Over the clank of weights and the bass of the music playing in the Oyster River High School (ORHS) weight room, Mackenzie Macleod (‘28) heard the question that changed the trajectory of her high school experience.
“Oh, hi, Mackenzie. Do you want to do wrestling?” asked Carson Imperio (‘26).
Now consisting of Macleod, Imperio, and newest teammate Lucien Young (‘28), ORHS’s wrestling team, coached by Kimberly Strout, is best described as small but mighty. The team practices with Portsmouth High School (PHS)’s team, yet on tournament day, they fight for ORHS. Despite their size, this is a team like any other, navigating dynamics, receiving beneficial coaching, and needing their community’s support.
Unlike other teams where PHS and ORHS students combine, like ClipperCats football and cheer, the ORHS wrestlers don’t compete with PHS, and are considered “independents.” “We wear our own singlets. Our singlets are like our representation of our pride. So when we put those on, we’re our own team,” says Imperio.
The ORHS wrestlers practice six days a week with PHS’s wrestlers, and travel with them to tournaments on Saturdays. “If we were to join Portsmouth’s team… we’d take up spots that Portsmouth kids could have,” says Macleod. They aren’t the only independents— Dover High School and Saint Thomas Aquinas High School also have wrestlers who practice and travel with PHS. “Portsmouth honestly does a really good job with integrating us into their practices and everything. We’ve practiced as a whole team. It’s not, ‘oh, you guys are independents, go away,’” says Macleod.
Although she’s the only girl on both the ORHS team and the PHS wrestling team, Macleod doesn’t mind. “Most of [the male wrestlers] are like, ‘hey, do you need help? I got you,’ and most of them are comfortable with wrestling girls.”
The fact that the team exists at all is thanks to Imperio, who re-formed the ORHS wrestling team his sophomore year, five years after it disbanded from its similarly small size (two members) in 2018.
The team of three as of 2025 has its benefits and detriments. “For us independents, it’s a lot more convenient than if we were on an actual team, because for us, we have three weight classes right now that we’re wrestling at,” says Macleod.
However, this means that there can only be a maximum of five athletes on the ORHS wrestling team, because there’s not enough funding to have multiple wrestlers per weight class. “I want to let as many people wrestle as I can, but on the other side, I’m the captain and the coach told me it’s my job to find the right people,” says Imperio.
Imperio seems to be successful at finding that. Although Macleod only joined the team about three months ago, midway through the season, she’s already taking online courses to prepare herself to become a captain of the team alongside Imperio. She’s also steadily learning the basics of wrestling, finding that some areas come more naturally to her than others. “My coach likes to say I’m in beautiful position, but I have no idea what I’m doing,” says Macleod.
Her coach, Strout, who has been coaching ORHS’s wrestling independents for the eleven years since her son Noah Strout (‘19) started wrestling for the school, has a unique coaching style that the wrestlers find beneficial. “Most teams, their coaches are coaching them while they’re on their mat. For Oyster River, our coach more so watches us and then coaches us off of the mat, which is more beneficial for how we wrestle as people,” says Macleod.
Strout mentions how her coaching style is similar to one of a motivational speaker, which she once aspired to be. “[Other coaches would] say, ‘yeah, I just really like the way you coach with Noah,’ and they’re starting to be more inspirational coaches instead of the, ‘what, are you an idiot?’ That’s not me. I’m like, “breathe, you’ve got this, find it in your soul.”
She’s still plenty tough on her wrestlers, though. “I am hard, I push, I do drive. And I tell them that. I will push you as far as you wanna be pushed. But you know your body. So you need to stop when it’s enough,” says Strout. This coaching has led Macleod to score 4th at the state championships for girls’ wrestling this year, and while Imperio is temporarily out of wrestling due to a knee injury, Strout’s coaching has led him to many victories as well. Young, who qualified for the team just in time for the final match of the season, won that first match as well.
Wrestling is a tough sport, and while the team is small, their passion makes them powerful. However, passion alone can’t maintain a team, and like every other sport, wrestling needs support. “I wish [we were] a team. It’s really hard going into someone [else]’s room and not having a say….I would love to see what kind of wrestlers I would produce in my [own] room,” says Strout.
Not only would having their own space benefit the wrestlers, but so would having more funding. “We pay for our singlets and traveling tournaments out of our pocket money. So, if we were to get either a booster club or a fundraising starter or get a sponsor to fund wrestling, and then we got more kids and mats and a place to wrestle, that would honestly benefit Oyster River wrestling a lot,” says Macleod. Without this funding, the team can’t grow past 5 wrestlers.
“As [the team has] grown, I definitely feel proud of it,” says Imperio. While wrestling season is over for the 24-25 school year, consider supporting the team so they can pick up even stronger this fall.
-Paige Stehle
Image courtesy of interviewees
Mouth of the River 
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