Takedown Report

Fargo champ epitomizes the Beat the Streets mission

Angel Garcia has world-changing plans.  He wants to wrestle in college and maybe beyond if his Greco-Roman skills can take him around the globe. He intends to major in environmental science and he’d like to take on some big-picture, far-reaching goals.  “Change the world,” the high school senior from Philadelphia’s Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School said. “Come up with different ways to make a better living for everyone. It’s time for people to think about people and not just themselves.”

This is Garcia today — driven and determined, considerate and kind, a shining example for the benefits of wrestling, a poster boy for the Beat the Streets program and now a national champion.  His life trajectory has taken a sharp turn in a different direction since he first took up the sport a little more than five years ago.  Prior to wrestling, Garcia watched friends deal drugs and get sucked in by the rough streets on Philadelphia’s north side.  “I saw a lot of people dying and I saw a lot of people going through a lot of things and I didn’t want to be like them,” Garcia said.  His life might have been headed down a perilous path, too, until a teacher watched Garcia slam another student after a hallway argument and suggested that aggression would be better suited for a wrestling mat.  Garcia listened and gave wrestling a chance. He saw the sport as “a new path and new way, a brand new beginning.” He started attending Beat the Streets practices and found himself drawn to the positive influences and structure the program provided and the grit and purpose he developed as a wrestler.  Rest of the story at https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1566529947463&twSessionId=glnvanbvzl&postId=1678933132&mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized