LYNN — If you’re a Lynn Public Schools student looking to stay active and try something new during February vacation, next Wednesday’s Youth Wrestling Clinic at Lynn Tech’s Field House might be the event for you. The clinic welcomes students ages 8-15 and is hosted by Boston Youth Wrestling, New England Youth Tackle Football and Lynn Public Schools. The clinic is free, will run from 9 a.m. until noon and lunch will be provided for participants.
Jared Nicholson, a member of the Lynn School Committee, helped organize the event. Nicholson’s a former wrestler at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and Princeton University.
“From my perspective, we’ve been working on building the sport of wrestling in Lynn,” Nicholson said. “It fits in great in Lynn. We started a couple teams at the middle school level, we have a high school team. We’re looking to grow the sport. Talking with New England Youth Tackle Football, they see the fit that this has. The different seasons, the things you learn are a great compliment to what you learn as a football player.”
Nicholson recalls helping introduce wrestling to Lynn students at Marshall Middle School a few years ago. Since then, the interest has grown rapidly. In addition to the middle school teams and the high school team, Nicholson organizes a beach wrestling tournament each summer.
“When we started it was just a demonstration in a gym class at Marshall,” Nicholson said. “That was the introduction to the city. Since then we have three scholastic teams, we’ve had three beach tournaments and a lot of great questions have been asked. I think it’s poised to take off.”
Coaches from Boston Youth Wrestling will teach the basics, such as initial rules and takedown methods, at the clinic. Nicholson said the goal is to help promote the sport and hopes it becomes an annual event.
“I think it’s a great activity to have during winter break when families are looking for things to do,” Nicholson said. “Lunch is included so that’s a positive. It’s an introduction to a sport that might be new to kids. Hopefully we can build some camaraderie to this new sport that we’re building in Lynn. I think the city has a really proud athletic tradition and I think wrestling will fit into that. I think we have some great coaches in the city building their programs. Joel Machado does a great job at New England Youth Tackle Football. The more kids we can introduce this to, the better.
“New England Youth Tackle Football and Boston Youth Wrestling have been great partners,” Nicholson said. “I’m also grateful for the great coaches around the city. We’ll also do another beach tournament in the summer. We’re hoping to build some momentum in introducing this new program.”
