Wrestlers from several states with hit the Owensboro Convention Center this weekend for the Boro Brawl Nationals wrestling tournament.
Kentucky Wesleyan wrestling coach Rob McCabe has been spearheading the effort to bring the best athletes into the ‘Boro.
“We started getting the ball rolling and planning with the Convention Center and Visit Owensboro in early November,” McCabe said. “We opened up registration for the event and pushed out the information through social media, emails and phone calls to coaches in mid-February.”
With Covid being a disruptor in nearly everything for the last year, McCabe the number of wrestling tournaments in the area has gone down.
He said he saw a need and he knew they needed to work to fill it.
“The geographic region of the tri-state has a limited number of wrestling tournaments that will draw competitors from around the region to one event,” he said. “With COVID there were very few tournaments that allowed wrestling to happen. This tournament meets the two needs of the wrestling community by having a larger event where wrestlers can compete.”
In addition to Kentucky, McCabe said they have wrestlers from Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, South Carolina and Minnesota, with officials coming from Georgia and North Carolina.
The number of wrestlers is vast as they have many different divisions.
“Right now we have over 300 competitors from the ages of five to high school seniors,” he said. “The age groups are 6U (6 and under), 8U, 10U, 12U, 15U and high school. High school is the largest division with 120 registered competitors over 14 weight classes. We still have today for people to register so we could see a number close to 350.”
McCabe has been preparing for this weekend for months and said he’s excited to finally get it underway. He said he wants the city of Owensboro to come and see the caliber of wrestlers that have come to town.
“Wrestling is relatively new to the town and having a high-level tournament is something Owensboro hasn’t experienced,” he said. “Owensboro businesses will hopefully see an increase in their sales as the wrestling community converges at the Convention Center. People are excited to see what we have to offer and I have heard from many that they can’t wait to try our world-famous BBQ joints.”
