Burton Wrestling program back with new look
The Burton School District Wrestling program is back with a new look and feel. This is an opportunity for students across the Burton School District to participate in the district’s newly rebranded Burton School District Wrestling Program that will continue to be hosted at Burton Middle School.
“We want to bring this program back to its roots, back to its traditional ways of producing champions,” said Athletic Director Blain Smothermon.
Burton School District and Burton Athletic Director Blain Smothermon stated they believe in the value of youth wrestling and the lessons it instills into building champions on and off the Mat.
“In The Central Valley and the Porterville community in particular, we have a deep history and culture of wrestling pedigree,” Smotherman said. “Look at all the greats like Tim Vanni, Jim Short, Donnie and Dennis Townsend, Joe Soto, Mason Pengilly, Charlotte Kouyoumtjian, Mark Cardwell, Nathan Timmerman, Matt Gamble, Shane Yacuta, Coach Drew Williams and the list goes on and on. Our community is built for wrestling, tough hard working people, that’s who we are and that’s why we have had so much success in our wrestling programs here in Porterville. We are excited and grateful the Burton School District has supported this program and vision on both a financial level and giving us everything we need to build it back to where it can be.”
The Burton Wrestling Program is a storied youth program that has been led by many great coaches including George Reaneu, Marcos Benavides. So many great wrestlers and future champions have come out of this program including Mason Pengilly, Charlotte Kouyoumtjian, Mark Cardwell, Jake Perez,
Anthony Estrada, Jacob Estrada.
“We have to keep these programs alive and create outlets for our youth wrestlers, and not just keep them alive but do things the right way and at a high level,” Smothermon said. “Many middle school and youth wrestling programs were going away before COVID, but once COVID hit a lot of these programs went away and haven’t come back.
“We want to make sure we continue to have a strong youth wrestling presence in our community and are able to feed into the local high schools and continue this lineage of high level wrestling and building champions both on and off the mat. That’s what we plan to do here at Burton.”
The Burton School District will offer wrestling for all students in the Burton School District from kindergarten through 8th grade. Practice will begin Monday, October 17 at Burton Middle School. Practice will be held Monday through Friday from 3:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the BMS Cafeteria.
The program is rebranded with the school district colors, new designs and logos. The program is purchasing all new uniforms and gear branded by Under Armour that will have the school district new logos and colors that represent all schools in the district. Wrestling gear will be provided to students/families who don’t have It or are unable to provide it.
All BSD wrestlers will receive warm ups, backpacks, head gear and other wrestling gear for the season branded by Under Armour. Burton is currently working with the transportation department to hopefully be able to provide transportation from all schools to BMS for practices and matches.
New and additional coaches have been brought onto the staff for this season to run the highest quality program possible. Those who have any questions can reach out to Athletic Director Blain Smothermon, blain.smothermon@burtonschools. org, who oversees the program.
Tournaments and match schedules will be announced once finalized.
“Burton School District is very excited to offer a high level wrestling program for all grade levels and give every student an opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities,” Smothermon said.