By ANN ST. MARTIN STOUT
NEWPORT — When the Newport Recreation wrestling team could not have a full practice season because practice space is so limited in Newport, a casual conversation between PJ Lovely and pilot Bob Davis revealed a solution.
Lovely, Director of Rec and Davis, owner of an airplane hangar at Parlin Field, worked together to enable the team to practice in the hangar twice a week throughout the season.
Now a weeknight wrestling practice looks like this: A cavernous airport hangar at Parlin Field with about one-third of its floor space covered with padded mats — 2,560 square feet in all.
In another area of the hangar a few planes (and a few boats) are parked for the winter. Parents have settled nearby to watch the practice. Younger siblings build with Legos or drive matchbox cars, and a few parents watch from a second-floor deck built into the corner of the building.
Thirty-five lively youth wrestlers, members of Newport Recreation wrestling team, practice their wrestling moves for upcoming matches on the mats. Four or five coaches walk among the athletes assisting as needed.
Head coach Rick Sharron calls out the prompts for the drills, exercises and next practice move. Wrestlers move from one position to the next as Sharron calls out, “Plank! Sit-out! Referees position! Spin drills… mountain climbers, neutral!”
The coaches, making sure each wrestler has the right position and movements, make minor corrections. After warm-up exercises, the lively group of children, primarily boys, position themselves with a practice partner to learn and review moves used in competition.
After a short break, wrestlers gather round Coach Sharron and Assistant Coach Nathan Ploss who demonstrate moves and calls out questions to make sure the kids understand what’s being taught.
For practice, the wrestlers are paired in a way similar to competition by weight and ability. The athletes, Kindergarten through Grade 4, practice for one hour two evenings a week. The fifth through eighth graders continue for another hour.
The other assistant coaches, Brad Palmer, Chris Bahara, and Mike Ritondo, help keep the wrestlers from being distracted and distracting each other. Some coaches have children on the mats, others had children who went on to the next level of wrestling.
The coaches agree that one of the best aspects of wrestling in the hangar is that the mats can be left on the floor between practices, something that cannot be done in a shared gymnasium.
This is the fourth year at the hangar, the 10th year for Newport Rec wrestling. Many middle school wrestlers go on to join the Newport High School team.
The space is a good fit for the wrestling team. With a little imagination, some cooperation and an attitude to make it work, Davis made the space available. “It just worked out,” said Davis in a phone conversation from his Massachusetts home. “It’s a feel-good situation for the airport and for me,” he adds. And it fills a need for the community.
Davis is quick to mention, “The wrestling team and coaches have taken their responsibility toward the hanger seriously. They are respectful.” Davis was a wrestler in middle school and high school, “but that is just coincidental,” he says. “I love getting the message out that the airport is interested in being helpful and involved in the community.” He adds, “Airport director, Heath Marsden, is open to ideas to make the airport and the hangar an even greater asset to the community.”
The wrestlers were preparing for the Queen City Classic, a tournament the Newport team co-hosts with the Manchester teams in Manchester. This tournament has 350 wrestlers participating. Newport Rec, which unofficially calls its team the Newport Flying Tigers, because of the practice venue, has hosted one or two small meets at the hangar in past years.
Also assisting the coaches, when they are able, are high school wrestlers Josh Sharron, Dylan and Caleb Palmer, and Marius Edwards, who also came up through the ranks with Newport Rec.
The hangar has also been used for a Library Arts Center fundraiser and dance for the past three years, and ACE Academy (Aviation Career Education). Both are examples Davis cites as an opportunity to give back to Newport.
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