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If your child plans on wrestling in the Hawk Brawl on Dec. 30 or in the first leg of the AAU Triple Crown, the Missouri Challenge, on Jan. 5 or 6, then make sure to sign up by Thursday evening (tonight!) at 6 p.m. The Missouri Challenge has separate divisions for experienced (Blue) and first-year (Gold) wrestlers, and both divisions require you to select a weight class, so make sure to choose Blue or Gold and write in your weight class of choice on your form.
Important note: Blue wrestlers must weigh in at or below the weight they sign up for. Gold wrestlers will be bumped up to the next weight class if they do not make weight for the class they signed up for. Refer to the weigh-in schedule on the flier to see when your child's age and division must attend weigh-ins. Blue wrestlers should submit seeding information WITH THEIR REGISTRATION if they wish to be seeded in their brackets. This includes win/loss records, head-to-head match results with others in their weight class, and so forth. Refer to the parent handbook for more information. If seeding info is not submitted with the registration form or e-mailed before the meeting, no information will be presented at the seeding meeting on behalf of the wrestler. Have a great week and holiday season! LeAnn Cross
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We've got two great weeks of competition under our belts! Congrats to all of our kids who have been competing. We are hearing great things about them and hope they are all having positive experiences. Special thanks to all of our parent or volunteer coaches who have helped coach at these tournaments, especially Tom Narrow, Blake Standridge, and Clint & Gage Basala, who gave up their Saturday to coach the beginners at the Team St. Louis Beginners Tournament. We were short-staffed to say the least, and these guys saved the day!
Practice Schedule Be sure to consult the web site regularly to confirm the practice schedule, at swczone.com. Deadline this week: Zebra Classic at Lafayette HS. -Please have these registrations turned in no later than 6 p.m. Thursday (before practice starts). I usually grab these and run, so please try to get them in early. Cost is $20. -Note that novices wrestle in the afternoon session for this tournament. -Also note that there is a $5 admission fee for everyone over 12. This tournament is a fundraiser for the St. Louis Wrestling Officials Association, which needs the funds for its spring awards banquet, so we'll let them off the hook. :-) Weight checks Jr. Spartans should get in the habit of getting their weight checked by a coach each week they are competing. It's probably best if they don't eat a big dinner or down a gallon of water before practice on these nights. If they have multiple weights recorded in a given week, I will use the lowest one for tournament purposes. T-shirts & Shorts We have only a couple of team T-shirt & shorts orders that haven't been picked up, so great job on that! That means that attendance at practices has been fantastic. We do have some extra shirts available for sale, so if you would like one, let me know what size and I'll see if we have it. Shoes on the Mats We've heard reports of sightings of parents (and maybe kids) walking on our mats in their street shoes. This is a point we hammer home at our parent meeting, in our parent handbook, and at every other opportunity that presents itself. ZERO street shoes are allowed on our mats. This rule keeps the mats cleaner and reduces the damage they are subject to, making them last a lot longer. Please make sure anyone attending practice with your child knows this rule and abides by it. Have a great week! Some of you have had questions regarding tournaments and tournament registrations, so I hope this helps answer some of them!
Please make sure you are visiting the tournament board each week to sign up for upcoming tournaments. You can also find the tournaments posted on the calendar on our web site at swczone.com. If you click on the name of the tournament, a box opens up. If you click on the name of the tournament again, the tournament flier will come up. There you an find everything you need to know about that tournament, including: -Start times -Whether all wrestlers start at the same time or if there is a split session. (Split sessions don't always split groups the same way, so always read thoroughly.) -The deadline for CLUB to register, and submission instructions for the CLUB MANAGER to follow when entering the TEAM. YOUR deadline to submit an entry to us is generally the last practice BEFORE this deadline, at 6 p.m. I submit all our entries together, with one payment. If you write a check for your fee, always make it to Spartan Wrestling, NOT the hosting club. -Whether there are weigh-ins. The only AAU tournaments that require you to select a weight class and attend a weigh-in are: Missouri Challenge, Ozark District Championship and AAU State Tournament (Triple Crown events). For those, YOU must select a weight class for your child AND take him/her to the scheduled weigh-in. Wrestlers must weigh AT or BELOW the selected weight class at the time of the weigh-in. -For ALL OTHER AAU TOURNAMENTS: Do not list your child's weight on the registration form. The only weight that will be submitted with tournament registrations will be the one taken by a coach at practice the week of the tournament. Regarding beginners/rookies: All AAU tournaments will do a pretty good job of separating beginners (also known as 4s on the 1-4 rating scale or "Gold" wrestlers in Triple Crown events) into separate brackets. This is usually fairly easy to accomplish in a larger tournament such as our Spartan Kickoff Tournament. For this reason, we strongly encourage all of our Spartans, Mini and Junior, to compete in this early-season tournament to get their competition feet wet. There are also tournaments only open to first-year wrestlers, such as the Holiday Beginner's Tournament on Dec. 8 at Whitfield HS. Although we do encourage our first-years to compete in this tournament, it is by no means the only tournament that caters to beginners. AAU is a terrific organization for beginning and intermediate wrestlers, so there is no need to only focus on beginner-only tournaments. All of the AAU tournaments will do their best to separate the beginners from the advanced wrestlers. If at any time you feel that your wrestler has been placed in a bracket that is not right for him/her, feel free to speak to the coach, the mat table or the official. We do not want any wrestler participating in an unsafe situation. You may register for tournaments as far in advance as you wish; however, if you need to select a weight class, you may want to wait until closer to the deadline to avoid having to make a last-minute change. If you want to sign up for several tournaments at once but write one check, please put all the registration forms together in the envelope with the EARLIEST deadline. If there are payment envelopes in the board, feel free to use them for your registration. If not, just staple or clip your payment to your form. Withdrawing from a Tournament If your child is unable to wrestle in a tournament you registered for, please notify me or a coach so we can notify the tournament host. Refunds can not be made after the tournament registration deadline. (Once our roster has been submitted, we are required to pay for all registrants regardless of whether they show up to wrestle.) If the tournament is not notified in time to adjust brackets, then the wrestlers in the same bracket as the no-show get fewer matches and less value for their time and money. Let me know if anyone has other questions! LeAnn Cross Lots going on this week in preparation for the Spartan Kickoff!
Hello! It's a big week! See below to make sure you don't miss any important info: Mini-Spartan Practice Tournament -- Wednesday at Minis practice. Kids should wear their singlets to practice. They will participate in simulated matches to help prepare them for next weekend's tournament. It's a fun way to help get them ready. (Parent helpers will be needed.) Spartan Kickoff Tournament deadline -- Thursday at the beginning of practice (6 p.m.). All entries and payments must be in the envelope in the registration board. Weight checks -- All wrestlers should weigh in at practice this week. Anyone participating in the tournament next week MUST have their weight checked by a coach this week. These are the weights that will be used for bracketing at Sunday's tournament. Spartan Shorts and T-shirts -- These are expected later this week and will be distributed to the kids at the end of practice. Wrestlers will receive the sizes ordered on their registration forms; any size trades will be considered after all others have been handed out. Note: If you still owe fees, these must be paid in full before shorts and Ts are given. Tournament Volunteers We still need volunteers for Sunday's tournament. Please sign up via the Signup Genius at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F4EACA62CA7F94-12218 This is the only major volunteer opportunity this season, so please make it a priority to help if you are able. Calendar -- The practice and tournament calendar has been updated on our web site, swczone.com. We aim to keep it current, so check here if you are wondering if there is practice or a tournament on a given date. Thanks, and have a great week! LeAnn Cross Tournament registrations will be accepted at practices beginning this week. No matter which room your wrestler practices in, please remember to look for the registration board outside the main doors of the wrestling room. Deadlines for each tournament will be written on the envelope for that tournament; please make sure to have registration forms and payment in the envelope by the BEGINNING of practice on the deadline day. (I usually swing by to grab them and leave shortly after practice starts.)
We will check wrestlers' weights at practices NEXT WEEK. You do not need to enter a weight on your tournament registration form; we will enter your wrestler at the weight we record for him/her at practice. The only AAU tournaments that require you to write in a weight class are the Triple Crown events: Missouri Challenge, Ozark District Championship and AAU State Tournament. Reminder: Please check your child's fingernails regularly to make sure they are short and neatly trimmed. We occasionally have problems with kids getting very scratched up at practice due to their partner's long or jagged nails. Thanks! Minis Practice Matches, Wed., Nov. 28 To help our Mini-Spartans get ready for their first tournament, we will conduct a practice tournament for them the week leading up to the Spartan Kickoff Tournament. The Minis wear their singlets to practice and we run them through several exhibition matches to help them get a feel for what a real match is like. Please make sure to have your Mini to practice on Wednesday, Nov. 28 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. (ish). Housekeeping: We have a few families who have yet to finish registration details, including full or partial fee payments, singlet deposits or birth certificates. Please take care of these issues this week. Birth certificates may be emailed to spartanwrestlingclubmo@gmail.com. Please contact me through Remind or email to coordinate dropoff of any owed fees or singlet deposits. I will be at the beginning of both Mini and Jr. Spartan practices Monday and Tuesday if you need to turn in one of these items. No practice Thursday! Happy Thanksgiving to all our Spartan families! LeAnn Cross Spartan Wrestling Club Update Week of Nov. 12
Hello everyone, I believe this is the first time ever we have had to cancel a practice due to snow in early November! (And obviously hope this is not an indicator of the weather the rest of the season...) Sounds like everything should be fine for Jr. Spartan practice tomorrow. E-mail list and Remind list THANK YOU to everyone who followed our communication instructions and signed themselves up for club emails and Remind texts. After realizing that our email list was much smaller than it should be, I scoured the registration sheets for more email addresses and entered those manually today. So, the list has been updated, but if you know someone who should be receiving emails and isn't, please ask them to visit our web site, swczone.com, and subscribe there. In addition, if you haven't signed up for Remind texts, please text @leanncr to 81010 and you'lll be on that list as well. Online Team Store Our online team store opened Friday and will remain open through Sunday, Nov. 18. The items I mentioned that were missing have been added and can now also be ordered. Please feel free to share the link with friends and family. https://stores.inksoft.com/spartan_wrestling_2018/shop/home For those who didn't receive my earlier email, all youth wrestlers will receive a navy short-sleeve T (the one with the Spartan helmet) and a pair of shorts with their paid registration, so there is no need to order these items for the kids unless you want extras. Orders should take a couple of weeks to fill. We will keep you posted on delivery dates. Orders will only be distributed to adults, so no worries if you are planning to use any items as gifts. PLEASE PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE ORDERING, ESPECIALLY DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN ADULT AND YOUTH SIZES. No refunds or exchanges may be made due to mistakes made in item selection. Tournament Signups We will begin accepting tournament registrations next week at practices. Don't forget to visit the registration board weekly to see what tournaments are coming up! I will send out a comprehensive list in the near future, but we will start with our own Spartan Wrestling Kickoff Tournament on Dec. 2. Julie Graham will also be contacting you soon to coordinate volunteer signups for the tournament. We will need tons of help to make it a success! No experience required! I hope practices are going well for all your kids and that they are enjoying wrestling! If you have any concerns, please feel free to discuss them with one of our coaches, or email me and I can forward it to the appropriate coach. Thanks, and have a great week! LeAnn Cross Spartan Wrestling Club No Minis practice tonight.
Due to the snow, FHSD has canceled all evening activities, and there will, therefore, be no Mini-Spartan practice this evening. Enjoy your night in! Get your Spartan Wrestling gear on!
Here's your chance to show your team spirit all year long! Now through Nov. 18, visit the Spartan Wrestling team store at https://stores.inksoft.com/spartan_wrestling_2018/shop/home and order Spartanwear for the whole family. Just a reminder, all youth wrestlers will receive a navy short-sleeve T (the one with the Spartan helmet) and a pair of shorts with their paid registration, so there is no need to order these items for the kids unless you want extras. Also, the store is missing a couple of items that won't be posted until Monday, so come back then if you are interested in these:
Note that on the team store, the youth hoodie is shown with no imprint. This hoodie will, in fact, have an imprint of the Spartan helmet, but the location of the imprint will depend on the size of the sweatshirt. Smaller sized hoodies may have the imprint on the back rather than the front due to space constraints. Larger sizes will be on the front if space allows. Orders should take a couple of weeks to fill. We will keep you posted on delivery dates. Orders will only be distributed to adults, so no worries if you are planning to use any items as gifts. PLEASE PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE ORDERING, ESPECIALLY DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN ADULT AND YOUTH SIZES. No refunds or exchanges may be made due to mistakes made in item selection. Happy shopping! LeAnn Cross Spartan Wrestling Club Hello!
The parent meeting for this year's Spartan Wrestling Club is tonight at 7 p.m.! This will be during the SECOND hour of Junior Spartan practice. (Note: Mini Spartans do NOT practice tonight; they start next week.) All Mini and Junior Spartans are asked to have at least one parent or guardian attend the meeting. If you are planning to complete any part of your child's registration this evening, we ask that you do so BEFORE the meeting begins. This includes registration forms, birth certificate copies, health insurance info, fees, singlet deposits, etc. We will all need to get out quickly when practice is over at 8. Thanks, and see everyone tonight! LeAnn Cross |
About Our ClubWe are a feeder youth wrestling program for Francis Howell Central High School open to youth in grades K-8 who reside in the FHC attendance area.
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