Last weekend was the first time this season the entire Cowboys Wrestling Club – from elementary to senior high – participated in a tournament together, and the coach of the team said the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
“It’s always a big deal for the little kids to look to the big kids as role models,” said coach James McKeage. “It’s a big deal for the big kids to give back and work with the young ones as well. All of our senior wrestlers were young ones once.”
Three age groups competed in the Westaskawin Classic, south of Edmonton, over a two-day span. Nine Cowboys earned golds in their respective categories, and eight more collected medals in silver and bronze.
McKeage said the younger kids worked through learning curves on the mat, while the junior high athletes – with a little more experience under their belts – challenged themselves with skill and technique.
“Now you get kids that have wrestled for three or four years – the competition is a lot tougher,” he said. “They’re learning every match.”
Hunter Smith, Brendan McKeage and Connor Pointen dominated in the senior category, which the coach attributed to the teens’ dedication to the sport.
“They are training a lot – six or seven days a week, which certainly plays out on the mat,” said McKeage, adding his son Brendan didn’t give up a single point in the entire tournament, and each of his matches was stopped for “technical superiority” after the first round. “Our kids were the elite of the tournament.”
The Cowboys hit the road again this Saturday and Sunday, although this time to different tournaments. Some will travel to Ontario to train for the upcoming 2017 Canada Games, and others are headed to the Alberta Amateur Wrestling Association’s Calgary Junior Regional Olympics in Calgary.
“It’s going to be a busy weekend,” said McKeage.
