Support for dedicated wrestling room

CLINTONVILLE – Several attendees at the March 31 Clintonville Board of Education meeting spoke on behalf of the district’s wrestling program, asking the board to give the program a dedicated space that won’t interfere with community members using the gym at the Rec Center.
Laurie Vollrath, who was a member of the school board at that time, spoke as a citizen regarding the district’s wrestling program.
She said she has a child involved in the youth wrestling program, and she uses the district’s Rec Center. Based on the numbers in the district’s wrestling program, she said the district will probably have a boys and girls wrestling team next school year.
With the projected numbers, Vollrath said its time the wrestling program has its own space in the district where the wrestling mats can stay down during the season.
“I know that once upon a time there was a wrestling room, and that’s a weight lifting room now, so that may not be the place, but I know that there are empty spaces that they’d be able to put the mats down from November to March, and not have to keep pulling them up,” Vollrath said.

She said using the Rec Center gym limits the time members of the community can use that facility.
“And I don’t think that is fair as well,” Vollrath said.
Michelle Moder, secretary for the Clintonville Youth Wrestling Club, told the board that there are scheduling conflicts due to the wrestling program sharing the Rec Center gym with other community events.
The numbers of both the youth wrestling program and the high school wrestling program shows that interest in wrestling is rising.
“By providing the school wrestling program with a dedicated wrestling room, you are not just investing in mats and walls, you are investing in our students’ future, you are providing a space that can nurture leadership, teamwork, and personal growth.”
Aimee Ebert, assistant wrestling coach for Clintonville High School, added that having to roll out the wrestling mats each day for practice and then roll them back up after practice takes at least 30 minutes away from practice time for the wrestlers.
“That is time that a lot of these kids could use on the mats,” Ebert said. “Most of the kids that are wrestling are brand new to the sport and they need that extra practice time.”
Ebert added that more than $700 was spent on tape this year to tape the wrestling mats together each day. And that was using the tape sparingly she said.
Plus taping the mats each day and then removing the tape from the mats causes wear and tear on the mats, Ebert said. The newest wrestling mat cost $13,000.
“Also, we were not taping the mat from end-to-end, which is very dangerous for the children, but we had no budget,” Ebert said. “It’s a tripping hazard. It’s very dangerous for the children. If we were using the tape appropriately, and taping and untaping every day, by my estimation we would have used at least three times as much tape as we did this year. So, cost is a big one, and safety of the children.”
Ebert acknowledged that community members are upset that the wrestling program uses the Rec Center gym, which she said reflects badly on the wrestling program.
“I don’t want the community upset at the wrestling team because we’re using a space that they also want to use,” Ebert said.
Ebert formally asked the board to allow the wrestling program to use the classroom across from the school library in the high school.
“We would love to have that as our wrestling room,” she said. “We have looked at it and we think that it is large enough to hold almost two full-sized mats in there.”