Bradley Pride Youth Wrestling Club Director Ben Smith (center) accepts a check from the Allan Jones Foundation. Pictured with Smith are Jones Management Services Vice President J. Bailey Jones (left) and Toby Pendergrass (right), Director of the Foundation.
The Bradley Pride Youth Wrestling Club received a major boost of support this week from the Allan Jones Foundation.
Ben Smith, Director of Bradley Pride and head coach of the Bradley Bears wrestling team, announced that the youth club received a substantial check from the Jones Foundation.
The donation was a match to funds the club had raised earlier in the year.
“This week’s incredible matching donation demonstrates the commitment of the Allan Jones Foundation to helping our club grow so that Bradley and Cleveland will always have the top two wrestling programs in Tennessee,” said Smith. “Thanks to the Foundation, I’m proud to say that Bradley and Cleveland now have the best-funded kids wrestling clubs in the United States.”
Bradley Pride is a wrestling program that gives young wrestlers of all skill levels, grades K through 8, a chance to learn the essentials of practice and competition. The goal of the program is to train and maintain the highest-quality athletes to help continue the finest wrestling program in Tennessee.
Typical practices will consist of 2-3 times a week for 1-hour sessions and 5 to 6 tournament opportunities. The Bradley Kid's Club experience provides an excellent youth level competitions while providing basic wrestling skills that enable them to become successful at the middle and high school level.
The Foundation requires the club’s members to earn money themselves, which is later matched dollar-for-dollar.
J. Bailey Jones, Vice President at Jones Management Services and a representative of the Foundation, was a 2010 160 lb. Division 1 State Champion for Cleveland. He set the all-time record with 125 takedowns in the Greater Chattanooga Area that stood until 2012 when another Cleveland wrestler, 4-time state champion Chris DeBien, broke it with 134 takedowns.
“Our goal through the donation to Bradley Pride, along with the club’s own fundraising efforts, is to make it one of the highest funded kids club in the country,” said Jones. “We give the club the challenge to raise money on their own and we are always ready to double what they raise.”
Jones said winning is a three-pronged approach.
“It includes the high school head coach, the middle school head coach, and the kids club coach,” said Jones. “The kids club coach is the most important, because the coach is the one who gets the kids interested and teaches them about the joy of winning.”
Coach Smith offered a special thanks to the Foundation and to the Jones companies like Check Into Cash that have supported the club through the years.
“Allan Jones has said many times that youth wrestling clubs are important because the wrestlers develop a love for the sport and build a strong work ethic that will carry them through life,” Smith said. “He also appreciates that we strive to teach young athletes moral character and good sportsmanship. Winning starts at this level.”
Toby Pendergrass, Director of the Jones Foundation, agreed with Smith.
“If there is a state championship won in wrestling, the Allan Jones Foundation wants it to be one of our three schools – and it all starts with the Kids Club,” said Pendergrass.