Elsburg Wrestling Club are back in the gym and ready to tackle the year.
The club went through tough times but are back and ready to take the lead.
“We used to have a huge number of wrestlers registered with our club, however, due to economic decline about five years ago, the numbers dropped heavily,” said head coach Tobie Alberts.
The downfall, however, didn’t go with the morale and spirit of some of the team members and management, as they kept going from strength to strength.
In 2011 the club had eight wrestlers, in 2012 this progressed to 11, and then increased to 14, last year.
This year the membership has escalated to over 30 members and, according to Alberts, it seems to be increasing at every training session.
“We have put focus on building the club and promoting our current wrestlers; these youngsters have a lot of talent and it gives us great pleasure to be able to see them reach their potential,” he said.
The senior wrestlers in the club motivate the youngsters to carry on and not to lose hope.
Despite the challenges the club recently faced, it has had wrestlers involved in competitions, which just goes to show how passionate the club is about the game.
The club is looking for more wrestlers and coaches, and training for the coaches will be provided by Alberts and Phillip Jansen, who is the assistant coach.
The year planner includes coaches’ and officials’ clinics.
The first major tournament to which the wrestlers are eagerly looking forward will take place on February 22, in Mpumalanga.
“We want more representation of the club on a national level and I strongly believe that we are headed in that direction,” said Alberts.
Sponsorship is still a massive requirement, because the club would like to purchase new equipment to better their training and there are registration fees that wrestlers have to pay in order to participate in the tournaments and competitions.
Anybody interested in joining is welcome to attend a one-month free training programme and they can then decide if they still want to be a part of the club at a joining fee.
The training times are Tuesday: 6pm-8pm and Thursday: 6pm-8pm.
