The 11th annual Worthington Christian Wrestling Invitational is fast approaching. This two day affair, attended by thirty-two teams, is a smooth-running, high-quality wrestling tournament that Worthington Christian hosts each year. But before the first whistle is blown on January 25, there is a lot of work that has to be done.Set-up for the tournament begins early Friday afternoon, and both the Worthington Christian wrestlers and the stat girls are pulled out of school early to assist with the preparations. The gym and the commons area are transformed for the tournament. Five mats must be set up in the gym, each with a scoring table and a score board. Bout tickets, the papers that tell the tables which matches will be wrestled on their mats, must all be prepared. The bout board also has to be set up so that wrestlers know on which mat they are competing.
By far the most arduous task of the set-up process is the coaches’ room. In the hospitality room, all of the coaches and referees are provided with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Volunteers, led by Coach Foley’s wife, Leslie Foley, work around the clock to keep the food coming. Additionally, a concession stand is run for the attending audience and the wrestlers. In years past, we have also provided a lasagna dinner for the entire proceeding. The hospitality room is known state-wide, and coaches have called the school to be invited, specifically citing the room as their reason for wanting to attend.
Once the tournament begins, there is hardly a moment to rest for the ones running the tournament. Stat girls and parents involved in the wrestling program run the tables, work the bout board, run bout tickets between tables, and “bop” the referees when the time has expired. The tournament runs from Friday afternoon through late Saturday night, and the amount of teams competing means that nearly every moment of that time span is spent on the mats.
The invitational serves an important purpose in paying for the wrestling program at Worthington Christian. Nearly the entire wrestling budget is raised through the ads sold in the program and the money made at the door and at concessions. Without this tournament, it would not be possible for the program to purchase new singlets, mats, or even shirts for the stat girls.“There’s no other tournament like it in Central Ohio,” says Cody Irwin, a senior on the Varsity wrestling team. “The thing that sets up apart the most is that God is mentioned.” Indeed, the WCHS Invitational is the largest sports outreach event that Worthington Christian hosts. Over three hundred wrestlers and their families attend, and the gospel is clearly presented in the gap between normal wrestling and finals by a guest speaker. In years past, the presentation has been given by alumni, pastors, and even teachers, but they all present the gospel in a way that is real and applicable to their audience.
Colin Heasley, Daniel Foley, and Cody Irwin, all seniors on the Varsity team, are expected to place in the upcoming tournament, but each of them realize that there is something bigger at stake during the tournament. Cody Irwin phrases it best when he says, “It gives us the chance to get outside the realm of wrestling, and into the realm of ministry.”
