Takedown Report

Beat the Streets serving Cleveland’s at-risk youth with wrestling passion, prosperity

By BEAT THE STREETS USA | NOV. 07, 2019, 
Cleveland is one of eight Beat the Street locations serving at-risk, inner-city communities. With help from USA Wrestling, the Cleveland team has inspired a grass-roots movement that uses wrestling as a platform to change lives.
Sometimes all you need to do is look up. That’s not just a cliché from your wrestling coach about powering into the third period. In a way, those eight words are everything Beat the Streets means to the child who is looking for a safe haven. Whether its New York, Los Angeles or any of its seven other locations, Beat the Streets strives to change lives. With support from USA Wrestling, Beat the Streets continues to do just that. In its first year, 85 kids joined Beat the Streets Cleveland and its initiative to provide underprivileged and children from at-risk communities an opportunity to join a wrestling mentorship program that teaches toughness, discipline and perseverance. The kids, from some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods, come from broken homes. Others struggle in school. To put it simply, they lack the all-American childhood that so many parents strive to provide. Those, however, are just some of the reasons why coach Anthony Spooner can’t step away. “I tell all of my students that there’s a beauty and a struggle,” Spooner said. “Even if you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Rest of the story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/November/07/BTS-Cleveland-Feature?mc_cid=12fcfb3e66&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

November 11, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized