The small gym at East Junior High vibrated with energy Monday evening as two dozen elementary students tackled the sport of wrestling.
The Traverse City Central Elementary Wrestling Camp, billed as both a feeder and a fun program, began last month with twice-weekly classes through next week. For two hours, coaches Ethan and Jaime Smith — both veteran high school wrestlers — and a handful of assistants guide hurtling bodies and boundless energy through the basics of the ancient sport.
Using a combination of drills, live wrestling and games, the Smiths and their assistants keep things both lively and educational.
"We've gotten pretty advanced this season,” said Jaime, who was a three-time women's state champion and two-time national qualifier. "We've taught them snub rides, TC Central's bread and butter moves, high crotches, duck unders, cradles, half nelsons.”
Lucas Nielsen, 11, a sixth grader at East Junior High, is in his second year of camp and believes his participation will give him an edge in his future high school wrestling career.
"It gives you experience and teaches you moves,” he said. "It gives you an advantage other kids don't have.”
Maureen Salvador, 8, weighed in for the girls during the camp, wrestling and learning moves with a feisty tenacity.
"It's fun and entertaining and you're not bored at home,” she said of the camp. "You learn new things.”
Games such as King of the Mat near the end of every class are huge favorites. King of the Mat is organized similar to a spelldown: all participants, including coaches, line up by size and then wrestle two at a time starting from the smallest. The winner of each match faces off with the next person in line until one wrestler is left victorious.
"The kids really like it because they get to see the coaches at the end,” said Smith, the girls soccer coach at Central High School. "They like to see who wins.”
An all-district Elementary Wrestling Camp began in 1996 and quickly became an institution, dividing into two entities when the high schools split the next year. The Smiths took over coaching duties for the Central Elementary Camp last year from long-time coach Dave Hoyt.
Berard Priante, coach of the West High School wrestling team, runs an elementary wrestling camp for students on the West side of town. In its final week, the camp drew a record of 90 participants this year with some competing in elementary tournaments in northern Michigan.
"It was awesome but a lot of work, that's the most we've ever had,” said Priante, who has been coach of the Titans for the past three years and also for a four-year block from the late 1990s-early 2000s. "We typically don't even concern ourselves with conditioning, it's basically teaching kids the fundamentals of the sport so as they grow older they can start it correctly.”
"The elementary program definitely makes a big difference, I see a lot of it in the junior high program right now because that's where a lot of those kids are,” he added.
Rick Rinal, first-year had coach of the Trojans, said the training and development offered to wrestlers by the camp is crucial to a high-school level program.
"If you want a successful high school program you have to have a successful elementary program,” said Rinal, who was the team's assistant coach for ten years and graduated from the former Traverse City Senior High in 1995. "There's mat awareness, it's not something you can teach kids, they have to be on the mat themselves.”