Wrestling gets a hold on area students

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com



It's been smooth sailing for the coach of the local wrestling team — other than getting the boys to compete in the required spandex singlet and reminding everyone that amateur wrestling isn't the same as the televised professional style.

But these minor hiccups aside, Rick Card, a teacher at Maple Grove Education Centre, has managed to develop a respectable program that includes MGEC and Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School. Twenty-four students between the two schools train under Card, who started the program after developing an interest for the sport and attending coaching clinics.

Card says that as more students become interested in the sport, the program expands and blossoms from the junior high level to senior high. He expects all of this year's Grade 9 athletes to continue competing when they are in high school.

As the sport grows in this area, Card says it is also growing rapidly at the provincial level.

"Last year I think there were close to 350 wrestlers from all over the province. It's growing; smaller schools that didn't have programs are starting to build them and it just keeps going."

While the local program is still in its infancy, it's already building a strong reputation. In its four-year history, the program has produced 19 provincial medalists; 13 of those medals are gold.

The school wrestling season runs from the fall until March, with the first month focused on conditioning as athletes prepare themselves for the physical demands of the sport. Though Card stresses that this style of wrestling does not involve submissions or strikes, there is still a chance for injury so athletes must be well conditioned.

The team performed well in its first meet of the season. The MGEC-hosted event saw Yarmouth area wrestlers take home 11 medals as well as the intermediate boys and junior girls team titles. The junior boys finished second after Bayview.

One of those wrestlers was Justin Blades, a Grade 9 student at MGEC who won a silver medal in the 69kg intermediate division in what was his first meet.

As a fan of martial arts, Blades says he was attracted to the grappling aspect of the sport as well as the strategy and planning that goes into matches.

For Keltie Melanson, who is also a Grade 9 student at MGEC, it was the fitness aspect of the sport that attracted her to wrestling.

"I wanted to work my strength," she says.

Now in her third year with the program, Melanson says her favourite part of the sport is competing, even more so now that she doesn't get nervous for meets.

"After a while you get used to it after going to so many tournaments," she says.