Youth wrestlers from Arlington, Blair, Fort Calhoun and Tekamah met Friday at Arlington High School for the second annual Washington County Duals.
Kids in kindergarten through eighth grade took part, representing Arlington Youth Sports (AYS), Blair Youth Wrestling Club, Pioneer Wrestling Club and Tekamah-Herman Youth Wrestling Club. Fort Calhoun's club previously hosted the inaugural event pulling the Washington County area's teams together.
On Friday, though, it was Arlington's turn to host. Organizers accepted canned food and cash donations as spectators entered, collecting 313 pounds of food and $646 dollars for the Washington County Food Pantry.
“It's a little nerve-racking,” AYS' Jason Overholt said.
His wrestling team was set to host its own home tournament in January, but winter weather forced its cancellation.
“So, now, what made this a little easier was we had a lot of stuff leftover,” Overholt said.
After their disappointment last month, the young Eagles were looking forward to finally wrestling tournament matches on their home mats.
“They're all excited for it,” Overholt said. “This is a really neat thing for them because they watch the high schoolers and, for them to get to be here and do it in that formation, it's really neat.”
While the youth organizations pitted themselves against each other during the event, he said all four groups involved are friendly toward one another.
“We're all pretty close,” Overholt said. “We're always talking every Sunday at tournaments, and we've always been really close with Fort Calhoun. We share a lot of ideas and things. Even Tekamah.”
Before a single match was wrestled Friday, the groups scrunched together for one big photo of everyone involved on the mats.
“We're all a pretty tight bunch,” Overholt said.
