SMWC All-Stars "Best of the Best" |  |
Note: You have reached our 1999/2000 edition. Regular practices are held four nights per week this season, M-Th, 6:30-8:30pm in the Gwynn Park HS wrestling room, and T-W at Sandburg Middle School in Virginia off of Fort Hunt Road in S Alexandria, in Northern Virginia by the Wilson bridge until March. Additional information on this non-profit youth club, the kids competitive branch of Southern Maryland Wrestling Club, can be obtained by contacting us here.
Note: When schools are closed in PG County due to various reasons, practices are also cancelled at GP.
Our 1999/2000 Practice/Match/Tournament Schedule and Season Results
1999-2000 All- Stars win CAWL Dual Meet Crown
SMWC ALL-STARS *** THE DEFENDING 1999 CAWL DUEL MEET CHAMPIONS
This is it. You've come to the big leagues in kids wrestling. The long time showcase and training grounds for young wrestling stars in the DC metro region, this is the youth team that has continually produced national champions, national record holders, and many Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania state high school champions over an extended number of years. Below you will find information for potential members about our youth select wrestling team, the SMWC All-Stars. The accelerated youth program sponsored by Southern Maryland Wrestling Club is structured primarily for experienced youth wrestlers, or those wrestlers who are high school age but need to refine their technique. We do have some beginners join our program so they can learn by "fire" the "right way to do it". Most advance to become contenders within a short time.
Affiliated with USAW and AAU
ABOUT THE TEAM
Fielding highly successful programs over many
years, the current SMWC youth team competes in the Capital Area Wrestling League
and regional tournaments until late February, when the league championship
qualifies regional wrestlers for the beltway state championships.
Following the state championships and the open Age/wt State Championships,
the team is very active in national level youth competitions.
Our team is the only advanced competition team for young wrestlers in PG County, and also the closest to Calvert County for Southern Maryland wrestlers. We are also to closest advanced team for Virginia youth wrestlers living in the southern beltway region.
While the focus of the team is for young advanced wrestlers, older
wrestlers may
practice with us provided they are SMWC members and also have current USAW cards.
We welcome coaches from other area programs, as well as open wrestlers who want to
have fun while helping some great young talent. We also welcome very young
wrestlers who are just being exposed to the sport but not ready to
compete in league competitions yet. For these young wrestlers we ask
that they have a parent ready to keep them focused during their
practices so they don't become disruptive.
Our 1999/2000 team features tremendous talent. These are kids who will dominate
competition no matter where they show up. Included among this years squad are
such young national level stars as Rudy Rueda, Lucus and Eli Black, Jonathan
Farringer, Steve Sargent, Mike Rock, Mike Rowe, Jamie Clark, Brent Jones,
and Steve Ratliff. We have a couple of other dark horse stars waiting in the wings
as well, plus a whole new crop of younger wrestlers (5 & 6 yr old)
not quite ready for
the serious competitions yet.
While everyone gets to wrestle, our starting lineup is more difficult to
break into than winning most tournaments.
You can tell how strong a youth program you have by how many knowledgeable wrestlers and coaches show up with their own kids. Our practices are loaded with the sons of regional high school coaches, athletic directors, and former outstanding wrestlers, some driving considerable distance to participate. We are also likely the only youth team around that often has several high school state champions show up at our practices to learn additional skills on a regular basis throughout our season.
Members of last season's championship team who enter the high school varsity ranks this season include Mike Vashon, Walt Hoffman, and Jesse Keyes.
Our members come to our team from many sources. We don't need to recruit, attending one time to practice with us or simply watching our team in an open tournament is usually enough to convince even the best. We practice and believe in the old wrestling saying: "If you want to become the best, you need to work with the best, coaches and team mates." We also have a motto: "All Champions Must Pay Their Dues Here" . Don't expect an easy road to victory, only a sure road that you will get out what you are willing to put in. If your wrestler wants the easy road and and to have easy wins in order to "gain confidence" without learning the advanced skills to beat the best, then we suggest he stay in the junior leagues as this is the Beltway League, top of the line for this region.
1999/2000 CAWL Dual Meet Champions
SMWC All-Stars
COACHING INFORMATION
Our coaching staff features some of the most respected coaching talent in the region.
These are serious coaches. Each is well experienced in all styles of wrestling and
have significant coaching and competition backgrounds.
The SMWC All-Stars are coached by former Iowa wrestler and
Virginia HS coach Rick Jones.
His assistant coach is
former National Champion and SMWC Head Coach
Bruce Gabrielson.
One any given night there are many other local high school or youth league coaches
who have their own kids on the team and are helping on a regular basis. This goes
for tournaments as well. We seldom get into a situation where we don't have enough
coaches to go around even
when we are in a big tournament and many team members are
wrestling at the same time.
Other regular SMWC members including Olympian
Buddy Lee, World Cup Runner-up
Jim Howard,
Espoir National Champion and 1996 Olympic Freestyle Contender
Jason Gabrielson, former Maryland standout
Steve Arslanian
and former Cadet and Junior World Team Member
Rob Pribish
are among those presenting special sessions or helping as time permits.
DIRECTIONS
Our primary
practice site is Gwynn Park HS
in Brandywine. Take Rt 5 south from 495 to Old Brandywine Rd and turn left or take
Rt 301 south and turn right just before you reach Rt 5. The
Sandburg Middle School practice site in Virginia
is near the Wilson Bridge
off of Fort Hunt Road in S Alexandria. Take Rt 1 south to Ft Hunt
road and turn left.
SCHEDULE
Our regular practices are held most (but not all) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights between 6:30 and 8:30 pm. We practice on Monday and Thursday at Gwynn Park and on Tuesday and Wednesday at Sandburg. We are closed when county schools are closed where the practice is held. Tournaments or matches are scheduled every weekend until March.
We run a very intense formal practice program.
Our motto is "Give no quarter and expect no quarter".
Many other clubs are very jealous of our record and will often talk trash
about us. It's only water off our backs. We don't always win in dual meets
or tournaments, but when we wrestle the competition always knows we are there.
Our performance on the mat does our talking and our
many champions speak
for our success.
Beginners and novice wrestlers should be ready for serious work if they wish to
practice with this team as we do not allow our wrestlers to play. We spend at least
one hour each night learning advance technique moves. Following training expect lots
of time on the mat wrestling.
For more information call Coach Gabrielson at (301) 855-4565 or
Coach Jones at (703) 440-0433.
We move ahead quickly, so the longer you delay, the more you will miss out. Our team
is so tough usually that we have non-starters who win tournaments. This doesn't
seem to matter though as our intent is to prepare our members to be state and national
contenders from their first year in high school. It has happened to our members
many times. Please feel free to come by any night to practice or check us out.
Permission is freely given to link to this page or any portion thereof.
Link to our Great Service Provider -
Blackmagic Enterprises
HOW TO JOIN
Anyone can join the team by simply showing up to practice. Sign-ups are taken at
practice. For costs, there is a $65 league participation fee required,
plus all wrestlers must purchase an league AAU insurance card ($10). Southern
Maryland Wrestling Club is both AAU and USAW sanctioned, and for those
All-Stars who plan to practice with the open club off-season, we require
the purchass of a USAW card as well.
Since we compete over an extended season,
all members buy their own team singlets
and warm-ups. High school wrestlers who are under 16 and do not wrestle varsity or
JV may participate in our league matches as well as experienced wrestlers at least
6 years old and 50 lbs. If you are under 6 years, you will still compete in
most events, just not our league matches.
Problems or Questions