WWU Give Day 2021

Introduction:

We are the WWU Wrestling Club. Our goal is to allow students the opportunity to continue to wrestle at a collegiate level. By having the opportunity available for students to continue to compete at a higher level we hope to create better coaches, referees, and people that go out into our local community (which include a World Strongman Champion and No-Gi Jui Jitsu Bronze World Medalist). In the State of Washington there currently is no four year university or college that sponsors a varsity wrestling team. As such we help to promote and are part of the foundation for collegiate wrestling in Washington. We are a grassroots movement that relies on the donations of people like you who take the time to spread the word about WWU Wrestling and donate to our cause.

While we have not been able to compete this past year we are excited for the outlook of our season next year. 

Success and Competition:

We compete in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association and have coached three Western Wrestlers to All-American status, two males and one female! Over the past 8 years, our club sent 18 individuals to Nationals with quite a few qualifying multiple times. We hope to continue this success and add to our growing number of high level college wrestlers.

Due to your donations we were able to travel to San Francisco in 2019 and 2020 to compete in an open tournament at SFSU where we have faced stiff competition with one of our wrestlers even picking up a third place medal in 2019! We hosted our first tournament with PLU, CWU, UW, and EWU in 2020 and the past 5 years we hosted a dual meet with the UW Wrestling Club and are 4-0-1 over our past 5 meetings. In addition, past donations allowed us to purchase a mat in 2017 allowing for us to practice on campus, host events, and have easier access for students.

Community Involvement:

We would also like to announce our partnership with the Whatcom Wrestling Academy. The group is a non-profit operating out of the Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham that hosts practices for wrestlers aged 5-18. We hope to use their space for extra practice time as well as to allow for our wrestlers to be involved in the local community.

Furthermore, many of our wrestlers have volunteered at Shuksan Middle School, Bellingham, Squalicum, and Sehome High School. One of our wrestlers has even taken positions up as an assistant coach at Whatcom Middle and Sehome High School. As a club we also volunteer at local events such as the Western Fall Welcome, April Brews Day, Western Preview, and Ski to Sea.

Conclusion:

While we are unsure of what next year will look like your donations will go directly to sponsoring students' tournament fees, travel, team gear, etc. If we are unable to travel and/or compete the money will still be held in our club account to help future WWU wrestlers in the years to come.

Thank you for your support even if it is just spreading the word, anything you do helps us so much and we appreciate it!