Thom, thank you for your donation to the PWC and RTC. You were very generous and it is greatly appreciated. The donations pay for many things. For example, Conor Youtsey salary and insurance are paid for by the club. He is a great kid, very intelligent, works his butt off with every roster kid we have from 125 to 149 and is a huge asset to the program. Trust me when I tell you he is very bright and has a great future ahead of him. Second, when our kids go to freestyle tournaments such as university nationals, or the US open, the club Pat's for them to go and to be coached by one of our coaches. The freestyle piece makes them better and is a huge recruiting piece. Third, the Olympic Regional Training Center which was up and running for the first time this spring/summer. We have kids from within 250 miles that comeback to train in our room as long as they qualify. This requires placing in one of several prestigious freestyle tournaments but also the PIAA state tourney. Needless to say almost every kid we are recruiting is eligible and it gives them a chance to train in our room with our coaches and our team guys. We have one sponsored athlete in the RTC. This means we pay this young man to train at Pitt and to train our kids. We need one at all 6 Olympic weight classes, but obviously this will take time and money. We have one and his name is Samat. He is a world class wrestler who has medaled in several prestigious events including the Asian championships and the Dave Schultz Memorial open. The last Pitt guy to medal at events of this caliber was Keith Gavin. He has been great in the RTC practices working with and essentially schooling all our lighter weight guys as well as lighter weight recruits eligible to come to RTC. I have been told by several people how tough he is and how much better he is making people in our room. He will compete for Pittsburgh RTC in the upcomg Dave Schultz Memorial and will represent us very well. We need more like him for obvious reasons, but it takes money. If anyone read the Flo Wrestling article 3 weeks ago on tax statements returned for wrestling clubs they saw that PSU had 5.7 million dollars donated annually. The next closest was Iowa at 550k. We have been operating on a budget of about 50k. Just think about that staggering difference. However, we can make a difference. Listen, with some people getting behind this effort a 150k budget is possible. That leads to 3 sponsored athletes. That's 3 guys competing for an Olympic spot for us. That's 3 guys to improve every kid on our team. That's 3 guys to draw recruits. With 250k, thats 6 guys. One at every Olympic weight class. That means we need guys willing to donate 100$ a year, 50$ a year, 500$ a year. It gets you no points from Pitt, but the money donated is so pure. It goes directly to making are kids better. There is. I question as to where it is spent. If you listened to Coach Gavin's interviews when hired, he says over and over again, an RTC is the only way to win. He's right. Ask PSU. It's how the get all those recruits. Ask OSU. Gavin was there when they built that RTC. It's the most direct way you will ever help Pitt sports. It's tax deductible. Go to the Pittsburgh Wrestling Club website and click on donate. Every little bit helps. We may not be great the next year or 2 but this thing is gonna grow and we will be very good soon. Not PSU, no one will, but we will be back on top of the ACC if we get the financial support to get monsters in here to train with our guys. Sorry for typos, I'm on my phone. H2P
