Pictured from left: Will Jones, vice president of Jones Properties; Higher Calling Youth Wrestling Club Head Coach Josh Bosken; Cleveland Blue Raiders Head Wrestling Coach Joey Knox; and Bailey Jones, vice president of Development and Web Marketing for Check Into Cash.
The Higher Calling Youth Wrestling Club of Cleveland is celebrating its best year ever with a large financial contribution from the Allan Jones Foundation.
Josh Bosken, head coach of Higher Calling, announced that his club received a check from the Jones Foundation for $23,000. The donation was a match to funds the club raised earlier this year.
“We are the best-funded kids wrestling club in the United States thanks to the Allan Jones Foundation and is the perfect way to celebrate such an awesome year – maybe our best year yet,” said Mr. Bosken.
Mr. Bosken said over the course of the recent season, Higher Calling won the TN AAU Club State Dual Championship and also celebrated eight state champions, 24 state medalists, 15 state finalists, and four middle school state champions.
He said the club expects its winning ways to continue in the future and added: “All but two of our medalists will return next year!”
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, said Bailey Jones, Vice President of Development and Web Marketing for Check Into Cash. The Foundation is also the largest donor to the kids’ club of Cleveland’s crosstown rival Bradley Central.
“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.”
Businessman Allan Jones said Mr. Bosken is the primary the reason that Cleveland won state championships in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and again this year when the boys made history with a TSSAA record of six state wrestling championships in a row. Cleveland was also the first school nationwide to win both boys and girls state championships in wrestling.
Mr. Jones credited current Blue Raiders Head Coach Joey Knox – who also travels with Higher Calling during the off-season - for winning a state championship every year since he took over the team in 2017. He said the practices and work ethic installed by Knox at the highest level he has seen, with each wrestler pushing each other to be the best – but never being satisfied.
“Thanks to the combination of both Knox and Bosken, this is the #1 wrestling town in the state of Tennessee and any team wanting to win a state championship must come through Cleveland first,” said Mr. Jones.