Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Wrestling club makes teammates out of foes

Smales wrestling 1

Hyun James Kim / Special to the Home News

Alek Bowles, right, and Brian Mathews, left, try out a few new take downs during practice at Foothill High School.

Click to enlarge photo

Foothill High School wrestling coach Bill Smales, center, and Andrew Brown, right, work on a few techniques during practice at Foothill High School.

Click to enlarge photo

Foothill coach Bill Smales watches as his wrestlers practice at Foothill High School.

To some coaches, it may seem strange training with the opposition in the off season.

But Foothill wrestling coach Bill Smales has no qualms with helping his team's competitors, as long as it furthers the sport he loves.

As founder of the Foothill-based Henderson Wrestling Club, Smales has opened his doors since 2006 to any high school wrestler looking for extra practice.

About half of this summer's 20 wrestlers came from Foothill, he said, the rest came from Southeast Division competitors such as Basic and Coronado. The high school wrestling season starts Nov. 27 for several Las Vegas Valley schools with the Chargers Duals at Clark High.

"It's just all about the wrestling," Smales said. "If those kids are willing to put in that extra time, then I don't care who they're going to wrestle with. Wrestling is so hard to keep kids sometimes that we don't want to turn anybody away."

Working with opposing grapplers is not uncommon in the local wrestling community. When Smales wrestled at Chaparral from 1977 to 1981, he worked with several outside coaches in addition to his own coach, Larry Barnson.

Smales won state in the heavyweight division as a junior and went undefeated his senior year before losing in the state championship match.

"If we can get a few kids from each school in the room, then we can have a better practice," Smales said. "I think wrestling in this town is getting a lot better but it's still one of those sports where it's not important for some schools."

Basic wrestling coach Mark VanDamme, who coached with Smales for six years at Foothill before taking the Wolves' job last spring, said summer club programs take outside players because there aren't enough programs to go around.

"It's frustrating," VanDamme said. "There are so many opportunities for kids that take them away from the sport. It just comes with the territory in Las Vegas."

The Henderson Wrestling club grew in its second year along with its summer camp, which hosted 14 teams and close to 130 wrestlers. Smales expects the camp grow to more than 20 teams next summer.

The club and week-long camp provided a valuable resource for Foothill senior Alek Bowles, who is looking to avenge last season's lossw in the Sunrise Regional tournament. Working with other teams also gives him an idea of what to expect this season.

"When you bring in kids from other schools, you see their work ethic," Bowles said. "You see what they're doing and you learn how to counter it."

The work Smales puts in with the camp and club equals, if not surpasses, the work he puts in during the winter.

But with the high school season about to begin, Smales' attention is strictly on Foothill.

Foothill went 26-13 in duals last year and had four grapplers reach the regional finals match — the best the Falcons have performed in Smales' seven years with the program.

He expects to be strong in the 125-pound division, where returning senior Joel Olivas is scheduled to compete.

"We should be a lot stronger," said Olivas, who had a school record 39 pins last year. "I have mostly been working on getting my head together and improving mentally."

Sean Ammerman can be reached at 990-2661 or [email protected].

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