Watertown Arrow Wrestling Scrapbooks Digitized, Preserving Decades of Coach Marv Sherrill’s Legacy
Northeast Radio SD News – Watertown, SD - A treasured piece of Arrow Wrestling history has been saved and reopened to the community, thanks to a multi‑year preservation effort and a generous donation from longtime supporters of the program.
For more than two decades, Watertown’s wrestling cheerleaders created detailed season scrapbooks for legendary coach Marv Sherrill — collections packed with newspaper clippings, photographs, meet results, and handwritten memories documenting the rise of Arrow Wrestling. After Sherrill passed away earlier this year, his wife AJ and son Tim Sherrill entrusted the full scrapbook collection to Susie Althoff Stroup, who has now digitized the entire archive.
Stroup said the goal was simple: make sure the history wasn’t lost.
“These books span more than 20 years, and I really wanted to find a way to preserve them — not only so they wouldn't be lost to time, but so the wrestlers, coaches, cheerleaders, families and fans from those years could enjoy them,” she wrote.
The digitization was made possible through the support of Les and Deb Mcelhany, longtime members of the Arrow Wrestling family. Their donation covered the cost of professionally scanning and preserving the scrapbooks through FOREVER, ensuring the collection can be downloaded, viewed, or even printed by anyone who wants a copy.
Rather than releasing all 20-plus years at once, Stroup plans to share the scrapbooks one season at a time on the Arrow Wrestling social media page — inviting alumni and families to revisit familiar faces, tag former teammates, and help identify any items that may have been misfiled over the years.
The first season now available is 1971–1972, marking the beginning of a long-running tradition of documenting Arrow Wrestling’s athletes, coaches, and community.
Stroup encouraged anyone who spots a misplaced clipping or photo to reach out so the archive remains as accurate as possible. The digitized collection represents one of the most comprehensive historical records of Arrow Wrestling to date — a tribute to Coach Sherrill, the cheerleaders who built the scrapbooks, and the generations of athletes who shaped the program.
