A group of Manor students wrestled their way onto the podium at the provincial wrestling championships held in Saskatoon March 25th - 26th.
The wrestling club at Manor School started in January and currently has 12 kids, four of which went to the competition in Saskatoon.
"I used to do wrestling for phys ed and I saw some of the students were quite good at it," says Monte McNaughton, the teacher who runs the club. "I decided to start a team and see how it goes."
For a first-time club at their first ever provincial competition, the students did a fantastic job. All four students placed:
Trista Kennett, grade 6, provincial gold champion in pee wee girls 58 kg class
Tim Englot, grade 7, provincial silver medalist in bantam boys 68 kg class
Nash Morris, grade 6, provincial silver medalist in pee wee boys 64 kg class
Jett Big Eagle, grade 6, provincial bronze medalist in pee wee boys 46 kg class
"I didn't really do any other sports and I decided to try wrestling," says Englot.
The kids competed against other young people of the same age, gender and weight in order to ensure both safety and equality in the matches.
"I was really nervous," says Trista Kennett of her match.
Nash Morris says he wasn't nervous heading into his fight, but became nervous once he was into it. "I was not really nervous until we actually got clenched up. He was pretty strong for his height," says Morris.
McNaughton wanted to start the club now while the students are still in the younger grades, so that by the time they reach grade nine - the grade where high school competition begins - the students will have the skills they require to compete at that level.
He says he was impressed with how the students did, adding "the ones who did well are the ones who listened. Listening is key to doing well," he says.
As this was the first year for the wrestling club, McNaughton says he focused on making it fun for students in order to ensure the group remained a decent size.
"This season, I didn't focus a lot on conditioning or anything like that, I just wanted to make it as fun as possible this first season to kind of hook them. Otherwise, if it's too hard, they might quit after the first practices. So, I made it as fun as possible so they would want to come back."
He expects more students will join next year, especially after seeing the students' achievements at provincials.
The Manor wrestling club received a grant from Saskatchewan Amateur Wrestling that allows the students use a professional wrestling mat for practice for the next season, putting them at an advantage for future competitions.
