“Take down, escape, near fall and reversal,” are wrestling terms explains Bud Glover, coach of the Grand Junction, Col., High School wrestling team.

This is not the wrestling seen on television featuring men with silly names slamming each other with metal folding chairs. This is organized, practiced and competitive athletics attracting high school students both male and, more recently, females.

The University of Nevada, Reno is hosting three concurrent high school wrestling camps during the month of July. Teams from nine states are participating in the camp with approximately 700 boys and four girls in attendance.

“The camps are made up of a technique camp, a team camp and a two week intensive training camp,” says camp director Mark Perry, a two-time Big 8 Champion, and a two-time All-American wrestler.

“Wrestling is the best one-on-one sport there is,” Coach Glover, a 31-year veteran coach, says. “Almost every other sport is team based. The secret is to stay intense."

These young men and women are divided into weight classes ranging from 98 pounds up to 285 pounds and include freshmen to seniors.

“I have fun in it,” Billing Senior High School sophomore wrestler Greg Wyatt says. He has no problem with the late night practice or running two miles every morning. He enjoys being able to participate in an indoor sport when the weather outside makes it impossible to do anything out of doors.

The events are held in the Lawler Event Center on the UNR campus and the team members can be seen running every morning beginning at 5 am. One coach offered his team the option of running five miles or running the outside steps at the event center. One group of wrestlers could be heard arguing the pros and cons of the options.

The technique and team camps are four days of training and actual mat time. The intensive training camp consists of two weeks of running for conditioning, mat practice and individual training. Intensive camp members run twelve miles a day.

The wrestlers work out for two weeks at home prior to coming to camp.

Wrestlers earn points for moves on the mat. At 15 points a match is stopped and a winner declared. Points are earned for take downs, which are two points. A get-a-way will earn a wrestler one point and a win is worth three points.

Assistant camp director Todd Goolsby from Del City, Okla., says the most difficult part of putting the camp together is finding space for the team trainings and securing dorm space for the teams and coaches.

Goolsby and Perry will see about 1,800 wrestlers this summer during the Oklahoma State University John Smith wrestling camps held on various college campuses across the country. In addition to the camp at UNR, camps are held in Minnesota, Louisiana, New York and Oklahoma.

Once back at school, the teams will practice for about an hour a night 3 nights a week. During wrestling season from November to February, teams practice one and a half to 2 hours a night.

The top team at UNR will win more than bragging rights as t-shirts and medals as well as a large plaque are given to the winning teams.

Tyler Wayne of the defending Western Division Grand Junction High School team hopes his team brings home the big prize again this year.