Weston Middle School New Wrestling Program
Justin Funderburk admits he is not very familiar with the sport of wrestling. But he has
definitely learned a lot about it in the past several months. As the Athletic Director of Weston
Middle School, Funderburk has been in charge of getting the new wrestling program at the
school up and going.
Athena-Weston School District’s middle school and high school have never had wrestling
programs, although in past years, some Weston-McEwen High School students wrestled with
McLoughlin High School in Milton-Freewater through a sports co-op program. Over the years in
Athena and Weston, from time to time parents and community members would suggest getting
a wrestling program going, but it didn’t happen until now.
With a recent $2500 grant to the district, Weston Middle School was able to purchase some
wrestling mats, singlets, head gear and other supplies to get started. “Although wrestling
doesn’t seem like a sport that needs a lot of gear, it’s still a big undertaking to get a new sport
going and we needed the basics to get started. We are thankful for the initial donation,”
Funderburk said.
The new sport also needed a coach and some volunteers. The district hired a coach and several volunteers to help. “It’s been great to see how many people have come out to volunteer and get the program off the ground,” Funderburk said. He said the advantage of having the wrestling
program is that it offers another sport choice besides basketball during the winter for students.
Currently, the Weston Middle School wrestling team has about 16 participants, three girls and
13 boys, which includes a few students from Helix School District. The girls and boys practice
together but will compete separately at meets. After the middle school program gets going for
a couple of years, the district hopes to start a high school program, too.