Higher Calling Youth Wrestling Club Head Coach Josh Bosken (center) accepts a check from the Allan Jones Foundation. Pictured with Mr. Bosken are Jones Management Services Vice President J. Bailey Jones (left) and Toby Pendergrass (right), director of the Foundation.
The Higher Calling Wrestling Club of Cleveland is now the largest youth wrestling club in the South thanks to a surge in membership sign-ups and support from the Allan Jones Foundation.
Josh Bosken, head coach of Higher Calling, announced that the club signed up 91 new wrestlers in grades K through 8, bringing the total membership of the club to 134.
Mr. Bosken celebrated the record number of wrestlers by announcing another financial contribution from Higher Calling’s largest supporter – the Jones Foundation. The club received a check from the Foundation for nearly $14,000. The donation was a match to funds the club had raised earlier in the year.
“Thanks to the Allan Jones Foundation, I’m proud to say that we are the best-funded kids wrestling club in the South and now the largest,” said Mr. Bosken. “If there is another club anywhere with as much excitement around it as Higher Calling, I don’t know anyone who has heard of it.”
Higher Calling 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.
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. 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 donation to Higher Calling along with the club’s own fundraising efforts, make it the highest funded kids club in the county,” said Mr. Jones. “We give the club the challenge to raise money on their own and we are always ready to double what they raise.”
Earlier in the year, the Jones Foundation also issued a check to The Bradley Pride Youth Wrestling Club to match the funds the club raised. Bradley youth wrestling is now headed by Steve Logsdon - the winningest high school wrestling coach of all-time in Tennessee.
“The matching donation demonstrated 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 Ben Smith, head coach of the Bradley Bears wrestling team. “Bradley and Cleveland have the best-funded kids wrestling club in the South.”
Mr. Jones agreed with Mr. Smith and noted that in the new power rankings, Cleveland has five wrestlers ranked #1 and Bradley had two.
Out of the 14 weight classes across Tennessee, Cleveland and Bradley dominate half with the other half coming from the other 94 counties in the state.
“The other 94 counties in Tennessee share the other seven #1 ranked wrestlers,” said Mr. Jones. “That is a testament to how great our local teams are!”
Mr. Jones also pointed to the success Cleveland Middle School’s wresters achieved at the first matches of the new season, defeating Boyd Buchanan Middle School 68-16, Chattanooga Christian 80-0, and Rhea County 78-6.
“Winning is a three-pronged approach that includes the high school head coach, the middle school head coach, and the kids’ club coach,” said Mr. Jones. “Our Foundation believes 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. It has been proven time and again that winning starts at this level!”