Plainfield Wrestling Club Headed To State Competition

PLAINFIELD, IL — For the first time in its history, the youth Plainfield Wrestling Club is headed to a state-wide tournament. The Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation Senior Dual Team State Tournament will take place on Sunday, Jan. 26 at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, and Plainfield Wrestling Club will be one of many teams competing for a title.

"This is the first time in their history that the senior team - 7th and 8th graders - has ever qualified for a state tournament," Team Coach Ted Grant said. "They were going nuts. It's a heck of an accomplishment."

The Plainfield Wrestling Club started in 1974, Grant said, as a way to get children interested in the sport. The team started with only a handful of members, Grant said, but has since grown to include over 70 young athletes of different age and skill brackets.

"We have three levels," Grant said. "We have... kids that have been wrestling for, usually at least five or so years of experience, that's our Level Three kids and those kids are usually 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Then we have kids that are more like 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade... and they're Level Two. Then we have people who are just getting into the club... as young as four, five or six, and they're just starting out. Those are our Level One kids."

The club rents the facilities of Plainfield North High School for practice, and some Plainfield School District 202 coaches assist in instructing club members, Grant said. However, the club itself has no formal ties to District 202. Instead, it is an independent 501(3)c nonprofit organization led primarily by volunteers and supported by in-house fundraising.

"Our goal has always been, every year we do some fundraisers," Grant said. "We actually hosted our own tournament this year called 'Battle of the Plains.'"

Reflecting its name, most members of the club come from Plainfield, Grant said. All of them, he added, have worked hard to make next weekend's tournament a reality and represent their community as best as they are able. In the past, some of the club's individual wrestlers have advanced to the state championships, but for the club as a whole it will be a first.

"It's a very competitive sport. There's different sectionals around the state, four teams of each sectional go to state," Grant said. "We qualified; we had a big tournament and came in the top four from our sectional; so now we're going to the state tournament."

There will be dozens of teams at the tournament. While simply qualifying is already a club first, so too would be winning a state title. Should the senior team place high in the tournament or outright win it, Grant said that it would make an already historic year for the club even more memorable.

"We're going to the state tournament to see how far we can get up the 24-rank," Grant said. "See how close we can get to number one."