Oct. 3, 2007: Wrestling USA Magazine

Utah Wins Bid for USA Wrestling Kids National Championships

Oct. 3, 2007 - For the first time ever, the USA Wrestling Kids National Championships will be held in Utah. Following a nationwide bidding process, the proposal produced by USA Wrestling-Utah was accepted by USA Wrestling, and the national freestyle and Greco-Roman championships for wrestlers 14 years and younger will be held in the Beehive State. The contract is awarded for the next two years, 2008 and 2009.

According to USA Wrestling-Utah President Craig LaMont it was time for a prestigious tournament like this to come to the state. He said, "It is time to put Utah on the map for being able to host national events. Salt Lake is a great place to fly into, and the numbers [of participants] and quality [of competition] was dropping in Wisconsin. I see this as a real shot in the arm for Utah wrestling."

For the past four years, the event was held in Wisconsin, three of the last four in Green Bay. LaMont said, "Most of all, I wanted nationals to move to Utah to give a hundred or more Utah kids the opportunity to compete at nationals when they couldn't afford to do so otherwise. It was about two thousand bucks per kid the last few years, even if just one parent went back to Wisconsin. Now the Utah kids - who, in my humble opinion, are some of the best in the nation - can compete with only an entry fee and the cost of gas to get there."

The event will be held at the McKay Events Center on the Utah Valley State College (UVSC) campus in Orem, both because it is a great facility for the event, and because UVSC supports wrestling. UVSC is one of very few colleges or universities to add wrestling as one of the athletic programs.

To qualify for the event, Utah wrestlers will have to place in the USA Wrestling-Utah State Championships, then compete in the USA Wrestling Western Regional Championships, which will be held in Pocatello, Ida., the next two years.

LaMont said that he thinks Kids Nationals coming to Utah will benefit the state association in two ways: its athletes and financially. He said, "The primary advantage of this tournament coming to Utah getting the younger kids used to the national scene. When wrestlers participate in a national event when they are young, it is natural for them to compete later when they are in high school. They also go in having more confidence. So boys can grow up believing they can be like Cael Sanderson or Rulon Gardner or Justin Ruiz and that they don't have to live in New York or California to make the Olympic Team. The other advantage could be financial. I assume USA Wrestling-Utah will lose money or maybe break even by just hosting the tournament. But I am hoping to get some businesses to really step it up on sponsorship. I am hoping we can get a big name sponsor that can cover the major costs that could represent our state well. Xango or Larry Miller or something like that. Then the local businesses in Orem could help with program costs. This would be huge for us, then our state association won't have to foot the whole bill. We figure the tournament will cost about $45,000 to put on. And, of course, it will put Utah on the map for other big events, which will open up more opportunities for our wrestlers to compete."

Although the tournament bid has been awarded to Utah for the next two years, LaMont said he feels that we have a good chance of having that contract extended beyond that. He said, "I am sure that we can keep the tournament here if we can grow the numbers and level of competition the way the national office wants. My hope and dream would be that we put on such a great event that they never take Kids Nationals anywhere else."

But to put on that kind of event, there needs to be a lot of volunteers involved. LaMont said, "We need a lot of volunteers. I am hoping to get some old wrestling fans who used to volunteer and be active but have kind of retired. There is a big wrestling base in this state, but half of it is nestled away in retirement. This is a great way for some of those guys to come back and, for four days of the year, have a great impact on the sport again."

If you are interested in volunteering, contact LaMont at craig@telosrtc.com. For more information, go to www.usawrestlingutah.org.

"My dream would be to have an outpouring of support from the general public, like we had for the 2002 Winter Olympics," LaMont said. "I know this is youth wrestling, not the Olympics. But, if no one had dreamed of bringing Kids Nationals to Utah, that wouldn't have happened, either."

USA Wrestling-Utah is a nonprofit organization affiliated with USA Wrestling. USA Wrestling is the official organization recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee charged with developing the sport of wrestling in the United States. All members, directors, and volunteers freely give of their time and talents in the pursuit of promoting the sport of amateur wrestling.