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Wrestling program begins at PCMS

Pittsburg Community Middle School students are learning what it's like to put someone in the chicken wing.

The PCMS wrestling team, in its first year under coach Jon Bishop, started practice Tuesday after conditioning the previous week, and Bishop said that he liked the turnout.

"Right now we've got approximately 25 kids coming out for wrestling," Bishop said. "We have pretty close to our weight classes filled up. So we're getting a good variety of kids."

The concept of a PCMS wrestling team was first proposed to the Pittsburg USD 250 school board over the summer, but was tabled while the Kansas Legislature wrapped up their school finance talks. When the legislature added more money to the equation, the team, and its price tag of about $7,000 annually was quick to get a thumbs-up.

The original proposal included a team of 25 to 35 students in weight classes ranging from 75 pounds to 265 pounds, and Bishop said they were close to hitting their goal. The costs associated with the team included supplying the wrestlers' gear and tournament and traveling fees.

"Of course when you start any new sport, you're going to have some growing pains in terms of facilities and things like that," Bishop said. "We've had a lot of help from the high school and the administration. We've gotten a lot of support."

The team practices in the small gymnasium on a mat provided by Pittsburg High School.

Bishop, who coached wrestling for 10 years in the Wichita area before coming to Pittsburg, said the program was an advantage for students who want to wrestle in high school.

"We haven't had wrestling in a long time here," Bishop said. "We wanted to get kids more opportunities to start wrestling earlier, start learning the sport before the point of, 'hey, here I'm a freshman, here's my opportunity to go out for wrestling.'"

That early experience is even more helpful to students in the lighter weight classes, Bishop said, because often those students wind up stepping right into a varsity setting as a freshman because there are fewer older kids that small.

"When you have the lighter weight kids, or the lower weight kids, they may have an opportunity to start off right away at the high school," Bishop said. "So having that two years, or at least one year of competitiion at that middle school level does mentally and physically prepare you for high school.

"It helps for all kids though," Bishop said. "You get more well-versed and you're not learning something brand new for the first time. You may be thrown in as a freshman and wind up wrestling against seniors. It helps you become a little bit more competitive."

The team will get its first test at a tournament Nov. 12 in Columbus, and will wrestle against Nevada, Parsons, Chanute and other schools throughout the SEK that have middle school wrestling programs. But one of the downsides about starting up a program is that the Dragons will have no home gym.

"With it being the first year, right now, we're road warriors," Bishop said. "There are no home dates as of right now."

Bishop said that he believed the popularity would continue to rise and that the program would be a success at PCMS.

"The best thing about wrestling is that it's for all shapes and sizes," Bishop said. "You've got kids who may weigh 75 pounds, you've got some that may weigh 260 and everybody in between. We've got some great kids and they're really enthusiastic about being out here."

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) November 3, 2005