On November 24th-25th, 2025, a 7th grader named Rylee Beville walked into the Flagler Palm Coast High School gym on a mission. At just 12 years old, she wasn’t there just to compete in the 100-pound weight class—she was there to dominate. And she did. Rylee didn’t just introduce herself to the rest of the state; she put every 100-pounder on notice. The message was clear: a 7th grader is here, and she’s aiming for nothing less than a state title.
This wasn’t some tiny, local meet. The Flagler Rotary is one of the toughest girls’ and tournaments in Florida, with 38 teams in the mix. So, no, Rylee didn’t get lucky with an easy bracket. She earned it, pinning her way through the entire field. After a first-round bye, she made quick work of 10th-grader Dani Aldridge from George Jenkins HS, securing a fall in just 41 seconds. Next up was a middle school showdown against Addison Neufeld, an 8th grader from North Bay Haven. Neufeld put up a solid fight, but Rylee’s combination of grit, technique, and a relentless will to win was simply too much to handle. With this big tournament championship under her belt, Rylee Beville is in the mix to be named as the TFWR Wrestler of the Week for week #1 of the 2025-2026 season.
Behind every great athlete is a great coach, and in Rylee’s case, he’s also her dad. I caught up with Cocoa Beach’s Coach Chris Kelly, who gave me the inside scoop on his daughter’s incredible weekend. What most people don’t know is that right before the Flagler Rotary, Rylee and her dad were in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a national tournament. Instead of competing at her usual 94 pounds, Rylee made the call to wrestle up at 102, wanting to challenge herself against the bigger, stronger girls she’ll face in her high school career. She fought her way to the semis, where she ran into an opponent who had cut from 115 and was back up to nearly 120 pounds by mat time. The size difference was a lot to handle. Rylee started out timid, got pushed around, and, as her dad put it, “panicked a bit and shut down.” We’ve all been there. She lost the match, but it became a powerful lesson. On the flight back to Florida that Saturday, her dad talked to her about never giving up, no matter what. It was a lesson that stuck. At the Flagler tournament, Rylee found herself in a similar tough spot, but this time, she battled through it. For Coach Kelly, that was the real victory. He told me he’s most proud that his daughter cares more about getting better than just winning or losing. That focus on improvement, he believes, is what’s making her so dominant. It’s clear that wrestling runs in the family. Back in the day, Coach Kelly was a standout wrestler himself at Mahomet-Seymour High School in Illinois. With his talent, he could have gone to just about any program in the country, but he chose to wrestle Division III at MacMurray College. The reason was simple: his own father was the head coach there. For the Kellys, it seems, wrestling has always been a family business. And family business has been very, very good!