Welcome Letter 2023

Hello everybody, we hope that everyone had a good summer. We are excited to get our wrestling season going again. I have tried to keep this welcome letter as brief as possible while covering as much as possible. I will also continuously update our FAQ for anything I may have missed. 

https://spartanwrestling.ca/faq/

If your athlete does not wish to join us this season, no action is needed.  We are starting a new email list through the registration below. All correspondence will be copied and pasted from this new list when we send out future emails.  

We would like to apologise and thank you in advance for filling out all of the forms, however, as we grow we want to continuously strive to be more organized. These forms will help all the coaches be organized and on the same page. 

Coaches

Just a reminder that as of this season, our coaches are all volunteers. Part of our long term strategy is to be in a position to remunerate these hard working individuals for their time and expertise. We all have commitments throughout the day, be it full time employment, studies or both. Please keep this in mind, as in the heart of the season most of us are working between 30-50 hours on top of our jobs each week to keep wrestling prospering in Calgary. 

Tentative Start Date

October 2nd, 2023*

This is based on the City processing applications, and getting the fees processed. The sooner we are able to collect registration fees the sooner we can initiate this process. 

*This start date is subject to change.

Parent spectators at practice.

We love enthusiasm from the parents, however with our continued growth, parents will not be invited into to spectate practices this year. There are a few reasons behind our decision; 1. Space is limited 2. Athlete behaviour is different when parents are around 3. We need the athletes to focus on coaching staff and practice techniques. We are happy to accommodate younger athletes that need some encouragement to stay on their own, as well as quietly popping your head in to see how practice is going for a few minutes here and there as a fly on the wall. 

National Championships Announcements

We received some exciting news this week for the National Championship’s location announcements. The 2025 National Championships will be held in Calgary and Edmonton, the 2026 National Championships will be held in Grande Prairie and Montreal. This really benefits all the athletes in Alberta for travel and accommodation for these events. As mentioned later in this welcome letter, this year’s Championships, which we will be attending, will be in Mississauga, ON.

Emergency Contact Information

Please fill out the form below for each athlete so we are able to keep emergency information organized and quickly accessible.

https://forms.gle/dNS88Ycjhk6scio67

Registration

Thanks to everyone who pre registered. If you have not yet registered, please fill out the form in the link below to register your athlete for this season. Please note, as mentioned above, further correspondence will only be made from this season’s registration form. Should your athlete not be returning this year, no action is required, you will be removed from our mailing list.

https://forms.gle/RKfQR9AbbSHnD6Mz5

If payment is an issue please contact us [coach@spartanwrestling.ca] and we can figure out a solution. Our goal is always to make wrestling accessible to everyone. We can help find solutions to make this possible.

Spartan Social Website

We have put together a new social website for our community to use. We will be posting all of our updates for practices here. This is our solution to emails being sent to junk mail. It will be the responsibility of the parents/athletes to check this before practice each day. 

It is set up so you do not need to register an account to see the news feed. 

We will be using this website for inter-team gamification and other use cases in the future when we can build upon it. Athletes under 13 are prohibited from having accounts. 

www.spartanwrestling.social

[Just a quick note, we realise the site is bare bones and on the slow side right now, and that there are other apps out there that do similar functions much faster. Our website is being custom made for our needs and will built out over the next few seasons to best serve our community’s needs]

Tentative Schedule

This is our tentative schedule at this time; we cannot make it official until we are able to obtain signatures from all four principals once school begins again.

Nose Creek Junior High School – 135 Covepark Square NE

North Trail High School – 12500 Harvest Hills Blvd N

Woodman Junior High School – 8706 Elbow Dr SW

Our Lady of the Rockies High School – 111 Haddon Rd. SW

North Tykes

[K – Grade 2]

Tentative location: Nose Creek JH

Monday/Wednesday

6:30-7:30 pm

North Kids

[Grades 3-5]

Tentative location: Nose Creek JH

Monday/Wednesday

7:30-8:30 pm

North Bantam

[Grades 6-8]

Tentative location: North Trail HS

Monday/Wednesday

7:00-8:15 pm

North Canada Summer Games (CSG)

[Grades 9-12]

Tentative location: North Trail HS

Monday/Wednesday

8:15 – 9:30 pm

South Tykes

[K-Grade 2]

Tentative location: Woodman JH

Tuesday/Thursday 

6:30-7:30 pm

South Kids

[Grades 3-5]

Tentative location: Woodman JH

Tuesday/Thursday

7:30-8:30 pm

South Bantam

[Grades 6-8]

Tentative location: Our Lady of the Rockies

Tuesday/Thursday

7:00-8:15 pm

South Canada Summer Games (CSG)

[Grades 9-12]

Tentative location: Our Lady of the Rockies

Tuesday/Thursday

8:15 – 9:30 pm

South Greco *Minimum number of registrants required

[Grades 6-12]

Tentative location: Our Lady of the Rockies 

https://forms.gle/ySHcX4uAvX5HgDeh8 – Registration for Greco-Roman

Friday

Lightweight (Under 70kg)

6:30 – 7:30 pm

Heavyweight (Over 70kg)

7:30 – 8:30 pm

How to Pay

We prefer E-transfer directly into the business account to save on some fees [coach@spartanwrestling.ca], however, if you would like to pay by card we can provide you with a link to pay the invoice online. 

Please include the athlete’s name(s) in the notes section of the E-transfer and we will email a paid invoice.

First Year Pricing

As part of our mission to help introduce more athletes to the sport we have decided to alter our pricing structure. There will be a discount for all first year athletes to the club. This cannot be combined with our 25% sibling discount, which will be available thereafter. Additionally, this will only be available for the 2 practice/week option. 

Everybody will be considered a first year athlete this year from a pricing perspective. 

Pricing

First Year Discount (Everybody will start 2023/24 as a first year athlete regardless of previous tenure)

After 1st year discount

Alberta Amateur Wrestling Association (AAWA) membership. 

All athletes are required to purchase a membership to AAWA each season, which must be signed up for on the AAWA platform.  It is not required to provide us verification as we can see on our end when it is completed. This must be purchased before the athlete attends their first practice. This link will be sent out around Sept 18th, 2023. 

Tournaments

The tournament schedule for the year is listed on our website. 

https://spartanwrestling.social/events/

Camps

We will be hosting a series of camps throughout the season to elaborate on things we work on in practice as well as add to the skills that we don’t necessarily have time to touch on during the season plan. These camps are only available for Bantam and CSG age groups. 

Technical Camps

1. November 4, 2023 – Setups & Basic
2. November 17, 2023 – Takedowns
3. December 16, 2023 – Neutral Wrestling
4. January 13, 2024 – Ground Wrestling
5. January 20, 2024 – Throws
6. February 16, 2024 – High Intensity

Camp pricing

$40/camp

6 camps for $190

3 camps for $110

Camps can be paid for the same method as registration. 

Register for camps using link below

https://forms.gle/N9DjjrgpGqegx3UBA

Travel opportunities

For some of these trips we need to gauge interest so please fill out the forms beside if you are  interested. These are not commitments, however they do allow us to plan and budget better. 

• Regina, SK
• Wetaskiwin, AB
• Saskatoon, SK
• Stirling, AB
• Lethbridge, AB
• National Championships (Mississauga) https://forms.gle/GReZWB6EG9aSEMaZ9
• Euro Tour https://forms.gle/WiZsGEsfrYngvbUh9
• Bantam Tour https://forms.gle/hoLicdaGa53VurRk7

Homework Club

Our mission within the club is to help athletes on and off the mat. We are looking to start up our homework club again this year before practice each night for Bantam and CSG age groups. We are looking to hire a Grade 11 or 12 student to spearhead this initiative. If you are in grade 11/12 and interested in this leadership opportunity, please let us know. We will have more information soon. 

Town Hall dates

We are going to try something new this year and host a few town halls. Our goal for these is for Parents and Athletes to come in and meet the coaches, hear about what we have planned for the year and have a chance to ask any questions that may pop up.

North Welcome – September 27, 2023

South Welcome – September 28, 2023

Bantam Tour – November 27, 2023

Euro Tour – November 28, 2023

Any questions you have prior to the Town Hall can be submitted in this form. 

https://forms.gle/Rue1qduhGHJk25nH9

Policy and release forms link

Our policies and release forms can be found following the link below. Please print them and bring them to your first practice. 

https://spartanwrestling.ca/policies/

Growth plan for wrestling in Calgary 

We are actively trying to grow the sport in Calgary, and our primary focus is within the school system. Calgary Club Wrestling depends heavily on school wrestling to introduce young athletes to the sport. It is our mission to help facilitate this to the best of our ability. Many of our coaches also volunteer at a school to help teachers safely teach technique and the rules of wrestling. If you are interested in reading more on our framework for growth please check out the link below

https://spartanwrestling.ca/framework-for-growth-in-school-wrestling/

Coaching JH schools

As part of our fundraising for our Euro trip, grade 11 and 12 athletes can volunteer at a JH school which feeds to their current high school and we will donate to their trip. We will have more detailed information around the end of September. Please fill out the form in the link below if you think that you might be interested. 

https://forms.gle/eqEUPRDkgCVyTU8p8

Thanks again for taking the time to digest all this information. We look forward to seeing everyone as soon as the new season begins!

Cody Fairburn