Aurora City Schools Wrestling Program – Part 4 (final)
Additional items (cont):
Parents – Coaches Preseason Meeting: Preseason we have a meeting with the parents of our wrestlers. We explain our goals, request their support, distribute schedules and maps to opposing schools, and talk about how to contact us with concerns. We try to establish a team approach to create a healthy and consistent approach to help their son reach his dreams.
Parents Night: We chose one home event and invite all parents of our wrestlers, managers, and Lil’Sis’. We provide free admission and introduce all of them with their son(s) and/or daughter(s). Post game, we have a parent party at one of the parents’homes. We ask them to bring an appetizer, and the head coach provides all beverages.
Harmon NIght: We invite and introduce all of our Harmon Middle School Wrestlers.
JAWS Night: We invite and introduce all of our JAWS Wrestlers.
Senior Night: At our last home event, we take a moment and recognize all Seniors that are members of our team. At this time, we have them step to the center of the mat, and share with the crowd the individual accomplishments of each. When home dates are at a premium, this is often combined with parent night.
Alumni Night: When we have enough home events, we invite all Aurora Wrestling Alumni to attend. We have them sign in, and introduce them to the crowd.
The Written Word: We have a number of items we do within our program to clarify situations, enhance our sport and document the involvement within the sport. They include:
Wrestling Notebook; An annual publication. Includes, coaches names and contact information, training rules, guidelines for earning letters, weight control issues, mental preparation, goal setting, drilling procedures, weight lifting routines, motivational messages, previous champions, as well as school team and individual records. This is provided for each and all high school wrestlers and coaches.
Result Sheets; Each week a press release is prepared with information on the previous weeks events. This includes results from all high school events, as well as Aurora Wrestling Weekly Awards, and is faxed to the Aurora Advocate, the Aurora weekly newspaper. It is also copied and distributed to all wrestlers on Monday, as well as emailed to all parents and those college coaches that have expressed interest in following our wrestlers.
Statistics; We constantly update our statistics. They are positioned in places our wrestlers tend to visit. We have letter points, team leaders in each statistical catagory posted in our locker room, and a leader board posted in the wrestling room. We have the win sticker program posted in the wrestling room. We also have Wrestler of the Week signs posted in the cafeteria.
Statistical Summaries; An end of the season summary is completed. It includes individual statistics for all high school wrestlers, school records, championship corner, and league honors earned. It is distributed to all high school athletes at the winter sports awards.
Wrestling Scrapbook; When an athlete completes their senior year, they are awarded a wrestling scrapbook. The scrapbook will contain copies of all result sheets, newspaper clippingsk, and statistical summaries of all years they were in the high school program. They will also have an individual summary sheet of each athletes career, awards, and accomplishment. Although a bit of work, it is one item that all of our kids truly look forward to.
Coaches: The primary ingredient of our program is the coaches. All our coaches are on the same page. All have spent time together in practices and/or at the Aurora School of Wrestling. The program has been successful because of the loyalty and duration of these people, along with the constant upgrading of our knowledge and information. Goals for our program and our athletes are consistent throughout our program. Simply put, we want to develop solid citizens, strong students, and athltes that successfully compete at the state level. Our youth head coach has been with us over 20 years, his number one assistant has been with us about 10 years. Our middle school coaches have been with us for quite some time – one for over 25 years, and the other over ten years. Although we have had some change in staff at the high school, (in the past four years, four of our assistants have accepted head coaching jobs – with two now college head coaches – as well as one other assistant left to be an assistant in the school he teaches at). Our new assistants coaches have bought into our full program. All of our coaches are winners in life, and great role models for our athletes.
Summary: The Aurora Wrestling Program provides opportunities from K through 12 for the youth of Aurora. Those opportunities include those to develop the individual in both positive personal growth and athletic success. A large number of dedicated people come together to provide a large number of activiteslk instruction, and challenges to assist with our desired outcomes. Within the Aurora Wrestling Program success and growth opportunities are ongoing. The pride and dedication of many contribute to the overall success of the program.
