Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
February 20, 2004, Washington Post

Wrestling Mania

Sometimes kids need a new sport. Maybe you are too slow for soccer. Too short for basketball. Don't like football, hockey or lacrosse. And no matter how hard you try, you just can't put the bat on the ball in baseball or softball.

So, how about wrestling? No, not the WWE stuff. That's a TV show, not a sport. I mean real wrestling.

I don't know much about wrestling, so I talked to Bryan Hazard. He wrestled at Robinson High School in Fairfax and then at George Mason University and in international competitions. Now he's the wrestling coach at Robinson and has one of the strongest programs in the area. Here's what he had to say about one of the oldest sports around.

When should kids start wrestling?

I started when I was about 5 years old at the Fairfax Police Youth Club. But that's a little early. It's good to start around 8 to 9 years old. That is when you are old enough to pay attention to instructions and learn the importance of positioning.

Can you start in high school or is that too late?

Most of the kids on the Robinson team started in high school. It helps to start earlier, but I have known national champs who started in high school. If you get good coaching and have enough drive, you can be as good as you want to be.

Do you get kids from other sports who want to wrestle?

At Robinson, we get a lot of kids from the football team. We have a nationally ranked wrestler in the 215-pound class, Brent Jones, who is a football player. We also get kids who have done martial arts. I am very into the multi-sport athlete. Very few kids just wrestle.

Do you get WWE fans?

Sure, and that's fine. But we teach them that what they see on TV is not what the sport is all about. They figure that out after the first day.

What makes a good wrestler?

It helps to have some athletic ability, although we have good wrestlers who can barely throw a ball. But you have to be willing to work hard and learn about the different holds and techniques.

Do you have any girls on your team?

No, but I have coached against a few. There are probably 10 to 15 girl wrestlers at the varsity level in the Northern Virginia area. There will be three weight classes for women's wrestling in the Olympics this summer. So it is becoming a huge sport. . . .

Girls are not usually as strong as boys in high school, although they can be. But they are a lot more flexible and sometimes more coachable than the boys.

What is the hardest part about wrestling for most kids?

I think some kids have trouble with the one-on-one competition. If you do well, you get the credit. But if things go badly, you can't blame anyone but yourself.

What is the best part?

What I like about wrestling is that anyone can do it. There are 14 weight classes, from 103 pounds to 275 pounds. So there is a spot on the team for everyone. Also, you can make some great friends. I will be attending a wedding soon and all the guys at the wedding were teammates on my wrestling teams.