HCWC Youth Wrestling League

The new Higher Calling Youth Wrestling League is underway with 200 young wrestlers enrolled. The kids, ages kindergarten through 5th grade, are already having the experience of a lifetime! Seven teams, led by a team of 16 experienced wrestling coaches, has been selected.

This year’s league, held at Jones Wresting Center on the Cleveland High School promises to provide a simple program designed to maximize the experience for the convenience of youth and parents.

CHS Head Wrestling Coach Heath Eslinger leads the list of coaches, along with Al Miller, former CHS coach with 38 years experience; Alan Morris, head coach at Walker Valley High School and former Bradley Kids Club coach from 1987 to 2001; Eric Phillips, head wrestling coach at Cleveland Middle School; Rusty Blackmon, assistant wrestling coach at CHS; Justin Earnest, head wrestling coach at Ocoee Middle School and Eric Mountain, Chris Trotter, Doug Moore, Scott Jones, Brian Stoika, Lionel Langford, Steve Spencer, Bart Hamilton, Carlos Thompson and Mark Liles.
Coach Eslinger said the line up of coaches will assure that the club has at least two coaches for each wrestling team and that each wrestler has an opportunity to learn the sport of wrestling from an experienced wrestler and coach.

The new league has different individual teams that will compete against each other at the Jones Wrestling Center during the month of March.
Wrestlers will wrestle dual meets on Saturdays for three straight weeks and then conclude with a tournament on the fourth and final weekend.

“This is a great advantage for the young wrestlers and their parents because we will not expect a first grader to travel to tournaments and spend all day, only to wrestle for 10 minutes. We will instead focus on keeping the kids in the center, and beginners will be able to compete with other club members.” More advanced wrestlers will have an opportunity to travel with a coach to tournaments around the Southeast.

Alan Morris, who coached the Bradley Kids Club, said the new league would eliminate travel and long days in a gym for beginner wrestlers and still allow them the opportunity to compete. “We feel this is important for the young beginners.” Morris, himself a former Bradley wrestler, coached numerous state champions and All Americans, and is the first wrestling coach for Walker Valley High School.