In recent years, West Geauga has not been known for youth wrestling, but this year that all has changed.
In recent years, West Geauga has not been known for youth wrestling, but this year that all has changed.
This year, an active effort was placed on growing and strengthening the West Geauga Recreation Council (WGRC) youth wrestling program.
WGRC is a volunteer organization that provides recreational opportunities for the West Geauga community. Free interest camps were held prior to the start of the wrestling season, offering potential youth wrestlers the opportunity to get an up-close look at the sport.
Kids met with coaches and tried out some typical skill-building wrestling maneuvers.
About 50 youth wrestlers decided to sign up for the winter season – 13 from previous seasons and the rest new to wrestling.
No one was more pleased that than the program coordinator and head coach Jeff Federico, who shared that in the seven years that he’s been involved with the program, he’s never seen 50 kids on the mat at once before.
With such an increase in wrestlers, Federico needed to quickly solve a few challenges. Based on previous years, he planned on only a few new wrestlers for this season.
Making sure everyone had practice space and wrestling mats, getting enough parent volunteer coaches to successfully teach all the wrestlers, and finding a way to make sure that each child got the attention they deserved to help them have a great season was Jeff’s top priority.
While it was challenging, the wrestling families showed both patience and grace while it all got sorted out. Support provided by surrounding wrestling communities like Chardon, Lake Catholic, Aurora, Kirtland, Mayfield, Riverside and Beachwood allowed him to cover all the practice space and equipment needs.
Bringing in parent volunteer coaches gave the program the last piece to getting the season underway. Vince Calo, a wrestling parent and a volunteer coach, noted how he got to see first hand the broader wrestling communities working together to provide support for the WGRC program.
The WGRC Youth Wrestling program is a co-ed program, and this year we saw our first female wrestler, a 5th grader.
Her tackle football coach, who also gives his time as a youth wrestling coach, encouraged her to give wrestling a try. She signed up along with her younger brother. Her father, Pat Lafferty, shared that he sees the program as a very welcoming environment for both girls and boys.
“She never experienced an issue or hurdle to her being a girl. She was treated as both a wrestler and an athlete,” Lafferty explains.
His younger son in 1st grade, also a new wrestler, and thrived this past season as well.
His son immediately fell in love with the sport. Lafferty felt strongly that the WGRC Youth Wrestling program was “absolutely awesome” for his son.
He saw him significantly improve throughout the season – “from practice to practice, match to match and tournament to tournament.” Lafferty saw the coaches regularly teaching equally to both the more advanced wrestlers as well as the newer ones and because of this coaching style, both of his kids were able to learn skills and hone them as first year wrestlers.
Throughout the 4-month wrestling season, the coaches helped the kids through both their successes and setbacks on the mats during practices and at meets, helping all of them grow as athletes.
One 6th grade wrestler was back this year for his fourth season.
His mom, Jaclyn Davey shared that her son is a natural athlete, but wrestling is the hardest sport that he does. “So much of wrestling is a mental game, both emotionally and psychologically demanding,” she said. “The child needs to develop on so much more than a physical level.”
She continued: “It’s just you on the mat. And to see your child develop the confidence to get out there by himself and give it his all. It takes a lot. The coaches seem to know what each kid needs at the moment they need it. Whether it’s a fist bump or a correction, they genuinely take stock of what is needed at the time.”
This season, the WGRC Youth Wrestling also hosted its first ever Invitational Team Tournament, called Holiday Duel at the Den.
Wrestling is typically an individual sport, but this tournament was set up to be team-based, keeping the focus on the success of the team. Federico wanted the tournament to bring light to the WGRC Youth Wrestling team and show the surrounding wrestling community what we have to offer.
Not only did our wrestlers end the tournament in a three-way tie with Beachwood and Chardon, but everyone is looking forward to doing it again next year. Federico would like to publicly thank all of the many helping hands of the parent volunteers who gave their time and energy to make the tournament a big success. There’s so much that goes into planning and running a tournament and it can only be done with lots of support from the families.
Now that the season is done, we can look back on what can only be seen as one of our most successful seasons ever. Our first-year wrestlers participated in the All-Star Tournament where 16 of our wrestlers placed; out of 14 teams at the League Sectionals, our team placed 2nd overall and 14 of our wrestlers were on the podium; and at the League Championship with over 50 teams competing, our team placed 6th overall.
Four WGRC wrestlers are even going to OAC State Wrestling Tournament at the end of March. According to program coordinator and coach Federico, “I don’t know of a time we’ve ever done so well. It goes to the hard work these kids have been doing. Watching these kids push each other is inspiring and definitely contributed to our success this season. I’m so proud of helping to build something that puts our program on the map in the wrestling community.”
