The Inaugural Hudson Valley Challenge Wrestling Tournament took place over the weekend at Orange County Community College in Middletown, NY, sponsored by the Friends Of Section 9 Wrestling Inc.

Attracting 275 wrestlers from as far away as the State of Texas, the event culminated into a tremendous wrestling spectacular. Wrestlers from all around the State of New York were treated to some great competition as athletes from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut also came to participate in this years’ inaugural event.

Former NCAA and Olympic Champion Kenny Monday came from Texas with a team of high caliber wrestlers to help promote the event in its first year. Monday wrestled for event organizer Al Bevilacqua several years ago when the pair traveled the World as USA National Team Coach and wrestler representing the USA.

Monday delivered a brief talk before the action began on just what the sport of wrestling has done for him and how it has helped him in life. Several other former wrestling greats were in attendance including John Hughes, former Penn St. NCAA Champion. Hughes came to the event with a team from State College, PA. Hughes is remembered as one of only ten 4X-Pennsylvania State Champions when he and twin brother Russ wrestled for Benton High School.

Current West Point Head Coach Chuck Barbee, a member of the Friends, could not be in attendance for this year’s event because Army was wrestling in a pre-season tournament. Army was very well represented however, as they sent a strong contingent of wrestlers to assist in the operation of the tournament. Team Monday will travel to West Point in nearby Highland Falls and be hosted by the Army Wrestling team before leaving for Dallas in the evening.

Thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Section 9 Wrestling Inc., the West Point Wrestling team and officials from NY, NJ and PA and especially to Orange County Community College, the event came off as a complete success. As the gymnasium cleared people could be heard already talking about next years tournament and the prospects of the year ahead.
The Friends of Section 9 Wrestling Inc., a 501C3 non-profit association whose mission is to support and promote amateur wrestling in the Section 9 Community and New York State on all levels of wrestling.

The next event will be the 2003 EASTERN STATES HIGH SCHOOL CLASSIC to be held at Orange Community College spacious Field house in Middletown, New York on January 17-18. The Classic has attracted 32 Teams from 6 States to participate in this inaugural event and will be led by the Number 1 NYS and recently ranked by Amateur Wrestling News in the Top 25 in the nation Macarthur HS [Section 8] and local powerhouses Valley Central [Sec 9] and Monroe-Woodbury HS [Sec.9]