Photo courtesy of Jason Hass
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - After many years, donations, and countless hours of volunteer labor the sign outside the big blue building in Mendenhall Valley has changed from "The Future Site of the Juneau Youth Wrestling Club" to "Juneau Wrestling Center, Home of the Juneau Youth Wrestling Club".
Juneau Youth Wrestling Club (JYWC) is extremely proud to host a Labor Day Weekend Wrestling Clinic, featuring Tony Purler, a two-time USA Wrestling world team member.
Coach Purler will be the first high-level wrestling technician to come to Juneau in many years.
This will also be the very first wrestling camp that the JYWC has hosted at the new Juneau Wrestling Center.
Coach Purler and his family are coming to Juneau from their home outside of Kansas City, Missouri, where he runs the Purler Wrestling Academy (PWA).
PWA is an accomplished wrestling academy and is highly regarded by many in the national wrestling community.
Along with being a two-time world team member and running a successful wrestling academy, Purler is also a two-time World Cup medalist, an NCAA champion, a four-time High School Nationals finalist, and a former NCAA Division I wrestling coach.
He is just finishing a busy summer of wrestling camps/clinics at his own training center and is now excited to visit Juneau to meet the local wrestling community.
The JYWC formally announced the Labor Day weekend camp and opened registrations in late July.
Enrollment was a huge success, according to JYWC.
The majority of the camp will be comprised of Juneau wrestlers, but there will also be wrestlers from Yakutat, Wrangell, Hoonah, Hydaburg, Sitka, Haines, and Valdez attending.
This first camp is geared toward middle school and high school-age wrestlers, but now with the new Juneau Wrestling Center open JYWC hopes to be able to host more camps for younger age groups in the future.
"The volunteer board members, coaches, and the whole club are absolutely thrilled by seeing this long-time dream come to fruition. For years, while we spent precious weekends and evenings clearing the building site of trees and muck, tightening endless nuts and bolts, dancing across the rafters insulating, or tracking down that one loose screw (Whose screw was that? Paul!); we often lamented how fulfilling it was going to be when we were able to fully open the doors and host a community-wide wrestling camp," Coach and board member Jason Hass stated via an informational letter. "Ultimately, with the goal of being able to introduce the sport of wrestling to every boy and girl in Juneau!"
Most members of the JYWC have gotten to experience and/or witness the profound positive benefits that wrestling can play in a child's life.
The hard work, self-confidence, discipline, and sense of accomplishment that the sport can instill are lifelong skills.
The sport is also considered affordable by JYWC, only requiring shorts and wrestling shoes which they lend out themselves.
Recently the club teams and school teams have all grown in participation numbers.
With the school year now underway, JYWC is anxious for their next wrestling season to begin, starting with the combined Thunder Mountain and Juneau Douglas High School season on Sept 27.
JYWC is seeking support during the home tournament on Oct. 21 or during the regional tournament set to take place in Juneau this year on Dec. 9.
Registrations are now closed for the Labor Day Weekend Wrestling Clinic with Purler, but Hass said it's not too late to become a member of the Juneau Wrestling Community.
For more information about any local wrestling programs, find JYWC on Facebook, visit their website, or send an email at juneauyouthwrestling@gmail.com.
JYWC will be hosting a grand opening celebration of their new wrestling center. The date remains to be determined.
The grand celebration will invite members of the public to ask questions and tour the facility.
"As always, the JYWC offers a huge heartfelt thank-you to all the volunteers and donations that have made the dream of opening our own wrestling center a reality," Hass wrote. "This is an incomplete list, but we owe an extra special thanks to these local businesses: Constellation Development, Alaska Glacier Seafood, Tyler Rental, Howell Excavation, Behrends Mechanical, Schmolck Mechanical Contractors, Alaska Concrete Casting, IBEW 1547, Tlingit and Haida, Modern Mechanical, R & R Trucking, Home Depot, Thunder Mountain Drywall, Hill Southeast Services, Chapman Rock and Gravel, Island Construction, Jensen Trucking, Secon, Juneau Emergency Medical Associates, and AK Mechanical. We couldn't have done it without you!"
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