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Originally Posted by Iowanian
All of my siblings have wrestling age boys now. The mat club now allows preschool so we are throwing the young ones in. With our boys and those of first cousins when this group is in high school we could have 13 boys on the high school wrestling team from our family at the same time. We are not pushing. We are encouraging. Right now it's just rough housing on the mat and practicing stances and getting thrown around.
I anticipate a lot of winter bleacher butt in the coming years. I will likely be helping with thE youth program as time allows.
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Anymore, in Iowa... the school youth programs aare fading a bit to Super Clubs that are generally run by former NCAA champs/All-Americans...kids generally join when they reach a level where they are taking things rather seriously. If this sounds appealing to you, hit me up when the time comes and I'll steer you in the right direction... not sure where you are located geographically speaking, but a lot of the choice of which super club to choose is dependent on where the person lives.
It's pretty neat. Some of these guys are able to make a living by facilitating their own wrestling club...which is awesome, for I've always found it to be catastrophic that wrestling is the most grueling, tough sport, but the athletes can't make a living via becoming professional like other sports.
Some examples of these include:
Eastern Iowa Wrestling Club (Iowa City based...run by Terry Brands...who was an NCAA champ and Olympic bronze winner).
Sebolt Wrestling Academy (In North Central/North East Iowa. Run by 4 time state champ and current Iowa career wins record holder, T.J. Sebolt).
Porcelli (based in Des Moines...great guy).
D.C. Elite: Based in Cedar Rapids/Mount Pleasant. Run by Iowa HS state champ and Wisconsin NCAA All American, Dusty Coufal. This has been the most successful club the past 3 years, although Eastern Iowa is catching up. My bros are in this club along with House of Payne, although I wish they'd try out Eastern Iowa WC...there is a coach for D.C. Elite who pisses me off and IMO, doesn't belong in there because he coaches a HS team). Dusty is the most intense youth coach in the state and really gets a lot out of kids. His wrestling club is his life....really...I think it's how he makes a living. He runs the king of the super clubs, for now...they win everything and are invited fo prestigious national dual wrestling tourneys in which they always place pretty high and sometimes win it.
House of Payne: Jason Payne's club. He is an NCAA All American from UNI...along with being a 3 time state champ. My bros are in this one as well. I love this guy. Located in Washington, IA...brings in a lot of the South East Iowans like ourselves I live in a small town near Burlington... the Royals's A baseball team used to be in Burlington. I used to see some of these guys who play for the Royals now (most notably Gordon and Moustakis) all the time at the bars. They were real nice, but most of them were very vocal about how much they hated Burlington, IA due to the lack of support for the Burlington Bees team. Anyways...
Ubasa: Hawaiian standout and former Iowa wrestler, Pablo Ubasa. He conducts sessions in Des Moines and Iowa City.
High Altitude: Gosh, this guy's name of escapes me, but this program is located in Des Moines. Until D.C. Elite dethroned them, this used to be THE premier club. Excellent coach.
Cobra: Southwest Iowa, Council Bluffs area...can't remember the guy's name.
Meneely: Run by former HS superstar and Iowa wrestler, Todd Meneely. Based in Omaha..also reels in Southwest Iowa wrestlers and Council Bluffs kids.
Legends of Gold: Northwest Iowa...they get some of the Sioux City area kids.
Kaos Gold: Oskaloosa
Team Swagger: Run by former Iowa HS runner-up, Jamie Cochrane. My bros have been to a few of these sessions. Cochrane has such a unique and awesome method of conditioning and conducting practices. I've seen it firsthand. A FANTASTIC program...located in Moravia, Iowa.
Young Bucks: Albia area. Maybe held in Knoxville. Run by the Pickerel brothers. Nick Pickerel was my brother, Justin's primary practice partner at UNI...Nick won state a couple times in high school. These guys are great.
Higher Power Wrestling Club: T.J. Sebolt and I believe Dean Happel (a state champ from Lisbon, IA who actually beat Tom Brands either in HS or college). There are higher power locations sporadically placed around Iowa... like Centrville, Lisbon, etc. These guys incorporate prayer and religion into practice. If that's your thing then one thing I can say about them is that they have some dandy wrestlers. Carter Happel is probably the best wrestler in the state of Iowa...won Fargo.
Young Guns: Run by University of Iowa NCAA Champion, Eric Juergens. He turns kids into monsters. Based in Dubuque and the Quad Cities. After Juergens was done ad Iowa, he helped out as a volunteer coach at the cdge I wrestled at, my Sophomore season, which was Loras College in Dubuque. He basically imposed his will and took over the program..unpaid. Our paid coaching staff was totally fine with it. This guy is an absolute machine. And he is great at connecting with kids and helping them with the mental aspect. Great coach. I hung out with him quite a bit for a few years there...dude was an absolute nut when we'd start drinking....just had that "I am invincible" mentality... would do crazy, funny shit. Fun guy to hang out with and an absolutely awesome coach.
Former Iowa NCAA champ, Joe.Williams is starting something on Iowa City. To be honest, he appeals to the Iowa City High and African American kids. Nice guy...INTENSE coach.
That's it, in a nutshell, off the top of my head... when all your boys nephews have the basics down, these super clubs specialize in "polishing" their skill sets...and in most cases, it just works wonders. I'd highly recommend it.