Wrangell’s peewee wrestlers hosted their counterparts from Petersburg Saturday.
The Wolfpack Wrestling program sent around 36 kids to the mats, while the group from Petersburg’s Arena Wrestling rounded out the total number of participants to 90.
Both programs focus on building skills for elementary age students, from kindergarten to fifth grade. While Wolfpack is a program of Wrangell Parks and Recreation, Arena Wrestling is an independent program organized by parents and volunteers.
With so many children competing, matches at the Community Center were split between K-2 and 3-5 in the morning and afternoon. Wrangell coach Jeff Rooney and Petersburg counterpart Marty Massin worked together to pair individual wrestlers up according to comparable size and skill levels, and wrestlers competed in a round-robin format.
“We had a lot of fun,” said Rooney afterward. “It went really well.”
The programs give younger students a taste of the sport, with Parks & Rec supplying shoes and singlets for Wrangell wrestlers. The high school program has also provided the youth group with mats, and a number of students from the team have helped out with the peewee season.
Dillon Rooney, Elizabeth Johnson, Caleb Groshong and J.D. Barratt have been helping coaches since the Wolfpack started practicing in January, and Sig Decker has made assistant coaching for the team his senior capstone project for this year.
“He’s very positive with the kids,” commented Holly Hammer, Parks & Rec coordinator.
Decker had begun wrestling in the peewee leagues himself, and was glad to be able to help out with practices and matches.
“This year we separated out the kids,” he explained, divvying up Wolfpack participants into two age groups. The 21 K-2 students have been having their practices twice a week, while the 15 enrolled in grade 3-5 have had theirs on alternating days, three times a week.
“We’ve been able to have a lot more one-to-one contact with coaches,” said Decker. This has allowed for more focus on form, with older students able to learn some of the more advanced techniques. Together with his class- and teammates who are assisting, he felt they were really connecting with the new wrestlers.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Decker recounted. More than moves, he felt the program was passing along important lessons as well. “There’s so many things the sport’s done for me. One of the big things is it really individualizes a person. When you step on the mat it’s just you and yourself.”
There’s a team element to the work as well, and he said coaching staff over the years have emphasized being a good representative of his community, in addition to self-respect. With the workout regimen and competitiveness of tournaments, Decker also felt the sport teaches how to push oneself mentally and physically.
“That’s carried on into school and your work environment,” he added. “That’s why I wanted to do the peewee thing.”
“We love to give back to them,” Rooney said of the peewee program’s lessons.
The high school students who volunteer with it are learning as well, how to mentor as well as how to serve. And the effort shows.
“We’ve had a lot of compliments,” Hammer noted.
Wolfpack Wrestling will be finishing off its final two weeks of practice, before heading to Petersburg on March 11 for the last tournament of the season.
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