STMA Youth Wrestling

FAQ

  • Attend the pre-season parent meeting. Ask questions about the content and information. This is either right before practices or during the first practice in early November. This is very helpful and a great time to ask questions.
  • Then, start by attending practices and learning the moves and flow of a match with your athlete.
  • Once your athlete wants to compete, look for announcements for a local tournament. The STMA Youth Open is held the first week of December, there are many other competitions at surrounding communities for individual tournaments.
  • Talk to a practice coach about how to get involved on a youth team. There are many dual team tournaments where your athlete is paired with our STMA kids to compete against other schools. This is closer to other team sports.
  • Ask questions!
  • Talk to a practice coach, or one of the other youth contacts to find out more specifics. Asking a question(s) on the Youth Wrestling Facebook can also be helpful. The old adage of there is no such thing as a dumb question holds true. Everyone is new at some point, people are happy to help and can empathize with your position.

Practices:

  • Athletic shirt & shorts. Wrestling shoes are strongly recommended but not required. You may get non-slip sock or a low profile tennis shoe (even a tight slipper may work).

Competitions:

  • Wrestling shoes (or athletic shoes), singlet (or shorts and t-shirt).

Where do I get shoes?

  • There is a bin with various sizes available for used shoes in the high school wrestling room. In addition, Marketplace, Craigslist, Ebay, Play it Again, Dicks Sporting Goods, Online retailers.

Where do I get a singlet?

  • There are some used STMA ones available at practices, look for announcements. There is also a preseason online ordering option for new ones. Tournaments, Amazon, Marketplace, etc. also have options for ‘generic’ singlets.

Where do I get headgear? Kneepads?

  • Same as above, there is a bin at the high school which is used but various other retailers and some tournaments do have options as well.

Practices:

  • Oftentimes it is parents, alumni and some current high school wrestlers helping out. All help and volunteering is welcomed and encouraged to maximize experience.

Competitions:

  • For team competitions, we usually have a few coaches attend the dual meet tournaments. There is generally someone to help communicate out times and information. Again, all help and volunteering is welcomed and encouraged to maximize experience.

For individual competitions:

  • Often there may be 1 coach running around to help but it is common for parents to help coach their kids. Another reason to get involved in practices/competitions to learn along the way!

There are often announcements looking for athletes and wrestlers to help fill a lineup. This comes from a weekly Newsletter, emails, and announcements at practice. Those announcements are usually in early November to start a roster and then periodically throughout the season.

For teams, it is based on availability, ability, and willingness to participate. Often, there are alternates that can be taken with each dual meet team. There are three levels (K-3, Blue/Gold K-6, Competitive K-6). Each of the levels are coached by volunteer coaches/parents. Any help is greatly appreciated.

At the regional and state level competitions, these are typically based on size, and past performances through the season. Our goal is always to maximize participation, not limit.

If you missed announcements and did not see anything in the weekly newsletter, simply talk to the practice coach. They will be able to help guide you to the next competitions and/or coaches available for it. If you want to take a team to an event, be sure to let them know! The Guillotine is a website with an event calendar listed in a menu option that holds where many local tournaments are held.

  • Depending on the athlete’s grade, depends on the opportunities. For our younger athletes, we often encourage them to consider attending one of the older practices that moves at a little fast of a pace but provides an easy additional day of training.
  • For some athletes, they may want to consider a private club for additional opportunities above our program dates. Grynd Wrestling is housed at the high school and run by an STMA alum Jake Allar. These dates often fall around our current programming and are a great local option.
  • After the season, and pre-season, Grynd wrestling offerings continue 1-3x a week. In addition, there are additional fall, spring and summer tournaments for those looking to continue to compete.
  • In the summer, there are various, free, open rooms offered by the program available for athletes pending on their age.

Individual Tournament:

  • Most local tournaments follow a similar procedure, typically you need to follow the information on the registration flyer, walk in, fill out the registration form (or print off the flyer and complete prior to arrival) and pay the registration fee.
  • Then you often go down to weigh-ins and skin checks where some tournament volunteers write down the weight of your child and make sure they do not have any communicable skin conditions. These are both done with your athlete in a singlet (or shirt/shorts). After their weight is recorded, the tournament volunteers will keep the registration sheet. You and your wrestler will go into the tournament gym to wait for staging.
  • The waiting time will vary pending your child’s grade (see tournament registration sheet) but usually about an hour. Often you will see other STMA wrestlers warming up/running around, say hi, socialize and ‘warm up’ together while you wait. During that waiting time, the tournament volunteers are busy bracketing kids to get ready for staging.
  • Brackets are often created based on grade, weight and by ability. They are traditionally paired into brackets of 3 to 4 kids. The tournament will announce grade levels to staging. A parent and a wrestler will go to staging, this is where there is someone calling out the names of the wrestlers in each bracket, grouping them together to stage them to go out to a competition mat.
  • Once the bracket (usually 3-4 wrestlers) are all grouped together, they will get assigned to a mat. They will wrestle their matches at that assigned mat. Usually there are 2-3 other brackets assigned to the same mat. They will rotate through the brackets providing your wrestler a 10-15 minute break in between their 2 or 3 matches.
  • After your wrestler’s bracket is completed, one parent grabs the completed bracket with the other bracket wrestlers to go to awards. They read off the names of the wrestlers and give the awards accordingly.
  • The wrestling club typically covers 2-4 individual tournaments for STMA families from the practice registration fees and tournament fundraisers (Brawl & STMA Open).
  • Then, done. Go home and get a nice little treat on the way 🙂
  • Some individual tournaments follow some slightly different procedures but they are traditionally outlined on the registration flyers. State and regional tournaments may have longer breaks and waiting periods as there are more participants and mats are more randomly assigned throughout a given session.

Dual Team Tournaments:

  • These are grouped together with 10-15 kids from a given school/team across varying weights and ages. For example, pK-3 duals are for kids in Pre-K through 3rd grade. A team gets wrestlers to fill and represent different weight classes. Generally you’d see weights of 40-45-50-55-60-65-70-75-80-85-90-HWT (up to 115lbs). One team duals another team, the 45lbs wrestler of STMA goes out against the 45lb wrestler of Team B. These are matched up based on weight. K-6 events typically have additional weight classes.
  • Grade and ability levels may vary in matches. Often, there are alternates at different weights to help with breaks and to provide opportunities for kids. Each tournament usually has 2-4 dual meets, (2-4 matches per kid/team). Once done, done.
  • Logistics: A parent/volunteer coach helps to sign up for a tournament, the wrestling club pays for the event as a part of your volunteering and practice registration fees. A couple of volunteers help to get kids together to fill out a lineup to have 1-2 kids per weight. This is usually announced via Newsletters, emails, Facebook, and at practice.
  • Once a team is set, the coach(s) will communicate out the times to met for weigh-ins. Teams will meet, weigh-in together, and then go into the competition gym to wait. Teams will generally warm up together on a mat. The team’s mats are assigned by the tournament. The parents sit in the bleachers to watch or willing volunteers help to organize the kids on the team bench.
  • Sometimes there are direct calls, sometimes it’s just parents who see a need but there is always a need for volunteers to help: communicate times/logistics to families, organize lineups, coach, organize a bench, give out high fives, etc.
  • The dual meet starts at the lightest weight class and works its way up. Each match contributes to a total team score. For example, if the STMA 45lbs wrestler pins Team B’s 45lbs wrestler, that is 6 team points for STMA’s team score. The team with the most points after all the matches, wins. They will advance accordingly in the bracket based off win/loss. After 2-4 dual meets, the tournament is over.
  • The wrestling club typically covers 3-5 dual team tournaments, per level, for STMA families from the practice registration fees and tournament fundraisers.
  • Then, done. Go home and get a nice little treat on the way 🙂 See if another family or families want to join, an easy way to make friends and learn.

For females:

  • They will progress into the high school girls programming. The high school female program runs grades 7th-12th. The practices are traditionally Monday through Friday with various competitions. There is a fall meeting in late October that covers parental information. Announcements are made at schools and posted on social media.

For males:

  • They will progress into middle school wrestling for 7th and 8th graders. There are some opportunities available for competing on the 9th grade and high school level. Generally, those are for athletes who are able to compete as the number one person on the depth chart. Timing for determination can vary and is based on coaches feedback for performances, maturity, physicality, and within STMA Activities programming. A vast majority of athletes compete at the middle school level which operates 4 days a week and has competitions intermixed within those days plus a couple of weekend competitions.

Tournament Fundraisers:

  • The Brawl & STMA Open – look for announcements and a sign-up genius through emails, Facebook, and announcements at practice.
  • Roles vary from 1-2 hour slots at an event to larger coordination pieces.

Coaching help at practices and/or competitions:

  • JR Loftus, cell: 651-308-0273, email: jrloftus2025@outlook.com

Something else? New idea to add? Help with succession?

  • Many hands make light work! Contact Josh Joriman, Cell: 651-329-7723, email: joshuaj@mystma.org