Wildwood Catholic soccer star and cheerleader Ivy Bolle won the Queen Oceania pageant and served as an ambassador to the Wildwoods. (Mark Zimmaro)
After her soccer and cheerleading careers come to a close this school year, Ivy Bolle may be remembered as the Queen of Heart.
The Wildwood Catholic High School senior is known for her dedication, scoring huge goals on the soccer field in the fall, and leading the crowds in cheer during winter months of the basketball season.
In the summertime – at least this year – she reigns over the Wildwoods.
Bolle was recognized as 2021 Queen Oceania after winning the long-standing summer tradition that appoints one high school-aged girl to be Ambassador of the Wildwoods after a pageant-style contest of character. According to the Wildwoods Civic Club, Queen Oceania embodies the spirit of the Wildwoods through poise, education, positive personality and is a role model to her peers.
“It was really fun, and there was a lot of pressure,” Bolle said.
The North Wildwood resident was also part of the annual Wildwoods Baby Parade, which encourages families and youngsters to participate in creative floats, wagons and strollers. She greeted thousands of visitors along the Wildwood Boardwalk and presented trophies to parade participants.
“It was really cool to have all the little kids looking up to me,” she said. “I’m definitely looking forward to doing more events and being an ambassador.”
On the soccer field, Bolle is hoping to earn her own trophies with the Crusaders during her final year. Since arriving as a freshman starter three years ago, she has been one of the team’s most consistent scorers, netting 24 goals through her first three seasons.
“It’s exciting to have that recognition, especially scoring goals as a freshman,” Bolle said. “But any time you can score is pretty nice.”
Bolle had scored three goals in her first four games this fall, including two in her best game of the season in a 2-0 victory over Pilgrim Academy, which came just 48 hours after one of her most grueling workouts.
As part of a tradition started by the Wildwood Catholic cheerleading team, every year around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the cheerleading team climbs 110 flights of stairs in honor of the first responders who raced up the stairs of the World Trade Towers, which each had 110 floors.
The girls completed the task Sept. 12 this year. Bolle and her soccer co-captain Julia Belansen, who are both cheerleaders, decided they didn’t want to miss the stair climb, despite it falling in the middle of their soccer schedule.
“We did four flights of stairs about 30 times,” Bolle said. “We did it as a team. It was exhausting, but you think about the people who did it with all the firefighter gear on, and that was definitely in our minds.”
It’s that type of leadership embodied by Bolle and Belansen that helped turn around a soccer program over the last few years. The two are part of a six-pack of players – Delaney Robb, Kimmy Casiello, Roan Jacquelin and Tallula Rogers – that are four-year varsity letter winners. Prior to their arrival, the program was struggling, ending the 2017 season with just 10 players on the roster. The team had gone 4-10 that year.
In 2018, things turned around, as the Crusaders enjoyed their first winning season in more than a decade.
“They played a big part during their freshman year,” Wildwood Catholic coach Kara Saunders said. “It was a rebuilding year. It was one of our best years as a program. I ended the season prior with 10 girls. The next year we had 19. We are what we are because they all came to play and toughed it out.”
The Crusaders had compiled a 24-17-5 record over the last three years and are looking for one last push with Bolle as one of their captains.
“It’s very crazy that it went by very fast,” said Bolle, a member of National Honors Society and Student Council. “But it’s been a great four years. It’s nice to be a part of such a tight-knit team.”
Her coaches and teammates are certainly enjoying one more season of having the queen ruling the field.
“She really gets a lot out of playing,” Saunders said. “Just to see her growth as a leader, she has a really good mindset. I think she is prepared to make her senior year her best year.”