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Pine Plains wrestlers hold fundraiser

Pine Plains wrestlers hold fundraiser
Jackson Kilmer, 7, worked together with his teammates on the Pine Plains Wrestling Team to scrub down cars at the car wash hosted at the Pine Plains firehouse on Saturday, May 22.
Photo by Kaitlin Lyle

PINE PLAINS — All while staying mindful of COVID-19 guidelines, the Pine Plains Wrestling Team found a way to keep moving forward and recruit interested wrestlers throughout the past year and a half. Now that people are getting vaccinated and pandemic restrictions are slowly being lifted, Pine Plains Wrestling Coach Tom Strudwick is looking forward to the day his team will be able to have tournaments again along with recruiting new wrestlers for the 2021-22 school year.

To date, Strudwick said the team has 17 active members, including the team’s two coaches, Strudwick and Russ Ellis. Of those 17 wrestlers, the co-ed team is currently comprised of 14 students ranging from second-graders to high school juniors; Melissa Cook leads the team as captain. Strudwick also mentioned the team has three or four dads who are active members.

As far as how the team carried on during the pandemic, Strudwick said they were granted permission by the town of Pine Plains and the Pine Plains Central School District (PPCSD) to strength train without physical contact. Though they weren’t able to wrestle, he said they were able to gather as a team and play games as best they could, all while staying 6 feet apart and following COVID-19 guidelines.

“It was a bit of a strain to have to be the wrestling coach and not have the kids come in and roll around, but it kept us together as a team,” he said.

About a month ago, Strudwick said he was beginning to feel “a bit of a burnout” with trying to raise support for the wrestling team, a task that was already challenging pre-pandemic and became even tougher once COVID hit. 

As a solution, he said he got all 28 of the wrestling team’s parents together and had a sit-down on how to create a Booster Club to generate support. 

Stepping up to lead the Booster Club, Pine Plains mom Megan Brenner got the ball rolling by getting together with the town of Pine Plains to rally support for the team and delegating responsibilities to the other parents.

Strudwick said the benefits of a Booster Club include having a committee rather than one person calling all the shots.

“I think it’s good to have a community person as a booster,” he added in reference to Brenner. “They sort of pull the parents together, and when you want someone for the team, then it’s not coming from someone of interest like the coach — it’s coming from us as the parents and that’s really where you get the momentum from… It will make it easier for coaches to focus on their responsibilities without any excess tasks.”

Brenner recently helped raise awareness of the team on Saturday, May 22, when it hosted a car wash fundraiser at the Pine Plains firehouse. Along with raising money to purchase needed equipment, the team donated 50% of the proceeds to Colton’s XXXtraordinarY Cause, a 501(C)3 nonprofit dedicated to helping children with rare disorders by raising awareness for their specific conditions as well as funds for research and treatment. The car wash only accepted donations, and the team raised roughly $1,200.

Today, the team continues to meet on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. in the basement of the Pine Plains Free Library, located at 7775 South Main St. Recruitment continues all year long, Strudwick said the only change is that wrestlers now have to go on the Pine Plains Recreation page of the Family ID website, www.familyid.com. 

Currently wrestlers can sign up for next fall on the website. Strudwick said he’ll take “anybody up to 99 years old.” There is a $25 fee for the entire year.

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