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Learning the ropes

If the high school wrestling circuit is the major leagues, consider club wrestling a part its farm system. Wrestling continues to grow through out Central Virginia and a good portion of that growth can be directly atributed to club wrestling. The Cavalier Wrestling Club is one of many programs in the area that is teaching the timeless sport to people of all ages.

Since 2002, the CWC has offered  a variety of programs to help kids from as young as five years old all the way through the high school ranks. During the winter, the youth programs practice twice a week at Albemarle High while the those in the middle school program get the chance to take the mat at Ornesty Hall at the University of Virginia, rubbing elbows with some of the Cavalier wrestlers in the process.

“Actually, a lot of kids know some of the UVa wrestlers on a first name basis,” said one of the seven coaches for the CWC, Jim Harshaw, a former 3-time ACC champion wrestler for the Cavaliers. “Guys like Brent Jones, someone who’s ranked 10th in the country at 197 pounds. These kids know him. And it’s pretty impressive to have this community all come together.”

The sport has legs in this area with the proof coming in last year’s launch of the Central Virginia Wrestling League, a league which allowed the members of the CWC to compete with a number of other different clubs such as those in Waynesboro, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Culpeper, Louisa and Orange among various others.

“The fact that we have a league shows that the sport is growing,” Harshaw said. “But we’ve also got Virginia which is ranked 20th in the country at the university level.”

From afar, the development and growth of the CWC is yet another classic example of the trend towards specialization in athletics, allowing those who want to hone in on one particular sport a chance to separate themselves from the pack.

“It seems that in every sport now the good are just getting better,” Harshaw said. “The separation between the average and the elite is now growing because kids have opportunities like this to wrestle all year round.”

Just like volleyball and lacrosse, wrestling in this area does not have to be a seasonal sport. Kids that want to focus on wrestling every week of the year have that opportunity with the club circuit. And for this area, it’s been highly beneficial to the high school teams. For example, Willie Crawford — a Group AA championship wrestler for Fluvanna County last season — has been a regular participant at the CWC. Charlottesville newcomer Shiruna Ntenda, currently undefeated this season, has been a long time member also.

According to Harshaw, area high school coaches have welcomed the CWC with open arms as it’s filling out their rosters and stocking them with more highly skilled  wrestlers.

“For the most part, before we had this (club) in place, a lot of kids weren’t learning how to wrestle until the ninth grade,” Harshaw said. “They’d step on to their teams not knowing a thing about wrestling and then going out to compete against kids across the state who’ve been wrestling since they were six or seven.”

This year’s senior class of wrestlers marks one of the first waves of wrestlers that participated in the CWC at an early age, and with up and coming talent like Wade Kammauff closing in on their high school careers, there shouldn’t be any shortage of quality anytime soon. Right now the club boasts 37 members in elementary school and 28 members in middle school.

For more information about the Cavalier Wrestling Club check out their website at www.cavalierwrestlingclub.org.

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