City Kids Wrestling Club changes lives
When Jarvis Echols first started at Bradley Tech High School, he was a self-described slacker who at one point had a 1.7 GPA and frequently got into disciplinary trouble.
His freshman year at Tech, he joined City Kids Wrestling Club, a nonprofit coed wrestling academy that has been serving the Milwaukee area since it was founded in 2006.
Through City Kids, he regularly attended wrestling practices with students across Milwaukee Public Schools, and went to tournaments around the country. He was surrounded by a group of dedicated peers who supported one another’s wrestling journeys.
“You have to have a good mentality in wrestling and show that you can have discipline,” Echols said. “In life, you have to have discipline in certain situations.”
One of his fond memories was attending the Wisconsin Freestyle & Greco-Roman tournament after having missed out on attending for a few years. It was the first tournament where he had to wrestle freestyle in addition to Greco-Roman. He went 1-2 at the tournament, but said he gained experience about fighting through the hardship.
Today, Echols attends Bryant & Stratton College in Wauwatosa, where he maintains a 3.27 GPA and is on the wrestling team. He also gives back to the City Kids Wrestling Club by coaching current program wrestlers.
Wrestling also made a huge difference in the life of club founder Roger Quindel.
Quindel got into wrestling when he was a sophomore at Custer High School
“I go out for wrestling, it changed everything. Got my grades together, got my life in order.” Roger Quindel Club founder
— now known as Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education — when one of his peers encouraged him to try out wrestling since he enjoyed fighting.
“I go out for wrestling, it changed everything. Got my grades together, got my life in order,” Quindel said.
Quindel continued to wrestle and started to coach his peers throughout high school, college, and his time in the US Army.
Eventually, he returned to his alma mater to become an assistant coach in 2004. He took over in 2006 and the same year started the City Kids Wrestling Club, which has since expanded to other schools and communities. Custer’s wrestling program ended in 2010, but City Kids continues to train Milwaukee-area wrestlers.
Since its inception, City Kids has taken hundreds of kids to tournaments across the state and country, exposing young wrestlers to places outside of Milwaukee. Club alumni have gone on to become UFC fighters, Olympians, military officers and local business leaders.
Before the pandemic, the club would usually train wrestlers at different Milwaukee Public Schools and community centers. Currently, the club practices at Pura Vida BJJ & MMA just off of E Capitol Drive on N Richards Street. That location is expected to be the Club’s host for the foreseeable future.
According to Quindel, the summer 2021 program has coached about 60 wrestlers total, which is down from the pre-COVID average of 300 summertime wrestlers.
Life skills at the forefront
Wrestling Coach Shane Kennelly, who has been with the club since 2014, is the lead coach for the club this summer. He has led sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings at Pura Vida with up to 30 young wrestlers ranging from kindergarten to college age.
“The beginning for me is just building that kid up to believe in themselves,” Kennelly said. “Once the kid starts to believe in themselves ... then we can start teaching them some techniques, and then we develop them as athletes.”
Kennelly makes his wrestlers partake in public speaking and what he calls “the spotlight drill,” which is when the teammates tell each other “good nonwrestling things that they do.”
Being confident is not the only life lesson that kids learn during their time at City Kids Wrestling Club.
Quindel said that students learn to not whine about inconveniences and setbacks through wrestling practice sessions. Coaches themselves model that behavior, as they are not allowed to curse at practices or complain about referee decisions in tournaments, which also teaches students to minimize whining.
Quindel added that healthy eating is another takeaway.
“When we go to tournaments, we don’t go to fast food restaurants,” Quindel said. “We buy food, we have little portable grills, we’ll grow stuff. People think it’s cool.”
Club alumnus Sedrick Hay said he learned many lessons from Quindel and the City Kids Wrestling Club. He remembers Quindel telling a story about how he gave a robber a second chance during a wrestling practice at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.
“Don’t ever quit. Don’t ever give up on anybody,” Hay learned from the club founder.
Hay got married as a senior in high school and had his first child. Quindel provided a few gifts for the baby and set the stage for a happy marriage.
“Through that program and through the life skill of being committed, helped me be a committed husband and father,” said Hay, who now has five children.
When his brother was tragically murdered in 2016, Hay said that he was devastated and contemplating quitting the Marine Corps. But when he thought about the life lessons that Roger instilled in him, they helped him persevere through that difficult time.
“Roger told me stuff like wrestlers don’t quit. We don’t give up. We go through the pain even if our arms are getting pushed behind our head,” Hay said.
City Kids plans to run a fall session starting the first week of October. Parents interested in enrolling their child in the fall session or in the future can find information at CityKidsWrestling.org.