The role of a student-athlete takes on many forms.

Few know this better than Palmerton brother and sister pair Josh and Cassidy Merkel.

An avid member of the school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) program and in the top-five of his class, Josh is currently competing in his senior season for the Bombers’ wrestling program, and is a key cog in the team’s lineup.

Cassidy, meanwhile, has embraced the challenges of girls wrestling – now in its second year at Palmerton and fully sanctioned by the PIAA – in her junior year and done so alongside and under the guidance of her older brother. A member of the cross country team in the fall, Cassidy has been a fixture for the Bombers’ girls wrestling team, one that is growing at a rapid pace.

Though the duo are determined to make an impact on the team’s success, they’re also dedicated to their commitments off the mat.

The Times News will shadow Josh and Cassidy over the next few months for a project entitled “Following the Dream,” with a goal to bring the community closer, and rally around area student athletes. Follow their journey as they balance the demands of maintaining a high level of athletic performance, while also achieving their goals both in the classroom and contributing in the community.

This is the first installment in the series.

With girls wrestling booming across the nation, and her brother already involved in the sport, it was a natural fit for Cassidy to join him on the mat last year.

“I’ve grown up around it, watching Josh since I was little, and I’ve always had an interest in it and I’ve always really loved this sport,” she said. “So once I heard that there was a girls team coming up, I jumped at the opportunity. It’s really encouraging to see all these other girls coming out, and I know I’m not alone whatever challenges I might have, that I’m not alone in them. It’s just so impressive seeing these girls come out and give it their all through a sport that was mostly male dominated. I feel really supported, definitely by my brother and his friends.

“My favorite thing about it is that it’s, in a match, it’s mostly dependent on just me. I don’t have to rely on other people. I just have to rely on myself. How much you put into it is how much you’re going to get out of it.”

That commitment extends to the classroom, as well as clubs such as FBLA, where Josh is the President.

“It definitely is a lot at times,” said Josh. “It’s just all about balancing it. It’s all about just balancing it with the different things that you’re choosing. Right now, wrestling is definitely the priority as it’s wrestling season. But then FBLA is going on right now, too. My event is graphic design. So there’s each performance event or a competition, category or group based on something else. There’s accounting, or there’s Word, and computer information, and stuff that just deals with different aspects of business and doing that in the future. Because of my interest with art and graphic design it’s great for me.

“This year, the category or the competition was that we had to create a fictional sports team and a logo packaging for that. Last year, was a fictional business and packaging for that and branding. So it’s definitely helped me broaden my design skills. I got into Photoshop, which then worked with wrestling with the graphics I do for that and the graphics I do for the school, so it all works together real nice.”

Though Cassidy isn’t a member of FBLA, she sees the time her brother spends to excel in other areas beyond athletics, a responsibility she recognizes is of even greater importance.

“I feel like I had more problems with it last year than I have this year because I sort of learned the way to balance it,” said Cassidy.

That work ethic that pushes her on the mat is something that Cassidy uses in the classroom and to plan a potential future career, one where she can combine her interests.

“I like more physical work in a way,” she said. “I like working like with people, and am sort of I’m thinking about going in to being a police officer.”

For Josh, this is his 13th year wrestling, while Cassidy is in her second. But their ties to the sport run deep.

“When I was little, it was either me or my dad and when my dad couldn’t do anything, my brother would just do a move on me,” Cassidy laughed. “And I felt like that was a huge advantage when I was coming in because I already sort of knew how to do some of the moves.”

Josh typically starts his day at 5 a.m. to get ready and finish any homework from the night before. His wrestling practice ends at 4:45 p.m. and he will focus on his homework for subjects such as physics or calculus, or work on a project for FBLA when he gets home. He also did the graphics for the football team in the fall, and produces content for the matches during the wrestling season, like gameday posts.

“For our school’s newspaper, the Avenger, I just wrote an article about our trip to Florida,” Josh said of the wrestling team. “I like just being involved in our school in every way possible, whether it’s running the social media, taking photos or doing extra video projects. Whenever there is something I can do to be part of it I like to be part of it.”

There is a natural leadership quality to Josh and Cassidy that has shown itself through wrestling and other activities, and how important it is to take initiative to support something you believe in.

“My first year on the high school team was Gretchen Schaible’s first year. So the bond I grew with her, and the things Gretchen and I did to try to make girls wrestling more prominent,” Josh said of Schaible, who graduated last year and wrestled three seasons for the Bombers. “My sophomore year, I made T-shirts to support Palmerton girls wrestling, and that led to us going to school board meetings, and Gretchen making petitions and posters. Derek (King) and Dylan (Lombardi) and Aidan (Ortiz) jumped in and helped and Cassidy and some other girls were interested, and as soon as we started one thing it just brought everyone in.”

And that’s what they’ve done.

For as much as wrestling is often an individual sport, Josh and Cassidy have been able to share their experiences together, and encourage each other to keep moving forward.

“I think it’s just always great having someone you can be right there with,” said Josh. “If I need something with wrestling or school, she’s always right there. And now, I can help her if she needs it. If she had a tough spot in a match, I can help her work through it. It’s nice being able to be a mentor.”

Cassidy echoed those sentiments.

“I’ve seen him go through it, so I know I’m not alone when I’m going through a tough match, especially since it’s brought us a lot closer being in the same sport,” she said. “At home, at school and here, it’s brought us closer. It’s given me so much to look up to, because I’ve always looked up to my brother. This has made me look up to him in a different way and see him in a different light, especially since I see him as a sort of assistant coach when he’s on the side of my mat.”

No matter what, Josh will always be in his sister’s corner, on and off the mat.

Reporter Matt Breiner contributed to this story.