A resurgence for the Riverdale Wrestling Club

The Riverdale Wrestling Club has enjoyed a resurgence that began eight years ago when Josef Azam approached Riverdale founder Jay Bradbury about running a youth program.

The impetus for that request came from Azam’s background in wrestling and his wish for his son Jacob to enjoy the experience as his father had. With Bradbury’s blessing the grassroots program was off and running. “There was no kids program,” Josef Azam said. “I wanted to restart it because my son was five years old, and I wanted him to start wrestling. During my son’s soccer season, I recruited a couple of kids from the soccer field. I asked their parents if they’d like to let them try wrestling and the unique thing is that almost all these kids are first generation wrestlers. Usually, it’s the parents that wrestled in their country that have their kids in wrestling.”

That influx has grown to some 60 plus kids and teen wrestlers at the longtime not for profit club that serves the youths of the community. The coaches are volunteers, and they work to keep the registration fee affordable, but even if there are situations where it can’t be afforded, the club sees that those youths are taken care of.

From that fledgling group who started out eight years ago, Riverdale athletes are making their presence felt on the national stage. At the recent Canadian National Championships held in Mississauga Ontario three Riverdale members made podium and several are now ranked top five in the country. Medalling for Riverdale were Jacob Azam, Silver Medal in Freestyle (Bantam 44kg), Zhuchen Yu, Silver Medal in Greco (Bantam 41kg) and Joy Sepieh, Bronze Medal in Freestyle and Silver in Greco (Bantam Girls 42kg).

Following the Nationals, Riverdale competed in the Eastern Canadian Championships facing clubs from Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. Riverdale proceeded to finish first among the 30 teams competing and earned the championship banners in the Tykes and Bantam boys categories. “It’s been a pretty incredible journey,” Azam said. “We went from a team that couldn’t get any wins when we started because we were very inexperienced, to winning the Jeux de Montreal and then getting better and winning at the Provincials and then doing tournaments in Ontario was getting better and now we’re on a national stage. We did amazing and I’m very proud of the kids.”

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By Mark Lidbetter The Suburban – May 22, 2024

SOURCE: https://www.thesuburban.com/sports/a-resurgence-for-the-riverdale-wrestling-club/article_148a0366-3191-5c6a-8658-e2d69e9bda47.html