Article on the VHSL Phases for starting sports

My name is Justin Smith and I’m the wrestling coach for Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, Virginia. We just started our program a few weeks ago. We’re so new that I’m still waiting on my school email account to open up. If you’re interested in wrestling at at two year college and pursuing your associates degree, then I encourage you to check out our website

www.patrickhenry.edu

Right now, our coaches want to coach. Our athletes want to compete. That's why we’ve teamed up with @athleteperformancesolutions to come up with a way to keep Virginia Wrestling Association thriving in these difficult times! Purchase this custom Virginia Wrestling Association t-shirt from APS and a portion of the proceeds will go back to our club so we can keep competing when the time comes! Let’s work together to get through this – head to https://stores.inksoft.com/we_will_play_again/shop/product-detail/1001201 and support our team today! 

If you have recently committed to compete at the collegiate level, please contact Rob Prebish with the following information: Name, High School, Name of College, Projected Weight Class.

As a benefit to all current Wrestling Leader members, USA Wrestling has made the online Copper and Bronze Certification courses available for free through Sunday, April 5, 2020.

In order to access the course, members simply need to log into their account at www.usawmembership.com and add the item to their cart. All courses are delivered immediately online once the member has completed the free purchase and are accessed through your MY COURSES tab. A tutorial video on how to add the Bronze and/or Copper Certification courses to your cart can be found here.    

Wrestling Leader members of USA Wrestling who have previously completed Bronze and/or Copper Certification courses are encouraged to repeat the course(s) for enrichment.  All completions will be tracked in real time through USA Wrestling’s membership system. Course materials for Bronze and Copper Certifications were updated in March 2015 and November 2017, respectively.

As part of the National Coaches Education Program (NCEP), the Copper Certification course is designed for coaches whose athletes are 12 years of age and younger, normally costs $50, and takes approximately 4 hours to complete.  The Bronze Certification course is designed for coaches whose athletes are 13 years of age and older, regularly costs $80, and takes approximately 6 hours to complete.

In addition to the Copper and Bronze Certification courses, USA Wrestling has the HEADS Up Concussion in Youth Sports available to anyone through its membership system.  This course, which was developed by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), is aimed to keep children and teen athletes safe by helping coaches and parents recognize, respond to, and minimize the risk of concussion or other serious brain injury.

May 27, 2020 – USMC Junior and 16U Nationals in Fargo, N.D. cancelled, with focus turned to local, state and regional events

USA Wrestling has announced that the 2020 U.S. Marine Corps Junior and 16U National Championships at the Fargodome on the campus of North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D. has been cancelled.

The competition, recognized as the largest wrestling tournament in the world, had been scheduled for July 17-24.

With input from its state leadership as well as its COVID-19 Special Committees, USA Wrestling believes that this is the responsible thing to do in order to maintain the long term viability of the sport. As has been the case since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the health and safety of USA Wrestling members and the entire wrestling community remains the No. 1 priority for the organization.

Based upon information currently available, it was not feasible or prudent to host a major national championship in July, where participants will come from all different areas in the nation, many of which have vastly different local situations concerning COVID-19. High-performance experts indicate that it takes up to eight weeks to prepare for high-level competition, a factor which also went into the decision.

This year would have marked the 50th year that the Junior Nationals (high school) portion of the event had been held, with the first Junior Nationals hosted in Iowa City, Iowa in 1971.

USA Wrestling has either postponed or cancelled 21 national or regional events since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

USA Wrestling has consistently stated that the expected progression of wrestling activity will likely begin locally, based upon health and government regulations, then move on to state, regional and national activity.

With that in mind, USA Wrestling will focus on the working with its state association leadership to consider local, state and regional competitions in the upcoming months.

Any such activity will only be possible when held under the guidelines set by local and state health authorities and in compliance with the safety measures being developed for the sport.

On May 14, USA Wrestling published its “Return to the Mat Guidelines” document, which are guidelines and recommendations for the wrestling community as it makes decisions on a local level regarding when and how to safely resume wrestling activity. USA Wrestling is expecting to release its Return to Competition Guidelines document in the coming week.