Young wrestlers take to the mats for practice

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

There was a group of elementary to middle school aged youngsters standing in a circle screaming words of encouragement as two equally diminutive gladiators circled each other and contemplated the best way to take the other down in the Superior School multi-purpose room Thursday evening.

No, this was not a miniature remake of the film “Gladiator;” it was Superior Little Guy Wrestling Camp. About 24 wrestlers showed up to work on their technique during the week-long event.

Monday through Thursday last week the wrestlers met at 6 p.m. to get a jump start on next season’s wrestling and get some pointers from Head Coach Charlie Crabb and other volunteers.

Crabb said they spent the better part of the week working on takedowns and changing up the team’s style.

“We’ve kind of changed our style of takedowns a little bit so we want to get these kids introduced to it so they can get a head start for next year,” said Crabb.

Little Guy Wrestling teaches grapplers from third grade all the way through eighth grade and Crabb said that some of the wrestlers at camp this year were rising third graders.

“They’re a little behind because the other kids have had at least a year of wrestling, but they’re still doing pretty good,” Crabb said.

The kids paired up each evening with a wrestler of similar age and ability to work on different drills. Crabb said that this process allowed his newer wrestlers to spend time getting used to basic concepts and build on things as the week progressed.

“We’ve got enough guys here helping out that it’s easy for them to do well,” Crabb said.

He added that without help from coaches Scott Kinney, Marty Smith, Jason Mann, Tyler McGillivray and Beau McGillivray he would have had a hard time running the event. Jason McLees helped organize the entire event and also helped coach the young wrestlers.

Thursday evening the team applied all of the things they had been working on that week with a take-down tournament. They stood in a circle on the floor and volunteered to wrestle in front of everyone. Crabb gave them each one minute to get as many takedowns as they could.

They kept no official score past each individual event and Crabb said that it was a great way for them to see how much they had improved over the week and cheer each other on.

After the takedown tournament the coaches passed out Hustle Awards for the wrestlers that they thought worked the hardest that week. Mason Frost, Michael Parkin, Anthony Parkin, Billy Smith, Tucker Smith, Bridger LaPierre and Josh Benda all received Hustle Award T-shirts and a round of applause from the team.

On Friday at 11 a.m. the team took off for Splash Montana in Missoula for a day of wet fun as a reward for working so hard the rest of the week.

The Little Guy Wrestling season will not start up until February of next year, but Crabb said that most of the kids will be participating in basketball and football or some other sport and the camp will have helped them have a little extra edge when the time comes.

“It’s been a whole lot of fun,” said Crabb.