Nadine Wilson began her career at MHS in 1968. She taught Physical Education and coached girls volleyball, basketball, field hockey, softball, tennis, badminton, track & field, and golf. In 1968 female athletics took a back seat as Title IX, which ensured equality for all male and female students, hadn’t passed yet. All budgeted monies went to the boys’ teams - girls could only practice late at night, had to buy their own uniforms, and find their own way to their games and meets.

Under Coach Wilson’s leadership, the girls teams began to win which made some of the male athletes jealous. The boys taunted the girl athletes by calling them amazons – large female ancient Greek warriors. Coach Wilson immediately called her girls together and told them the amazon warriors were strong, courageous and fiercely independent, which is what they needed to be then. They would rise from adversity and proudly call themselves the Madeira Amazons. Over the years the ‘Zons’ went on to achieve undefeated seasons in numerous sports and won league and state championships. A negative nickname became one of pride and respect.

For the next four decades, the female Madeira Amazons and the male Madeira Mustangs continued to compete as powerhouses in the world of high school athletics. Madeira was one of only two schools in the state with different nicknames for boys and girls – but the Amazons had no formal identity as the Mustangs were the only official school mascot. Finally in 2014 after months of talking to students, original Amazons, parents, and community members, then Superintendent Steve Kramer announced it had been decided Madeira would adopt the Amazon name as an official school mascot for its female teams.

Several years later MHS Class of 2008 and former Amazon Leesa (Dooley) Rother returned to Madeira to coach girls basketball. “When I came back, I couldn’t help but notice that the Amazon warrior spirit was a bit lost,” Rother said. “It seemed like the 5 girls on the court were only connected because they were wearing the same colored shirt.” So she sat the girls down for a pep talk and told them what it meant to be an Amazon. She talked to them about her experience playing, and examples of those who played before her and what they endured. She spoke to them of future Amazon teammates and told them, “The Amazon tradition must live on.”

Recent Madeira graduate Madeline Hemmerick was an eager young high school player on the girl's basketball team who heard Dooley talk about what it meant to be an Amazon. ”I realized it was an honor to don my jersey before each game, knowing so many had worn it before me,” Hemmerick stated. I don’t think anyone could have seen the impact the Amazon name could have when Nadine Wilson and her girls adopted it in the 1970s,” Hemmerick said in her Baccalaureate speech when she graduated this past May. 

Several original Amazons from the Madeira High School Class of 1971 who played for Nadine and lived the Amazon story heard Madeline’s Baccalaureate speech. Elaine McKenzie Goetz, Nancy Burns, and Debbie (Stimac) Harvey said, “Her speech touched our hearts and brought tears to our eyes. We said to each other, “She gets it!” The next logical step was a lunch date for the Class of 1971 Amazons to meet the Class of 2022 Amazon. They shared stories and a scrapbook the girls had made for Nadine when she retired. “Meeting Madeline was so exciting because we now knew that the present-day female athletes at Madeira understood the true meaning of being an Amazon,” Burns stated after they met. “It was like passing the torch that we have hung on to and guarded for 50 years. Nadine would be so proud too.”

The girl that helped merge the Amazons from then, now, and the future said this of their meeting, ”Before talking with Elaine, Nancy, and Debbie, I had no idea how different girls’ sports were 50 years ago. I learned that Nadine Wilson really brought all the girls together and gave them a sense of belongingness not only as a coach but as a mentor.” The ending of Hemmerick’s Baccalaureate message to the students, parents, and future Amazons in the audience was this, “To all past, present, and future Zons out there – cherish the connections you make within the program. Be confident, be determined, be relentless. Be an Amazon.”