but Lewis missed the ceremony because he was "out of state." His brother Wilbur was inducted in 2006, and Ricky said leaving Georgia for this year's banquet was a no-brainer. He's excited to celebrate one of the best memories of his life. "I got to enjoy (wrestling) as a sport and not as something that I was forced to do and had to do all the time," Lewis said. "It's something I fell in love with, that I enjoyed doing. I couldn't wait for the season to start because I got to meet up with all the guys, we got a group together and we were a big family. It was an amazing time and that's how we were able to do what we did … we just did it together as a team." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.