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Club Wrestling: Boon or Bane to the high school coach?
"It aint over till its over," said Yogi Berra. And with respect to the high school wrestling season, it may
never be over, despite what you may be reading lately on the sports pages.
Wrestling clubs, privately owned businesses that provide a year-round opportunity for wrestlers to improve and hone their
skills, seem to have proliferated in the past five years in New Jersey. Anyone who follows New Jersey scholastic wrestling
knows the name of at least one. And chances are that any high school wrestler who has earned distinction goes to one--and
maybe more than one.
I set out to discover what high school coaches, their wrestlers and their parents think about the club situation. Do clubs
actually help wrestlers get better? Do club wrestlers make their teams better--or just themselves better? Do high school coaches
welcome the assistance or take offense at the presence of a style other than the one they teach? In a tight match, will a
wrestler listen to his coach's advice from the corner, or will he use the club style, and maybe listen to another matside
mentor? And will his coach feel he's being undermined?
The original queries were posted on the NJ.com HS Wrestling Forum in all three geographic sectors of the state, and to
separate the forum wheat from the chaff (for like American society itself, forums have no shortage of self-ordained comics,
naysayers and outright boors) respondents were provided with an e-mail address for their response. Anonymity was assured,
but if respondents wanted to include their names and positions for quoting purposes, they were able to do so. An admittedly
unscientific, but often brutally candid, survey, the story is written the way the sport is played--without ruffles and straight
from the hip.
First, some basic facts about wrestling clubs.
Clubs vary in many ways--including prices, with some clubs charging as little as $600 for a yearly membership and others
topping out at more than $1500 per annum. They can be state-of-the art rooms or resemble the gym Sylvester Stallone frequented
in the first Rocky movie. They can be staffed and run by many coaches, by a few or even by one.
Beyond instruction in technique, the clubs also provide what most observers agree is a "must" to attain a higher
level of skill--mat time--that is, time spent in both drill and live wrestling. Simply put, more mat time translates to more
experience. Like the adage of "Practice doesn't make perfect--perfect practice makes perfect," the quality of mat
time has much to do with how sharp a wrestlers skills can become, and mat time at a club usually means time spent working
with and against the better wrestlers in the state.
One thing seems to be common among the clubs: since many of the better wrestlers seem to go to them, that's a big factor
for those who believe you only get better by wrestling tougher opponents.
You would think that most high school coaches would be very supportive of such an approach, because wrestling year round
as opposed to three months is bound to produce improvement. While some coaches are totally supportive, there is far from unanimous
support.
That is not to say clubs don't have their supporters. Witness the input of a club supporter who wished to remain anonymous:
"How many kids do you know that go into the districts, even regions/supers, with perfect records...and once they
get there, they get trampled on by some tough kid with a not-so-perfect record? My point is, a lot of kids don't have teammates
that will push them, because they may be the only standout on the team. Many of them don't really know tough competition until
they get to a higher level. Clubs can really help kids like this. As a coach, I'm realizing that now. I may have a solid team,
but I don't have anyone to drill with my 30-pounder, that will really give him a match. For the kids who really want to succeed
and this is an extra step, my support is there."
Mike Attanasio is the head coach at Westwood High School in Northern NJ. His team just won the first Sectional title in
the school's history, and he was recently voted Coach of the Year in four different categories--district, league, county and
North Jersey. He has a generally favorable attitude toward clubs--with some caveats:
"You can tell the difference between kids who go to clubs and kids who don't. Kids who specialize in one sport usually
achieve more than those who don't. [But] In my experience, I have seen club coaches that get too involved. They may want to
change a kid's style or something, and you have to be careful about that.
I remember a club coach taking the kids from a local team in the late '90s, and teaching them new hand fighting techniques
and making them more defensive right before their senior year.
These kids were both Region champs the year before and were poised to make a run at the state title. It was sad. They
didn't really pick it up and it cost them at the States that year, neither one placed."
Attanasio also stresses that club choice is all-important. "Coaches have to be careful about who their wrestlers
choose to go to. I only would allow my kids to go to [certain clubs]."
Those are clubs, he asserts, who teach the same techniques he does, or clubs with coaches he knows and respects. But his
bottom line is "...in short, I am in favor of clubs, but I do believe the coach has a responsibility to know which club
is going to be good for the kids on their team."
That guarded view, however, is not shared by all coaches. Denny D' Andrea has been coaching wrestling for nearly a third
of a century at Brick Memorial in south-central Jersey. His teams are often recognized as some of the states finest. D' Andrea,
who sees a clear trend toward sport-specialization--especially in wrestling, responds:
"In wrestling there are fewer and fewer scholarships that are available and so many parents are putting their eggs
in one basket. They are investing thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours and I truly think it is based on a payoff (scholarship)
in the end. I know many club coaches, and even though they started out with the philosophy of perpetuating the sport, it has
become a cut-throat competitive business."
But D' Andrea goes even further. "One very disturbing thing I have found with the clubs is that they actually tell
kids which weight classes they should go. It is usually based on how a club can best place as many of their own guys as possible.
We had it happen to one of our guys back in 1995. Now you have clubs 'claiming' wrestlers as their own."
D' Andrea's observations raise another question. Who "owns" the wrestler? The high school team, the club or
both? While some coaches have no problem with clubs, others have even stronger feelings against clubs than D' Andrea. Some
coaches are reported to have told their high schoolers to disassociate themselves completely from a club during the high school
wrestling season.
Ron Ferrara, former wrestling coach at Johnson High in Clark, says, "I'm all for clubs and what they do for the kids--but
not during the [wrestling] season. Too many conflicts."
The resulting conflicts can be unsettling to team chemistry, an important element as far as most high school coaches are
concerned.
Part II: The Parent Connection
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Club Wrestling: Boon or bane?
Part 2
The Parent Connection
Seen on a T-shirt at a wrestling tournament: There is no one tougher than a wrestler's Mom
Printed on another T-shirt: I'm the Dad: I'm the guy with the video camera, and I do all the driving
While the dedication of year-round wrestlers is unquestioned, there is a another group--perhaps equally dedicated--that
must enter the equation: the parents.
It is they who usually provide the financial resources, which can be considerable, the emotional support (equally considerable)
and huge investments of time and even more expense, what with club practices and weekend tournaments--some of which are held
on the other side of the country.
What moves them to enroll their progeny in a wrestling club? One anonymous wrestling parent says, "With the amount
of kids in the room and little time to prepare for the season, I don't think that the [high school] coaches can devote enough
time to the kids who can be competitive beyond the districts. Most of the kids (not all) who are successful in regions in
the regions and [the States] are working year round."
Club kids he claims, get more valuable mat time, and with kids " who also want to excel (they push each other much
harder than a typical high school wrestling room can). And they're attending wrestling tournaments in the spring and summer
(when the season only kids are on the beach!). Yes the clubs are a great help and they get attention that they can't get in
a high school room, but it's the mat time against quality opponents at tournaments and camps (going the extra mile) out of
season, that really makes the difference."
That particular parent also stressed that it was the wrestler's own desire and determination that would make the difference,
calling it a "trait of winners in all sports and all walks of life."
Dave Hall, another parent (and former wrestler) responds: "In my day [20 years ago] there weren't any wrestling clubs
in my state. However, we were a strong program and most of us wrestled all year, albeit in an unorganized format. One kid
had mats in his basement, we drove to as many tournaments as possible, regular lifting sessions in another kids' garage, etc.
I don't think the wrestling clubs are much different than that, although they are probably a little more intense and constant.
The flip-side of that is that I think it is probably easier to sign on with a club and have all that stuff set up, rather
than hack your way through the logistics of it the way we did.
"I think that there are so many more top-notch wrestlers today than ever before precisely [because of] the clubs.
This is undeniable, and bodes well for USA wrestling on the international level in the future. I commend the hard-working
kids who stick with our sport and work so hard."
That is not to say that Hall has no misgivings. "My only concern is that the mid-level wrestlers may have already
started disappearing. After watching my tot-aged son compete this year I can see that even at these young ages, there are
already kids who are way ahead of the others, and in most cases it's because their dads have enrolled them in one of the clubs
as soon as they could walk. If a 5-7 year old is already in danger of falling behind, what will happen to the 9-13 year olds
who used to sign up as beginners and ended up filling out the high school lineups?
"However, the clubs have had an incredibly positive effect on our great sport overall and I applaud the hard working
kids who dedicate themselves this way."
Not all parents agree, however. Consider this from another parent:
"[Clubs are] creating a two-caste system of wrestlers, those who are willing to spend 52 weeks a year at it, and
those who aren't. My son is a well-rounded three-sport athlete who is pretty good at all three. He feels like he's got to
work year-round at wrestling to remain competitive with "psychos" who train and compete 24/365. We draw the line
at one off--season camp and a couple of tournaments. As for time to participate in anything but sports, forget about it. High
school kids should be encouraged to live balanced lives and should be given time to experience different stuff."
Some parents think the parental obsession for excellence may be part of he problem. "A huge problem in my mind,"
said one, "is that the PARENTS have delusions of their kids being super-elite, national athletes and [they pump their
kids up so much] that the kids buy into the vision (not surprisingly since the kids want to please their parents). It's a
frenzy that just keeps getting worse and worse."
Another parental perspective, this from a former grade school coach, shares a balanced view. "I feel wrestling year
round or in the post season is necessary to be competitive. However, I also feel that wrestling year round or post season
has made it tougher on the High School coaches to make good wrestlers out of students just walking the halls or 'just season'
wrestlers.
"The sport has been evolving greatly over the past two decades. What was once a 3 month sport is now a year round
sport. Is that good for HS coaches? Yes and no. If your team is made up of SEVERAL year long wrestlers it is truly an advantage;
the wrestlers come into the room primed and ready to wrestle. However, if only one or two wrestlers from a program go year-round
and the rest do not , how does a coach entertain the year round wrestlers' needs? Also If in your county you have several
year round wrestlers and your team has none it is a great disadvantage for your team."
Yet another parent from wrestling-mad Northwest Jersey speaks glowingly of her child's involvement with club wrestling.
Renee Richmond writes: "The club my son has gone to the past 4 1/2 years is located in Phillipsburg NJ. This area is
very much into wrestling. The kids [who belong to the club] are from NJ and PA. Most of the rec programs. in both states like
their kids coming here. [But] The kids are told that they have to honor the commitments to their own town program first.
"This was not always the case. My son started wrestling 4 1/2 yrs. ago at 10; he found a sport he was good at (they
put him on [recreation] varsity the first year). When he asked to join [the club] 5 months after he started wrestling, we
joined. The improvement in the next 6 months was great, but his rec coach stated he couldn't go at all [to the club].
"So my son stayed with the club. He has since been a two-time state champ [and] a National champ. He has been wrestling
HS kids the past 2 yrs. and placing in top 3 at tournaments. He has been actively sought by HS. I credit the teaching techniques
and the philosophy that [the club] teaches the young men. My son used to be very shy and had a low self esteem, due to a learning
disability, but wrestling and [the club's] teaching has made him much more confident and an honor roll student. My son's long-term
goal is to get into a wrestling college, hopefully on a scholarship. He doesn't have to get a scholarship, but if that is
his goal we shall continue to support him in that endeavor."
Clearly, there is a diversity of opinion from parents about clubs. But enough parents are signing up for clubs to allow
them to exist and proliferate.
Why? Many parents, fully cognizant of the advantages of more mat experience against tougher opponents, may have far-reaching
motives.
What with the havoc being caused on college campuses--often to wrestling programs -- by the combination of tight money
and Title IX, parents are also aware that the number of scholarships for the sport is dwindling. That means that any wrestler
who hopes to win such a scholarship will, of necessity, have to stand out from the crowd.
And many wrestling clubs around the state are willing to help them do just that--for a fee.
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