Media Lions Youth Wrestling Program

2010-2011 Orientation Guide

Here is some important information to help you have a successful season with your young wrestler(s)!

Club Information

All club information, including updated scheduled, tournament forms, meet/tournament directions, and other general announcements will be posted on the clubs web site

E-mail will used as our PRIMARY mechanism for communicating updated information to parents – please check your e-mail often during the season. The team will use the following email address

Parents should always come in at the last 10 minutes of practice, as this is also an important method of communication. If you cannot stay for the entire practice, please do NOT be a “curb-side” parent – take an interest in the club’s events and join us in the wrestling room at the end of each practice.

Wrestling Attire

Wrestlers may generally practice in normal gym clothes, although they are encouraged NOT TO WEAR VERY LOOSE fitting clothing in order to avoid getting tangled up with their practice partners.

The club will order team a Singlet which must be purchased during registration. A “trade-up” program will be implemented to try and minimize the cost to parents as their children outgrow their singlet.

Team Singlet MUST be worn at all team meets and tournaments.

Team Singlet should NOT be worn to practices in order to keep them from wearing too quickly. The one exception to this is Picture Night, where all wrestlers MUST wear their team singlet.

Wrestling shoes are optional although highly recommended as they are very lightweight and threaded specifically for the wrestling mat. They are available at most sports stored such as Dicks’s, Sports Authority, MVP Sports, Modell’s, etc. Shoes can also be purchased online through online vendors such as Eastbay. ( Be mindful of shipping charges when considering this option.

During wet or snowy weather,wrestlers should wear different shoes to and from the gym and change before stepping on the mats for practices, tournaments, and meets

HEADGEAR IS MANDATORY IN PENNSYLVANIAAND NEW JERSEYIn general, headgear is recommended to protect the ears. A typical set of headgear runs around $20.

Practice Information

Our club will be divided into two squads. The “Gold” squad will be comprised of all first and second year wrestlers. The more experienced wrestlers will comprise the “Red” squad. At the coaches’ discretion, some second year wrestlers, and possibly even some first year wrestlers will be switched to the Red squad depending on how well they pair up within the Gold Squad. Parents of first and second year wrestlers should assume their wrestler is on the Gold Squad unless the MYW staff instructs them otherwise.

Our regular practice schedule each week for the Gold Squad is Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at SpringtonLakeMiddle School. The Red Squad will practice Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at PenncrestHigh School.

At SpringtonLakeMiddle School, please drop-off and pick-up your wrestler each night at the side entrance by the soccer fields. At PenncrestHigh School, please drop-off and pick-up your wrestler each night at the side entrance by the small gymnasium. (During high school athletic events, security will lock this door and entrance is required by the main gym entrance).

If you child has any injury, laceration, or skin aliment – Coaches must be notified prior to practice beginning and it will be coaches decision if the child will be allowed to participate (assuming parent and doctor have already approved for participation)

A team calendar will be on the wall in the practice facility and will be posted on our web site. Included in the calendar will be dates when practice will be cancelled due to holidays and school district closings for in-service days or other extenuating circumstances.

We encourage all parents to attend and assist the coaches at practices. Keeping our young wrestlers focused is sometimes a challenging task, and parental participation seems to help. If you bring children they are to be QUIET and RESPECTFUL. If there are any distractions during practice you WILL BE ASKED to LEAVE. Please show your respect to our coaches.

The coaches reserve the right to remove disruptive children from practice and suspend them altogether if they continually disrupt practice for their teammates – we ask parents to work with their children to respect others and respect the importance of having productive practices.

While wrestling is a demanding sport and we take practices seriously, we also understand the importance of making this fun for the children. Most practices will end with a game such as dodge ball, knee football, etc.

Meet Information

At our league meets, wrestlers are “paired up” by the coaches and a match schedule is created and posted. Most every wrestler will get at least one match and we do our best to get two matches for as many kids as possible. Exceptions may occur when wrestlers are particularly heavy or light for their age, or if we simply don’t match up well with the opposing team. Wrestlers are matched as closely as possible with kids on the other teams based on their weight, age, experience and ability level.

At the meets, match numbers are assigned to each match and this number will be written on each wrestler’s hand by one of the coaches or team moms. As these meets are very dynamic, parents must stay alert as these numbers can change – new matches can be added with little notice. If you wish to leave before the end of a team meet, please notifyPaul Louth, Mike Bender or you child’s coach so your wrestler will not be assigned any additional matches.

It’s critical that parents let the coaches know if their wrestler will not be at a particular meet so that we don’t mistakenly pair him or her and potentially cause a wrestler on the other team to show up but not get a match. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SIGN UP YOUR WRESTLER(S) ON THE SIGN-UP SHEET IN THE PRACTICE ROOM (INDICATE “YES” OR “NO” FOR EACH MEET), AND PLEASE CALL PAUL LOUTH 610.574.1230 IN THE EVENT OF LAST-MINUTE CHANGES.

Meet times and directions will be e-mailed, posted on our web site, and posted on the practice room wall the Tuesday before each meet. Parents should make sure to have their wrestlers at meets at least 45 minutes prior to starting time for warm-ups.

Wrestlers will NOT be paired and allowed to wrestle if we have not received their registration and medical form.

Middle School Wrestling

Middle School wrestlers who wish to participate with Media Youth Wrestling may complete the Middle School registration form and waiver. See the website for more details.

Tournament Information

At tournaments, wrestlers are seeded based on their record and placing at other tournaments. As with meets, they are wrestling against kids close to their age and weight. There are three types of tournaments:

  1. “Open” – For more experienced wrestlers, typically those with 2+ years experience.
  2. “Novice” – Typically defined as any wrestler who has not finished 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in an Open tournament.
  3. “First Year Novice” – Only for wrestlers who are in their first year of wrestling.

For tournaments, parents are responsible for knowing their wrestler’s weight and age, and submitting an accurate tournament entry form by the appropriate deadline. You also typically need to provide a win-loss record and a history to tournament placing (for seeding purposes) – please track this as well.

The club will sponsor five tournaments for each wrestler who is a full member and two tournaments for SLMS wrestlers who are partial members. These tournaments will be on the team schedule and will be board approved. In these cases, entry forms will be collected by the Tournament Coordinator and submitted as a group, and the club will pay the entry fee.

Tournament entry forms will be available on the bulletin board at the practice facility as well as the team web site. Most tournaments do not allow walk-ins, so make sure to get forms submitted ahead of the deadline. Also make sure to note when weigh-ins will be conducted – they are usually early the morning of the tournament and/or the night before. Some tournaments will also offer a remote satellite weigh in site.

Each wrestler's progress correlates strongly to the number of matches he or she wrestles. We encourage our wrestlers to wrestle in at least two tournaments during the season, as well as attend all the team meets. We will make tournament announcements at the end of practices.

Healthy Wrestling

One of the biggest health-related problems in wrestling is dehydration. While our club philosophy strictly dictates our wrestlers should never dehydrate them selves to "make weight", it is still important for our boys and their parents to practice sound fluid replacement practices. Based upon recent research evidence, the following fluid replacement guidelines are recommended to maintain hydration and improve performance during wrestling:

  1. Be well hydrated BEFORE participating in an event (indicated by clear urine).
  2. Drink 8 to 16 ounces of a cold beverage (40-50 degrees F) thirty minutes before competition.
  3. The beverage should contain 6-8% carbohydrates and less than 200 mg sodium and less than 200 mg potassium per quart.
  4. Drink 4 to 8 ounces of the beverage between matches.
  5. Avoid beverages containing caffeine because these increase urine formation and hasten dehydration.

As each parent finds out during their first wrestling season, meets and tournaments are significant events. Parents should encourage their wrestlers to eat wisely during these long days. Wrestlers should avoid greasy or fatty foods throughout the day. Foods such as bagels, fruits, and juices are recommended. At regular season meets, wrestlers should make sure to ask Mike Bender if they are finished wrestling before eating any "fun" foods at the snack bar (such as Hot Dogs, Candy, etc.). Last minute matches are often scheduled as we try to get two or more matches for as many wrestlers as possible.

Inter-CountyWrestling League

Media Youth Wrestling is part of the Inter-County Wrestling League (ICWL). Our regular season meets are versus teams from the list below, and most tournaments we attend are made up primarily of wrestlers from these teams. The following teams make up the ICWL for the 2009-2010 season:

ABAbington / NCNortheast Catholic
AP AcademyPark / NESHNeshaminy
AVAvon Grove / NORNorchester
BENBensalem / NPKNorth Penn Jr. Knights
BOYBoyertown / NPPNorth Penn Panthers
BYCBrandywine / NTNorristown
CHI Chichester (Team Chaos) / OCTOctorara
CONConestoga / OXOxford
CVCoatesville / PGPottsgrove
DOWDowningtown / PTPottstown
DHDrexel Hill / PXPhoenixville
ENEast Norriton / PVPerkiomenValley
GNGreater Norristown / RIDRidley
GVGreatValley / SAASpringfield
HAVHaverford / SFSpringford
HHHatboro Horsham / SHStrathaven
INTInterboro / UMUpper Merion
KENKennett Square / UMOUpper Moreland
LMLower Merion / URAUnionville
LYALionville / WCWest Chester
MEDMedia / WNWest Norriton
METMethacton / WSWissahickon
MNMarple-Radnor / 21stTwenty-First Ward

Volunteer Role Descriptions

As indicated on our registration form, our program is run entirely by parent volunteers. As you are considering how you can help, here are some details on important roles within our program.

Mat/Table Prep - Arrive at your designated home meet 1.5 hours early and help roll-out, tape, clean, and label the mats. Also help setup tables, score cards, score sheets, ankle bands, etc. At end of meet help roll-up and store mats, clean-up gym, put away tables, etc.

Match Scoring- Keep score and time during home meets for a particular mat. WE WILL MAKE SURE YOU SEE YOUR CHILDREN’S MATCHES.

Snack Bar Duty- Arrive at your designated home meet 1 hour early to setup snack bar. Manage snack bar, collect money. Help clean-up snack bar at end of meet. WE WILL MAKE SURE YOU SEE YOUR CHILDREN’S MATCHES.