January 1, 2009

Georgia Wrestling Community

DearGeorgia Wrestling Community,

Happy New Year! I hope 2009 is a great year for you.

How was wrestling in 2008 for you? Was it what you hopedfor? Hopefully it was.

For me 2008 was a good wrestling year in Georgia but not as good as I hadhoped for. Why? Well, I strongly believe we the wrestling community leaders arenot actively addressing all the needs of the diverse sub-groups within the Georgiawrestling community.

Who are these sub-groups? Here are some of them:

• South Georgia wrestlers, parents and coaches
• North Georgia wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Central Georgia wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Metro Atlanta wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Elite youth wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Elite High School wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Regular wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Elementary School wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Middle School wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Women and Girl wrestlers, parents and coaches
• High School Folkstyle wrestlers, parents and coaches
• High School Freestyle and Greco wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Beginner wrestlers, parents and coaches
• Inner City at risk wrestlers, parents and coaches

Wow! What a list and this is not necessarily all of them.These sub-groups within the Georgiawrestling community represent nearly all of the over 5,000 youth wrestlers andover 7,000 High School wrestlers.

You are likely in one or more of these sub-groups within theGeorgiawrestling community and you may already be an active or inactive volunteer.

Why is it we are not actively addressing all the needs ofthese diverse sub-groups? I believe it is because we lack enough State levelactive volunteers out in the communities and in these sub-groups.

Why is that? Well, most people are involved with wrestlingbecause they have a wrestler in the family or they are a coach. High SchoolCoaches are often not just a wrestling coach but a coach for several sports somost all of their time is spent coaching various sports.

Many parents are not actively involved with their kid’ssports so they are not around to become volunteers. So what’s left? There aremany booster and youth club volunteers, there are 100’s of youth and HighSchool lay wrestling coaches in Georgia.I myself am a Youth club volunteer and youth coach.

So what’s the issue? I estimate that out of these over12,000 wrestlers in Georgia we have less than a few 100 active volunteers andless than 50 active State level volunteers. I know that within Team GeorgiaWrestling we have less then a dozen active Team Georgiavolunteers even though we have twice as many Team Georgia volunteers with one titleor another. Is means across all state level leaders we have less than 50 peopleactively trying to address the needs of more than a dozen Georgia wrestlingcommunity sub-groups that represent most all of our more than 12,000 Georgiawrestlers. That is one State level volunteer for every 240 wrestlers when weneed more like one for every 40 wrestlers.

So what is the solution? I estimate we have more than 300High Schools and 120 USAyouth wrestling clubs in Georgiawith 12,000 wrestlers and over 18,000 parents. If we could get 3 State levelvolunteers from each High School and Youth wrestling program that would be over1,200 State level volunteers. Since there is a high rate of turnover withvolunteers (kids change sports, move and graduate) this would in the long runproduce over 300 active State level volunteers.

Have you or the other wrestling parents you know ever had aconversation about why things are a certain way within the wrestling community?Have you complained about things not being the way you think they should? I amsure you have as everyone does. So, why not do something about it? Most peoplejust don’t know how and find it too difficult to find out how to do anythingabout it.

The Georgiawrestling community needs active volunteers. Team Georgia Wrestling needsactive volunteers. Starting with you, I would like to ask every High School andYouth wrestling club in Georgiato find two, three or four parents that have a passion for wrestling and awillingness to actively work to improve Georgiawrestling not just for their wrestler, club or school but for the whole Georgiawrestling community.

I am willing to personally work with everyone that has apassion for wrestling and a willingness to actively work together to improve Georgiawrestling. Tell me the area you’re most interested in and we will find a way toput your talents to good use.

We have a particular need for active Regional Managers inall regions. We have a few Regional Managers but need several more activeRegional Mangers in each region to actively address all the needs of thediverse sub-groups within the Georgiawrestling community.

Regional Managers are the leaders out in the communitiesthat help grow wrestling and make sure the needs of the Region are beingaddressed on a State and local level. The active Regional Managers are thefuture State leaders of Team Georgia Wrestling and are invited to participatein the Board of Directors and other State level leadership meetings.Information on Regional Managers and other areas needing volunteers is includedbelow.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this and wouldenjoy a conversation by email or phone about improving wrestling in Georgia.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again andexpecting different results." -Albert Einstein

Bestregards,

Anthony Flatt

P.S. Please pass this along toeveryone you know.

AnthonyFlatt

State Chairman

TeamGeorgia Wrestling

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678-442-8852 www.teamgeorgiawrestling.com

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Regional Managers –

Needed in all Regions(NWGA, NEGA, WMA, WGA, EMA, EGA, SMA, CGA, SWGA, SEGA)

Attend the tournaments in your region acting as the Team Georgiapoint of contact and assisting the tournament directors if needed. It is yourjob to answer questions, resolve issues and make the Tournament Director awareof any Team Georgia policies that need to be followed.

Grass roots develop and support of the clubs, coaches,tournaments and volunteers in your region.

The Regional Manager position is considered the next stepfor anyone that wants to become a Director or serve on the Team Georgia Board.The Regional Managers are the future leaders of Team Georgia Wrestling.

Areas needingvolunteers-

We need grassroots volunteers to help Team Georgia furtherdevelop Middle School clubs and programs.

We need grassroots volunteers to help Team Georgia furtherdevelop USA Clubs and Programs.

We need volunteers to help write grants and do corporatefund raising.

We need volunteers to help evaluate our State Championshipsand help make recommendations for improvements. This might be an on goingcommittee.

We need volunteers to help Team Georgia collect and document allthe Team Georgia policies and procedures.

We need volunteers to help Team Georgia further develop our summerFreestyle and Greco tournaments.

We need volunteers to help our fall Folkstyle tournamentsadvertise and market their events better.

With all the above positions we need people that can bothtake charge and work with in the current system to make these improvements.