BELLA VISTA WRESTLING

 

Broncos Youth Wrestling Club​

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Mission Statement: The most important thing for this wrestling club is to make a positive impact in the lives of our wrestlers.  We will expose the kids to the sport of wrestling in a fun and positive environment with the goal of getting each kid to fall in love with the sport.  The coaches in this wrestling program all value positive leadership where we work to instill good morals, a strong work ethic, grit, resilience, gratitude, and commitment to excellence in each of our athletes.  These are skills that each person will carry with them throughout life and wrestling is a tool that we can use to teach these life lessons.  We do not emphasize winning; we want each wrestler to commit to their own process where they view competition as an opportunity to measure their own progress. 

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Coaches: If you click on the "2023/24 COACHING TREE" tab on this website you will see all the coaches who help out with the overall program (and the coaches helping with the kids clubs).  Every coach is cleared through USA Wrestling, which includes a background check, coaching ethics classes, and more.  In addition to that, every coach attends a Positive Coaching Alliance training in the fall, we are regularly reading the best leadership books, listening to podcasts, attending seminars, and more.  Coach Smith and Coach Lane also both have Masters Degrees in Sports Psychology from the University of Missouri.  

 

Competition and Tournaments: We strongly discourage the younger wrestlers from competing in tournaments because tournaments can do more harm than good at an early age. Trust me, if you attend a tournament you will see these little kids who look like studs and their parents are screaming at them from the corner.  These kids will dominate other kids and win a lot, but 99% of these young stars burn out, they hate the sport of wrestling by the time they're in middle school, and they develop a bad relationship with their parents.  Having said that, if your young child is interested in competing, you should all attend a local youth tournament and watch the other kids to get a feel of what to expect before you make your decision.  The 4th-6th group is encouraged to attend local tournaments so they can begin to measure their progress against other athletes.  If any wrestler(s) want to attend more tournaments because that is what they want to do, not because their parents are forcing them to, then we will support that.  Our teams will have some new wrestlers, some experienced wrestlers, and some very good wrestlers.  If the local tournaments are not challenging enough then I will work with you to help with that situation.   

 

Contact Information:  Club Director and Coach: Garrett Lane (916) 521-4354 (call or text). Email: Garrett.Lane@sanjuan.edu

 

Location of Practices: Practice times and locations are on the flyer, but each team will practice at Carnegie in Room A1 in the front of the school (5820 Illinois Ave Orangevale CA 95662).

1st - 3rd graders practice on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 - 6:45 pm (first day of practice is on Monday, November 6th, 3023
4th-6th graders practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 - 7 pm (first day of practice is on Thursday, November 2nd, 2023.  

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General Information:  The Bronco Wrestling Club is affiliated with the national organization USA Wrestling. USA Wrestling is the official sanctioning body for amateur wresting in the United States. The club is also associated with the Sacramento Area Wrestling Association (SAWA).  All participants must be registered with USA Wrestling by purchasing a USA Wrestling Card. All participants must have a liability waiver on file in order to practice.

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To start the season you will need to go online and purchase a  "USA Wrestling Card", which is basically a secondary insurance, but mandatory to participate. Purchase USA Wrestling Card at www.TheMat.Com, click on “Join USA Wrestling,” go to “Memberships” and click on “purchase/Renew Memberships.”

Sign onto the site and create an account for yourself (no fee's attached). Go to "memberships" and click "add new member", then click on the "athlete" profile and follow the steps to purchasing a card - you should be able to print a copy right then to bring to practice and tournaments.

The cost of joining the Scots/Bronco Wrestling Club is $200. This will cover the cost of your team T-shirt and membership. The USA Card you buy online will be roughly another $60. These two costs are it for the season. The only other things you will pay for are entry fees to tournaments that you choose to attend, and extra team gear you may want (for wrestlers and parents).

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Equipment

No special equipment is needed or required; but you should consider purchasing 1) wrestling shoes, 2) knee pads, 3) headgear. You can buy this equipment at bigger sporting goods stores like Big 5, Rudis.com, Amazon, Asics Wrestling, or by going to the Links section of this website and shopping online.

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Practices

• Wear shorts and a T-shirt (tucked in). Nothing with buttons or zippers.

• Wrestling Shoes are highly recommended, but clean socks can be worn while your wrestler decides if this is the sport for them. It's important that the bottom of the shoes be clean when they walk onto our clean mats due to hygiene reasons.

• Wrestlers will NOT wear a mask while practicing.  Wearing a mask during wrestling can be dangerous.  We will follow the guidelines set forth by the county, state, and USA Wrestling.  Although the San Juan Unified School District is not affiliated with this club in any way, their policy for high school and middle school wrestling is to not wear a mask during wrestling competition as long as the athletes and coaches get tested once a week, along with some other rules.  Just an FYI... If a wrestler wants to wear a mask that is 100% ok. 

• No Jewelry, not even medical bracelets. If your wrestler has a medical condition, please inform the coaching staff.

• Keep fingernails cut and filed to remove any sharp areas that may cut someone.

• Do not practice if your child has a contagious infection, especially on the skin.

• Cover any cuts on the skin, and clean the cuts after practice as a precaution to a skin infection.

• The practice schedule is on this website under "Scots Wrestling Club".

• I recently got my masters degree in sports psychology and I will be teaching some basic mental tools and techniques to our youth wrestlers. 

 

Parents/guardians

• Parents/guardians are not obligated to stay during practice, although you are invited to watch. Please be prompt at pick-up time if you drop your child off at practice. If you stay, please do you best to not be noisy or distracting during practice so that we can have the best learning environment possible.

• Parents/guardians will be required to wear a mask at all times while they are inside. 

• If parents/guardians stay to watch practice, please stay positive with your athlete and tell them you are proud of how hard they are working - if they worked hard.  Always find something positive about their practice and support a growth mindset approach to your child's progress. HERE IS A LINK to a short video explaining the importance of a growth mindset.  Disappointing and/or letting down a parent because of something they did at a wrestling practice or a tournament is one of the scariest things a child will ever experience in their life.  If you make your child feel like you are disappointed in their performance, angry at them for their performance, or that they let you down, then your child will have a negative relationship with wrestling, they will feel terrible and unsupported from their most trusted person in the world, they will be less motivated, and they will begin to have a negative relationship with you.   Most kids quit sports because of the car ride home.  Please make sure to always support your child regardless of how frustrated you might get with them.  Wrestling is the hardest sport in the entire world and it takes a TON of courage to wrestle.  Please support their courage. 

• If you bring siblings who are not practicing - A) bring them something to do so they do not disturb practice, and B) Bring them something warm to wear so that they can go outside to run around if they are having a hard time remaining calm enough not to disturb practice.  If they want to join wrestling, speak to one of the coaches and we can get them signed up if they are old enough.  

• If you have wrestling experience and would like to help in some way, please let the staff know. We only ask that you be 100% supportive of the technique being taught and not freelance while helping.  We also ask that you always remain positive with the kids.  

 

Competitions

• The tournament schedule is on this site under "Scots/Bronco Wrestling Club" but not updated yet.  The 

• You will need wrestling shoes for tournaments

• It is recommended to have a singlet for competitions, but you can have your child compete in shorts/shirt to start.

• Headgear and knee pads are not mandatory, but if you have them, wear them.

• No jewelry

• Fingernails must be cut and smooth. The referee will check and may not let your wrestler wrestle until cut.

• Have your USA Card at weigh-ins

• The tournament schedule changes from year to year, but the posted schedule on this site will be accurate once it says the current year on top.

• Tournaments are not mandatory, and we discourage our youngest group from attending them.  However, we encourage the 4th-6th grade group to start attending local tournaments so they can measure their own progress.  We are not worried about wins or losses; we want to test our skills out against other kids outside of our wrestling room.  After a tournament, we will go back to practice and improve in the areas we want to get better at, and we will get even better in the areas we had success.  Then we will go out to the next tournament and measure our improvement again.  If wrestlers commit to the progress and to their own process, the wins will take care of themselves.  Success is when a person never gives up on their goals, regardless of set backs, adversity, and/or plateaus.  

 

Age Groups and Weight Classes

• For tournaments, wrestlers are divided by age. Within each age group, wrestlers are further divided by weight. Typically, weight classes take 3-5 kids who are close in weight to each other and create a pool where everybody wrestles each other (usually, kids are within 5 lbs. of each other from the lightest kid in the pool to the heaviest, but sometimes that changes).  It is not always perfect, but they are grouping your child to the 3 - 5 closest kids to your child's actual weight as they can; so it always just depends on who shows up that day.  They'll ALWAYS be in their age group, it's the weight class they may be the lightest of the group or heaviest of the groups, you never know.

• A wrestlers age for an entire season is determined by the birthday your wrestler celebrates during the 2021 calendar year. For example, a participant whose 14th birthday falls on any day of 2021 is considered 14 years old for the entire 2021 season (Winter & Spring Tournaments).

• The age divisions are as follows: HERE IS AN OFFICIAL LINK FOR THIS INFORMATION

 

Bantam (8U): 

 

Intermediate (10U):  

 

Novice (12U):  

 

Schoolboy (14U): 

 

Weigh-ins

• Youth tournaments are moving away from actual weigh-ins for local small tournaments.  Nowadays you pre-register for tournaments online, and simply write in your wrestlers actual weight (honor system).  Bigger tournaments still do weigh-ins on a scale at the tournament site.

 

Miscellaneous Tournament Information

• The focus of all tournament matches (and all practices) is on practicing our moves, measuring our progress; not on winning. Right before their matches I usually tell my high school wrestlers to have fun and make mistakes.  I want them to try their moves against competition so they can actually see where their skill level is.  After the match we will talk about things that went well and we will find areas we want to work on during next week's practice.  After working to improve on those specific skills throughout the week, our next competition is an opportunity to find out if we improved or not.  We want each wrestler to focus on the process of the sport, which is the best way to enjoy the sport.  When wrestlers do this, the wins eventually start flowing and take care of themself. 

• Sportsmanship and positive encouragement are expected from all wrestlers, coaches, parents, and other spectators. Any unsportsmanlike behavior will not be tolerated.

• We are grateful for the opportunity to practice, to compete, to have coaches, referees, and opponents.  We do not take any of this for granted.  Covid has made this more true than ever.  

• A tournament fee is charged for each tournament. The fee has generally been $20 per wrestler. This cost is NOT included in your club registration fee.

• Officially, only wrestlers, coaches, and table help/referees are allowed in the wrestling areas. Please stay away from the action as you watch or take pictures/video. This rule is enforced strictly at some tournaments, and loosely enforced at others, but we would like our club parents to take the high road and be respectful of this rule at all times.  You will see other parents in the corner yelling at their kids during a match - this is distracting to the athlete and takes away from the value of their coach. Please let the coaches coach.

• There might be a tournament where our coaches are not in attendance for various reasons.  If this happens please do not panic.  If there is another club parent in attendance simply ask them to sit in the corner with your child and help you coach.  If you are coaching your own child at a tournament please remember to be 100% supportive of your child, do not have any negativity, and try your best not to shout out too many instructions.  

• Sometimes at youth tournaments parents who are coaching their kids get very emotional.  Please be aware of this and try to not let the other parents bug you or make you upset.  Try to stay calm and do what's best to support your child and the other athletes in our club.  

• Thank you for reading this and please do not hesitate to email me, text me, or call me - Garrett.Lane@sanjuan.edu (916) 521-4354

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Youth Wrestling Flier I am sending out to 5 local elementary schools:

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