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Volume 52, No. 21
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967 Wolverines Advance 11 Wrestlers to Perry District By Jamie Ward jamie@geaugamapleleaf.com
The West Geauga Wolverines wrestling team won its Division II sectional at Lake Catholic High School last week, scoring 201 points with the team title. The Wolverines will send 11 wrestlers to compete at the district at Perry on March 5 and 6. Jack Sparent (126 pounds) and Lucas Sadler (285) both won individual titles and Ty Boze (106), Dante Mirabelli (152), and Damian Gambrill (160) each placed second for the Wolverines. Robert Kaleal (120) and Nathan Meyers (195) both finished third and Moore Gambrill (113), Robert Sabol (145), Justin Artino (170), and James Mullally (182) all placed fourth. Some considered a shocking headline Saturday evening was West Geauga’s Sectional title triumph over powerhouse and host Lake Catholic. But head coach Ben Stehura has been building the Wolverines program up over the past three years. The former Cleveland State Head Coach turned Athletic Director had six district qualifiers last year, 2021 will see 11 Wolverines advance to District Weekend at Perry. He now has 22 district qualifiers in his short time at the helm of the Wolverines. More impressive is that West Geauga powered through a late start, not starting their season until Jan. 14 due to COVID.
Roy Ditto Celebrates a Century
Inside This Edition
By Becky Boban editor@geaugamapleleaf.com On March 10, Roy Ditto, of Chester Township, will be turning 100 years old, or — as some might say — 100 years young. In fact, as late as last summer, Peggy Havlicek found her 99-yearold father on a ladder trimming tree branches. “He was up on the roof last fall trying to figure out what was leaking on the porch,” Havlicek said during a recent interview. “He’s like that Energizer bunny.” The retired carpenter and great-great-grandfather still drives, mows, rakes, cuts the garden asparagus, and does handiwork around his house. While Ditto did join Havlicek on the stoop for a break, he finished carrying down the branches himself. Havlicek said she offers help, but the answer is always, “I got this.” Work and Ditto are no strangers. In a recent Zoom interview, he recalled one of his earliest jobs was delivering milk around Chester Township and Gates Mills in a panel truck. He milked the cows himself on his family’s farm on the corner of Mulberry Road and state Route 306, getting up at 5 a.m. seven days per week. He was 18 years old. In 1946, Ditto married his wife, Phyllis. The couple lived in Bainbridge Township briefly before moving back to Chester, he said. He got a job working at Patterson Fruit Farm and recalled the job was, quite literally, sweet, as the Pattersons owned a big sugar bush they made syrup from. Ditto’s grandfather, Milan Jacobs, owned the Old Basset Farm, the land that is now Western Reserve Cemetery, he said, adding Jacobs bought the field across the street and gave it to Ditto, who
PEGGY HAVLICEK
Roy Ditto celebrates his 98th birthday in 2019.
put the carpentry skills he learned from his stepfather, Albert Went, to use and built a house on it in 1953. When the Dittos had their third child in 1959, Ditto built onto the home — and under. Among other improvements, a basement was added. “It was getting kind of crowded,” Ditto said. It is the house he and his wife still live in. As a carpenter, Ditto worked throughout Northeast Ohio. He built numerous homes in Mentor, converted an old post office in Ashtabula into a town hall, and even worked on Painesville City Hall. He said he remembers working on the Faith Lutheran Church on See Ditto • Page 5
PEGGY HAVLICEK AND NANCI DITTO ALOI
A picture of Roy Ditto, age 4 or 5, taken 95 years ago.
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