CUSAW Chairman’s Quarterly Review

February 1, 2009

A New Approach

It has been a very active three months for CUSAW.  Our goal is to get more wrestlers participating in USAW wrestling events.  Participating in wrestling under the USAW umbrella is what ultimately helps support our Olympic effort as a nation.  A USAW membership card helps support the infrastructure that helps train our athletes to be some of the best in the world.   With Henry Cejudo winning an Olympic gold medal in China while previously winning a Colorado High School State Championship, you might say “the proof is in the pudding.” 

To get more wrestlers involved you will see CUSAW rolling up their sleeves to help wrestling in Colorado where ever it can.  First, we will do all we can in order to run CUSAW wrestling tournaments in an efficient, smooth and timely manner.  A good experience at a local or state CUSAW wrestling event for our wrestlers is the first step to getting more competition to our venues. 

Smooth and efficient events can only be accomplished with many volunteers.  On a state-wide basis, our Board of Directors is but a few people and cannot do everything that needs to be done.  We need your help.  We are asking our clubs to help run local and state events by manning tables, running clocks, recruiting new mat and pairings officials, and educating new coaches.  Parents are welcomed.

trackwrestling.com

For the very first time CUSAW will be using trackwrestling.com to pre-register our wrestlers for all State events.  It is CUSAW’s hope this will be another tool to help our tournaments run smoother and timelier.  Be sure to register online as it will save you $15.  On-site registrations will cost $35 versus $20 for pre-registering online through trackwrestling.com.

Bylaws

We are revising the bylaws for CUSAW.  Discussions are on-going at our monthly Board meetings.  Many issues are being discussed including voting rights, members voting at Board meetings on all discussion topics related to CUSAW operations, email voting, proxy use, and other revision issues.  This is a good time for members to attend and have input as to how CUSAW should be run in the future.

2009 Summer Wrestling Schedule

This summer CUSAW is looking for quality versus quantity.  We are attempting to have tournaments placed around the state to spread out travel for all our members as equally as possible.  There are a few weekends still open and if a club can host a local tournament in Northern Colorado or on the Western Slope, it would go along way in order for CUSAW to place tournaments around our State in a balanced manner.

Website

The CUSAW website is a tool we wish to utilize in order to communicate effectively to our membership and for our membership to communicate with their fellow members.  We hope to include quarterly reports from the chairman, announcements from our directors, articles of interest, schedules, event fliers, commentary from members and directors, event results, pictures of our wrestlers competing,  as well as feedback from the membership.

We have updated our website thanks the efforts of Lenna Fajerman.  She has graciously offered to help upgrade our website and act as the official CUSAW Website Manager in a voluntary capacity.  This will ultimately save CUSAW thousands of dollars in internet professional fees.  CUSAW sends out a sincere thank you to Lenna. 

Fund Raising

We have voted to bring in two professional fund raisers to help raise money to ultimately make things more affordable for our National Team participants and ultimately us such funds to support wrestling around the state.  We will be setting up a paypal system to solicit donations and make payments convenient for our membership and other supporters of wrestling.  There will not be a donation that is too small.

With our tough economic times, fund raising and supporting our athletes is more critical than ever.  I know things are difficult for many of us financially, however, a $5 or $10 donation will be put to good use and perhaps send a young wrestler to a national event that might not otherwise get to go.  It does not take long for these types of donations to make a difference.  Our fund raising efforts are just getting started and will evolve with a little more time.  If you have ideas or contacts, please let us know and we will be happy to make that call.

Conclusion

We are trying some new things to get the ball rolling for CUSAW.  I cannot tell you everything will be a success.  We will never know unless we try.  We ultimately would like to see all the Colorado Youth Leagues support wrestling’s National Governing Body responsible for sending our athletes to the Olympics by becoming directly affiliated with USAW.  There is a strong support group at the national office that is focusing on folkstyle wrestling.  CUSAW will do all it can to support wrestling on a state wide basis and help where ever it can.

As Chairman, I am personally appealing to all coaches in Colorado at every level—clubs, elementary schools, middle school, high school and college.  We need your help.  You are the individuals that dedicate so much time to your wrestlers.  You are their mentors.  We cannot have competitive tournaments without wrestlers.  Please encourage your wrestlers to compete during the spring and summer months.  With more wrestlers we will have more competitive tournaments that will prepare our wrestlers for the national events and just as importantly--state championships in the winter.   

Scott Neitenbach

CUSAW Chairman

303-309-3104

scott@team287.com