Future goal seeks to resume FHS program
Absent a high school program to continue competing, the Mighty Mustangs youth wrestling program in the International Falls area is in its fifth season for those ranging from prekindergarten through the eighth grade.
Pete Benedix, who has a high school wrestling background himself and heads up the Mighty Mustangs’ coaching, said in a recent interview at The Journal that the program began this season with about 50 wrestlers and now has around 42.
“Some kids, they find out that they really don’t like the sport — it wasn’t really what they thought it was going to be — but we’ve got the kids right now that want to be there and that want to wrestle,” Benedix said. “That’s the most important thing. My whole outlook is that I’d rather have two kids that want to be there rather than 50 that don’t.”
Though the high school wrestling program in the Falls had been discontinued in the 1990s, Benedix said the Mighty Mustangs are “building the foundation for the future of the sport.”
“Regardless of if we don’t have it in the high school right now, but that’s our game plan,” he said “Most of our numbers are in the middle of the grades — second, third, fourth.
“We have some time in pressing and moving forward and doing what we need to do on more of a political aspect with the (Falls) School Board and the (Minnesota) State High School League and whoever has to be involved.”
In the meantime, Benedix said, “We need to teach kids wrestling and to win championships and to learn life skills.”
“It’s not always about winning and losing,” he said. “Our whole goal as coaches is we teach the kids how to lose and how to win. It’s not always about getting your hand raised. It’s about setting realistic goals.”
In the Mighty Mustangs’ wrestling practices, which take place three times a week during the season, Benedix said, “We teach life goals, discipline, respect your elders.”
“One of the big things that I also talk to my kids about — where this gets into life-building skills — is I don’t tolerate any bullying,” he said. “Bullying is one of my biggest pet peeves.
“What I try to teach my kids is that if they’re around or they witness somebody that’s a little bit weaker, we try and pick those kids back up, watch out for them, and build on that. ...It’s not always about wrestling. It’s about being a good person.”
In addition to those participating from the Falls, Benedix said youth wrestlers from Canada who don’t have their own program are also allowed to be part of the Mighty Mustangs.
“My door’s open to anybody,” he said.
When it comes to wrestling, Benedix said, “There’s no sitting on the sidelines.”
“Every wrestler has 4-5 matches in a tournament,” he said. “My kids, by the end of this year, will have close to 40-50 matches.”
While other communities that have had established wrestling programs for years have developed a familiarity with the sport, Benedix said wrestlers who begin with the Mighty Mustangs “are coming in green with really no knowledge of the sport at all.”
“That makes it difficult for us as coaches to build a program, but we’ve done that,” he said. “The success shows when we’re told by other wrestling programs that they can’t believe what we’ve done.”
Mike Holden, who is involved with youth sports in the Falls area and also helps out with the Mighty Mustangs, recalled his first impression of seeing Benedix when Holden assisted the Falls High School wrestling program when it existed.
“I knew from the minute I saw Pete walk through the door that we had another wrestler who was going to go places...,” Holden said. “I’ve known him since he was young. We’ve been involved (in wrestling) together for years. I’ve enjoyed it, and I’m still enjoying it.”
Benedix said the Mighty Mustangs this season will travel as far away as Cloquet, where they placed third earlier this month in team competition, and will be competing in tournaments into April.
“These tournaments range all the way from (prekindergarten) 4-year-old all the way to eighth grade,” he said. “In attendance, some of these tournaments are as big as 500 kids.”
In the team tournament competition, Benedix said teams wrestle in weight categories beginning at 45 pounds and going up in 5-pound increments.
He said the prekindergarten through sixth-grade wrestlers have matches set up for three 1-minute periods, while the seventh- and eighth-graders have matches for up to three 1 1/2-minute periods.
Benedix said it doesn’t matter how much money someone has to be able to participate in wrestling, which doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment.
“If a kid can’t afford wrestling shoes, the program comes forward and we provide the shoes for him,” he said. “There’s really nothing expensive about our sport.”
Holden added, “Even at the high school level, it’s not that expensive.”
While the federal Title IX law, which takes the number of males and females in sports into consideration to determine equal participation on the basis of sex, gets pointed to when schools discontinue or don’t have wrestling, Benedix said both boys and girls may participate.
“If we’re able to get this program back in the high school, girls are more than willing to join wrestling,” he said. “They do it all over the United States. Girls wrestle right along with the boys.”
