Medicine Hat Wrestling Club looking to grow sport, develop athletes in city
Dallin Kay’s true sports love is wrestling and the local coach is enjoying his opportunity to share that.
Kay is the head coach of the Medicine Hat Wrestling Club, formed in November 2023 and a little over three months into its inaugural year. He previously coached at Medicine Hat High School before making the decision with Hawks coach Darren Klein that it was time for more wrestling options and mat time to be available for interested kids.
Thus began the Wrestling Club hosted at Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre and its four groups divided up by age. Kay says with the kindergarten to Grade 2, Grade 3-5, Grade 7-9 and competitive/high school groups, they have roughly 68 wrestlers in the program and look to build the numbers up more.
“It’s been amazing, we have some kids who have started their very first year, we took them to Junior Olympics and they all came away with a ton of medals and a great experience,” Kay said. “It’s been just great to see it grow, the excitement and kids being successful.”
Kay didn’t start wrestling until he was in Grade 11, using it as a way to stay in shape for football where he won a national championship. His wrestling abilities got him an opportunity to wrestle with the University of Calgary where he learned more about the sport and himself while getting good enough grades to get into dental school.
He’ll always love football but says wrestling is his true love, and he has enjoyed passing on the lessons he’s learned so far through the sport.
“Wrestling is unlike any other sport because you’re a team but you step out on that mat, all by yourself and your teammates are on the side, cheering you on, but it’s all you out there,” Kay said. “I have kids who are old enough to start competing, so I wanted to be able to pass on some of those life lessons to my kids and the kids in the community so it can help them with other things.”
Kay says the younger wrestlers are works in progress but are getting better and better with each practice. At the competitive level, Kay says there are some standouts since they started up in November.
“Will Kozakewich, he’s our heavyweight and he’s been to nationals a couple times, he was top three in the province all last year and he’s Grade 11,” Kay said. “This year, we expect big things from him with provincials coming up here.
“Truman Hellawell, he’s done wrestling on and off and decided to put a little bit more focus on this year. I’ve taken him to a couple tournaments, he’s gotten a gold and silver, he’s done really big things.
“Kade and Dani Linford, Kade has been wrestling for a long time. He’s one of those guys, a couple years ago he went on a stretch where he was unbeaten for two seasons in a row. As he’s gotten older, there’s a couple of tough, tough guys from some of the club teams in Calgary, but he’s going to the Winter Games this year, he’s been amazing. Then his sister Dani has been exceptional. She’s just started wrestling this year and is taking it on really fast. She’s meddling and she’s doing really big things.”
Dani says she’s enjoyed getting into wrestling for the exercise aspect and learning the techniques of the sport. She says her brother and dad had to convince her to join but she says she hasn’t looked back.
“This is a really tough sport, it’s one of the toughest sports, so just being able to work hard push through the pain and stuff,” Linford said.
Kozakewich, who won a national title in 2022, says he’s enjoyed the more mat time with the Wrestling Club and learning more about the mental side of the sport. He says the growth of the sport in the city means a lot to him as well.
“It’s nice, especially seeing more younger kids growing up and practising with them and helping them out, it’s good seeing that,” Kozakewich said.
When Kay stepped away from wrestling himself and took over a coaching role, he didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as he has.
“When you’re working on a move or a setup for a couple of weeks and then all of a sudden it clicks and the kids get it, it’s really cool to see,” Kay said. “It’s great to see these kids learn concepts and techniques that I didn’t get until high school. To be this young and pick it up so quick, their movement and their ability to learn things has been really cool to see.”
While they’re still months away from wrapping up their inaugural year as a club, Kay says they’re starting to put goals together for what the next year will look like. He’s hoping to, alongside the help of his fellow coaches, start earlier in October and continue to grow the sport in the city while also filling up a couple trophy cases.
“We’re going to try to just retain as many of these young athletes as we can and build a nice strong team, get to more tournaments next year and try to find some of those kids in the community that wrestling is their sport,” Kay said. “We had a long season, we started in November and we’ll go until April.
“My hope is to continue to build that and start bringing more hardware back to Medicine Hat and see these kids go further in the sport.”