Two Olympic Champions, 12 NCAA Champions, 4 World Team Coaches and 275 wrestling enthusiasts were in attendance at the Beat the Streets Program GALA PARTY last evening.

The Gala was hosted on May 11th by the Beat the Streets Wrestling Program and Mike Novogratz,  Fortress Investment Company.  The party was held at Club Sol in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Guests were treated to two inspirational speeches  by Jeff Blatnick and John Smith, Head Wrestling Coach at Oklahoma State University.  
Jeff spoke of his career as an athlete and a broadcaster plus his early involvement with the Beat the Streets Program since its inception. Smith, two time Olympic Champion and 4 time World Champion talked of his experiences in wrestling as a young boy in Oklahoma, coming from a family of ten kids joining a YMCA Wrestling program.  His large family not having enough money to enroll in the club, the coach waived the Club Fee so he could participate.  The man gave him the opportunity to wrestle and it changed his life.

He connected that story to the New York City Beat the Streets concept of providing the 1.2 million kids the very same opportunity.  He spoke about his experiences with Coach Bevilacqua, his first International Coach at age 17. That was his introduction to learning USA Wrestling 7 Basic Skills and spoke as to how much he learned and benefited from that developmental program in 1983 at Lake Placid while training for the Espoir World Cup.   He teaches the same system to his University Team that just won its  4th straight NCAA Division 1 Team Championship.

At the end of his speech he challenged the audience to help support the cause by donating a new wrestling mat for the program himself, and asking others to help as well.

Mike Novogratz, the sponsor of the Gala , spoke on behalf of the program outlining the ambitious goal of beginning 100 new middle school and 100 high school programs by the year 2010.  Al Bevilacqua spoke about the impact the program will have on the growth of wrestling not only in New York but other large urban centers of the United States.

There were many members of the NYC Department of Education and the Public School Athletic League in attendance to hear the passion and commitment on the part of those who are dedicated to helping the school system increase opportunities for wrestling in their physical education, intramural and interscholastic programs.

The current outreach began in 2005 with 1 prototype school program at Baruch Middle School.  In 2006, 20 new middle school programs were added and over 400 kids were introduced to wrestling learning the 7 basic skills.  All programs are provided a new wrestling mat, coaching stipends, wrestling equipment and a USA Wrestling Event Card.  All coaches are certified school teachers and have earned their USAW Bronze Level Certification.  One of the new coaches will be attending the Silver Level College Program being conducted at the World Team Trials in Iowa at the end of May.

For more information about the program go to:  www.mwausa.org

For information regarding gift giving and donations contact Al Bevilacqua at albevi@optonline.net