John Carroll Catholic High starts wrestling cheerleader squad, invites cheerleaders to become wrestlers

For two decades, students enrolled in a private school in Homewood weren’t able to participate in wrestling. The sport had been canceled at John Carroll Catholic High School since 2001.

When coaches TJ and Wendy Zito brought the sport back to JCCHS, they made two discoveries. For one, there was a group of girls interested in cheerleading for the new wrestling team. Most of these girls didn’t have any cheerleading experience.

Another unexpected discovery was that some of the wrestling cheerleaders would look at the guys wrestling and say, “I can do that.”

Now, JCCHS has not only one of the only wrestling cheerleading squads in the state, but the school is also one of few in the state that has a female wrestling team.

TJ wrestled at Hoover High School and grew up in the sport. When he enrolled his son at the school, he asked about the wrestling team, but the administration told TJ that the school canceled wrestling many years ago. So TJ volunteered to be the wrestling coach and said he’d do it for free. His wife, Wendy, also volunteered to help out.

“So my wife and I started the John Carroll wrestling team last season, and one of the things we wanted to bring back was wrestling cheer because there are no wrestling cheer programs left in the state of Alabama,” TJ said.

They got to work in November 2019. To recruit wrestlers, TJ rounded up some of his wrestling videos from high school ands howed them at football games and on social media.

He recruited the team’s first wrestling cheerleader, Breccia Ciza, by having a conversation with her in the lunchroom. Once she was on board, she helped recruit other girls to join the squad with her.

In the beginning, the wrestling team and the cheerleading squad didn’t have anything — they had no wrestling room, and their wrestling mat was 25 years old and falling apart. They practiced in the school lunchroom. None of the wrestlers had ever wrestled before. None of the cheerleaders had ever cheeredbefore.

“It was quite a challenge, trying to get everybody on board to do something different,” TJ said.

Wrestling cheer is a completely different group from football and basketball cheerleading, he said.

“They learn very unique cheers from the side of the mat, and they’re there to support the guys,” he said. “They make up their own unique cheers themselves, and they all come from different walks of life.”

The cheerleaders help with a variety of tasks to support the wrestlers. The wrestlers must wear a mask until they step on the mat, so the cheerleaders grab the masks from the wrestlers while they compete. As soon as the wrestler comes off the mat, the cheerleaders give the wrestler a body sanitation wipe, grab the wrestler’s gear and hand back the mask. The cheerleaders also help mop the mats before and after practice.

“My wrestling cheerleaders have done a tremendous job keeping us healthy,” TJ said.

They also cheer on the side of the mat and help with scoring.

The Zitos have encouraged the cheerleaders to take on active leadership roles. Leona Kenny-Parkman, who is a female heavyweight wrestler, walked into the lunchroom and inquired about the wrestling team. She told TJ she wanted to be the wrestling manager.

“I’m like, what’s a wrestling manager?” TJ said. “She said, ‘It’s me.’ So we created a role for her.”

Then as she watched from the sidelines as the male wrestlers played the sport, she decided she too could be a wrestler.

“It’s a really good confidence booster,” Kenny-Parkman said about wrestling. “We’re all a big family, and we support each other a lot. It’s nice to have someone you can turn to about your problems and them understand.”

It’s fun to see the shock on the audience’s face when they see her go out on the mat, she said.

“They’re like, ‘Wait, I didn’t think she was wrestling,’ and I do. It’s pretty empowering to see the look on their faces. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m doing that.’”

Kenny-Parkman was the first of the cheerleaders to play both sports. Now, there are three. There are 80 female wrestlers across the state.

“This is not powderpuff,” TJ said. “We have girls wrestling in all different weight classes. These girls are going out to win. They’re tough on the mat.”

Right now, girls compete with girls, and guys compete with guys. But if the girls ever crossed over to wrestle the guys, some of them would win, TJ said.

“Just because we don’t doesn’t mean they can’t,” he said. “I just want everyone to realize this isn’t some side show. This is real training.”

Wendy said she enjoys seeing the girls dig deep and find an athletic ability in them they didn’t know they had.

“It ends up being very empowering for these girls to find that in themselves,” she said. “They might get on the mat and think, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to do this. Before they know it, they’re on the side of the mat in headgear and a singlet thinking, ‘How did I get here?’ And as soon as they get off the mat, they’re saying, ‘OK, when’s my next one?’”

On Jan. 23, Alabama had its first AHSAA girls state wrestling tournament at Hoover High School. Half of the JCCHS wrestling cheerleaders competed at the tournament, and some of the male wrestlers came to support and cheer on the female wrestlers.

TJ emceed the event, and Wendy sat in the coach’s chair. TJ makes it clear that Wendy is not the assistant coach — they both co-coach the cheerleaders and the wrestlers. At the girls state tournament, JCCHS was the only team that had a female coach.

“Everybody you can tell has this moment when they first see me in the coach’s chair like, ‘OK, where’s the real coach?’” she said.

For example, at the end of wrestling matches, the coaches will high-five the opposing team’s players. Wendy noticed that many of the girls were looking around for the JCCHS coach, not realizing it was Wendi.

“It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses, to be honest,” Wendy said. “I’ve had to battle a lot of these men coaches who are very set in their ways. They’ve coached this sport for 30 years, and there have been no women coaches. So to a degree, I’ve had to kick in the door and say, ‘I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.’”

It’s been a learning experience for the male wrestlers, too. They have learned how to treat the female wrestlers as teammates and not take it easy on the females.

“We treat our team as everybody is equal, whether you are wrestler, wrestling cheer, female wrestler, male wrestler, team manager,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you are. Everybody on our team is equal. Everybody is important. Everybody gets treated with respect.”

It’s not a political statement, she said. She just wants to make sure the girls know that they should never feel less than one of their male counterparts.

The team has made some improvements since it first formed in 2019. It now has a partnership with the Birmingham Fire Association and practices in a fire hall in Homewood. Team members have also raised funds to buy a new mat.

For more information, visit jcwcavs.com.