Gazette Female Senior Athlete of the Year: Cece Craig

Her birth certificate reads "Cecelia Lynn Craig," but "future Wadsworth High athletic star" could have been added right then and there. Called Cece since childhood, the 5-foot-4, 120-pound Craig not only upheld her parents' history of Wadsworth athletic success, she's now entered uncharted territory by being named The Gazette's Female Senior Athlete of the Year. In earning 12 varsity letters — four each in soccer, bowling and track and field — and a scholarship to play soccer at Ashland University, Craig outdid her dad Todd and mom Tammy, both members of the Wadsworth Sports Hall of Fame. Todd, a 1992 Wadsworth graduate, was a four-time starter in soccer for the Grizzlies and Medina County MVP and second-team Division I All-Ohio as a senior. He went on to play at the University of Akron, where he helped the Zips win the 1993 Mid-American Conference championship. Asked if she knew her dad had been county MVP in soccer, the 18-year-old Craig said, "I think he did mention that the other day." Tammy, a 1998 Wadsworth grad whose maiden name was Young, earned multiple letters in cross country, soccer, basketball and softball. She was a member of the Grizzlies' 1997 D-I state champion girls basketball team, earned all-county honors in a number of sports and set softball school records in batting average, hits, runs and stolen bases. "My mom's always bragging about it, but only here and there," Craig said with a chuckle. "She doesn't talk about it a lot, but it's a good amount." In Todd and Tammy's defense, they were asked to supply some background information for this story, so that may have been a factor. What's not in doubt is how much they have supported their oldest daughter. "My mom is very involved in my sports," Craig said. "It's almost like she's there doing it with me because of how nervous she gets and how into it she is. She's very supportive and very knowledgeable in everything. She's like a second coach. She pushes me, which is a good thing. She tells me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear. "My dad sometimes has more of a soft spot. I think he doesn't want to make me upset. He'll tell me what I want to hear, but he's also very knowledgeable and supportive. He's that shoulder to lean on when I'm struggling with something in the sports area." The owner of a 3.9 grade-point average and planning to major in business at Ashland, Craig also has a great confidante in younger sister Athena, who just finished her sophomore year at Wadsworth and already owns five varsity letters. "She's the best," Craig said. "I love her. She's very supportive. It's like having a younger best friend living in the house with me. She's a lot of fun and we're always together. She's my best friend and she's always helping me, whether it's training with me or encouragement or support." Bad break Like her dad, Craig played varsity soccer as a freshman after getting her start in the sport when she was 3 years old. Her mom ran cross country as a freshman, but when the girls soccer coach saw how fast she and twin sister Debbie were, he convinced them to chase a ball and kick it. "It was really fun getting to work with all the upperclassmen and it was nice getting to be friends with them, but I had a lot of pressure on me," Craig said of her freshman season. "I knew I really needed to prove that I deserved to be on the field. I had a lot of weight on my shoulders and sometimes it was tough, but it was one of the most fun years out of my four years. The senior class that year was awesome." After another successful season as a sophomore, Craig broke her right leg in two places when she collided with the opposing goalie in a summer tournament game against Chippewa. She ended up missing her entire junior season. "We went shin to shin," she said. "I ended up with a broken tibia and fibula and she ended up with a broken shin guard." Craig was in a cast or walking boot for more than three months, but she was able to bowl for the Grizzlies as a junior and eventually tried out for the basketball team that year as well, though she never got medically cleared to play in games. "I wanted to get myself out doing stuff," she said. "I used to play basketball in middle school and they always wanted me to play, so I finally just gave in because I really wanted to play something." Once cleared to run in practice, Craig spent most of her time working in a side gym with All-Gazette volleyball and basketball player Lauren Decker, who also was hurt at the time. She attended every practice that didn't conflict with bowling and sat on the bench during games. "That was the impressive thing," Wadsworth girls basketball coach Andrew Booth said. "She kept coming even though she never got cleared. She was a great teammate and a positive influence. She was just a quality kid. "She played in seventh and eighth grade and was probably the best defensive player on that team, and I'm all about that. She was part of the roster, and she would have played minutes if she had gotten cleared." After a successful but sometimes painful track season as a junior, Craig was fully healthy for her senior soccer season and earned All-Gazette honors in the midfield. She also earned D-II all-district honors, led the team with eight assists, tied for the lead with 30 points and was second with 11 goals. "She was the motor that got the girls going this year," coach Paul Williford said. "We put her in a position to have the ball as much as possible because we knew she could create. She really stepped up and owned that position. She was definitely a leader for us." Craig's talents helped the Grizzlies to their first 10-win season since 2018, which was extremely rewarding to her, especially since she got to play as an attacking midfielder with her sister Athena. "I'm a very competitive person, so soccer is a great chance to be competitive," she said. "I'm also really big on teammates and fun trips, and soccer is really good for that. A lot of my lifelong friendships have come from soccer, whether it's been high school or club or travel teams. "It also really gets you in shape. There's a lot of running, and I really enjoy running. Plus, it's a freestyle sport. There are chances for you to be creative and do whatever you want." Striking it rich When she entered high school, Craig wanted to play a winter sport, but not basketball because practice demands conflicted with club soccer. It just so happened that Wadsworth girls bowling coach Heidi Steele was also the junior varsity soccer coach, and Steele's niece, Jordan Zakikian, played soccer and bowled for the Grizzlies at the time. "I kind of did it just to see what it was like, and I ended up really liking it," Craig said. "In the beginning I just threw a straight ball down the middle of the lane. I wasn't great because I didn't know what I was doing. "Most people think you just throw the ball and hope you knock down 10 pins. I learned there's so much more to it and so many more things you have to do to make sure you knock down those 10 pins." Though she still doesn't know how to keep score — "I didn't pick up on any of that," she said with a laugh — Craig averaged a respectable 139 as a freshman and 137 as a sophomore. As a junior, she upped that to 150 and earned honorable mention All-Gazette honors, but she saved her best for last. Craig averaged 158.3 as a senior and again earned All-Gazette honorable mention accolades after finishing sixth in the county in average as the Grizzlies posted a 14-0 record, won the Suburban League championship and qualified for the D-I state tournament. Craig was third in the county in high game (237) and three-game series (566) and fifth in two-game series (389). "Cece was always a calming influence," Steele said. "No moment was ever too big. She made sure everybody stayed calm and got along and she made sure everybody was friends. It was all about a family feel for her, whether it was soccer or bowling." Though still highly competitive, what Craig liked most about high school bowling was the atmosphere that surrounded the sport. "It's not high maintenance," she said. "It's chill. I can relax but still compete and be part of a team. It was a nice change. Winning the league was really nice because I wasn't used to doing that in high school. Doing it in at least one sport was really fun." Along the way, Craig worked extremely hard to learn the game, develop a hook and increase her strike and spare percentage. "Cece's drive to always be better was the biggest thing," Steele said. "No matter what she does, school or sports, she always wants to be better. She worked hard to understand the sport of bowling and learn the mechanics of the game. She realized it just wasn't picking up a ball and throwing it down the lane." On your mark The coronavirus pandemic canceled Craig's seventh-grade track season, so she really didn't get her start in that sport until eighth grade. Though also playing club soccer and travel softball at the time, she was a natural on the track. "Cece, first off, is a great young lady," Wadsworth girls track coach John Burton said. "In terms of athletics, she is the complete package of a great athlete. She is fiercely competitive, possesses a great work ethic and is gifted. She set the tone for our speed relays by being an aggressive leadoff runner. I will greatly miss her." Craig ended her high school career having competed in six relays at the D-I state meet. She was on the 4x200 and 4x4 as a sophomore, junior and senior, and no one in the county made more state event appearances in the class of 2025. In earning All-Gazette honors as a senior, Craig ran the leadoff legs for the 12th-place 4x2 that included Ashley Valatka, Avah Coviak and Hailey Otradovec and the 13th-place 4x4 that featured sister Athena, Jessica Stoops and Otradovec. As a junior honorable mention All-Gazette choice, Craig helped the Grizzlies finish 15th in the 4x4 and 17th in the 4x2, and as a sophomore she was part of a 13th-place 4x4 and 16th-place 4x2. "I struggled my whole junior season with pain," she said of her broken leg. "Then summer came and my leg still wasn't right. The doctor told me to do nothing for six weeks. Finally, in August (2024) the pain completely stopped, and I haven't struggled with it since." Craig also competed in open sprint events, but the relays were her favorite throughout her career. Once she became the leadoff runner as a senior, she developed a superstition that Burton had to hold her starting blocks, though rules prevented the coach from doing so at the state meet. "When you're in the blocks, it's real," Craig said. "I talk to myself a lot before races. I always tell myself I'm going to be OK because I've done this so many times before. "I have a lot of trust in my teammates. That's what I liked the most. I like being part of a team and that I can rely on the other members. It's not just me individually. It makes it more special when I get to celebrate with three other girls." Colorful career As a junior and senior, Craig was enrolled in the Four Cities Compact (Wadsworth, Barberton, Norton, Copley) and spent a half-day taking cosmetology classes at Barberton and a half-day taking the rest of her classes at Wadsworth. She recently passed her state board exam and is now a licensed cosmetologist. "I've always been interested in hair, and I've always been the braider for my sports teams," she said. "On career day I looked at it and was interested, so I applied and got accepted. I'm best at highlighting hair, and I've been doing a lot of my friends' hair. I'm getting there with cutting, but it's not the best yet." Craig initially learned to braid because her mom, great high school athlete though she was, could not. "At state I did all our hair, me plus five other girls, before we ran," she said. "I've been doing it for a while. My mom can't braid, so I watched a YouTube video and taught myself. It's become second nature now. "(Combining cosmetology with a college degree) is what's in the back of my mind right now. That's why I'm going to college for business. I'll see if anything else sparks my interest, but it's always in my back pocket now." So, too, is everything she's learned — and will continue to learn — through sports and the guidance given to her by her parents. "A lot of times, sports is where I feel the most comfortable and most confident in what I'm doing," Craig said. "It's something that makes me feel good about myself, and it's definitely helped me grow a lot. "Sports taught me about being open-minded and adapting. Sometimes things didn't go exactly the way I wanted them to go, and at any moment things can change. I learned to be flexible and adapt and do the best with what was given to me. Having fun is a big priority of mine. In high school, I had a lot of fun because of sports and really enjoyed it." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.