By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Starting in March, Cherokee Recreation will launch a new youth wrestling program. Casey Reagan, from Smokey Mountain Judo, will be heading up the program with help from his family, including his sister, Erin Reagan Kirkland, from Cherokee Central Schools.
Reagan is collaborating with Josh Winfrey, from Far West Wrestling, to schedule tournaments and give youth wrestlers opportunities to compete against other wrestlers in the Smoky Mountain Conference.
Jaylynne Esquivel is shown at the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship Tournament in Robbinsville, N.C. on June 10, 2021. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
Cherokee Recreation Manager Kamiyo Lanning is excited for the collaboration. “People want to do inter-club wrestling and stuff like that, which is great, but these are kids that they’re going to be wrestling with when they get up to middle and high school. I think it builds good sportsmanship,” she said.
Registration for the program through Cherokee Recreation will start in January through mid-February. March will begin the six-to-eight-week program, which will include practices at the Donald “Kool-Aide” Queen Wolftown Gym and competitions in the Peaches Squirrell Sports and Recreation Complex.
The program will include the growing sport of girls’ wrestling. “Girls need to know they can do anything they want to be able to do,” Lanning said.
Janell Rattler, recreation aide and senior games coordinator, discussed the potential of bringing in decorated wrestlers for wrestling clinics, like Aynsley Fink, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and a state champion wrestler from Robbinsville who is currently wrestling at Ottawa University in Kansas.
“It’s a good opportunity to try something new,” Lanning said.
Cherokee Recreation will share more information, including registration information and the official name of the program, in the new year.
