Sports

Melee til Midnight Tournament Helps Vienna Wrestling Grow

This article was written and reported by Ethan Levine.

The third Eric Monday Memorial Wrestling Tournament, otherwise known as the Melee til Midnight tournament, was held Saturday night on the James Madison High School football field.  

The tournament hosted hundreds of youth and high school wrestlers from across the Northern Virginia area, bringing together the local wrestling community under the lights for one of the premier wrestling events of the summer.

The tournament was created four years ago in memory of Eric Monday, a former James Madison High School wrestler who died tragically at the age of 22. All tournament proceeds are donated each year to the Eric Monday Memorial Foundation, an organization created in Monday's name that raises money to enhance the local wrestling community through clinics, camps, tournaments and more.

Shawn Hutchinson, head coach of the James Madison High School varsity wrestling team and former Madison student, said Monday began his career at Madison just after Hutchinson's ended, but that he returned to his alma mater numerous times to watch Monday wrestle.

"He was very passionate about wrestling," Hutchinson said of Monday. "He loved it."

The event kicked off with a clinic for tournament participants led by Tom Carr, assistant coach of the George Mason University wrestling team, as well as members of the GMU squad. The clinic lasted close to an hour before the tournament began and focused on fundamental moves and techniques.

"It's always fun to come out and get to work with little kids," Carr said. "We work with the college guys who are more  advanced and you're kind of fine-tuning smaller things, whereas little kids it's a whole new wide world to them to learn new skills."

The tournament itself was broken into age groups (8-9 year olds, 10-11 year olds and high schoolers) as well as weight classes. Some age groups and weight classes had more entrees than others, but Hutchinson said that the tournament as a whole had about 250 total entrees.

Hutchinson said he thinks the event goes a long way to promoting the sport of wrestling in the Northern Virginia area, which is exactly what Monday would want.

"These kids probably, most of the time, don't even know what wrestling is about, how exciting it can be," Hutchinson said. "So (the tournament) gets the community involved, we get all these sponsors, we invite people out, it's excitement. It makes the sport more exciting."

To view results from the Melee til Midnight tournament visit kapwrestling.net.


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