South and Thomas middle schools join forces to wrestle

Students stormed the mats to be the first to participate in the District 25 wrestling program.

Ninety students from both South and Thomas middle schools joined, ready to learn from the four coaches, who are also District 25 employees. They volunteer their time to teach morals, effort, dedication and commitment.

"Wrestling teaches students to be confident, courageous, and humble," Mike Damico said.

Damico teaches art at Thomas. He and fellow Thomas teacher and head coach Ben Hamilton started the program from scratch last year, but just for Thomas. Once South saw the program's success and how impactful it was, they reached out to join the movement.

"Wrestling is a sport that values all sizes and shapes of kids, and it made me feel great that a team in the school needed me," said Coach Jay Bingaman, a science teacher at South Middle School.

Bingaman was smaller as a kid and never saw himself as an athlete, but wrestling changed that.

"I stayed with the sport all through high school and it taught me a lot of perseverance," Bingaman said. "When you get in trouble you cannot pass the ball away. You need to look inside for the solution. The sport had a huge impact on who I am now, and I am delighted for the chance to pass that on to today's students."

The South wrestlers are bussed, everyday to Thomas for practice. The meets have been coordinated by the coaches, who worked hard over the past year and a half to put together a proper schedule for the wrestlers to compete in.

But, again, this is more than about competing for these students.

"We as coaches are compassionately and sincerely concerned for more than just their athletic qualities, but rather who they are and who they can become," Coach Kevin Steck said.

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