Last month, over a dozen wrestlers from Beat the Streets New England’s Roger Williams Middle School program gathered on the mats for their first competition ahead of this winter’s wrestling season.
“The second they step onto the mat, you can see their whole mood change. That’s where they come alive. That’s where their confidence starts to grow,” Coach Maricruz Flores wrote in a message to The Herald. Many of the wrestlers from Roger Williams placed, “which was such a powerful moment for them.”
While victories on the mat are a highlight for many athletes, the cost-free nonprofit youth wrestling program aims to improve students’ academic readiness, self-esteem and mental health.
The Providence chapter of Beat the Streets New England was founded in 2013 by Brown wrestler Billy Watterson ’15. The program has since seen immense success and popularity, regularly partnering with the Providence Parks and Recreation Department and the Providence Public School District to serve hundreds of students each year.
“It’s really interesting to see where these kids take it,” said Silas Murray, the program director of the Providence chapter. “Some of them want to be a champion. Some of them want to do it for friends. Some of them want to do it because they’re getting bullied. Some of them just enjoy the space.”
“Wrestling itself has a lot of intrinsic benefits,” explained Brett Poirier, the director of operations for the program. “What our program really prides itself in is being able to take those intrinsic benefits and giving real-life experience that helps the kids use them.”
Students in the program do not pay for travel costs, registration fees, uniforms or food, according to Poirier. The program is funded through multiple sources, said Poirier and Murray, including donors and the Rhode Island Interscholastic League — a local youth sports league.
Typical Beat the Streets practices begin with 30 minutes of journaling, job readiness training or conversations around goal-setting, Murray said. Wrestlers also learn about financial management, including “saving money for college,” said Josiah Mazariego, a wrestler with the program at Nathanael Greene Middle School in the PPSD.
Mazariego said the program helps with his homework, and that he also reaches out to the coaches when he needs help with school.
Prins Santana, a wrestler at Nathanael Greene, added that the “program has helped me boost my confidence by winning … and has helped me with mental health (by learning to) think positive, focus on one goal and don’t quit.”
After this mental warm-up, the students then move to the mats, where they receive instruction, run through drills and play games. Each program holds two to three practices a week. Students also enter weekly competitions and attend national tournaments in the hopes of boosting the team’s ranking.
Flores also took part in Beat the Streets when she was a PPSD student. “I was dealing with a lot at home,” she wrote. “Beat the Streets became like a second family. It was the place where I felt safe, supported and understood.”
Now, as a coach, she aims to ensure that her role is more than “teaching wrestling techniques or passing down information,” Flores explained. “They come to you with everything, and you do everything you can to guide them. Coaching these kids isn’t just a job, it’s one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.”
On Saturday, wrestlers from Beat the Streets will compete in the Birchwood Tournament in North Providence. “The best teams and some of the best individual kids will be there, so (the kids) are very excited to put their skills to the test,” Murray said.
In January, Beat the Streets New England plans to host a regional tournament. Wrestlers from various Providence and Boston programs will be competing against each other to name each city’s champion, and a regional champion. Murray said his team has been planning the event for the past three months by getting donors and board members involved, “so these kids can feel exactly how they should: like superstars.”
Erick Mazariego, Josiah Mazariego’s father, explained that ranking in a national tournament could mean getting “exposed to coaches from different states that could provide a way to a prep school or a private school where they’ll reach out” with scholarship offers.
This trajectory can open the door to college-level wrestling. Past students from the Providence chapter of Beat the Streets are currently wrestling at Rhode Island College, American University and Johnson and Wales University, according to Murray.
By guiding students academically and supporting them personally, Poirier said that “we’re trying to make sure that our kids go forward in the best light possible.”
