The Jasper Activity Centre was swarming with tussling wrestlers last week, during the 27th annual Rocky Mountains Wrestling Camp.
The 135 athletes between the ages of 13 and 18 came from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and even Sweden to learn from Andy Hutchinson and his team of coaches.
Hutchinson, who competed on the national and international level for 20 years and has coached on both levels, as well, has been organizing the intense week-long camp for the last 12 years.
While in Jasper, the athletes learn technical skills, match tactics, discipline and perseverance.
鈥淭hey started off at 7:30 a.m. with a morning run up the mountain鈥擺Pyramid Bench]鈥攁nd around town and then they had a meal and they went back on the mats three times a day.
鈥淭here鈥檚 physical conditioning throughout the day, attached to the tactical sessions and then in the evening, it鈥檚 basically two hours of sparing,鈥� said Hutchinson.
The camp hosted youth who are brand new to wrestling, with only a year under their belt, and others who have attended the camp for four or five years and have been wrestling for that long, if not longer.
鈥淲e have provincial team kids鈥擳eam Alberta who鈥檚 going to Canada Summer Games in August鈥攁nd we have three athletes who are going to be representing Canada at the U-18 Pan American Championships.鈥�
As well as wrestling, the youth participated in a 鈥渂igger and better鈥� game, where groups of athletes were each given a penny to trade for something bigger and better to auction off in a silent auction at the activity centre.
鈥淎ll of those items鈥攚e got a trilobite from the fire department, we got wallets and sunglasses and sweaters and a really cool plane from the farmer鈥檚 market鈥攚e auctioned off and we鈥檙e donating more than $300 to Greg [Van Tighem], the fire chief, for his MS fundraising.鈥�
The athletes also showed their solidarity with wrestlers around the nation and the world, by taking a photo holding cut-outs that read 鈥淪ave Olympic Wrestling,鈥� as it is currently on the chopping block.
In February, the International Olympic Committee voted to remove the sport from the Summer Olympics, beginning in 2020.
鈥淭hese are the types of camps where future Olympians get to find out what it takes to move on and inspire them to keep working,鈥� said Hutchinson. 鈥淚f they take wrestling out of the Olympics, it almost takes away that driving force.
鈥淜ids in Canada grow up, often times, wanting to be professional hockey players, and kids who get involved in wrestling know that the pinnacle of our sport is the Summer Olympics and without the Summer Olympics, it makes it feel like there鈥檚 not a great deal to strive for.鈥�
The appeal of wrestling, as opposed to a team sport like hockey, said Hutchinson is that it caters to a wide range of people because of its weight classes.
鈥淪o if you鈥檙e small you can play, if you鈥檙e really big you can participate,鈥� he said, noting that wrestling is for kids who are interested in combative, individual sports. 鈥淣ot all people thrive in team sport environments and wrestling allows people to have that athletic success on their own.鈥�
The Rocky Mountain Wrestling Camp takes place each summer at the Jasper Activity Centre.
Nicole Veerman
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