The Meadows Ridge Sports Heroes Society has chosen a petite woman who casts a large shadow in the world of amateur wrestling as the latest Hometown Hero.
Ivy Threatful will be honoured at this year's Hometown Heroes Night on Oct. 23 at Garibaldi Secondary.
Threatful is a great name for a wrestler – as Ivy is often told – but her appearance is anything but threatening – she is 5'2" and 116 pounds.
But right from her earliest wrestling days at Maple Ridge Secondary, she started living up to that name. Her high school coach said Threatful's work ethic forecasts her having a lot of success in the sport.
"She's tenacious – she wholeheartedly bought into the training programs, both in our program at Maple Ridge Secondary, and at SFU," said longtime MRSS wrestling coach Bill McCrae.
Describing her on the mat, he said she's got a huge heart, and can outwork and wear down her opponents.
"It's that tenacity – she's hard on her opponents, and she never stops," he said.
Threatful is able to flip a switch.
"I'm a completely different person on the mat," she said.
A friend who witnessed her aggression remarked: "You're so sweet, but when you wrestle you're an animal."
In 2019, as a high school wrestler, she won a Cadet division national championship in Fredericton, N.B., when she was just in Grade 10. Threatful allowed only one point to be scored against her in four matches.
The year prior, Threatful had finished fourth. She went home and threw herself into training 12 to 15 hours every week between workouts with both the Ridge Meadows Ramblers and her club team, the Coast Wrestling Academy.
That year she also won high school provincial silver in 2019, and then turned that to gold in 2020.
The Ramblers have been a talent pipeline for Simon Fraser University, and Threatful was one of the many local athletes to be recruited for the Red Leafs – the only Canadian school that wrestles in the U.S.-based NCAA. Just starting her fourth year, her success has continued.
"I like the program here a lot," she said. "It's really competitive, and it's a good atmosphere to be training in."
Threatful won her second national gold at the 2023 Canadian Wrestling championships, and that got her an international tournament, representing Team Canada.
She wrestled for the bronze medal at the 2023 Junior Pan-American Championships which were held July 6 to 8 in Santiago, Chile. She finished fourth.
She also took bronze at the junior nationals in 2022. In 2021, Threatful qualified for the Pan Ams in Mexico, where she placed seventh.
She's winning medals for SFU in tough NCAA tournaments across the U.S., having recently won in Colorado, Oregon and Vegas.
Threatful has also been to the NCAA nationals, where she won a pair of matches, but did not place.
Being named a Hometown Hero was an honour.
"I wasn't expecting it. I was really surprised, and really thankful," she said.
Past recipients of the award include Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Larry Walker Jr., Boston Bruins great Cam Neely, and soccer Olympian Karina Leblanc.
"It's a big honour, with all the amazing athletes that came before me, and I'm part of that club."
Her wrestling technique continues to improve, and Threatful is hitting the gym more, and putting on muscle, getting quicker and faster.
Her goals are to be an NCAA All-American, and to make the U-23 Canadian Team to compete at the world championships this year.
She will take wrestling as far as it will take her – the dream would be the Olympics – and she loves that the sport lets her experience more of the world.
"I love seeing new places, and I love travelling," she said.
Academically, Threatful is studying global environmental systems, pursuing a Bachelor of the Environment degree, and is considering a career as an educator.
Tickets for Hometown Heroes Night cost $60 for adults, $25 for youth, and are available at the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre. For more information see mapleridge.ca
