Marc Verri (far left) holds the ribbon while Tony DeLuca with the Youth and Family center cuts it in their newly renovated wrestling facility.
by Dave Warner
The Little Falls Youth Wrestling group got to formally cut the ribbon on their newly renovated facility recently. Marc Verri is the current coach of the group of more than 90 kids who participated this year.
“For the most part, I want to keep kids active. That’s the main goal,” stated Verri.
He said that Bill Keeler was trying to make the ribbon cutting because he had been Verri’s first coach and got him interested in the sport. “He made me fall in love with the sport, and I’ve loved it ever since and wanted my kids involved.”
Verri says that working with Tony DeLuca, they had found the space underneath the Community CoOp that could work for the group. “So instead of rolling up mats in the gym every day, we got to come here and leave mats down, which is huge.”
The modified and varsity squad had used the space as their official practice location prior to Covid. Since it was the ‘official’ location for the team, Coach Verri felt that they needed to upgrade the facility. He said that he just threw it up into the universe, and felt someone would give them the money they needed.
“A few months after that I saw on Facebook the Edwin J. Wadas Foundation, and I immediately called and asked how long is this process, a few months, a year? And she said, no if you get your stuff turned in we’ll get it going in a couple of weeks,” stated Verri.
The group received $36,000 to redo the whole space, from front to back, and top to bottom. “They were a Godsend.”
Verri said they remodeled the space, painted the walls, did construction, fixed spacing issues, ceiling tiles, new toilets, and then the wall mats, wraps, battle ropes, boxes for box jumps, and the big-ticket item, which was the new wrestling mats that were custom made for the space.
Tony DeLuca said that he and Verri worked on the application together. “It was a really nice partnership. Marc, the volunteer coaches, and others came in and did the work to make it happen.”
“It’s one of those projects where it might not have happened had we not been displaced with Covid. Because the school district was shuttered and we were able to put things in place to keep the practicing going, it made it easier to justify the need,” stated DeLuca.
With the large number of kids and Marc Verri and other adults showing a lot of interest in wrestling, this was a needed and justified project. Wrestling is a very good physical activity for young people. Good luck to the young wrestlers and everyone involved.
Congratulations to all that came together that made it possible to happen. Good job!