Local youth club wrestling its way to the top

WHITE CITY, Ore. — Young wrestlers across the Rogue Valley and beyond are able to come together to practice and compete outside of their schools.

It’s all thanks to a local club based in White City.

“We’ve been to Pennsylvania, both Dakotas… you name it, we’ve been there,” said Legacy Elite Wrestling Club founder Tyler Winner. He says he started the club back in 2018.

His club offers wrestling training to youth across the valley, and like his last name, his kids are doing well through the program and winning big at competitions across the nation.

In fact, his wrestlers did pretty well this past weekend at a youth state tournament.

“Me and Hickey got first, Joey got second, Joey had to battle through the bracket so… we all did pretty good there,” said one of his wrestlers, Kutter Christensen.

“We took 34 kids and we had 29 kids place, and we had 16 kids make the finals and 8 kids won, so that was pretty cool,” Winner said.

Winner says the youth wrestlers come from Roseburg all the way to Redding – and their skill is making them stand out.

“The kids that come out here, even when we go to local tournaments and stuff, they’re always getting 1st and 2nd, and it’s kind of funny because people are like, ‘Where are these legacy kids coming from?’ But, these are the kids who wrestle year-round and they put all the extra time in and they literally go every weekend.”

The Legacy Elite wrestlers earn their wins by training hard.

They meet 4-days a week, starting with lifting from 5 – 6 p.m. before practicing techniques from 6:15 – 7:45 p.m.

Winner says around 70 to 80 kids are participating in the club right now, including 12 girls.

“The girls wrestling sport is growing right now, and I think we should get a whole team. We’re trying to get a team together, a girls team, here,” said wrestler Blayne Jex.

The club has some big events coming up, too. “We have Rumble in Reno for the younger kids, which as far as youth goes, that’s pretty big. Then, we have the National Duel Meet Qualifier, which goes back to Iowa,” Winner said.

The young wrestlers say they plan on pursuing the sport throughout high school and even college.

“I want to go to Oklahoma State,” Jex said.

“We have the program to do that [get to college] so we’re just going to keep working, no limit,” Christensen said.

If you’re interested in signing your child up or learning more about the program, visit the Legacy Elite Wrestling Club Facebook page.