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Volume 52, No. 23
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
Sparent First Wolverine on State Podium Since 2016 By Jason Baxter sports@geaugamapleleaf.com
Junior Jack Sparent fininsed eighth in the OHSAA state wrestling tournament. He was the first Wolverine to place since 2016.
During a January interview, West Geauga junior Jack Sparent vowed a trip to the state tournament. The two-time district qualifier not only made the state tournament but also found himself on the podium following a strong first day. Sparent opened with a 15-0 technical fall win over Miami Trace’s Weston Melvin. He then fell in his second match by pin to Nolan Gessler of St. Paris Graham. He would clinch a spot on the podium and the ability to wrestle on Sunday with a 4-2 win over Celina junior Landon Engle.
The second day of the tournament for Sparent included a 4-0 loss to Buckeye’s Eddie Pinc and a close 1-0 loss to Te’Andre Allen of Orange. He finished his first trip to the tournament in eighth place, becoming the 17th Wolverine to reach the podium, the first under thirdyear head coach Ben Stehura. Sparent is a junior and finished the season with a 26-5 record, he has 59 wins over the last two seasons. Sparent finished third at the Perry District. He became the first Wolverine on the state podium since Joe Fornaro in 2016, when he finished in sixth place. Stehura spoke about Sparent’s podium-clinching match: “He went
out and took that kid (Engle) down. The Celina kid brought it. He was wrestling real well. It was a takedown at the end of the match. Jack was able to get the two. “It was a good match,” Stehura said. “That’s what the placing round is supposed to be.” The coach also added: “Jack trains hard all summer. He is everywhere wrestling, doing everything right. The biggest thing I noticed the last couple weeks is he is adapting, he is picking up what is happening and adjusting really fast. The first two matches earlier were scripted. That’s what Jack does. This one he had to pull something complete out to win it, and he did it.”
Reaching ‘Problem Children’ in the Classroom, Local Author and Educator Finds Solutions By Diane Ryder editor@geaugamapleleaf.com Every classroom has them — “class cut-ups,” “slackers,” “troublemakers,” “problem children,” “underachievers — kids near or at the bottom of the class, labeled from kindergarten as likely to fail, drop out or even end up in jail. Kevin Leichtman used to be one of them during his days at West Geauga Schools. “I was one of those challenging students,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I was a 2.0 student at my best, which wasn’t often. I barely graduated in the bottom 10 percent of my class.” Leichtman said he never felt motivated to study and just got by with a minimum of effort and little belief in his abilities. After high school graduation in 2002, he tried to get into college, but none were knocking at his door. “I begged and pleaded to get into Kent State (University), but after a
year and a half, I dropped out,” he said. “I went to (The) Ohio State (University) for a semester and failed out. I worked in a minimum wage job for awhile, then managed to get into Wright State (University) on academic probation, which meant no D’s or lower.” At West Geauga, Leichtman always compared himself to other students and found himself inferior. “I always felt that I wasn’t smart enough, that I deserved the label of ‘bad student,’” he said. “But at Wright State, I changed the way I looked at myself and concentrated on my strengths instead of my weaknesses. I entered school with a 1.7 grade point average and graduated with a 3.5. I even made the Dean’s List.” He went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in education from the Florida Atlantic University. His wife, Anala, has a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, also from FAU. “When we moved back to Chester, my West G teachers had to shift
their perceptions of me. I was ‘Dr. he developed ways to reach the inLeichtman’ now,” he said. “They dividual child as he learned each one’s story. were amazed.” He and his wife had worked He and his wife work together with Sarah Thomas, as consultants helping chief executive officer of struggling students Edu Match Publishing, achieve success. He specialists in teacher can identify with underinstruction, on a projachievers because of his ect about how to avoid own history. “teacher burnout.” “When I was teach“I told her about my ing English in the classconcept of telling the inroom, I was seeing a lot dividual stories of strugof what had happened Leichtman gling students, and she to me in my own students,” he said. “And I heard a lot of negativity in said, ‘You need to write this. It’s the teachers’ lounge about some of important,’” Leichtman recalled. With editing and professional my favorite students.” support from his wife and his pubLeichtman said the negative atlisher, he completed “The Perfect titudes spill over from the teachers Ten,” a book tracing the personal to the students, who gradually stop stories of some of the underachievbelieving in their own abilities and ing students he has worked with in stop trying to achieve. an effort to show parents and teachHe listened to his students exers their thoughts and experiences, press their frustrations and worked and how to reach even the most difto help them overcome their negative attitudes. Over several years of ficult of troubled kids. working with the under-motivated, See Author • Page 2
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