Wrestling is back in Hagersville with alumni at the helm

HAGERSVILLE—In the 1980s, a group of friends at Hagersville Secondary School (HSS) bonded over a shared love of wrestling. Now, following the passing of one of their teammates, that group has rallied together to bring wrestling back to the community.

Cliff Weaver passed in December 2023. In his honour, his friends, including fellow wrestlers Jonathan Smith and Scott Bassindale, decided to host a fundraising golf tournament last summer with a goal of re-establishing a wrestling program in their hometown

HAGERSVILLE—Coach Jonathan Smith (right) poses with members of the newly reinstated wrestling program at Hagersville Secondary School. —Haldimand Press photo by Mike Renzella.

That program is now in its inaugural season under the leadership of Smith, an HSS teacher and coach. His friend, HSS wrestling alumni member and tournament organizer Walter Miller, reached out to The Press to share the news.

Sitting down in the same room where they wrestled in the 80s, Smith and Bassindale reminisced about their glory days in high school, wrestling under coach Chris Fraser.

“He worked with us for short-term and long-term plans with the goal of leading up to a provincial championship someday,” said Smith.

Advertisement

 

While Smith and Bassindale’s young squad couldn’t bring home a championship, some of the HSS wrestlers following them were able to do so under Fraser’s leadership.

In the years since, however, the school’s program fell to the wayside. While Smith couldn’t put a date on it, he said the program had been inactive since before the Covid pandemic, with local wrestling hopefuls like CWOSSA medal winning student Max Foster and his brother Luke travelling to out-of-town locations to participate.

Smith said the newly reinstated program will need time to develop and to draw in those students who will most benefit from the discipline and focus required to excell in the sport.

“There weren’t a lot of people when we first started,” said Smith of his heyday. “Before we finished, we must have had over 20 kids starting out at the beginning of the year and then the numbers just kept going up in terms of participation.”

Smith is hoping for a similar trajectory this year. He is confident he will find his team, guaranteeing that any student who stays past five practice sessions will be hooked by the sport.

“One guy wins, and another guy thinks he can win too. And then somebody else will come on and they think they can win,” he said of how the love of the sport can be contagious.

Smith touted wrestling as a great tool to help motivate kids to develop in other areas as well, including academically, noting how he himself used the goal-setting techniques learned through competing to help in other areas of life to great success.

He characterized discipline as doing the things that other people won’t do, even when there’s no coach present to put the pressure on, like getting up to go for a run in the early morning.

Smith has been subbing at HSS for the past year, just recently being offered a full-time position. He is excited to be at the helm of the program, touting the resources available within the school.

“We have more rubber on the walls now than we’ve ever had in our lives,” he said of HSS’s wrestling room.

While acknowledging that the full contact nature of wrestling comes with inherent risk, Smith said, “Wrestling is a healthy risk.”

On the program, Smith hopes to see his students competing at OFSAA or other competitions, but knows that it may take time to build a competitive program.

“You’re either going to win or lose, but you take that risk anyways,” he said. “For me, that’s a healthy risk.”

For now, Smith, with the help of Bassindale, is working with those who have expressed interest in developing a knowledge of the fundamentals, while working through the logistics of getting players to not just practice, but attend tournaments and compete.

“We’re still growing this,” said Smith. “We just got here.… We’ve got wrestlers, and that’s important,” noting that he hopes to expand the program to elementary students eventually as well, giving them a chance to learn some fundamentals before joining the program once in high school. 

He invited The Press to revisit the program in three years’ time, throwing down a challenge: “You’ll see me in three years. We’ll have a championship.”

Smith and Bassindale’s passion for the sport is clearly evident listening to them describe it. Their desire to bring Hagersville wrestling back to the glory days they remember from their youth is a local sports underdog story worth following.

We will be back to visit in three years, Coach Smith, and we expect to see that championship.