Sallisaw wrestling coach anxious for 2nd annual Smith Wrestling Camp
The second annual Smith Wrestling Camp will take place today and Saturday at Sallisaw High School’s Paul Post Field House. Day 1 will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, then Day 2’s session will go from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
“This will be our second year to do it,” Sallisaw Black Diamonds wrestling coach Mark Smith said. “I’m excited about it. We’re going to have good numbers, there’s no doubt about that. That’s going to be a good thing. I’m looking forward to it. I was pretty happy last year with the atmosphere. The good thing is we’ll have plenty of help through parents. Guys will get on the mat with our kids.”
For the second straight year, the camp will be a family affair as Smith’s brother John — the former Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestling coach and Olympic champion — and nephew Joe — RAW Wrestling Club coach and three-time All-American with OSU — will help run the camp.
“It’s nice,” the Sallisaw Black Diamonds wrestling coach said. “Those guys come and stay with me, too. We have a little bit of fun. We do some things. We have a good time. It’s nice to have family around for the weekend. Those guys have done it so much, and they know how to run a camp.”
Smith said campers will most definitely end the two-day session the best wrestlers they can be.
“John was no doubt an innovator in our sport,” Smith said. “He changed the way it was done with his techniques and moves that up to that point nobody had seen. It’s just the positioning and the movement, and that means moving our feet and being finesse. That’s one of the hardest things to coach. We’re going to cover those types of things. We want to show them good stuff. Those guys (John and Joe Smith) have been around the college ranks recently, one as a head coach (John) and one of the winningest ones (coaches) in the history of the sport. It’s kind of nice to get some of those fresh looks that we don’t get to see all the time.”
Smith also said the camp is just as beneficial for him as a coach as it is for the campers.
“This opens my mind, too,” he said. “There’s things out there I haven’t seen. It’s obviously for the campers, but even for us (coaches), we never stop learning. If you stop learning, you’re going to get left behind, so we (coaches) are always trying to learn as well.”
While the camp is for the campers, it also is a fundraiser for the Sallisaw wrestling booster club and the program.
“The money that we can raise from this will help the booster club and help with things during the season,” Smith said. “That makes life better on everybody.”
