[Buckskin86]

Holley Mangold sets sights on 2012 Games
By Sean McClelland

Staff Writer

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Adjusting to college life has been a challenge for Holley Mangold, the Alter graduate who grabbed national headlines as a football lineman in high school.

And there's a logical reason.

"It was hard going from playing football with guys to being at an all-girls school," she said. "Mostly I just stay in and try to keep my nose out of trouble."

Her football-playing career over, the sister of New York Jets center Nick Mangold is a freshman on scholarship at Ursuline College, an NAIA school in the affluent Cleveland suburb of Pepper Pike.

Not the brightest stage, perhaps, for a young lady who in high school was profiled by newspapers such as the New York Times and Newsday, not to mention ESPN and the NFL Network.

Holley, who grew up in Centerville, is the only girl in Ohio to play in a football state title game.

"I'm actually kind of happy," she said. "I like flying under the radar, not having people know me. I just don't want to be overplayed when I haven't really done anything yet."

She did place sixth at the Junior World Olympic Weightlifting competition in Colombia last summer, an accomplishment heralded on holleymangold.net, a Web site created in 2006.

"I never really wanted any national press or anything," Holley said. "The Times was the first, and the only reason I did that was my brother said it would be a good idea. I try to listen to him. He's done pretty well."

Holley Mangold sets sights on 2012 Games