People from nearly a dozen states called downtown Owensboro home Saturday for the first-ever Boro Brawl Nationals at the Owensboro Convention Center.
Kentucky Wesleyan wrestling coach Rob McCabe lead the charge for the event and deemed it a success given the amount of positive feedback he received throughout the day.
But McCabe admitted it was a learning process as he’s helped put on tournaments before Saturday was the biggest he’s undertaken in his coaching career.
“This was the first type of tournament like this,” he said. “I would say it was a dream. I always wanted to do a tournament like this. It’d be so much to be able to host an event like this and showcase wrestling to a community, whenever I was it. In Owensboro, it’s awesome because you do have that convention center. I’ve thought about it for years and years but I’ve never been able to find a place where we could do it.”
Enter Mark Calitri.
The Visit Owensboro CVB President and CEO reached out to McCabe in October about expanding the opportunities for youth sports and he had heard McCabe had a good idea.
The rest is history that culminated Saturday even though it was time-consuming and a lot of work, McCabe said he knew he made the right decision when he looked around and saw people enjoying the event.
“That was probably the best part of the event, looking back on it, that people were happy,” he said.
Daviess County’s Say Moe was the top local high school finisher as he took first at 285 pounds. Apollo’s Cameron Baker (3rd at 170) and Blaize Cart (3rd at 285) also had top three finishes while Daviess County’s Josiah McNeely took fourth at 160 pounds. Owensboro Catholic’s Cameron Devine finished fifth at 132 pounds.
DC wrestling coach Curtis Martinson said he was excited for the event in Owensboro.
“For a town like Owensboro that wrestling is still just not as popular as it could or should be this was a very highly successful tournament,” he said. “There was top notch kids in all age divisions and weight classes from 13 different states. As with all tournaments, some weights were tougher, some not, but it was great to have Owensboro flooded by so many wrestlers and fans of the sport.”
Multiple area schools had wrestlers competing in many age groups and Martinson said it’s only going to make the sport stronger in the area.
It was very good for all our kids even the ones that didn’t place or come close to it,” he said. “Even they learned a lot about what it takes to get to the next level and just see all the interest in a sport they work so hard at. Very pleased with the outcome. All our kids did a great job and won a match and found some success.”
Another thing that was a success for McCabe was the health of the athletes when they left.
“You get your bumps and bruises being in a contact sport,” he said. “Hurt knees and hurt ankles but to go through an entire day, I think we wrestled over 750 matches and didn’t have any injuries. That was probably the biggest win for the day.”
Preparation for next year’s tournament is already underway with it starting while Saturday’s event was still going on with McCabe already gathering idea that he wants for next year’s Boro Brawl Nationals.
Local top-10 finishers in high school division
120: (6th) Clayton Lawson (Apollo)
132: (5th) Cameron Devine (Catholic)
152: (8th) Alexander Elmore (Daviess)
152: (10th) Gabriel Quintana (Apollo)
160: (4th) Josiah McNelly (Daviess)
160: (6th) Jonah Hinton (Apollo)
170: (3rd) Cameron Baker (Apollo)
182: (7th) Tavius Walker (Apollo)
285: (1st) Say Moe (Daviess)
285: (3rd) Blaize Cart (Apollo)
