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home / Sports
Maricopa Youth Wrestling in peak form
Alice Shoaf
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Yes, your little guys (and girls) can wrestle long before they’re old enough for middle school sports. Maricopa High School head wrestling Coach Ryan Nachreiner runs the Maricopa Youth Wrestling team, and he is committed to making sure they learn the sport the right way.
Besides coaching the high school team, Coach Nachreiner also coaches middle school wrestling and freshman football. He teaches physical education and health at Maricopa High School. His passion, however, is wrestling – and making sure his athletes love it, too.
Coach Nachreiner holds practices every Tuesday night from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M. in the high school wrestling room. To sign up, just show up with your boys or girls ages 5 to 14. Here they will learn the sport and prepare for competitions held valley-wide. Competitors are carpooled to tournaments on Saturday mornings, and families are encouraged to come along and cheer.
The Maricopa Youth Wrestling team competes under the mantle of AZ-USAW (Arizona-USA Wrestling, formerly known as the United States Wrestling Federation). Their competitions are known as folkstyle, or scholastic, wrestling and follow the same rules and scoring as high school wrestling. What better way to teach both the love and the skill of the sport than to start them young.
In addition, wrestling is arguably one of the more popular collegiate sports. Colleges actively seek experienced wrestlers to invite into their programs, so the more experience your child gets, the better chance he has of earning athletic scholarships.
Maricopa’s youth team has five tournaments left before the State Tournament on January 28. Most competitions have an entry fee of about $10 and require a 2012 USAW Card. You can purchase the wrestling card online at www.az-usaw.org, and it is valid until September 2012.
To get more information or to speak to Coach Nachreiner about the program, you can contact him at (520) 568-8100, extension 4176.
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Courtesy of Bryan Kelly / CopaNews.com
Maricopa Youth Wrestling members Paul and Christopher Kelly won medals at a recent Youth Folkstyle Wrestling Tourney.
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