NEW SPORTS WRESTLING

Coach Justin Davis gives us all the details on the Inaugural Season of PA's wrestling team.

Interview By Andrea Loy, Edited by Samuel Adams

How did you get your start at Providence Academy as the wrestling coach?

Prior to coming to Providence, my wife was homeschooling our son, Rowan, and we wanted to look at other options. Once we interviewed and toured the school, we knew there was no other option; we wanted to be at Providence. In terms of coaching, it was brought to my attention that there was a need for another winter sport for boys as basketball was getting flooded with participants. I had wrestled in the past, and I have always loved coaching kids. It simply made sense to try and bring a wrestling program to Providence.

How does your faith impact your coaching?

I was raised in church like many people in this area. But I have learned to take Christ with me in everything that I do. As we started the program, I wanted to find a Biblical text to become our anchor text for the year. The oldest written text mentioning wrestling is found in the Bible in Genesis 32 when Jacob wrestles with God. This text became our mantra for the year because in this Biblical story, Jacob is facing many challenges such as facing his brother and wondering if he would be killed in the process. This relates well to when wrestlers step onto the mat because you cannot hide behind the rest of your team. Wrestling forces you to face your opponent, your insecurities, the internal question of, is this opponent better than me? This text helped me to bring a Biblical perspective to our program.

How did the first year of the wrestling program go?

We started with a wrestling camp in the summer for middle school boys. We only had around eight boys come out, which was worrying because we had already worked to be voted into the local conference. Thankfully, the program started to build momentum and we eventually had 24 sign up to be on the team. We had about 3-4 weeks of practice prior to our first match, and we only had two wrestlers who had competed previously. We really had the simple goal of finishing in the top half of the conference, but by the end of the season, we finished third in the individual tournaments, with three 1st place medals, two 2nd place medals, and a 3rd place medal, as well as finishing third in the team dual.

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What were some of your favorite moments of coaching this season?

It was a good year of favorite stories! One of my favorite moments was hosting the first-ever wrestling match at Providence Academy. It was neat to bring something new to Providence for the first time and put our stamp on it. Another time, Caleb Oggero pulled off a crazy upset in a match where he did a unique move that we later nicknamed the Caleb, which he did a few other times in the year. It was his flexibility and athleticism that pulled it off and left us all stunned.

Another favorite moment was in teaching the Lord’s prayer to the team this year. After every practice and before every match, we would all get on the mat and repeat the prayer together. It was a great, foundational way to teach them how to pray and throughout the season, everyone became more comfortable praying it together. We started out with me leading the prayer and everyone repeating to everyone praying in unison to Ford Bowman leading the prayer as the team captain.

It’s also easy to forget that these boys are still kids, especially when looking at a wrestler like Ford Bowman who seems like he has been wrestling for years. Early in the season, he faced his toughest opponent of all year in a match and lost, but later during the tournaments, he faced the same opponent and won, getting gold in the tournament.

What are some of your biggest needs as the program grows?

We have two big needs: first, we need to buy another wrestling mat, which costs around $11,000. Out of the two that we use, one is borrowed from Daniel Boone, which needs to be returned eventually. Second, we really need a dedicated practice space so that we do not need to compete with other after-school activities. This program has really picked up speed quicker than we had thought, and I look forward to seeing it continue to grow in the future.