Socorro Warrior Junior Wrestling club hosts free wrestling camp

Head Coach Joel Partridge and his fellow Socorro Warrior Junior Wrestling coaches put on a free wrestling camp this past weekend at the Finley gym. The camp ran on both Saturday, Oct. 11, and Sunday, Oct. 12, from 4 p.m. to about 6 p.m. This was an opportunity for kids and their families to see if wrestling was something they would be interested in.

“We don’t take brand new kids to register for the season because we’re so limited on coaches and space right now. So what we ask is that they attend one of the free camps. I think we’ll have this one and one more before the season starts, just to go over basic technique, make sure it’s something they’re interested in, make sure that they like it and that kind of vets it to a certain degree.” Partridge said.

Socorro Warrior Junior Wrestling is a youth wrestling club for athletes from four to 15 years old. The private club is separate from the Socorro schools wrestling programs, but there is a strong connection between the club and the school teams.

Partridge has been the head coach for the SHS boys wrestling team since reestablishing the program in 2017, and the youth club works as a feeder program for the school teams.

“It’s worked really well for us, our youth programs thriving, our wrestling teams thriving and doing well. It’s just another way for us to introduce a sport that’s becoming more familiar around here, but still kind of foreign to the masses.” Partridge said. “Our kids are really good.”

Since 2017, the “home-grown, nationally known” Socorro wrestling programs have produced 15 state champions, 32 state placers, state third place team in 20/21, state second place team in 21/22, and a 4X undefeated district team.

A total of 37 youths signed up for last weekend’s camp to try it out for the first time or continue practicing. The wrestling club is a great way to practice more, compete more, prepare for high school sports, and to travel.

“We travel everywhere. Next weekend we’ll be in Las Vegas, Nevada, and then the following weekend we’re in Iowa. So that’s preseason stuff. We’ll have a group of 10 high school kids going to Iowa, and then we’ll have, I think, four or five kids going to Las Vegas, Nevada. Then our season kind of gets going, and then it’s all on from there. We’ve got a tournament in the postseason in Virginia Beach.” Partridge said.

Wrestling season is coming up soon, so for those looking to try out wrestling, Partridge hopes to schedule the next camp for the second weekend of November. Check out the Socorro Warrior Junior Wrestling Facebook page for updates.