Americas Cup Recap & The Future
Alright well it's over and I got a few hours sleep. First off I want to thank all of the coaches who took the time out of their lives to help give some kids a few more memories. When it is all said and done that is what you get out of wrestling, a bunch of memories, some bumps and bruises all which help shape and mold an individuals character for the rest of their time on this rock. I also want to thank all of the volunteers and staff that made it possible. This was a dream of mine three years ago and Adam Tirapelle and a handful of others championed the cause from day one and have helped it get to where it is today. In fact it was this event three years ago that led us to Adam and jump started our organization. The rest just seemed to fall into place as good people just got on board because they wanted to do something revolutionary.
This event is NUWAY's Fargo down the road. We have total commitment and support from our national organization and member states to build and grow this event. Over the next few years the field will expand and it is our goal to have the best athletes in the country competing in California for individual glory and state pride. I love the event and it is by far my favorite and I believe the athletes feel the same way.
Many of you do not know how we get these athletes here--it's real simple--we took revenue from the event and supplement there expenses to the tune of over $17,000 this year. Like in every one of our events we take the lion share of the proceeds and use that to get our kids the exposure whether it be traveling to flo or bringing them to Vegas or Clovis that they need.
We want to thank San Diego and SOCAL for attending three years in a row. We know the drive is long and sacrifice greatest for those who come the furthest. I have talked to our central valley, bay area and norcal coaches and we are in agreement that we need to create a sister event in San Diego this summer and ship teams down there. I will be working with the coaches in the next week or so on making that a reality for this summer. The initial thought was to move the whole event to San Diego however now that Oregon and Idaho have confirmed more teams for next year at both the ms and high school level it may make it more difficult for them.
I want to close with saying that our dream team this year was absolutely the right team in every sense. each of the 14 kids on that team wanted to be there, trained for it, and wrestled their tail off. Even our kids who were underdogs wrestled well above expectations. The Ohio team we beat was very good, and the Michigan dual had 5 or 6 1-2 point matches that we came out on top in. I was also impressed with the other teams that all seemed to wrestle at an extremely high level. Like I said it was a dream that is now a reality.
Year two for SCWAY is coming to a close. Every year I ask myself how long I can do this for--and every year I review what we have done and get the energy to continue. Our team is getting better each day. There are many things we need to improve on mostly from the admin side as well as continuing to get our message to spread in the north.
Initiatives for 2012-2013
MS
Increase out of state attendance at events such as Jr Midcals, CA Republic, Freak Show, World Challenge, Western States.
Increase participation in a newly created age based dual series.
Increase participation in the road to state series and k-8 state championships
Get a full 16 teams to participate in Jr Americas Cup
Create more regional events with our new partners in ID, AZ, OR, NV
Attend VAC Duals, North Alleghany, NUWAY National Duals, and send a contingency to TULSA as Team SCWAY
HS
Win 2013 Flonationals
Win the Americas Cup
Win the Grand River Rumble
Create a regional event in ID and AZ and send teams
Implement a dual based league statewide in the spring
creating an elite folkstyle/freestyle/greco training center for our top 200-300 athletes to train at in the off season
Overall we have had a very successful year and the largest wins have been for our kids. The buzz around the nation is CA right now and I would like to think our organization has played a small role in helping create it. We have some big plans for the future as the freak show is already being billed to be one of the top attended events in the country after our performance at FLO and the Americas Cup. I have been in contact with Jack Roller and other wiser men than I to build strategic alliances so that our kids will continue to get more for less.
On the college front we have created the first National Collegiate Wrestling Endowment in the country. Our major NUWAY events both regionally and nationally will start to contribute to this fund in 2012-2013. The final national board of directors serving as fiduciaries over this fund will be announced early this summer and I think the wrestling community will be impressed with who is on that board.
Our National Membership continues to climb and should exceed 50,000 members in 2012-2013. I am proud to announce CA, NY, and MI are driving that. We are projecting in the next five years to exceed 100,000 members and as we grow we will be able to continue to do more for wrestling from the grassroots to the college level.
In conclusion while the road has been hard--all of the people that have stuck there necks out and broke their backs building this whether it be coaches, athletes, parents or just fans can be proud to know that our state is not only at the forefront of wrestling on the mat but also a major stakeholder in an organization that is quickly growing and will very likely be the national governing body of folkstyle wrestling in the United States.
Last edited by UniHighCoach; 05-29-2012 at 02:36 PM.
There are two types of people: those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don't talk at all, 'cause they walkin'. Now, people who talk the talk, when it comes time for them to walk the walk, you know what they do? They talk people like me into walkin' for them.
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