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    Sparta wrestling club benefits from Army officer’s efforts to help service community

    Sparta wrestling club benefits from Army officer’s efforts to help service community

    Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Corey Beal | Col. Larry Mosley, of the 88th Regional Support Command, receives the Legion of Merit...... read more read more

    FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

    01.12.2015

    Story by Alun Thomas  

    88th Readiness Division

    FORT MCCOY, Wis. – As the clock winds down on the 33-year Army career of Col. Larry Mosley, so does his six-year service to the local community as proponent and president of the Sparta Wrestling Club.

    Mosley, of the 88th Regional Support Command, headquartered on Fort McCoy, wrestled as a youngster in both junior high and high school and was later a wrestling coach while working as a teacher in Oklahoma, giving him a lifelong admiration for the sport.

    “After we moved to Sparta in 2007, my son decided to start wrestling middle league at a young age,” Mosley said. “It was in early 2009 when we got involved with the Sparta Wrestling Club, which was very small, with only two sets of parents taking part.”

    Seeing an opportunity to help the team grow, Mosley immersed himself in the process of making the club a viable organization which could compete at a high level, something he said wasn’t without obstacles as the club president.

    “I found out the club wasn’t licensed properly which involved a lengthy process to complete,” he said. “It was hard work establishing the club, but it was nice to build it from the ground up and take something unorganized and elementary and make it profitable.”

    In order to raise funds to provide better equipment and uniforms for the growing club, a lot of fundraising was held to achieve this goal, Mosley said.

    “We started running concession stands, with our main effort being the Snack Shack which we run at local football games,” he said. “Among other things this helped us achieve our financial goals.”

    Ultimately the goal of the club is to develop wrestlers who are committed to and enjoy the sport of wrestling, by coaching them in folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman styles of wrestling, Mosley said.

    The club has benefited from the help of the Sparta Park and Recreation who help fund the local wrestling programs, he added.

    With the profile of the club increased by these fundraising and monetary boosts, the club has grown to about 50 to 60 wrestlers currently, with the emphasis on middle and high school, Mosley said.

    “The club is ranked ninth in state and has been in the top 10 four out of the last five years,” Mosley explained. “In those five years we’ve been either first or second in the Mississippi Valley Conference, which has seven teams from the area like La Crosse, Tomah and Black River Falls.”

    Mosley said the team also recently won the Northern Badger tournament in River Falls, overcoming 43 other teams with just ten wrestlers from the club participating.

    Results like this will make Mosley miss being a part of the club as he retires from the Army and take up a civilian position as the chief of training management at Fort Knox, Kentucky, but he said the experience was a great journey.

    “I’ve had a good time doing it and it’s been a little hobby that my wife would probably say took up too much time," Mosley joked. “But I’m glad I could give back something to the community by doing it.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 01.12.2015
    Date Posted: 01.12.2015 15:39
    Story ID: 151809
    Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US

    Web Views: 261
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN