Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.   Nederland Middle Senior High School sixth grader Joey Airola has been wrestling competitively for a year and a half with the Gilpin County Youth Wrestling team and is now looking forward to wrestling with the newly formed Nederland team.

Joey went to his first practice because a friend invited him and told him about a wrestling club up here in the mountains. Since then Joey has been wrestling for the GCYW team and has been traveling across the Front Range for meets in the Metro Junior Wrestling League.

This year, the Nederland middle level student is also competing in some of the national tournaments  held in Denver. These are huge events with laser light shows at the beginning and lots of fan-fare.  These national tournaments draw a lot of the top wrestlers from the surrounding states.

Joey is no stranger to attending sports events. He has three older brothers, so he has always wrestled to the top of the pile of boys roughhousing in the living room. Two of them wrestled successfully for NMSHS at the middle school level by winning their weight groups at the BVSD and one competed for the NHS  and went to State competition in the 103 lb weight division.

Those brothers now attend Joey’s  tournaments and love to give pointers and cheer him on in his pursuit of wrestling.

Last week, Joey accomplished one of his goals by winning the Rookie Division for his weight at the Who’s Bad National Championship. His next goal is to continue to improve in the ranks of the Experienced wrestlers. After this year, Joey will have two years of wrestling experience and will no longer be considered a Rookie.

When asked why he likes wrestling, Joey said, “It is really fun and it takes hard work and discipline to get to the top and that challenge is done step by step. You get to learn how to lose and get back up and learn from your mistakes.”

Wrestling is an individual sport on the mat, with a winner and a loser in every bout and with practice and training, you get to improve in the winning column. Joey also knows that there are a lot of colleges out there that offer scholarships for wrestling and that is one of his long term goals.

Joey anticipates helping put Ned back on top in this sport with help from his Middle School teammates.

Wrestling at Ned is open to all 6th-8th brade boys and girls. Coach Todd Oliver will head up the 2 016 season, which lasts five weeks with two culminating events. Practices will be held after school, from 3:30-5 p.m.

To sign up or for more information, contact Coach Todd Oliver, 303-459-1123, or canyonplumbingandheating@gmail.com. Registration is also available on-line at bvsd.org/schools/nmshs.