Allen Berube talks with two members of the Trojan Youth Wrestling club at a practice earlier this week. PAT McDONALD/Journal Tribune
One sport where the Trojans have no history of success is wrestling — but thanks to a dedicated group of coaches and the support of the TA administration that could change.
Allen Berube and Marty Adams launched Trojan Youth Wrestling last year with the hopes of building something special and bringing middle school and high school wrestling to Saco for the first time ever.
“We both have kids and they wanted to wrestle and we wanted them to wrestle,” said Berube, who has been friends with Adams since childhood.
Adams and Berube would spend a year traveling to Waterboro with their sons to the Massabesic Youth Wrestling Club, but then they decided to bring a youth club to Saco.
“We traveled down there to Massabesic and joined their team. At the end of the year we said, ‘you know what? Let’s do a club team in Saco,’” Berube said. “Massabesic was selling their old mats and me and Marty pitched in and bought them for $1,000 and we had mats. We started looking around and we went to XL Sports World and we were going to rent space … even if it was just our sons wrestling it doesn’t matter, we were going to do it and build it somehow.”
“Once we saw the interest in the families and the people, we knew we could build it and we just weren’t going to give up until we got there,” added Adams, who wanted to give back to the sport he loves. “When you’re a wrestler you have a passion for the sport and you never want to let it go.”
The duo decided to talk with Thornton Academy Headmaster Rene Menard about possibly using space on the TA campus.
“We sat down with him and said, ‘hey this is kind of our idea. Thornton’s never had a team, Saco’s never had a team and we’re starting a team and need space,’” Berube explained. “The guy loved it and said, ‘you know what? If you have a successful youth team, we’ll entertain the idea of a high school team in a couple years.’”
The Trojan Youth Wrestling club found plenty of success in its first year as they had 35 wrestlers sign up.
“That shocked everybody. And not only did 35 kids come out, 35 athletes came out,” said Berube. “When we went to tournaments, kids that didn’t even know how to wrestle were winning. That comes from Thornton. These kids are born and raised here, they know football, they’re athletes and they already have some kind of balance and skill.”
Thornton Academy took notice of the numbers and enthusiasm at the youth level and decided to start the process of adding a middle school team this year.
“They’ve been using the Thornton Academy facilities for two years now, and last year it was totally under the umbrella of their organization and we’re now beginning the phase of bringing it into our middle school program,” said TA Athletic Director Gary Stevens. “Next year it will be fully part of our middle school program and we’ll be on the Southern Maine Middle School Athletic Conference schedule.”
Adams and Berube aren’t leading the charge by themselves as they brought in some great coaches to help get the program off the ground.
“I’ve lived in Arundel for the past couple years and coached at Massabesic (youth wrestling) for the past eight years so I took my three boys here and have just been trying to get it up and running,” said Daryl Dewitt, who is hoping to see a high school program in the near future. “That’s the main goal is we need to get Thornton on the map for high school wrestling.”
Roger Souliere, who is a former Kennebunk High School wrestler, was also quick to jump on board.
“It’s huge. Most of these kids wouldn’t be wrestling if we didn’t have this program right here. Their other option is they can join other clubs, but in reality it’s much easier for the parents to get their kids to the local school,” Souliere said.
The Saco club’s wrestlers have also been able to learn from a former high school state champ and Division I wrestler as Ryan Toussaint joined the coaching staff early on.
“I’ve always wondered with (Thornton Academy) and how many kids they have why they never had a team,” said Toussaint, who wrestled at Deering and then Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. “I was thinking about it when I met (Berube) and he had the same idea and it’s gone full swing since then … I thought it was going to be a good thing.”
Stevens has been impressed with the Trojan Youth Wrestling club and believes Adams and Berube are on the right track.
“It’s always numbers driven. I think they have certainly set a tremendous base for participation to have a high school program down the road. I think the time for a high school program is very imminent, but it’s going to be depending on what their numbers are,” said Stevens.
The longtime athletic director gives a ton of credit to Adams and Berube.
“They’re energetic, they’re enthusiastic, they’re ambassadors for the sport and they are the Pied Pipers of the program without question,” Stevens said.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
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