"Mean & Physical"

At Rampage, we expect HIGH INTENSITY!!! We ask that you never give up, always continue to move forward, and let no obstacle stand in your way. “Some people dream of success, we work hard to make it happen.” Rampage Wrestling welcomes you and your youth wrestler as a member of the fastest growing wrestling program in southern Maryland. Thank you for choosing the Rampage Wrestling program.

The MSWA Region VII State Qualifier tournament scheduled for Saturday, February 6th has been rescheduled due to the expected inclement weather.  The tournament will now take place on Monday, February 15th with weigh-ins at 12pm and wrestling starting at 1:30pm.  Please contact Carlos Sandaval or Sal Icaza with any questions, comments or concerns.  

A great article in the Washington Post about our very own Dayton Webber.  Please click on the picture to view the article.

Our Facility

The “Pig Pen” occupies 5,000 square feet with two full size wrestling mats at the Unique Sports Academy. The Pig Pen wrestling entrance is located at the back-side of the facility. Please drive around the Unique Sports Academy and park in the rear parking lot, and enter through the red door. Unique Sports Academy is also home to the Royal Martial Arts and Gemini Combat teams, Unique Gymnastics and the Maryland SuperStarz Cheerleading teams. We ask that you and your wrestlers respect the other teams and not climb on, jump on or otherwise use the gymnastics or martial arts equipment. 

Professional Staff

Our core coaching staff have a combined seven Maryland State High School titles; two were NCAA National Championship Tournament qualifiers, and one each Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) title and Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) title.  Most importantly, since our coaching staff chooses not to coach at the high school level,they devote all of their coaching time to youth wrestling at practice and on match days.

Universal Sports & Academics President: Kevin Wagner

Rampage Director and Head Coach: Jason Kiessling (240) 346-0427 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Assistant Coach (seniors):  Jason Gabrielson

Assistant Coach (seniors):  Stanley Proctor

Assistant Coach (juniors):  George Taylor

Assistant Coach (juniors):  Mike Garrow

SMJWL Commisioner and Assistant Coach:  Matt Shaffer

Administrative Staff:  Jeff Simpson, Denise Shaffer

Rampage League Participation

The Rampage wrestling program accepts youth wrestlers at all levels.  This season, Rampage will compete in the Capital Area Wrestling League (CAWL) and the Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling League (SMJWL) and we hope to qualify wrestlers for the Maryland State Wrestling Association (MSWA) Youth Tournament.  At registration, all wrestlers are automatically placed on both SMJWL and CAWL rosters although wrestling in both leagues is not required.  A wrestler may, and will likely eventually choose, to wrestle in only one of these leagues. 

Dual registration provides opportunity for all wrestlers to wrestle in open tournaments and dual meets in both leagues and to provide flexibility to coaches and parents to wrestle more opponents at different venues rather than limiting to just one or the other.  The intent is to mimic that of a high school wrestling club.  Wrestle offs will be conducted, as necessary, for kids to earn the “Top Spot” at our tougher dual meets.  SMJWL matches are held on Saturday’s beginning the first weekend in January and are bracket or round-robin format with only one dual meet scheduled mid-season.  The CAWL schedule may vary, but our hopes are to wrestle CAWL Dual/Quad Meets on Sundays.  An occasional Saturday or Weeknight meet may be necessary.  The only CAWL bracket/round robin tournaments are Pre-Season and Post Season.

We will accept SMJWL wrestlers from other teams to wrestle on our CAWL team however, there are strict SMJWL and CAWL rules that must be adhered otherwise your wrestler could become disqualified from post season tournaments.

SMJWL/CAWL Registration and Fee’s

Rampage Wrestling is a Universal Sports and Academics, Inc. Program.  Rampage and Unique are not for profit organizations.  Our wrestling coaches and staff donate their time to this program to improve wrestling opportunities in Southern Maryland.  We are focused and determined on delivering highly competitive wrestlers to our local high school programs.  Rampage’s fees, as members of the Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling League and the Capital Area Wrestling League, are set as low as possible to pay league registration fee’s (referees and end of the tournament awards) and a small percentage of Unique Sport’s Academy’s operating expenses.  This year’s fees are set at $150 for the season (16 Nov 2009 – 13 Mar 2010).  This fee includes a singlet deposit which is refunded when the singlet is returned in the spring.  After 13 Mar 2010, there are still several Mid-Atlantic and National level tournaments that our club members will participate.  League members are welcome to join our club ($75 for 12 sessions) in March 2010 if interested in wrestling in the spring and summer wrestling seasons.

Please complete the necessary Unique Sports Academy registration forms.  The first page of this form is a family form.   If you have multiple wrestlers in your family, only one form is needed.  The second page is a medical information form that Unique requires for all wrestlers.  If you have multiple wrestlers in your family please fill out one medical form for each wrestler.

There will be a clipboard(s) distributed requesting additional information (and in some cases the same) from the Unique registration and medical forms.  This information will be used by our administrative staff to develop email distribution lists, phone trees, and our rosters for the SMJWL and the CAWL leagues.

Uniforms

Singlets are custom made for our program and are covered in the $150.00 registration fee.  We will also offer Hooded Sweatshirts, T-Shirts and Shorts for both wrestlers and parents or other family members. Wrestling shoes and headgear are required for all wrestlers and are not provided by Rampage. You may wish to speak with your coach for headgear and shoe suggestions.

Open Mat

Open mat is available for practice on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Fee is $15.00. Open Mat Cards are also available. For $75 you may purchase an Open Mat card which provides you with 5 visits plus an additional 2 OPen Mat visits FREE (Save $30). Please see Jason or George for details.

SMJWL and CAWL Competition Rules 

• A wrestler is eligible to wrestle in both the SMJWL and the CAWL so long as he or she is a novice wrestler or wrestled the previous season in the SMJWL.  An experienced wrestler who did not wrestle in the SMJWL the previous season is ineligible to wrestle in the SMJWL.
• A wrestler, who wrestles only with Rampage, and was in the SMJWL last year, may compete as often as he/she would like in any Rampage team or open event and be eligible for any and all post season tournaments in the SMJWL and the CAWL.
• If a wrestler chooses to wrestle on multiple SMJWL rosters (e.g. Westlake for SMJWL league and Rampage for CAWL) the wrestler must participate in at least 80% of SMJWL meets to be eligible for the SMJWL end of season tournament.
• If a wrestler chooses to wrestle for a select team (e.g. Tiny or Junior Terps), in addition to Rampage, they may wrestle a maximum of two times for that team otherwise be ineligible for the MD/VA State tournament.  This wrestler is ineligible for the SMJWL.
• A wrestler must make two practices a week, every week, with Rampage, to be eligible for the MD/VA State tournament.  Special circumstances are considered.
• A wrestler must weigh in three times at his/her weight and wrestle five matches (as a starter or exhibition) to be eligible for end of the year tournament placement.  If a wrestler is between 2 weight classes, and meets this qualification at two weights, that wrestler can wrestle either weight for the CAWL Championship tournament.  The weight the wrestler places in the CAWL Championships is the weight the wrestler must wrestle at in the MD/VA States (top 6 go on to MD/VA States).
• There is no weight allowance during the season in the CAWL.  Scratch weight is the weight a wrestler will compete in all tournaments.

Insurance

Most open tournaments and each league that Rampage Wrestling participates require membership to athletic associations.  Most importantly, these memberships provide insurance for our wrestlers when they are on the mat.  Annual membership dues range from $12-$30 depending upon the organization and level of insurance.  We chose not to include this insurance in our fee’s to provide flexibility to our wrestlers, and allow them and their family to determine which open tournaments and leagues they want to participate.  We ask each parent to obtain the necessary athletic memberships as appropriate.

• The Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling League (SMJWL) and the Maryland State Wrestling Association (MSWA) requires all wrestlers carry USA Wrestling membership to participate in their events.  This membership provides wrestling insurance and a one year (SEP-AUG) subscription to USA Wrestler magazine.  A club code is not required to register; however, Rampage Wrestling will have a club code soon.  This membership can be purchased on line at http://www.usawmembership.com/.  Renewal is easy, if you have your card from last year.  To wrestle in the MSWA Youth Regional and State Tournaments USA Membership is required.

• The Capital Area Wrestling League requires all wrestlers to carry Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Membership to wrestle in their events.  The AAU provides different levels of membership to provide insurance at non-AAU sanctioned events.  A club code is not required to register; however, Rampage Wrestling will have a club code soon.  This membership can be purchased on line at http://aausports.org/JoinNow.aspx.

Schedule

Many Rampage volunteers are also football parents with the La Plata Blue Knights.  We and the coaches at Rampage are aware of the impacts of weather on the football season.  We realize your football season and playoff’s overlap with our pre-season practice and tournament schedule.  We understand that your commitment to football may prevent you from attending some of our early season practices.

There are many pre-season open tournaments in Maryland that we recommend our wrestlers participate in and there are two tournaments that we would like to enter a full team.  This is voluntary; however we strongly encourage it to gain as much extra mat time as possible.  The more pre-season time your wrestler gets, the better the results at MD State and league end of season tournaments.  The attached “events” list is a list of the tournaments that are scheduled by other MD wrestling organizations that some of our wrestlers have already committed to.

It will be common for this team to have wrestlers at two different locations on the same day this year.  For example, on SMJWL Saturday, many of our more experienced wrestlers may travel to an open tournament in PA to wrestle against tougher competition.  Likewise, on CAWL Dual-Meet Sunday, many of our novice wrestlers may want to compete in the MSWA Novice Tournament series.  Again, this is voluntary.  Parents, coaches, and administrative staff will work together to determine what is best for each wrestler to maximize mat time against comparable competition.

Parent Volunteer/Fund Raising

No youth non-profit organization can succeed without communication, parental involvement, and downright hard work.  Rampage is no different.  To support a wide range of age and experience, a busy wrestling schedule, necessary travel, and host tournaments on at least three wrestling weekends at Unique Sports Academy, we will ask parents to assist in many aspects of our team’s development.

• We are in need of parent coaches to help translate the instructions Coach Kiessling will give to a large wrestling group.  If you have coached previously or have wrestling experience and are interested, please let us know.

• Hosting a wrestling tournament with as many as 300 wrestlers is a significant production.  Rampage will host at least six wrestling tournaments over three weekends for varying levels of competition.  We will ask for help to break down gymnastics equipment on the Friday before and reinstall on the Sunday after.  If you have scored a match or kept time before and are interested, please let us know.  We’d also be happy teach anyone wishing to learn.  Besides scoring, food is also important and as such, volunteer concession operators are also necessary to continue to raise funds for the Academy and Rampage Wrestling.

• Fundraising and sponsorships are a large part of all not for profit organizations.  As a wrestler becomes more experienced and seeks higher level competition expenses associated with travel, hotel stays, and open tournament registration fee’s can become expensive.  Fundraising and sponsorships can offset the costs that otherwise may restrict a very good wrestler from competing.  Specific needs to help our families and assist wrestlers in achieving his/her goals include:
  
  • A fund raising coordinator and/or committee.  We are looking for parents who wish to save a few dollars and willing to devout a little time to develop fundraising ideas and to incite sponsors.
  • Volunteer time at fund raising events as organized by the fund raising coordinator/committee.
  • Since many of our wrestles will travel, any families with time and larger vehicles willing to transport more than one wrestler to these events is invaluable to maximize participation.

We thank you for choosing Rampage Wrestling for the 2009-2010 folkstyle season.  We look forward to an exciting and competitive team, and are confident your wrestler will have fun, significantly improve upon their wrestling skills, and may even step up on the podium at the MD state youth tournament and/or the end of the season SMJWL and CAWL tournaments.

The Unique Sports Academy provides positive sports programs for children of all ages and abilities. Each program is a division of Universal Sports & Academics, Inc.  One Gym. One Family