Berserker Wrestling Club’s first year for an Amateur Athletics Union (AAU)/United States of America Wrestling (USAW) youth wrestling program has begun with early successes in tournaments in Spokane, Helena, Shepherd, Huntley, and Butte. The new team is comprised of around 20 kids from Montana City, Clancy, and Boulder elementary schools. Our long-term goal is to expand opportunities in the sport of wrestling for those kids who want to get the full immersion in the sport and develop a stronger wrestling culture and community in Jefferson County. We want to build from the High School’s recent successes and make Jefferson High a dominant school in wrestling. It is also a very good sport for kids to learn that hard work and effort pays off. There is also no room for alcohol or drug use as it is nearly impossible for a wrestler to perform to their peak abilities while using those substances. We have very strict guidelines for athletes concerning Alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine products that the coaches and parents all support. The benefits of strengthening wrestling in our community will have a lasting impact on these kids and will help set them up for success in whatever future endeavors they might pursue.
The Berserker Wrestling Club is also very lucky to have coach Dan Payne assisting with the building of the program. Dan Payne has coached numerous college wrestling programs and brings an immense amount of experience and mentorship to Berserker Wrestling club. Other coaches include Brian Hays, Mike Mikesell, and Taylor Kampbell. All the coaches come from different schools and bring a variety of wrestling knowledge to the table, and I feel very blessed as the head coach to have such great coaching team to support these kids.
Another interesting statistic is nearly half of our team is girls. Which highlights the growing interest and opportunities for female athletes in the sport that previously didn’t exist. I call them our Shield Maidens and they have proven to be fierce warriors so far. According to an article from MTN Sports and Scott Wilson the MHSA’s Wrestling representative 169 female wrestlers were logged into track wrestling at the beginning of that first season. That number increased in the second season to 245, and then nearly doubled to 471 female wrestlers. This season, coaches around the state at the high school level logged 606 participants into track wrestling by the season’s start. We want to be competitive and at the leading edge on growing wresting opportunities for girls in Montana and that is done by getting them out there on the mats and making them competitive.
Since our wrestling club season also overlaps the High School season, we had to find a new place to practice and Clancy Elementary was very gracious in letting us utilize their cafeteria to hold practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They have been amazing to work with and I cannot thank them enough for affording the kids the opportunity to hold practices in their school as gym space is very hard to come by, especially during basketball seasons.
Club wrestling has become the most prominent way to create successful high school programs. Schools like Huntley Project have really shown it to be effective as they have a very successful club wrestling program, and it has transferred over to them winning multiple wrestling state championships in our division. My goal is to get that kind of momentum going here in Jefferson County.
We are currently paired with the Jefferson Little Guy program and have made the Little Guy Wrestling program a feeder program for the kids who want to take on the next level of competition. I have also recently been appointed as the new president of the Little Guy program and the Berserker Wrestling Club. With the new club, one of our biggest struggles has and will continue to be fundraising. My goal is to ensure that the kids who want to wrestle at this level are not eliminated from participating because of financial reasons. We are paying for all their individual tournament fees, AAU Memberships, and USAW memberships which is a big difference from what we had become accustomed to under Southwest Little Guy Wrestling. To get this Club kicked off we have raised funds at the county fair, sold raffle tickets, popcorn sales, held a summer wrestling camp, hosted a summer tournament, and hosted a Little Guy Wrestling tournament. We are currently holding a Traeger grill raffle, running our popcorn sale, and hosted another Little Guy Tournament to help raise money for new wrestling mats because our current mats are over 20 years old and were purchased from the Helena Wrestling Club 2 years ago. I am also open to the idea of businesses sponsoring the mats and we will proudly display their logo on our mats for years to come. If your business is interested in having the opportunity of helping sponsor a mat feel free to contact me.
So far it has been a great season, and these kids are improving every tournament. I am very excited to see what the future holds for these young wrestlers and hope they can have the joy of bringing home a State championship to Jefferson High in the coming years.
