The New Milford Recreation Junior Wrestling program is open to children 6 years of age to 14 years of age whose birthday falls before January 1^st, 2008. Wrestlers compete in 5 divisions by age and weight class. The first division is for 6 year olds and is called the "Sub Bantam" division. The next division is for 7 and 8 year olds and is the bantam division. Then there is the midget division for 9 and 10 year olds. Next is the junior division for 11 and 12 year olds and finally the intermediate division for 13 and 14 year olds. Most weight classes span 5 lbs but for some of the smaller children it can be as little as 3 lbs.

 

New Milford belongs to the Twin County Conference Wrestling League consisting of 51 teams from Bergen, Passaic, Morris and Hudson Counties. Practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays at the old gym in the High School beginning in mid November and continuing through the last week of February. Practices run from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Sub bantams and bantams are permitted to leave at 7:45pm if the parents wish. This is usually a good idea for these younger children because it?s hard to hold there attention much longer than that. The 1^st ? hour of practice is all conditioning drills. The rest of practice is learning basic moves, practicing them with a partner and then live wrestling.

 

Matches are every Saturday from the first Saturday in January through the last Saturday in February. Matches are usually against 2 other towns but can go up to 4 teams. Every child wrestles on Saturday unless there is no one at his weight and age. With the number of wrestlers at each match most times a wrestler will wrestle more than 1 match. The sub bantams are the exception. Some programs start at bantam. We try to match all our wrestlers up on match days but sometimes there will be no matches for the sub bantams.

 

During the year there will also be a few tournaments. Tournaments are on Sundays. New Milford usually participates in the Bergenfield tournament ( for midgets, juniors and intermediates only) the 1^st Sunday of January and the Emerson tournament (all divisions) later in January. In early February there is a novice tournament for 1^st and 2^nd year wrestlers who never medaled in a tournament. The districts are held the 3^rd Saturday in February. Any wrestler who takes a 1^st or 2^nd place medal in the Districts advances to the regionals the following Sunday. The regionals conclude our season.