Beat the Streets Philadelphia wrestlers have been busy during the spring freestyle season. Most recently, a select group of high school students traveled to the Gotham City Freestyle Duals on Saturday, April 19 at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, NY. The first annual dual tournament featured wrestlers from public and private school teams in the tri-state area. BTS Philly received a tough draw, wrestling eventual runners up Force Wrestling (NJ) in the first round. Despite the early loss, BTS Philly rallied to win 2 straight dual matches for a top 10 finish. Back in the Keystone state, youth and high school wrestlers have been facing top freestyle competition at the PAWF Freestyle qualifiers. Wrestlers who place top 4 at these qualifiers earn a bid to the Freestyle State Championships at the end of May. In all, over 80 BTS wrestlers have already qualified for States and have 2 more tournaments left on the schedule at Saucon Valley April 26 and Muhlenburg College on May 10. Additionally, BTS Philly wrestlers will compete in the 2014 Northeast Regional Championships held at East Stroudsburg University May 2-4. The regional tournament will feature the best male and female wrestlers from 11 different states along the Northeast corridor.
In addition to the local qualifier this weekend, girls and boys elite travel teams will be competing in New York and Connecticut respectively. The girls will travel to the Gotham City East Coast Freestyle Championships in New York and the boys head to Connecticut for the KT Kidz dual team championships.
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Author: BTSPhilly
BTS Philly Girls Tournament Champions
Springfield MA, April 12, 2014
Beat the Streets Philadelphia Girls Wrestling traveled to West Springfield, MA to participate in the Revolution in Springfield North East Championships. The 3rd annual all girls freestyle event is hosted by Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), one of over 20 colleges and universities that offer collegiate women’s wrestling. In a competitive field of 13 teams from 8 different states and Puerto Rico, BTS Philly claimed 1st place beating second place team Nieves Wrestling Club by 35 points. In all, 17 BTS athletes battled in freestyle round robin competition across elementary, middle school, high school and college divisions. The event marks the first team championship for the newly formed Beat the Streets Philly girls program. At the conclusion of competition, the girls were treated to a meet and greet session with Anibal Nieves, Head Coach of the STCC Women’s Wrestling Team and three of its team members. The college age student athletes shared how they started in wrestling, overcoming obstacles and discrimination to reach their goal of competing in college. BTS Philly girls will next travel to the Bronx, NY for the Gotham City Girls Wrestling Championships.
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BTS Philly Kicks Off Freestyle Competition
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Beat the Streets Philly kicked off the 2014 freestyle wrestling season by entering 38 wrestlers in the PAWF Pottsville Qualifier held at Pottsville High School. Freestyle is the international style of wrestling competed in the Olympics and all four BTS sponsored off season training sites are focusing exclusively on learning freestyle. The Pottsville tournament served as the first step for student athletes to earn a spot on the PA National team which competes in the Cadet and Junior National Tournament in July. In all, 22 BTS male wrestlers and 13 BTS girl wrestlers moved on to the next round of qualification by placing top 4 in their weight classes and earning a berth to the PAWF State Championships. BTS Philly will be sponsoring teams for several more PAWF Qualifiers throughout the spring to provide opportunities to gain freestyle experience and qualify wrestlers for the Freestyle State Championships.
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Shakinyah Davenport – Wrestler of the Month
Name: Shakinyah Davenport
School: Belmont Charter School
Coach: Coach McCabe, Coach Nick, Coach Jen, Coach Ian
Age/Grade: 7 years old, 1st grade
Number of Years Wrestling: 1
Why did you start wrestling? I started wrestling because my brother Shamere wrestles for Belmont.
Why do you enjoy wrestling? I get to travel to different places for tournaments like Ohio, New Jersey and Connecticut.
What impact has wrestling had on your life and academics? I am more focused in school and I keep trying. I don’t quit.
What do you want to be when you get older? I want to be a wrestling coach because I want to teach people what I have learned.
What is your favorite college/university? University of Pennsylvania
Who is your favorite athlete? Shanelle Ford (8th grade girl on Belmont’s team) because she helps me when we wrestle and she plays with me.
BTS Philly Girls battle at War of the Roses
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Sixteen Beat the Streets Girl wrestlers trail blazed their way into the first ever War of the Roses Northeast Championships held in Williamsport, PA. The Northeast Championships, which featured girl wrestlers from seven different states, is just one tournament in the War of the Roses Wrestling Series founded by Brent Harvey of Michigan. Harvey explains why he founded the series saying “I felt it was important that somebody step up and expand girls-only events. My family enjoyed competing at all-girl events in the past. I felt my daughters got more out of girls-only tournaments, both locally and nationally, than they got out of the rest of their wrestling season.”
Similar to Harvey’s daughters, Beat the Streets girls enjoy the camaraderie of the all-girl team and the chance to compete against opponents of similar strength. For example, 12th grader Lakita Williams complimented her kindergarten age teammate, Sage Bowman, who was competing in her very first girls tournament, saying “Sage is a super awesome little wrestler, we had fun today. And even though she took 4th she wrestled her little butt off! Proud of her!”
Beat the Streets girls will participate in their first freestyle tournament on Saturday April 12th, at the Revolution in Springfield Women’s Invitational in Springfield, Massachusetts.
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PA Girls States
Sunday, March 9th, 2014
Beat the Streets Girls battled for all-state honors at the 3rd Annual PAWF Folkstyle State Championships at Susquehanna Township High School in Harrisburg PA. In it’s 3rd year, the Pennsylvania Amateur Wrestling Federation tournament set a record in attendance with 101 participants from all over the state. BTS Philly represented nearly a fifth of the tournament with 19 girls wrestling in 4 competitive age divisions. Prior to competition, the girls were treated to a free technique clinic by Erin Tomeo, a National team coach for USA Wrestling. Tomeo is a native of PA and coaches Olympic caliber female wrestlers at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. In all, 17 of 19 BTS girls placed top 4 in their weight classes and earned a spot on the podium.
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3rd Annual Philadelphia Youth Wrestling Day
The 2014 Annual Youth Wrestling Day hosted by George Washington High School demonstrated the growth and progress of the entire Beat the Streets Philadelphia Program. For the first time, wrestlers were separated by experience levels and gender. As BTS Philly has grown, youth wrestlers have developed skill and experience allowing for two divisions to separate beginner first year wrestlers from more advanced “veterans.” Additionally, BTS Philly’s expanding girls program featured a separate female division for the first time. A total of fifteen different teams and 340 individual wrestlers competed. The day would not have been possible without the support of RBC Capital Markets which provided funds for facility rental, team transportation and officiating.
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BTS Philly Takes Down Green Knights All Girl Tournament
At 5:00 am early Saturday morning, 14 Beat the Streets girl wrestlers traveled 3 hours to Thomaston, Connecticut to compete in the Green Knights All Girls Tournament. The Green Knights Tournament featured a girls division for wrestlers 8th grade and younger for the very first time. Led by BTS Girls Program Director, Jen Chu, all fourteen girls went home with hardware led by 2 tournament champions, 5 runner up finishes and 2 bronze medalists. Chu was assisted by Unique Jones, a second year wrestler and senior at Mastery Charter School, who will be competing in the Public School Championships this weekend. Once again BTS Philly impressed the competition with their aggressive style of wrestling and sportsmanship garnering compliments from competitors, spectators and coaches. Girls came from 4 BTS sponsored youth programs including Wissahickon Charter, Mantua Youth, Marianna Bracetti Academy and Belmont Charter School. BTS Philly girls on the high school level will wrestle next weekend in the City Championships on Saturday Feb 15th at George Washington High School. Youth wrestlers will compete in the Annual BTS Philly Youth Wrestling Day which will host a girls only division for the first time ever on Sunday February 16th also at George Washington High School.
BTS-Philly Opens New Mentoring Center
Beat the Streets Philadelphia has recently moved in to our new office space at 3700 Market Street Suite 300, which will be the central location for the Mentoring Center. We believe that the use of near-peer mentors will be instrumental in building strong relationships to best benefit the student-athletes being supported, so recruiting of mentors has been primarily through local universities. Therefore, having the mentoring center located in proximity to some of these universities will be a key to our success. Our new office is located in University City, only blocks away from the center of both University of Penn’s and Drexel’s campuses!
Our University City location will better facilitate our efforts through the mentoring program in many ways. As opposed to years in the past where mentoring sessions were set up by sending mentors out to the schools of our student-athletes or meeting in a neutral setting, we are now able to hold all mentoring sessions under our own roof. This allows for BTS to best support both sides of the mentor-mentee relationships, and ensure that every student-athlete is getting the most out of their time spent with their mentor. As one enters the Mentoring Center, they are immediately greeted in a lobby area, where BTS staff sets up shop. The space consists of 6 separate offices, allowing a focused setting for several sessions to be taking place simultaneously without distraction. Also included is a kitchen, so students and mentors can keep their brain and body fueled for optimal productivity. Its important that our mentoring center is an environment that both mentors and students enjoy coming to, and our new facility definitely fits the bill.
In addition, our University City location gives us the opportunity to utilize the athletic facilities of the nearby schools, augmenting the enthusiasm of the student-athletes involved in the mentoring program. The University of Pennsylvania has been gracious enough to host many of our wrestling events at their historical arena, the Palestra! Penn has also partnered with BTS-Philly to create additional training opportunities for our student-athletes, having them participate in the Philadelphia Wrestling Club (PWC). The PWC has been hosting practices for dedicated athletes across PA and NJ to supplement their current training regimens throughout the season, and will continue to hold practice as an off-season training opportunity for BTS mentoring students. As the goal of BTS-Philly is to engage students in improving their skills both on and off the mat, participation in this club run by the Coaching Staff of UPenn will be an integral piece of the overall design.
The establishment of the Mentoring Center is a critical step in Beat the Streets Philadelphia’s goal of altering the trajectory of the lives for the participants in our program and we are excited to provide this much needed support to our students.
BTS Philly Girls at New Jersey States
Twenty-two girls from Beat the Streets Girls Wrestling traveled to Union NJ to compete in the New Jersey Women’s State Wrestling Championships. On Sunday Jan. 26, wrestlers from across the tri-state area battled in three different divisions for elementary, middle school and high school age wrestlers. While the tournament determined a state champion for New Jersey wrestlers only, outside competitors from Pennsylvania and New York were also invited to participate. Girls from 6 different BTS sponsored school sponsored programs took part in the travel event. All participants wrestled with pride and good sportsmanship, garnering positive comments from officials , parents and coaches of other teams praising the girls’ wrestling skills and camaraderie. The all-girls travel team will hit the road again on Saturday Feb. 8th traveling to Connecticut for the Green Knights All Girls Tournament.
