Steamboat Pilot & Today

A registration meeting for all parents with children interested in taking part in Pee Wee wrestling in Steamboat Springs will be held Wednesday.

The meeting will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Steamboat Springs Middle School cafeteria. Children -- boys and girls -- in kindergarten through sixth grade are eligible to take part in Richard Atkinson's program.

Atkinson has been running the Steamboat youth wrestling program for 12 years.

The season begins March 1 and runs until April. Atkinson said he averages between 30 and 40 children a season, and this year, he is opening two leagues for interested athletes.

He will have a recreational league for children interested in learning the basics of wrestling but who are not interested in traveling around the Western Slope for competition.

There also will be a traveling team for those interested in competing with young wrestlers from Rangely, Meeker, Soroco and Rifle, among other places.

Wrestlers in fourth through sixth grades, as well as wrestlers in first through third and kindergarten, will practice twice a week.

Atkinson said the kindergarten wrestlers have proven to be as fun and competitive as the older children, so he lets them come twice a week, as well.

Wednesday's meeting will be a chance for parents to ask questions about the Pee Wee program. Atkinson said he wanted parents to know, too, that children will only wrestle other children of their same size. The lowest weight in the Pee Wee program is 36 pounds.

The weight classes increase in 5-pound increments.

In addition, Atkinson is always looking for coaches to help out with the youth league.