MV Wrestling: New Team, New Year
Rachel Reynaga, New Meadows Correspondent
Meadows Valley School’s Athletic Director Jared McIlvain welcomed and implemented student feedback with a new to the school team of high school girls and boys wrestling. Practices began in mid November, but the hype began growing well before that. This is “the most motivated I’ve seen a group of athletes from our school be in a long time”, said McIlvain. “They’re having fun, and it’s infectious; all sorts of kids are wanting to find ways to be a part of the wrestling program now, whether that’s actually competing, or videoing, or doing stats.”
The team of nine active members has been practicing daily, working on basics and growing conditioning. McIlvain said community interest has risen too. Quinn Gamel, who wrestled through high school at Borah, has been assisting with coaching regularly. Coach McIlvain and the team said Gamel has been a big help. McIlvain also wrestled in high school which he said helped with maintaining conditioning for his top sport of football.
Some of the new wrestlers joined with a similar idea in mind. Junior Natalie Ruth said, “I have done track for four years and went to state for pole vault and I wanted to try something new. Mac told me wrestling would help me condition for track.” Ruth said she’s “looking forward to improving stamina and strength”.
Senior Xaiya Solis said she thought the team seemed like a fun addition and that she was “looking forward to improving my toughness.” She added she is “proud of my fellow wrestlers for their commitment and energy they have for this sport”. Another student said staying committed to the new team was what they were most proud of. Jannette Montemira Flores said she was “most proud of doing single leg takedowns” and is “looking forward to improving on taking the first shot.”
During the October school board meeting, McIlvain presented survey results showing strong student interest in a wrestling team. He added concern over potential starting costs to cover mats, uniforms, and meet expenses. The board was in favor of pursuing the team’s potential and McIlvain was hopeful for donations.
Those hopes were fulfilled quickly when a request he made to Idaho Athletic Directors was returned with a generous offer from Marsing’s AD of the school’s old wrestling mats. Community member Korey Kautz offered McIlvain use of his flatbed trailer for the pick up and the Coach said with that help they “had a wrestling room setup on the school stage in one weekend”.
The donated mats represent a savings of around $12,000 for the program. Money is still needed, but McIlvain said, “we dodged a huge expense there” with the donation. The team is still looking at costs of “around $2,500 by the end of the season, between uniforms, tournament fees, hotel rooms, new scale, sanitation supplies, and other miscellaneous expenses.” He said the school’s budget for a new team “was non-existent since we have not had a program before,” so fundraising is in the works. More on that later.
The MV team currently has 3 boys and 6 girls actively participating which McIlvain said “is a direct reflection of our high school demographics”. He shared that wrestling is the fastest growing sport in Idaho, and in the United States. “There was a time not too long ago where Idaho did not have a wrestling season for girls and they were forced to participate in the boys season. I think the interest has always been there, but now we’re removing barriers and girls are finally getting their own season in most states, starting with the first girls Idaho state competition in 2022.” Information from the Idaho High School’s Athletic Association shows girls enrollment tripling between 2020 and 2023.
McIlvain shared the new team has “caused a much larger interest to spark from middle school.” He said, “My hope is that this is a tipping point to something bigger for our school. I want to see kids have fun with athletics again while also setting and maintaining a high standard for our programs. We’ve struggled to garner participation in winter sports, so my hope is that wrestling is the answer, that it can become our niche. We’ve always had good participation and success in track because of its individualistic nature, and wrestling is similar in many of those ways.”
In order to continue, the team will need community support. The wrestlers are leading the way by organizing a raffle basket to raise funds for this inaugural season and their future. Coach said to break even on travel costs and tournament fees, their goal is around $1,500 raised. Additional funds will help the team grow over the years, purchase new mats, and hopefully allow them to host home meets in the future.
The students plan to visit and reach out to businesses to request donations. They will also be selling raffle tickets locally. Interested donors can also contact the school directly.
Wrestlers are looking forward to their first meet of 2026 on January 10th in Melba. Their nearest contest will be at McCall-Donnelly High School on February 4. Any and all support is appreciated.
The team schedule can be found on the last page of the newspaper and some individual meet information is available on the school website. Let’s go Mountaineers!
