This is a poster advertising Gladiator Youth Wrestling Program. Several have been posted around Clarke Central High School halls.“I wanted to have a youth (wrestling) program for a number of years, but have never had enough interest or community outreach to get one going, and Mr. Miller bridged that gap,” Stoudenmire said.
By SAMUEL HOOD – Sports Editor
Gladiator Youth Wrestling is a new program which aims to teach students how to wrestle.
With the help of CAPS department paraprofessional William Miller, Clarke Central High School varsity wrestling head coach Timothy Stoudenmire was able to create a new program named Gladiator Youth Wrestling that is aimed to expose students to wrestling at a young age. Currently, the program is available to students from second to sixth grade.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. When we first start out, we just want it to be fun, but the main thing is that we are going to offer some discipline and basic skill learning, so when the (students) get to high school, the first time they’ve wrestled isn’t in ninth grade,” Miller said.
Because Athens-Clarke County did not have a youth wrestling program, Miller and Stoudenmire thought that it would be beneficial to children who want to pursue wrestling and to high school wrestling coaches. The program will feed students from this program into high school wrestling teams without going through a major transition.
“I wanted to have a youth (wrestling) program for a number of years, but have never had enough interest or community outreach to get one going, and Mr. Miller bridged that gap,” Stoudenmire said.
Currently, the program has about 10 students signed up, most of whom are from Alps Road Elementary and Barnett Shoals Elementary. However, this program is open to all students within the grade qualification.
“We are opening up to everybody right now. This is the first time we’ve done this so we just want to open it up,” Miller said.
Stoudenmire and Miller hope that the program will produce better wrestlers going into high school, but that it will also allow them to grow as better people.
“Wrestling helps to develop a lot of discipline, a lot of character and a lot of motivation and the earlier you start to develop those character traits the better the quality of the citizen that you produce,” Stoudenmire said.
