After Mount Carmel’s varsity wrestling team is finished practicing on the mats, the lights in the Alumni Gym are left on for another team to come in and practice. Head coach of Caravan Kids, Rob Forbes, along with his group of wrestlers who range from kindergarten to eighth grade, take over after MC is done.
Caravan Kids, also known as CK, is a youth wrestling team that practices four evenings a week at MC, and on weekends the team competes in tournaments across the city. Even though CK teaches kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, wrestling is no child’s play.
“Wrestling isn’t a sport where you’re given everything,” Coach Forbes said. “You’ve got to go out and earn everything you get in wrestling, from a takedown, to an escape, to any point you score in.”
CK’s wrestling season began in November, and will end mid-March. Wrestlers train by practicing moves through live wrestling. The next day, they repeat the same regiment all over again.
“It’s repetition that’s the main thing,” said coach and founder of CK, Mr. Bob Garay, who also works security at MC. “You have to develop the physical toughness and the mental toughness to keep doing the same repetitive things over and over.”
Wrestlers put what they learn from practice on weekdays to work in tournaments on the weekends. All tournaments are sanctioned by the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation, and anywhere from fifteen to forty youth teams enter. One by one teams are called up to begin their match.
Fifteen wrestlers from CK entered into the previous Lil’ Coaler tournament in Coal City, Illinois. From that group of fifteen, CK finished with champions Kolin Nickson and Baylen Krull, as well as runners-up Josiah Holmes, Xayvion Phillips, Harrison England, Chase Nickson, and Kyle Nickson. The team typically has a record of walking out of tournaments with success.
“Early in the year when everybody was getting started we’d show up with eighteen kids and walk out with eight champions,” Coach Garay said. “During the holiday season kids get a little distracted, but we always leave with at least two or three champions.”
Coming up on their schedule, the team has some more work ahead of them. They will enter regionals at Richards High School in Oak Lawn on the last weekend of February, sectionals at Lamont High School on the first weekend of March, and state in Peoria the second weekend of March.
Even though wrestling at CK is challenging, younger kids still find a lot to like about it. Coach Nathan Krull’s ten-year-old son Quinten Krull and eight-year-old son Baylen Krull both enjoy the youth wrestling club because of the type of mentality it teaches them to have.
“Caravan Kids teaches me that it’s not about winning, but good technique,” Baylen said. “If you lose but have good technique, then it does not matter. But if you lose and have bad technique, then that’s bad wrestling.”
Eight-year-old Hilal Saleem on the other hand enjoys CK because he gets to talk to the other wrestlers.
“I like Caravan Kids because you get to socialize,” Saleem said. “In some sports you don’t get to socialize as much as wrestling, and I like that we learn new moves because I find the moves really interesting and fun.”
Mr. Garay takes a lot of pride in Caravan Kids.
“This has been a success to me beyond my wildest dreams,” he said. “Some kids, when they’re done wrestling in the tournament, ask their parents to stay so they could watch their teammates wrestle. To me, that’s success.”
Coach Forbes shares a similar sentiment.
“I’m very proud of it,” he said. “As far as the success on the mat that the team has had, I can’t be more proud of it.”
