Metro East Sun

The Freeburg Community High School Board of Education discussed the pros and cons of adding varsity wrestling to its roster of sports during the board's Jan. 19 meeting.

District Superintendent Gus Frerking said the issue has come up many times over the years, but there wasn't enough interest for the board to consider it and not enough schools of similar size with wrestling programs. Now, however, there is much greater interest in adding the sport, and Frerking said he has done some research on the local schools that have a team and the conferences available.

"It is an IHSA (Illinois High School Association) sport. It is actually for boys and girls. So this would be a coed program," Frerking said. "I do think that the interest is there. I do think it would be positive for the district to take wrestling on." 

Among the issues to be addressed, Frerking said, are space, interest, cost and competitiveness. Should the school struggle to compete, or even find teams to compete against, interest in the program could begin to wane. 

The school also doesn't have a designated space that could be used for wrestling, he said.

"The big issue is, we’re going to have to find a place to practice," Frerking said.

Although practices and meets wouldn't pose a major problem, the team would move around a lot, he said. The district also doesn't have the proper storage for wrestling mats. 

As for the cost of a wrestling program, Frerking compared it to every other varsity sport as he estimated $12,000-15,000 annually if the team received sponsorships. Without such assistance, the costs could be closer to $25,000-30,000 this year, he said.

Several parents spoke at the meeting to give their support for a school wrestling program, adding that many kids in the area were excited to compete for their school. Another parent said that several students have found academic success and career advancement because of their participation in the sport and asked the board to consider adding the co-ed team to the school. 

The board voted to bring the issue before the conference and other governing bodies to see if they could get approval to start the program.