FAQs and Resources

We encourage kids of any school age or experience level to participate in wrestling. As long as they are excited about participating and able to stay engaged and listen to instruction for an entire practice, we would love to have your child be a part of our program! 

Wrestling for youth wrestlers who want to get a head start on the season and get ready for early competitions can begin as early as Monday October 24th. Our official start to the season will be November 6th. The first week of the season is a "trial" period. We will reimburse families after the first week if wrestlers do not want to continue with the season.  See our website, social media pages, and our calendar for more details.

Youth and middle school practices are generally held every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6:00-7:30. Younger wrestlers (usually K-3, but exceptions are made at times for 3rd graders with a multiple years of experience) are sent home at 7:00. Thursday youth practices are for more experienced and older wrestlers.  High school practices are daily and are usually from 3:45-5:45ish, but these times will vary based on competition and the time of year. All practices are held in the wrestling room at Sherwood High School, which is behind the the upper gym on the second floor. 

Please don’t let cost influence your decision to allow your child to participate. We do offer scholarships, but ask parents and kids on scholarship to please volunteer whenever possible, particularly when it comes to helping with our fundraisers. Please contact Coach Wilson if you have further questions about this. 

Here is a video that covers the basic rules of wrestling. Here is another quick video on how high school wrestling matches are scored.  

First and foremost a USA wrestling card for youth and middle school wrestlers (go to https://www.usawmembership.com/ ).  Wrestlers are encouraged to buy their own headgear and wrestling shoes. Several sets of workout gear (shorts or sweats and shirts) will be needed for practices. 

The benefits are endless 🙂 but here are a few:  self-confidence, work ethic, self respect, respect for others, self-discipline, goal setting, working within a team environment, perseverance, and how to have a healthy level of competition.  Physically your child can gain:  improved balance, increased speed, increased coordination, increased endurance, improved agility, strength in all muscle groups. Wrestling is a great sport to help build character and overall athleticism. See the “Why Wrestle” link for more information. 

Wrestling is a contact sport. Bumps and bruises, bloody noses, and sore muscles are common in this sport. Major injuries in all contact sports can occur, but are not common. We make an effort to monitor practices carefully so illegal holds or potentially dangerous predicaments are halted at once. Wrestling is a safe sport that actually averages fewer major injuries than many other sports.

 No! In fact, we often encourage kids to put on weight. Bottom line,  all wrestlers need to participate at a healthy weight. If an athlete chooses to lose some weight it needs to be done in a healthy manner. No wrestler will ever be forced to cut weight, and it is something that we monitor closely.  

Our mats are disinfected and cleaned before every  practice session starts. However, to keep your child safe from any kind of skin infection, it is important to have your child shower immediately after practice with warm water and soap (preferably an antibacterial athlete’s soap).  It is important to scrub well.  If your child has an open wound, it needs to be covered before practice and competitions. Be sure that your child washes their workout gear after each practice. Bags, shoes, kneepads, and anything else used during wrestling need to be washed consistently as well. 

If at any time your child breaks out with a skin condition or rash, report it to the coach and see your family doctor. On rare occasions we will have a case of a rash break out on a wrestler. These conditions can often be healed quickly with proper treatment. The most common types of skin conditions are ringworm, impetigo, boils, and cold sores. Although these conditions are often blamed on the wrestling mat, the likely case of transmission is because of improper hygiene. See the skin protection article under resources for more information. 

This is required for all youth and middle school wrestlers.  It provides secondary injury insurance if your child is injured at a tournament or practice and is required by the school district to practice and hold tournaments at the high school to limit their liability. All wrestling tournaments require that you purchase a USA Wrestling Card. Proof of date of birth is required for these cards. This protects you as well as our coaches and club.  It is mandatory. Go to https://www.usawmembership.com/ to purchase or renew your USA card.