Beach Blog: Flipping the script between competition and comradery

Tuesday, May 13, 2025…  One of the selling points of wrestling has always been our ability to flip the switch between competition and comradery.  Nowhere in today’s fractious world is that more evident than at a Beach Wrestling event.

We finished the finals of this first 2025 event a couple of hours ago.  Team USA wrestled well today, as you’ve seen in Gary’s results article.  With three medals, we achieved 50 percent.  An our other three competed well against some studs!

And there WERE some studs!  Cuba and Argentina had impressive performances.  Host Mexico put up both quantity and quality.  As always, Georgia’s men crushed it.

It’s a shame our continent can’t create more financial support to get these studs to Europe, Asia Africa for Beach World Series and Age Group championships.  I hope, in the near future, the Pan-American countries can work together to overcome this.

This has some urgency, as entry quotas are currently being discussed for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar.  Obviously, my first concern is U.S. entries.  That said, there are great youngsters throughout our continent from Canada all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

Now… about that Comradery…  I was reminded, this evening, that it is the primary reason I keep paying my own way to Beach events. These young superstars remind us why we fell in love with wrestling in the first place.

Immediately after tonight’s champions finished showering each other in champagne, our hosts carried out a table full of sandwiches and soft drinks to the central ring.  These fabulous athletes who, an hour before, were competing with blind intensity were trading shirts and taking pictures.

What models of humanity we get to be associated with!  These magnificent athletes are even more so as humans.

I’ve got one more follow-up tomorrow, then I’ll pick it up from Porec, Croatia at the end of the month.

Thanks, Wrestling!

Ciao

Monday, May 12, 2025…  We had a solid first day… 9-4 overall.  Justin, Kyle and Eliana are undefeated through the first two rounds.

While the total number may seem small, the individuals are significant.  The Pan American countries seem to be catching on to the benefits of Beach style, technique, tactic.  Many of the participants in last week’s Pan American Championship in the Olympic styles stayed over and are wrestling Beach.

One is Argentina’s Agustin Destribats, who won the Freestyle championship last night at 65kg.  Agreed… he won in the debacle of a match over Joey McKenna… but the guy’s no slouch.  Destribats stays in great position and makes few mistakes.

That’s why I want to brag about Bryan Coll.  Bryan, a New Yorker from Long Island, gave the Freestyle continental champion all he wanted.  Bryan was leading, 1-0, with about a minute to go. 

The Argentine stepped up his urgency just enough for Coll to miss a step and tumble to a hip… now it’s 1-1 and Destribats holds criteria.  Destribats was able to hold position during that last for the win.

It was Bryan Coll, though, who captured the crowd’s attention.  I know he certainly caught mine.  Bryan put together a finely tuned match plan and executed it almost flawlessly.  The Argentine’s last single point is the definition of ‘Almost’.

As I watch Beach Wrestling grow in popularity around the world, I also see the rapid growth in technical / tactical finesse.  It’s clear in watching our six Americans.

Much of that growth must be credited to the intensive study and dedication that American Coach Timmy Box brigs to the drawing board.  A World Medalist himself, Coach Tim is becoming one of the world’s masters of Coaching the Beach style.

Much of that growth also must be credited to North Carolina’s Ed Duncan.  Through his USA Beach Wrestling and its Tour of America, Ed has developed Beach Wrestling opportunities for athletes of all ages across the lower 48.

Do your own homework to confirm why I’m bragging these guys up.  I anticipate being able to bring you another serving of Brag after tomorrow’s finals.  I look forward to it!

Ciao

Sunday, May 11, 2025…  Lots of reasons to celebrate!  We’re still basking in the celebration of yesterday’s Beach Wrestling National Championship and age group World Team Trials.  Thanks again, North Carolina. Great job.

Eva and I started out at one, this morning, dropping folks off at the Wilmington airport.  Then we drove two hours, to Myrtle Beach, SC for our flights out.  Eva returned to our New Mexico home, while I set out for Monterrey, Mexico.

Monterrey wrapped up their Pan-American Championship in the current Olympic Styles this evening.  The United States continued our weeklong celebration of success, as our Men’s Freestyle team hammered out the Gold trophy.

Add that trophy to the other two Gold Trophies USA Wrestling notched, over the last week and it was an American trifecta.   Our Greco-Roman team hoisted their 2025 Pan-Am Gold trophy Friday night.  Our Women  added the weekend’s second Gold last night.  What a week !

Tomorrow is the first of two days where we will manage Extreme Heat Warnings, in Monterrey, during the first installment of the 2025 Beach World Series.  Simply arriving creates cause for celebration among the world’s Beach superstars.

It’s not uncommon for Beach athletes to travel alone.  Many federations lack the financial wherewithal to offer full support.  Our American senior athletes are gaining federation support, but still travel on their own dime.

I ran into one athlete from Greece and one referee from Bulgaria this morning coming through passport control.  None of us knew how we would get from airport to hotel.  Working together, we found the “Transportation Guy” sent by the host federation.   Just the notion that three of us from three vastly different backgrounds find such instant comradery is cause for celebration.

I celebrate the individual and group mentality that our American Beach heroes display.  Behind Coach Timmy Box’s model, we typically adopt athletes who have no support system at the event.

We began our ‘Adoption’ program a year ago in Acapulco.  A young Ukrainian athlete, Anastasiya  Kravchenko, showed up alone.  She and her mom had fled the first couple of weeks after the war started.  They were living in Canada with an aunt while Anastasiya’s dad and fiancé had joined the militia.

Coach Timmy brought Anastasiya into our group and under his wing.  She won the tournament in Acapulco… and the ‘Best Technique’ award, both with money prizes.  With those earnings, Anastasiya changed her return ticket and flew to Poland where she could sneak across the border to be reunited with Dad and boyfriend.

They were married last summer.  Anastasiya completed all the World Series events and became World Champion.

As I walked into the restaurant last night for our USA team meeting, I saw this tiny redhead sprinting straight at me.  Anastasiya’s back !  She used her 2024 Beach earnings to arrange a visit to her Canadian aunt and will return to Ukraine after this event.

So… my day focused on celebration and ended with Celebration!   Wrestling gives us frequent reasons to celebrate.

Here’s one more… and it’s 100% Class Act.  As our USA Men’s Freestyle Team gathered for their championship photo this evening, they circled up for a team cheer.  Everyone in the arena heard it, loud and clear.  Our 2025 Pan American Championship Delegation celebrated with these simple words: “HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY !!!!!”

 Ciao

Over three hundred athletes from 31 states and Barbados competed in the Beach Wrestling National Championship today. Carolina Beach and North Carolina – USA Wrestling extended their annual “Good Southern Hospitality" to all!

USAW journalist SJ Asmann has already reported the results. Thanks, SJ, for your ‘Touch’. I hope to give you a taste of the ‘Tone’ that produced those results.

We started with clouds and wind and cold. We ended with clouds. Beyond the rays shone of dramatically increased technical prowess, the day was warmed by the humor and humanity that has become Beach Wrestling’s trademark.

We had a solid group of college aged athletes for Oklahoma, show up a dark-thirty and help set up tents, competition rings and medical area. Thanks, guys! We had a local high school Naval ROTC unit give up a Saturday in May to staff tables, clocks and computers. Much appreciated!

We had old-timers and newcomers in officiating show up, from several states, to give of themselves. We had National Office hero, Karen Robinson attend her first Beach event and make sure every kid got a T-shirt that fit!

With a slew of Regional Championships (in the Olympic Styles), along with indoor events hosted by other entities, going on across the country, Beach Wrestling showed why it is gaining such popularity both nation-wide and globally. WE HAD FUN!

I had fun! I got to visit with wrestling friends I’ve shared that last five decades with. I got to referee some extraordinary bouts. I got to meet new heroes, who will mark our  sport with their excellence for years to come.

Congrats to our Freestyle and Greco legends for you performance at the Pan-American Championship in Monterrey. I’m gonna sleep a couple of hours, drive to the airport in Myrtle Beach, get Eva on a flight home, the fly to Monterrey.

I look forward to spending a couple of days with Beach legends Gary Abbott and Timmy Box, watching our current American Beach Wrestling stars continue to build their legacies. Monterrey is the first stop of the 2025 World Series of Beach Wrestling.

I look forward to sharing an insiders view with you. Thanks Wrestling!

Ciao

Twenty year old… it doesn’t seem possible.  My baby’s growin’ up !

In 2005, FILA (now United World Wrestling) announced that we would take a look at a new developing style:  Beach Wrestling. Traditionalists shrugged their shoulders and chuckled. Gary Abbott (USAW Communications Director) and I both said, “Hmmm, why not ?”

Stormo (David Stormo, Taos, NM) and I hosted the first ever U.S. Playa Seca Nationals in Carlsbad, NM, in June of 2006. Gary was there ! Today, twenty years later, Ed Duncan, North Carolina, USA Wrestling, and USA Beach Wrestling host the twentieth in Carolina Beach...America’s Mecca for Beach Wrestling.

I’m in Carolina Beach, with Eva, as proud Grandparents of our twenty-year-old style. I’ll help Head Referee Paul Krugel (Ohio) mentor a generation of developing referees, regarding the sensitive nuances of the Beach style… and Wrestling in general.

Our twentieth celebration will, in part, select the foundation of USA Wrestling’s 2025 age group world teams. Male and female athletes will compete for three spots, both women and men, in both the U17 and U20 age categories. Those World Teams will compete in the 2025 Championship, the last week of September, in Katerini, Greece.

Senior level athletes in Carolina Beach will earn credit towards qualification for vacancies on U.S. delegations to 2025 Beach World Series events in Croatia, Morocco, Katerini, and Egypt. Ironically, the Beach World Series begins Monday and Tuesday in Monterrey, Mexico, accompanying the Senior Pan-American Championship.

With its ‘Young Adult’ status in the global wrestling picture, senior level athletes now pile up points towards a World Championship worth tens of thousands of dollars. Our baby’s grown up !

I will leave Carolina Beach, dark-thirty Sunday morning, for a flight to Monterrey. I’ll continue this twentieth celebration of Beach Wrestling. Most importantly for me… I’ll celebrate both thinking and saying the words, “Hmmm, why not?”

Ciao