Takedown Report

Want to grow wrestling? Look to the cities

By Mike Powell and Caryn Ward
Everyone calls him Jules. He moves like water. He’s a hardworking and dedicated athlete. But Julian Valtierrez wasn’t built for basketball. Or football. Or baseball. He’ll be a senior at William Howard Taft High School in Chicago this year where he’ll wrestle at 113 pounds. Valtierrez has an impressive resume for someone who only started to wrestle as a freshman; one match away from all-state as a junior and a Fargo qualifier.  For all he’s accomplished in a short time, imagine what might have been if he’d wrestled sooner. If all of the future Julians in Chicago knew of wrestling at a younger age, had it as an easily accessible opportunity and knew the names of its stars, the sport would have an abundance of riches. While those riches go widely untapped, overall participation numbers for boys in both youth and high school wrestling are down. According to surveys by the National Federation of State High School Associations, participation has dropped in four of the last five years. Based on those same surveys, the sport has lost nearly 24,000 boys in those years for an average of almost 4,800 per year. 

But it doesn’t have to continue that way.  The solution to slowing, reversing and then building our youth and high school numbers lies in our most populous areas and that’s where Beat the Streets is positioned to spearhead the effort.  There are currently eight Beat the Streets programs recognized by our umbrella organization, the newly created Beat the Streets National; Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Boston, Providence and Chicago. The combined population of those eight cities, not including the suburban populations surrounding them, is nearly 18 million people. This is almost as populous as New Mexico, Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, the District of Columbia, Vermont and Wyoming combined.  Historically, wrestling has been dominated by small town heroes and programs. Doug Blubaugh, Dan Gable, John Smith conjure images of small-town kids going on to become global champions. Oklahoma State and Iowa have combined for 57 national team titles. But there are only so many USA memberships that can be sold in Del City, Oklahoma. 
Rest of the story at http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/22194?fbclid=IwAR3Fo5aUacoSZyN7ceY7Vc6osIH6i1ZHW2ao94V8ihPZqtg4ubffAzok_Zs

July 31, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized