The entrance to Churchland's wrestling room in the back of the cafeteria.
Churchland High School's wrestling room isn't adequately sized for our Trucker wrestlers to train in.
Multiple issues come with not having sufficient space to properly train with any sport, especially wrestling. Even though there were only about nine to twelve wrestlers on the team this season the room can only fit approximately six wrestlers to practice. Other sports at Churchland like football, basketball, and baseball to name a few have the proper amount of space to succeed, why not wrestling?
In comparison to other local High Schools, Churchland's wrestling room is extremely small. Western Branch High School's wrestling room is approximately 48 ft. by 51 ft., Deep Creek High School’s wrestling room is estimated to be 50 ft. by 50 ft. The average wrestling room should be at least 38 ft. by 38 ft. according to the National Federation of State High School Associations which governs all of our high school wrestling programs, and Churchland's wrestling room measures out to an unsatisfactory 31 ft. by 21 ft. This is an undeniable safety hazard for our student athletes.
The inside of Churchland's wrestling room.
With a room as small as Churchland's the risk of injury to a Churchland student athlete is more than tripled. Imagine if a 215 pound wrestler fell on a 106 pound wrestler's ankle/leg and fractured it due to lack of room, which would have been completely preventable with the proper space to train. Resulting in a high possibility of disgruntled parents, which no school wants to deal with.
Wrestling isn't nearly as popular as football or basketball, but that is no excuse for giving the team poor conditions to work with. If the school wants to see a popularity boost in the sport, then give the team better conditions so more people will want to get involved with the wrestling team. How can we expect the wrestling team to meet the expectations we set for them when there isn't a quality wrestling room.
The Class 4 Region A tournament has taken place at Churchland for six out of the last eight years, yet the wrestling room is in shambles. Churchland is profiting off of the sport, but doesn't use a percentage of the funds to improve the conditions of the practice facility.
Similar to Churchland, Manor High School has a mezzanine above their gymnasium, which they use for wrestling practice. The mezzanine above the gym would be a huge upgrade for our program, there will be more area for training, live wrestling, and less risk of injury.
Fortunately there is an easy solution to Churchland's wrestling room dilemma, and that solution is to incorporate a portion of the mezzanine as a wrestling room.
Photos: Ivan Leonard