Waltham Youth Wrestling For Area Youth Is Back

WALTHAM, MA — The Waltham Youth Wrestling program is back.

Mad Dog wrestling for youth was started in 2011 by Kevin Randall and his wife Debbie. They developed a youth program with the help of the high school coaches and some former Newton and Waltham wrestlers.

Three years in Gus Mancini, who grew up in a place where all the kids either wrestled or played hockey joined as a coach in 2013 and worked with Mad Dog through its last season in 2015. The program yielded multiple state place winners at the high school level. Like many youth sports leagues it was mostly a labor of love. Schedules got crazy though and the program took a hiatus for 2016 and much of this year.

But Mancini couldn't let that happen for long.

"I always knew I was going to coach when my son got to this age. I started a little older and always thought I would have been better if I started earlier," he said.

Mancini's daughter and son were getting close to youth wrestling age. Mancini himself had wrestled in high school and college and then coached at one of the top wrestling programs in Franklin.

He talked with Randall to see about getting starting a youth wrestling program back up, Randall gave Mancini the green light to start his own club geared toward the younger children.

With the help of the Collins family, who also live in Waltham and have strong ties to wrestling, Mancini formed a new program: Waltham Youth Wrestling club. This week the new coaching staff focused on the younger kids hosted an open house to meet families and children kindergarten age through fifth grade interested in wrestling

"I thought maybe nine or 10 would show up, but we got like 37 kids," said Mancini. "Clearly there was an interest."

The introductory program will start November 27 and will meet Monday and Wednesday at the Fesseden school's wrestling room until February with a few matches sprinkled in. In February for the children who are into it, they'll go to the state youth sectionals.

The sport teaches discipline, strength and technique that can be used throughout your life whether it be on the mat or off, said Mancini. But that's not to say it won't be fun.

"My goal is to make it as fun as possible," he said.

For those who didn't grow up wrestling Mancini says it's not like it is on TV and it's not violent. "I always thought football was more agressive and violent," he said.

"There is no kicking and punching. It's a very disciplined sport there's a ton of technique and requires a lot of skill and repetition to become good," said Mancini. "It's a very unique martial art. Instead of kicking and punching you're controlling where the person's body is gong to go."

The coaches are from Waltham and Newton. The program meets in Newton and it's open to children from Waltham, Newton, Belmont and Watertown.

What did his son think of the intro session? "I think my daughter was more excited than he was, honestly," said coach.

The program is open to both boys and girls. And at this point there are a handful of girls who seemed interested from parents night, which is cool, he said. "There's a pretty strong women's wrestling movement right now, the USA team's pretty good."

Wrestling is a sport that all types can do, he said.

"Athleticism really doesn't dictate whether or not you're a good wrestler. If someone hasn't found a sport that they fit into like basketball or hockey, this is a program that could fill that void... It's really a sport that anyone can it do," said Mancini.

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