Wrestling coach talks about athletes making it big

As athletes around the world made final preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games last week, wrestler Andy Hutchinson was guiding some of the kids who only dream of making it that far.

“The pinnacle is the Olympics,” he says. “It’s something that young people often dream about.”

With a competition history spanning 20 years, and after competing in the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, and serving as Olympic team alternate in 2004, Hutchinson knows a thing or two to pass on to the youngsters.

“As you get older, competition gets stronger, and fewer athletes compete as you step up,” Hutchinson says. “For those athletes who are competing in the Olympics, they have a commitment to it.” 

He says sports like wrestling require focus and a lot of hard work. “There is a great deal of sacrifice that needs to be made,” he says, adding that it can become a full-time job. “But it’s obviously very difficult to wrestle full time, so many athletes have to work hard on the side to gain sponsors.”

Though an athletic career is a tough endeavor, Hutchinson says wrestling has provided a number of positive benefits. “I had a chance to travel, have many friends from wrestling, and I met my wife who also wrestles,” Hutchinson says. “I also gained self-confidence and the ability to deal with adversity and to overcome challenges and obstacles.”

It’s his seventh year directing the Rocky Mountain Wrestling Camp in Jasper, coaching potential stars of tomorrow, who from time to time remind him of himself. “There’s many kids who I certainly see my qualities in,” he says. Hutchinson started wrestling when he was 12 years old because he though it would be like the World Wrestling Federation.

He quickly found out he was wrong, but enjoyed it nonetheless. “I love the idea of individual competition,” he says. Hutchinson did well early on, entered a club program and started competing nationally by the time he was in Grade 8.

The Jasper campers range in age from 10 to 18 years old, and five from this year’s group are moving on to university teams in the fall. That means Hutchinson may run into them again, as he takes the role of head coach at the University of Calgary this September.

The Beijing Olympics opened Aug. 8.