Roughhouse Wrestling nearing the end of the first season

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

To win a place on the podium at one of the Iowa high school wrestling tournaments, it helps to begin the sport early.

The Roughhouse Wrestling Club is looking forward to wrapping up its inaugural season, helping young grapplers work on their skills.

Established by John Martin, the new youth wrestling club is off to a strong start, teaching kids the basics of competitive wrestling.

“It’s a very good life lesson on things,” said Martin.

There had previously been a private youth wrestling club in Charles City, the Mat Monkey Wrestling Club, but the club ended when the coach moved out of town. A life-long wrestling enthusiast, Martin said he wanted to keep his kids participating in a club and so, after months of pondering with his wife, decided to start up a new club of his own.

“I like the club atmosphere,” said Martin. “It’s really nice. We all get along.”

Martin got the ball rolling with the Roughhouse Wrestling Club last August. Putting out a call for sign-ups on social media, Martin thought that the fledgling club would attract maybe a half-dozen kids. Instead, about 15 signed-up from the start and the club has since grown to 20 kids coming from around the area, including Mason City, New Hampton and Rockford.

“I’ve got kids coming from all different directions,” said Martin.

With kids ranging from Pre-K to fifth-grade, Martin and his volunteers have learned a lot about teaching for different ages and experience levels.

“We do a lot of hands-on, fundamental techniques for wrestling,” said Martin.

Meeting twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at St. Mary’s Church school building in Roseville, the group spends an hour practicing their footwork and going through drills, focusing on correcting bad habits, teaching discipline, and mastering the basics of wrestling.

Keeping track of a room full of young children is challenging enough and Martin said he is grateful for the help of his volunteer coaches, making sure that the kids are staying safe and learning what they need to learn.

“They’re all over the place,” said Martin. “If I didn’t have them, if it was just me and 20 kids, there’s no way I’d survive.”

On the weekends, they travel for local and national meets from Des Moines to Minnesota. Some of the kids have attended more than a dozen events, with one kindergarten girl participating in 16 tournaments this season.

“We’ve done a lot,” said Martin. “It’s good to see the progress that we teach.”

Nearing the end of the wrestling season, Martin says that he still has a few kids with events on their schedule. On March 4 and 5, some of them will head for Waterloo for the Iowa Super Peewee State Championship.

“After that we’re gonna take a break, let the kids be kids for a little while, then we start up summer practice,” said Martin. “Next year we’ll fire it up right where we left off.”