Sault Youth Wrestling

July 15-17.  Click on the link to see camp and registration details.

http://www.boudrowrestling.com/youth-camp-registration/

RJ came up last year and everyone in attendance had a great time!!  Come on down and get great training at a great price!!!

www.steelcitymma.com

Freestyle session starts April 25.  $60 for the session. 

The plan is to meet at Citgo before practice and car pool as few vehicles as possible.  Send me an email if you're interested.

sooyouthwrestling@yahoo.com

I just read what Shawn posted about having kids compete in tournaments and felt like I really needed to share our experiences. Jim and I have experienced the value of tournament competition with Spencer. Initially, I had a lot of apprehension about putting Spencer in tournaments because I felt like he just wasn't ready. If we had waited until I felt he was ready to compete, he would have never entered a single tournament. I remember being terrified that losing would crush him - but I couldn't have been more wrong. He only won three matches in his first two years of wrestling, but the gains in self-esteem and confidence cannot be measured. Every tournament - wins or losses - has made him mentally stronger. It has been amazing to watch our shy, awkward, uncoordinated little boy transform into a confident, outgoing, and strong-spirited wrestler. It is hard to be the parent of a wrestler. It is intense and emotional. But at the tournaments you will have the coaches and the other parents there to support you and help you figure it out. I would encourage all parents of new wrestlers to just do it. Put your wrestler in a tournament. Give them a chance to show what they have learned and learn even more. The experience will help them far more than any amount of structured practice.

-Tammy Hazley

Anyone who is uncertain about having their kids compete please read these quotes.  Even if your kid loses all his matches this year he/she will learn.  When they finally win that match you will see the sense of accomplishment in their eyes.  That accomplishment will mean a lot more to them after having lost.  Learning what it feels like to lose or fail at something is the fuel for their motivation to keep pushing and win more.  A kid that doesnt compete will never know the feeling of winning which I think is a greater disservice than having them experience a loss.  Understand that wrestling is more than just a sport.  It will build character different from any other sport (non-combat).  Its foundation are built on courage, hard work, self-reliance, confidence and willpower.  You can't rely on your team to win it for you.  It is only you with your toe on the line in the center of the circle.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

GeorgeS. Patton

The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.

HowardCosell

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition - in having put forth the best within you.

Henry J.Kaiser

I've been playing against older and stronger competition my whole life. It has made me a better tennis player and able to play against this kind of level despite their strength and experience.

MariaSharapova

Believe you can and you're halfway there.

TheodoreRoosevelt

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

TheodoreRoosevelt

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

TheodoreRoosevelt

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

TheodoreRoosevelt

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

TheodoreRoosevelt

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

TheodoreRoosevelt

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

TheodoreRoosevelt

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.

TheodoreRoosevelt

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

TheodoreRoosevelt

Good, better, best. Never let it rest.Until your good is better and your better is best.

TimDuncan

Coach WIlson

Folks, I'm not going to sugar coat it. Wrestling in the U.P. is struggling for support. Between the youth, middle school and high school programs I believe we have anywhere between 65 to 75 athletes per year. What other school sport has that many athletes? Football? Basketball? Baseball? Swimming? No. None of those, yet U.P. wide our programs play second fiddle to all other programs and is always the least funded and the first on the budget chopping block. In a nutshell, wrestling gets very little respect from those outside the wrestling community and we are fighting for existence. Wrestling in the U.P. needs our help.

Practices - Wrestling is different than any other school sport in the respect that we are training our athletes to compete in hand to hand combat. As with all combat sports, the more you practice the better you will become. If you don't practice, you will lose to those who are practicing. Point? K-5 can't get to practice without you getting them there. I know it's difficult sometimes because of illness or vacations, but every effort must be made or your athlete, especially the younger less experienced ones, will quickly fall behind and as a result get frustrated and won't want to continue. Wrestling is 100% a family commitment sport.

Tournaments - don't keep your athlete from competing. Without testing ourselves we cannot discover weakness and improve. A young wrestler can learn from getting crushed all day long at a tournament. Either learn that wrestling isn't fun for him/her or realize that it takes true dedication in order to win. The more mat time against kids they don't know in real competition will make your athlete smarter, stronger and better.

Fundraising - the youth program is 100% run by volunteers and receives little to no funding from the school. All monies come from our own fund raising. All credit for business sponsorships and the Amazon.com efforts goes to Coach Wilson who tirelessly pursues ways to earn money for the team. Right now the only fund raiser that we ask athletes to actively assist us with is the push-up-athon. Without that fund raiser we would not have uniforms, wouldn't have the year end party or be able to provide a camp during the summer. All these things are paid for by our fundraising and business sponsors. We are trying to keep the registration and uniform fees to a minimum to make it more affordable. Please help us by taking it very seriously and giving it your utmost effort. Our program depends on it.

We have a great year of competition ahead of us. Take pictures and video and post it on the team website. Ask the coaches questions about wrestling and things that can improve your athlete and then follow through. Wrestling is a very rewarding sport for young kids especially when parents get involved and learn along with them. The season starts now. Let's do this!!!

Have a great weekend and good luck to those that are competing!!!

I am a bit dissappointed that parents who were at the intramural taking photos haven't posted those pictures to the website yet. 

We will depend on the parents to take photos of their kids during wrestling tournaments and even practices so that we can put them on the webpage to recognize the wrestlers.  It is difficult to coach and take pictures and I generally can only video tape my own sons because of limited memory in my camera.  We need parents to help out in this endevour and in helping raise funds. 

I certainly hope that the push-up-athon is as successful as last year but I have talked to several parents and they said they just found out about it or that they haven't raised anything yet.  Last year we raised a little shy of $1500 and because of that we were able to bring in a former MSU wrestler for a 3 day camp for free.  None of the coaches take payment for the time that they give and 100% of every penny goes right back into the program.  I am currently seeking gift certificates from Gamestop, Applebees, Carmike cinema and Wal-mart to give out as gifts to the kids that raise the most money and the kids that do the most push-ups.  I will be giving out a t-shirt to each kid who raises more than $100 dollars and a champion t-shirt and top earner t-shirt along with a wrestling drills video to the top kids in those catagories.  So please get out there and get some donors so that we can reach our fundraising goals this year ike we did last year. 

Thanks

Coach Wilson

If you are considering purchasing anything online, consider using the Amazon store link to the right. This link is tied to our youth wrestling account and a percentage of your online purchase will be given back to the program by using these links for your purchasing. The more we are able to raise in our fundraising efforts, the more we are able to give back to the wrestlers by providing them with more training opportunities and possibly funding efforts to build a traveling team to compete in duals in Michigan and elsewhere.  We have lofty goals for the Sault Youth Wrestling Program and want to build a wrestling feeder program for the high school that will be competitive throughout the State. 

Thanks

Coach Wilson

All

T-shirts are finally in for the first year wrestlers.  I will be handing them out on Monday. 

Coach Wilson

Parents,

I will be taking orders for t-shirts, sweatshirts, polo shirts, and long sleeve shirts for the next couple of weeks. If you would like to have spirit wear to wear to tournaments to show your support, make sure you come and see me. All proceeds come straight back into the program. They will come with Sault Wrestling and the Blue Devil Mascot printed on them.  I can order them in any color but navy blue, white and grey will be the most common for our team.  Once I have enough orders, I will place the order and should have them within a week.  I will only make one order this year so don't miss out.  I will collect the money after the order is made and when I hand them out. 

We use ProSports for our embroidery.  If you want your wrestler's name printed on their beenie hat, take them to ProSports and they can get it done for you for a reasonable price.  The hats all look the same and at tournaments they tend to pile up and get mixed up. 

Coach Wilson

Parents,

We encourage you all to take photos or video during our practices and post them here on the site to show everyone how hard the team works. The kids love seeing themselves on the computer. The easiest way and the way that takes up the least amount of memory space on our site (preferred) is to upload to YOUTUBE and embed it here on our site. 

Thanks

Shawn Wilson