Youth wrestling club out hitting the mats

The idea is to get more kids interested in wrestling, and the vehicle for delivering more wrestlers to the mat is The Making a Difference tournaments being held across the country.

Blue Hawk Wrestling Club coach and organizer Mike Thilmony said a new concept for introducing more kids to wrestling, called Making a Difference tourneys – free tourneys that give kids the opportunity to try out their wrestling skills in a low-pressure environment that exposes them to what USA Wrestling is all about – are being held this year, and that members of the local club, which now also includes youths from the Trout Creek and Noxon areas, wrestled in just such a tournament in Kalispell Saturday.

Making a difference in the Making a Difference tourney, Max Hannum won first place in the Schoolboy-130 pound class, Noah Stevens placed third at Novice-108 and Weston Block took fourth at Intermediate-59. Kamdin Smith took fifth in his Peewee class and did not place in the Beginner-70 division, Emory Butler won second place in the girls’ Intermediate-56 class and Brandy Smith was second at Int-71.

Layton Smith (Bantam-57), Grady Dana (Bantam-62), William Baldwin (Int- 67), Alex Hensley (Int-106), Andrew Sundstrom (Int-106) and Paul Sundstrom (Novice-67) also wrestled in the Making a Difference tourney but did not place.

In Pewee competition at Kalispell, Finn Bosker placed third, Neale Block fifth, Jaxon Hensley fifth, Caz Zertetzke second, Hartleigh Block first and Kaleb Butler second.

Proving there is strength in numbers, nine other members of the Blue Hawk Wrestling Club also competed in the Mission Red and Blue tournament in St. Ignatius Saturday.

Lane Thilmony went 3-1 in matches in that tourney, Easton Deal was 4-0, Chase Giegling 2-2, Maddox VanElswyk 2-2, Liam Pallister 4-0, Trevor Peterson 2-1, Brylon VanElswyk 2-0, Jase Kelly 0-3 and Triston Kelly 2-1.

Coach Thilmony is encouraged by the numbers in youth wrestling locally right now.

“We have branched out more in the Trout Creek and Noxon areas are getting a lot of interest down there,” he said. “And we are getting a lot of girls involved which is good, as the Montana High School Association is considering it as possibly making it a high school sport in the future.”

Thilmony said most of the local wrestlers will make their way to Libby Saturday for the annual Kootenai Classic. In two weeks, several club members will wrestle in the Montana State AAU tournament and others will compete in Little Guy qualifiers.

Nate Block has been running satellite youth wrestling practice sessions at the Trout Creek School to accommodate the increasing numbers of participants from the West End area, Thilmony said.