Two years into the program, Down to Wrestle held their first official bout between wrestlers only a few weeks ago. While that timeline may seem too long for many programs, for Down to Wrestler co-founder and University of Saskatchewan wrestling head coach Daniel Olver, it was a culmination and a reward of what the program has been working toward. 

“When people talk about what Adaptive Long Term Athlete Development looks like, it’s just a longer developmental pathway, and this is the best example of it,” he said. “It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point, but it’s been worth it.” 

That work started following a discussion Olver had with his neighbour and fellow Down to Wrestle co-founder, Johann Reimer. At the time, Reimer had been having difficulty finding a program where his son, Joe, who has Down Syndrome, could fully participate. Olver, meanwhile, had been working on developing wrestling programming for younger children. As the two continued to talk they started envisioning how that programming Olver was creating could be adapted to create an unstructured structured environment for kids with Down Syndrome to compete. 

With the goal in mind of what they wanted the program to be, Olver and Reimer started doing the groundwork, which included about four months of consultations with experts, including physiotherapists and pediatricians. 

“My job was to work with and bring in the Huskie wrestlers and his [Reimer’s] job was to work with and bring in the Down Syndrome community,” said Olver. “By bringing them all together, we were able to create an environment where it’s okay to fail in terms of what we were trying to implement and through that assurance, we were able to create a great program.” 

Olver admits that Down to Wrestle has gone through some growing pains. When they started, they would try different ideas and some things were quickly thrown out. However, from their trial and error, they were able to figure out some of the things that worked and, most importantly, the things that created confidence in the athletes. 

“If you look at our logo, it’s the double muscles, so every time someone does something correct — it might be a forward role, it might be taking someone down — people are throwing up the double muscles. That helps build confidence because you’re celebrating the little wins in practice.” 

In Down to Wrestle’s second year, they’ve also added a handbook and a sticker/badge program. When the wrestlers are working with their coach and they complete a skill, they get a sticker to put it in their handbook to track their progress. The skills can vary and can be as simple as completing one push-up when they weren’t able to complete any before, but all of it helps reflect the athlete’s personal growth and make them feel like a wrestler.  

“These athletes in the room see themselves as wrestlers, they in fact see themselves as Huskie wrestlers. There is no difference between them and what a Huskie is doing,” said Olver. “I think that’s the most exciting part about it is that these kids see themselves as wrestlers, they are training in our wrestling room and when they go to school, they identify as wrestlers.” 

Being able to focus on those areas where they can boost confidence in the athletes, generate pride in the program and create capacity is, in part Olver says, a result of Down to Wrestle receiving Sask Sport’s Adaptive Sport Club Development Grant, which is funded through Sask Lotteries. In addition to the on-mat activities, it’s allowed the group to hone-in on what they have needed to do to build this program from the ground up, rather than what they are going to charge the parents. 

“There’s a lot of time and energy put in to do this the right way,” said Olver. “It’s not an afterthought of what the mainstream is, the mainstream is not better and that’s where the pride comes. It [the grant] has allowed us to find more energy to create a better program for these parents so they can be proud to have their kids in it.” 

Olver hopes that Down to Wrestle’s program is just the start to this type of programming and that they can create a framework for other groups to use as a base, with the ultimate goal of expanding outside of Saskatoon. 

“We’ve already done the heavy lifting, so people can people can implement the framework to start this program where they are. So, it can grow in Saskatchewan, Canada and North America.”

The next round of Adaptive Sport Grants are due to a club’s respective Provincial Sport Organization by March 22. Learn more here.