Pageant Press: Miss North Coast crowned at Brunswick High School

Miss North Coast crowned at Brunswick High School

Brian Lisik/ Sun News

August 14, 2010

[Photo by Christina Tesar/Sun News]

In the long and storied history of beauty pageants, more has remained the same than has changed. And the fact is, the pageant to end all pageants has always had more to do with personality, poise and higher education than swimsuits and evening gowns.

“The biggest thing is that it’s not a beauty pageant, but a scholarship program,” said Janice Moll, Miss North Coast Pageant Director since 1972. “The prize money is not going to the girls, but to their school.”

This year’s Miss North Coast – which is the direct route to Miss Ohio and Miss America — featured 11 contestants from communities are far flung as Brunswick, Medina and North Royalton to Youngstown, Toledo and Canfield.

Rebecca Ribley, of Medina, said she began participating in pageants this year after knowing that it was something she wanted to do since watching the Miss America scholarship program on TV as a young girl.

“I’m only 18, so Miss North Coast will only be the third pageant I’ve been in,” said the Ashland University freshman who will be studying Theatre and Broadcast Journalism.

Though she wasn’t crowned Miss North Coast this year, Ribley’s record is already stellar, having made the top 10 out of 20 girls — and receiving scholarship money — last month in the Miss Cuyahoga County/Miss Greater Cleveland pageant.

“Something that I think movies get very wrong about pageants is how the girls really are,” she said. “My favorite part about competing is meeting all the wonderful, talented women who participate in this program.”

Christina Muha of North Royalton concurred, though she did note that pageants can be quite stressful.

“I have been in pageants since the fourth grade and began my career with the North Royalton Pageant,” she said. “The best part is getting to know all the contestants – including yourself. These are the best girls in all of Ohio – each contestant is active with their platform, volunteers in the community, does well in school, is talented, poised, elegant and a great role model.”

And who winds up on top is sometimes even surprising to the pageant directors.

“The girl with the best talent or best body for swimsuit may not be the winner,” Moll said. “A lot of other things go into it and they have to be ‘real.’ They want real people.”

The biggest change in the past four decades, Moll added, is the introduction of the “platform issue” portion of the contest, wherein participants become advocates and ambassadors for issues from heart disease to hunger.

Chelsi Howman, a student at Crestview High School in Ashland, was crowned this year’s Miss North Coast Saturday night at Brunswick High School.

Where winners take their scholarship dollars and ambassador role beyond Miss North Coast, Miss Ohio or even Miss America varies, Moll said.

“Some don’t do anything else with it, but we have had Miss Ohios who have gone on to be soap opera stars, talk show hosts — and Tana Carli was going to be a CPA,” she said of the 1980 Miss Ohio who instead went to work for Channel 8 News and became Cleveland’s first female news anchor in 1983.

“Either way though, this affects these girls’ lives,” Moll continued. “And it’s nice to look back and realize you’ve had a hand in that.”

Not that Moll herself can sit back and relax now that Miss North Coast is over. She and her husband/co-pageant director, Don, audit and videotape pageants leading up to Miss Ohio all year long. The couple’s next step is the grooming of the new Miss North Coast champion for the statewide competition.

“When we got involved in 1970, the Ohio Jaycees sponsored Miss Ohio,” Moll explained. “They strongly suggested that local people run the locals. Don and I still have fun with it and we’ll keep doing it as long as it’s fun.”

And each year, the most fun aspect of the process remains the same.

“We really look forward to working with a new girl,” Moll said. “Don and I have three sons, but we like to say we also have had 38 adopted daughters.”