1st
Annual Wrestling USA / Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic Dual Meet
2005 USA Women's Dream Team Coach
Coach Kent Bailo
Kent Bailo was asked, and quickly accepted, the opportunity to serve as the Coach of the first ever Girl's Dream Team Classic USA All-Star Team.
Bailo started the United States Girls Wrestling Association in
1998, a year after organizing his first girls tournament, a Michigan
Girls Wrestling State Champion-ship that he organized in 1997.
That first
girls meet in Michigan had 116 entries. Now, the USGWA National
Champinships has grown to 604 girl wrestlers in 2004, and Kent
likes to tell everyone that it is "The Biggest Girls Wrestling
Tournament in the WORLD".
Kent started coaching in 1973, serving a two year stint as
a Graduate Assistant at Eastern Michigan University. Prior to
Kent coming on board, EMU was 0-9. They forged a 5-11-1 record
in 1974, and jumped to 12-9 in his second year. Kent took over
as head coach at Alpena High School (MI) in 1975, a school with
2,600 students in grades 10-11-12. The Wildcats were 13-5 and
23-7 during Bailo's two year stint. Moving to Rochester Adams,
Bailo inherited an 0-11 team that was last in their league. In
the first season, his Highlanders finished 24-3, 5-0 in the league
and were league tournament champs. The next five seasons were
27-4, 33-5-1, 20-1, 32-2, 29-3 (30-0 in the league). Kent stepped
away from coaching for a few years to devote more time to family,
school, and his job at General Motors. He's had three one year
stints in the past twenty years; Burton Bentley (27-7-1) and rated
as high as #4 in the state, the year before they were 3-17; Pontiac
Catholic (16-6) after 1-17 the year before, and, most recently,
Ortonville Brandon High School. All that woven around 11 refereeing
assignments at the Michigan High School state finals, and 7 trips
as a referee at the NCAA finals.
Kent started wrestling in 9th grade on a challenge from his
older brother, Mike, who told Kent he wasn't tough enough. That
was in November of 1964, and Bailo has been at it ever since,
as a competitor (admittedly not very good), a referee, a coach,
and a promoter/organizer. Kent is one of 10 children of Sam and
Doris Bailo. All six boys wrestled at South Lyon (MI) High School
and two of Kent's brothers, Clark and Sam Jr. were state tournament
qualifiers. Kent's son, Brent, also referees. Brent has refereed
two Michigan high school state finals, some Big Ten collegiate
duals and several collegiate tournaments often working with dad.
Kent's hope for wrestling: that every high school in the country that has a boys wrestling team will have a girls wrestling team within 10 years. And, that every college that has a mens wrestling team will have a womens wrestling team within 10 years. Then we can say wrestling is truly back to its heyday.
April
9, 2005, will mark two firsts in the history of the Wrestling
USA/Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic Dual Meet competition. It will
be the first time that the competition will travel to TEXAS, the
Lone Star State. It will also mark the first time the competition
will feature female wrestlers. Both will contribute to showcasing
the development of the sport in the state since the UIL (University
Interscholastic League) decided to adopt wrestling as an official
high school sport and also incorporate a girl's division.
The event will be a collaborative effort between Texas USA
Wrestling and the Wrestling Association of Arlington (hosts of
the Hilton Arlington / Cliff Keen Athletic Lone Star Duals). Dream
Team members will travel to Dallas, Texas, and be housed in the
Hilton Arlington (boys) and the Hawthorn Suites (girls) in Arlington,
Texas. These hotels are next to each other and right across from
the Ballpark in Arlington and Six Flags, 10 minutes from the Dallas
Fort Worth airport. Twenty minutes west is the Stock Yard area
of Ft. Worth and twenty minutes east is the West End area of Dallas.
Team members will arrive on Friday the 8th and get an opportunity
to absorb some of the local culture. Dinner will be held to allow
the competitors to meet.
On Saturday, April 9th, two competitions will be held at the
South Grand Prairie HS Warrior Coliseum (site of the Lone Star
Duals), beginning with the first ever Girls Dream Team versus
Texas' best at 5:30 PM. Hopes are high in Texas that the Lone
Star girls will be very competitive. Since the UIL sanctioned
the sport, the number of girls participating has skyrocketed and
the enthusiastic support on the part of the coaches has resulted
in a tremendous increase in the quality of the competition. Texas
wrestlers have joined the girls teams at Neosho College, Cumberland
College, Minnesota Morris, and Missouri Valley. With Bacone College
and Pacific adding new programs, we expect to see even more.
At 7:00 PM, the best senior boys in Texas will take to the
mat against the Dream Team. While Texas has had wrestlers on the
Dream Team in the past (Buck McLamb and Danny Ruiz), there has
never been a competition between Texas and the Dream Team. Will
Rowe's matches with Mike Poeta last year, and the success of wrestlers
like Brandon Slay (2000 Olympic Champion and 2x NCAA finalist),
Ben Heizer (2x Div I NCAA All- American and Runner-up), Mohammad
Lawal (NCAA Div II National Champion and Div I Runner-up), and
JJ Holmes (NJCAA National Champ and current Eastern Michigan team
member) demonstrate the depth of talent in the Lone Star State.
Wrestlers like Matt Sansone, James Aston, and Justin Wren are
likely Texas Team members and Texas native Olympic Champion Brandon
Slay has offered to assist with coaching the Texas Team. Actual
team members will be announced at a later date. We anticipate
a great competition and a tremendous opportunity for Texas wrestlers
to meet some of the best in the country. We are also looking forward
to the opportunity to expose the Dream Team members to Texas hospitality
and culture.
Many fans may have come to the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex for the 2000 Olympic Trials and discovered that there are many things to do in the area. The location is terrific and the hotels will be providing great rates, so come down and enjoy the wrestling and support the greatest sport in the world. Tickets will be available on the Hilton Arlington/ Cliff Keen Athletic Lone Star Duals website (www.lonestarduals.com) and at Texas USA Wrestling website (www.txusawrestling.com).