Wrestling coming to Misericordia University

DALLAS, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Breaking in the new mats, former U.S. Olympian wrestler Ken Chertow shows off a move or two of the sport he’s soon to be head coach of, women’s wrestling at Misericordia University.

“It just wasn’t common for girls to wrestle and now it’s becoming more of an accepted thing. I’ve been advocating for women for over 20 years to wrestle and I’m just excited there are opportunities now.”

Working alongside coach Rocky Bonomo, who coached the first Olympic women’s wrestler to win a medal, the pair is the perfect match to bring wrestling to the university for the first time.

“We’ll build the program around these gals, so it’s going to be really important to get the right gals so we’re excited about the gals that are committing and the ones that will commit. It’s going to be super cool.”

Also expanding on the men’s side, head coach Josh Roosa says lots of hard work goes into starting a program.

“You don’t what you don’t have until you don’t have it for sure, but it’s been a long process. Obviously going through the identification of a lot of kids you know I think we reached out to over 400 student-athletes this year.”

Coach Chertow says the sky is the limit regarding the sport.

“A lot of my wrestlers from camp were in the Olympic trials, I’m looking for many wrestlers for misericordia to be competing in the Olympic trials four years from now, but first things first is getting here, getting some basics, competing at the college level, and being as successful as possible taking it one day at a time and progressing from there.”

Recruiting continues for the women’s team as they hold a wrestling clinic and workout on Misericordia’s campus on Saturday afternoon.

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