First steps to stardom
By T.J. ALLICK, Staff Writer tallick@minotdailynews.com
 

Kersey Harris watches carefully as Minot MatWrats coach Kevin White
displays proper ground techniques during a Minot Youth Wrestling winter
practice Monday at the Magic City Campus wrestling room.
White holds free practices every Monday and Tuesday for kids in grades K-6.

Minot’s future state wrestling champions and Triple Crown winners all get their start in one place.
The place?
The Minot area youth wrestling program.
It’s had many names, most recently the Minot MatWrats, in its 30 years history, but the Minot youth wrestling program has been a mainstay in Minot since 1978 and it still runs strong through the heart of the Magic City.
“Every state champion that Minot has seen, has come through our club,” MatWrats coach and director Kevin White said. “Every single one of them at one point in time or another. We’ve had five different names, we started as the Minot Wrestling Club, but now we are the MatWrats.”
White said that the overall numbers vary from year-to-year.
“Their has been some springs where we had 15-30 kids, but then we’ve had other springs where we’ve had 70-100 kids,” he said. “It all depends on the interest of the kids coming through.”
The youth program doesn’t start its season until the end of February. It starts with a month of folkstyle wrestling and concludes with freestyle and a little Greco Roman, which is all upper body. The program is for all ages, starting with the little guys all the way up to the high school level. A high school wrestler can earn a Triple Crown if he or she can win a regular season high school state title and both a freestyle and greco championship.
Though they do not officially start until the spring, White is holding free practices twice a week at the Magic City Campus wrestling room. On Mondays it’s for kindergarten through second grade and on Tuesdays for third grade through sixth.
The practices are free and no sign-up is needed. To join just simply show up on the specified days for your child’s age group starting at 6 p.m.
“Once the season starts, we’ll go a few times a week, but through the winter we will practice just once a week and it’s free,” White said. “They don’t have to register or anything.
“It’s just whoever is here, I take them through about a 45 minute to an hour practice. It’s all about the kids. They really enjoy it and I’m more than happy to donate my time for them.
“They might not have the skills yet, but they have more heart and love of the sport of wrestling than anyone else.