Kids prepare for wrestling through Moberly Kids Club

By Kris Childs

Moberly Kids Club wrestling is an organization that has been a part of Moberly’s youth since 1984. Randy Steen was the head coach of Moberly’s high school wrestling team back then when he started the organization to educate young kids about wrestling and to prepare them for high school. Randy had the help of Jerry Brockman and Greg Mackey who are both former Moberly wrestlers.

The Moberly Kids Club wrestling is chartered through USA wrestling and can be found all throughout the state. Though the wrestling season runs through the school year there is no involvement with Moberly School District or any government program. The club is independently funded completely on membership dues.

Through its 26 years of existence the Kids Club coaching duties have been passed on several times. The responsibility of coaching the organization is completely voluntary and is often done by former wrestling athletes with some assistance of parents who have kids involved with the program. Currently the club is run by Orville Guthrie, a former member of the Moberly Kids Club, former high school wrestling athlete, and currently has two kids of his own in the club. Orville is assisted by former wrestlers Ed Dixon, John Bohan, James Sales, and Brad Jorgenson.

The age requirements for the club are between 5-14 to compete in tournaments but are allowed to sign up as young as age four to begin training. The club usually has between 42-50 members each year. The wrestling season begins in November and runs all the way through the end of March. Moberly along with other towns from the surrounding area hold tournaments that the kids travel to and compete in. Tournaments are completely voluntary letting parents pick and choose which tournaments they want their child to participate in. Some tournaments are held for novice wrestlers while others are for more advanced or experienced wrestlers.

Kids compete in local tournaments based on three different criteria, age, weight, and ability. Kids are ranked on a scale of 1-4, 4 is a first year wrestler, 3 is anyone with 2+ years of experience, 2 is anyone who has qualified for state, and 1 is anyone who has metaled at state in the past.

Once district play begins the ability ranking system is no longer used and the kids are grouped based only on age and weight. Moberly along with every other group takes their top six qualifiers from districts to send to regionals, from there they send their top four qualifiers to state.

This year Moberly took nine wrestlers to districts and all nine qualified for regionals. Seven of the nine competed in regionals and five qualified for state. Among the state qualifiers are: Kyler Guthrie, 10, 100 pound; Dominick Guthrie, 12, 105 pounds; Mickie Sires, 12, 165 pounds; Colby Dixon, 14, 95 pounds; Blake Joiner, 14, 140 pounds. Kyler, Dominick, Mickie and Blake are all in their third year while Colby is in his sixth year with the Moberly Kids Club.

These five kids will compete in the state finals in Columbia at the Hearnes Center March 26 and 27.

Photo above: Moberly Kids Club members are from left, front row, Kyler Guthrie, Dominick Guthrie and Colby Dixon; back row, John Bohan, Ed Dixon, Blake Joiner, Mickey Sires and Orville Guthrie.