2019 Top 10 – No. 8
Wayne Terry was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame in June 2019.
MEDICAL LAKE - After years of leadership and emersion on the local and regional folkstyle wrestling scene, Wayne Terry, co-creator of Medical Lake's Mat Maulers Wrestling Club and the Washington Little Guy Wrestling League, received a Lifetime Service to Wrestling award and was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., for his decades of service and leadership to the sport at a June 2 ceremony in Olympia.
Mat Maulers originally began as part of the City of Medical Lake Parks and Recreation Department with 17 boys ranging in age from 5-14.
"We just worked out and taught them how to wrestle," Terry said. "That and training was our entire season."
But under Terry's leadership club participation and by 1985, with five teams and 150 kids, the Washington Little Guy Wrestling League was born. Flash forward to present day and the Washington Little Guy Wrestling League now boasts 97 teams and 4,377 kids from three states.
Where they initially held five tournaments per season, last season the league hosted 34 tournaments - five to six each week in different locations.
In the league's beginnings, Western Washington schools dominated statewide wrestling. No longer. Last season the B, 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A division champions at the Mat Classic state high school wrestling championships were from east of the Cascade Range, according to Terry.
"And every one of them is connected to our league," he said. "Now we dominate on this side."
Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].
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