Photo submitted to Times Observer Warren’s Hector Cruz controls Franklin’s Logan Gavin at 145 pounds prior to Cruz’s pin in the Dragons’ 33-25 win over Franklin on Saturday at Warren Area High School.

The high school wrestling championship season is upon us and Warren County has moved only four wrestlers (in both AAA and AA) beyond the District X championships. The participant numbers in three District X schools (i.e., at Eisenhower, Warren, and Youngsville) are in decline at the both the middle and high schools. For instance at the junior high level, Eisenhower had only four to six wrestlers, while Youngsville’s program was eliminated, and Beaty’s program is in dire straits.

The county schools fared no better at the high school level with both Eisenhower and Youngsville forfeiting 4-6 matches in their dual meets. Those are participation numbers that may require the Warren County school board to combine those varsity programs into one team competing in the District X-AAA division next year. So, how did it come to this?

First, there is the undeniable fact that school enrollment continues to decline in Warren County. However, the scope and intensity of the youth wrestling programs is another factor that might be considered. There are those academia who would indicate that the emphasis on youth sport is absolutely insane. Although Einstein didn’t actually say it, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

The Warren County youth wrestling programs are booming with participants as evidenced by the articles in the Times Observer. The Warren, Eisenhower, and Youngsville programs all boast elementary participation numbers in the 30-40 range. So what happens to those youth wrestlers as they enter the middle and high schools? Is it a matter of too much, too hard, and for too long for those who are too young?

Dr. Tom Appenzeller, an academic specializing in sport law and youth sport has indicated that sport was never intended for children under 10. Only men played sport as evidenced by Olympic, collegiate, and high school competition prior to the mid-1960’s, during which time children only played.

As wrestling evolved in Warren County, junior high programs began to emerge in the late 1960s and that was followed by the evolution of youth wrestling, first at the YMCA in the 1970s. Today every wrestling program in the county has some form of youth wrestling programming that typically operates from November to March, with some continuing on a year-round basis.

Organized youth sport has become somewhat of a professionalized model where adults run the show and make money off of backs of children as evidenced by the elaborate sport facilities, personal coaches, travel teams, and so-called national championships in every corner of the country for kids of all ages –even under age 6. Why are there so many youth and novice wrestling tournaments in our area? Because they make money for their varsity and summer programs. Dr. Appenzeller even goes so far to suggest that maybe we should have youth sport labor laws similar to the child labor laws and specialized training for youth coaches as we do for other professionals (e.g., teachers, doctors, nurses).

Often when a child has had some early success in youth wrestling, their parents will fall into the trap of specializing and wrestling all year. They don’t realize that their 5- to 8-year-old won or was successful because he or she was probably born closer to January than December and was simply more developmentally ready in terms of social, emotional, and physical growth.

Children in the under 10 age group are not mini-adults, and they shouldn’t train or compete that way, nor should not be coached in that manner. Further, the sport research is pretty clear that under 10 need only to learn to move, play, have fun, and explore a wide variety of sport and movement activities with limited competition.

I have found that most parents receive this research-based information as rock solid, until it comes to their own child. Then they often get caught up in keeping up with the Jones’s and in a phenomenon known as the “Tiger Effect.” That is, because Tiger Woods focused totally on golf as a child and then became a champion; parents think that they can do the same for their mini-wrestlers.

Far from fact; in 1982 I spent two weeks in the Soviet Union studying wrestling and sport training. The Soviets indicated that many wrestlers did not specialize until they were 16, with the thought that some could become world champs in four years. The best wrestlers in the world did not specialize until middle to late adolescence; however it should be noted that they had spent years engaged in organized sport training (movement, agility, speed, strength, etc.).

In addition to being a volunteer assistant wrestling coach at Eisenhower, I also serve as a consultant for the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) and travel the country for presenting seminars on coaching leadership. I also author their high school and college coaching resource materials and am convinced that parents and youth sport administrators would be well-served to adopt the principles found in the Long Term Athletic Development model when approaching youth wrestling. The focus is on a seven-stage framework and guides the participation, training, competition and recovery pathways in sport and physical activity.

Of particular importance for youth wrestling programs are the Active Start stage (U6) and the Fundamental stage (U6-9) which emphasize physical literacy with very limited or no formal competition (see https://sportforlife.ca/long-term-development/).

Could it be that the emphasis on novice/youth wrestling in the counties’ programs has had a detrimental effect on the number of wrestling participants in the middle and senior high schools?

It is that early specialization with the year-round training mindset which has led to an increase in burnout, overuse injuries, and/or dropouts from training and competition in an environment where coaches have little understanding of the developmental readiness of children? Do we continue to hope that more and more emphasis on youth wrestling with articles and pictures in the local newspaper will result in more participants in the higher grades? Are we truly insane?

In closing, the WCSD administration and school board face some hard choices in the very near future regarding a one-wrestling team consolidation/cooperative.

Participation numbers certainly indicate that the Warren, Eisenhower, and Youngsville programs should be placed into one cooperative team for a District X-AAA team.

As for youth wrestling programs, will parents and youth sport administrators keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different result? Or will parents and program administrators create a setting focused on the Long Term Athletic Development model so our youth can grow and develop to be active for life; and maybe even continue to wrestle in high school?

Dennis A. Johnson Ed.D. is a National Wrestling Coaches Association Sport Leadership Consultant and Warren resident.