TRENTON- Last year, the newly-formed Trenton Youth Wrestling organization brought some huge names in the wrestling world to town for a clinic with area kids. This weekend, Trenton will get a visit from the biggest name there is in amateur wrestling. Kyle Snyder, the defending NCAA, World, and recently crowned Olympic champion, will headline a clinic at Hedgepeth-Williams Elementary...
TRENTON- Last year, the newly-formed Trenton Youth Wrestling organization brought some huge names in the wrestling world to town for a clinic with area kids.
This weekend, Trenton will get a visit from the biggest name there is in amateur wrestling.
Kyle Snyder, the defending NCAA, World, and recently crowned Olympic champion, will headline a clinic at Hedgepeth-Williams Elementary School. Snyder beat Khetag Gazyumov in Rio to become the youngest American wrestler to bring home the gold, at just 20-years-old.
It will also include 2015 NCAA Coach of the Year Tom Ryan of Ohio State, who gave an emotional talk last year to kick off the new program.
The event will be spread over two days, with Bethea returning to Trenton to wrestle Saturday night against Nick Heflin. It will be the first time in years that Bethea will wrestle a match in his hometown, before he leaves for Washington D.C. to help coach the George Washington University team. But while he will make his long-awaited return to the mat, Bethea is more excited for the wrestlers in his new organization who will continue to benefit from some of the best coaching there is.
Bethea family looking to help the youth of Trenton through wrestling
"It is going well for us," Bethea said. "At the beginning last year, we started with zero wrestlers. Now, we have 40-50. We have gotten more sponsors. But now, we have the best wrestler in the USA coming into town to help us this weekend. It is a sign we are doing something right.
We also have coach Ryan, who last year gave one of my favorite speeches I have ever heard. We are so excited to bring them to Trenton. Coach Ryan is such a motivating force. He motivated Ohio State to the 2015 national title, and Kyle Snyder to the Olympic gold medal. He can definitely motivate.
But I think this event shows a lot about the character of Kyle. He just won the title, and he is coming out here to Trenton to help some of the underprivileged kids of the area."
But for Bethea, it is also a chance to get back on the mat in front of his friends, who have not seen him wrestle in the area for half a decade.
"I am training hard," Bethea said. "I just took a job at George Washington University, and I have a full plate right now. But I am excited to go back and wrestle in Trenton.
On senior night at TCHS, I did not think I would get to wrestle here anymore. So to give my friends an family a chance to see me wrestle is awesome. But it is really about Kyle Snyder this weekend. We already know he is a great wrestler, with all his titles. It will be great to see him in Trenton."
Snyder becomes youngest Olympic wrestling champ in U.S. history
The clinic, which is sponsored by Beat the Streets, Capital City My Brother's Keeper, the City of Trenton, and Wrestlers in Business Network of Princeton, will see Bethea and Helfin wrestle Saturday night, before Ryan and Snyder talk about their experiences. It will run from 5-7 p.m. Sunday morning, from 9-10:30 a.m., Ryan and Snyder will run a clinic on the mats.
Dr. Mark McLaughlin, a neurosurgeon at Princeton Brain and Spine who was also recently inducted into the New Jersey Wrestling Hall of Fame, is the head of the Wrestlers in Business Network of Princeton. As someone who has greatly benefitted from a lifetime of the sport, he wanted to help give back to the Trenton area.
"To have Kyle Snyder come in is a huge shot in the arm to the Trenton Youth Wrestling program," McLaughlin said. "I started coaching youth wrestling in Princeton 15 years ago, and we brought kids from one level to the next. Princeton is the Athens of the 21st century. It has wealth and opportunity.
Trenton is just down the road, and it has its problems. But we started to think about what would happen if the kids from Trenton had the same opportunities. Kyle Snyder is the gold standard, and we wanted to see Kyle in person.
This program is not just about wrestling. I believe that wrestling installs an operating system in your brain. It instills success, hard work, and constant improvement."
McLaughlin, who has been instrumental in the growth of the program, has worked hand-in-hand with the Bethea family to set up an organization that prepares kids for success.
"With the partnership of Beat the Streets, we have been able to do many things," McLaughlin said. "We have tutoring. We have two schools each with 25 kids, and we want to increase that number. We want to add girls to the program, and bring that to Trenton. It is a sport that is growing.
I save lives every day in medicine. But I think I can save more lives with this wrestling program."
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean