Don DeSilva Memorial Duals
On June 6th, 1955, Don DeSilva was born, that’s my father for those who don’t know. Until I started wrestling my father knew nothing about amateur wrestling. However, when I started wrestling at four years old, he dove headfirst along with my mother, Maryanne. My father passed away on May 12th, 2022, and the outpour of support and love from the wrestling community was truly humbling and I will never be able to thank this community enough. If I am allowed to be emotional for moment, in the worst time of my life the love and support from coaches, teammates, opponents, and parents, took away some of the pain knowing that my dad was loved by members of the community. I truly appreciate and cherish the words of encouragement and support. I use “encouragement” specifically, if you ever saw my father at a wrestling event, you would typically find him smoking outside, coaching/filming my bouts, or getting on my mom’s nerves to the enjoyment of the people around us. However, behind my father’s hulking exterior, was one of the most encouraging and inspiring people I have ever known. It was not uncommon for him to sit down next to a sulking athlete (whether teammate or opponent) and talk them down from the anger or disappointment of losing and even lend a hand of wisdom (and if he was unable, he would call me over). No matter the situation, he was the first person to hand me a bottle of water, get me to take a deep breath and either calmly discuss what happened or open the camera to watch the film and break it down.
If not for my father I am not sure I would be wrestling today or at the level I am today, as a wrestler and a man. In his honor, I will be hosting the first ever Don DeSilva Memorial Duals at Brewton Parker College on June 2nd and June 3rd. The plan is to bring together clubs and teams from across the wrestling community with the same ideals of pushing the culture, and wanting to give athletes not only the opportunity to grow but also possibly find themselves a home to wrestle at the next level. The event is still open to adding 2 - 3 more squads, if you might be interested please continue reading on for more information.
CONFIRMED TEAMS
Team Fat & Scrappy
Assassins Wrestling Club - Alabama
Combat Athletics - North Carolina
Compound Wrestling Club
Gulf Coast Grappling - Florida
Level Up
MF Savages
Money Team - Louisiana
Reverence Wrestling Club - South Carolina
Swamp Monsters - California
Wolfpack Wrestling Club
I would love to add more teams to the event, as we are around a month away there is still time to get your squad into the Don DeSilva Memorial Duals, if interested please contact me at Fatandscrappybrand@gmail.com. The event is high school boys weights plus 3, with one weigh in on friday morning. It being freestyle we plan to have teams wear blue or red singlets to follow UWW and Team USA protocol. Team trophies for the Top 4 finishing teams, Custom medals for undefeated wrestlers, and Custom Fat & Scrappy brand singlets for the three winners (Lightweights, Middleweights and Heavyweights) of the “Most Valuable Squatch” awards that will be voted on by coaches at the event (The vote will consist of each coach getting a card to vote on their Top 2 wrestlers in each weight division, after that the points will be calculated and the highest scoring wrestler in each division will win the MVS). Teams will get anywhere from 7-9 matches over the two days, the plan is to have challenges with video review as well.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (Assuming 12 teams in the event)
FRIDAY JUNE 2nd
Weigh Ins - 8:00am to 9:30am
Mats Open - 8:00am to 10:00am
Opening Ceremony and speech by Maryanne DeSilva - 10:00am
Round 1 - 10:30am
Round 2 - 11:30am
Round 3 - 12:30pm
Round 4 - 1:30pm
Round 5 - 2:30pm
Round 6 - 3:30pm
SATURDAY June 3rd
Campus Tour for Class of '23 & '24 - TBD (perhaps 9am?)
Mats Open - 8:00am - 9:00am
Round 7 - 9:30pm
Round 8 - 10:30am
Silver Pool and Bronze Pool Semi Finals - 12:30pm
Gold Pool Semi Finals and Bronze/Silver Consolation Finals - 1:30pm
Gold Pool Placements and Bronze/Silver Championship Finals - 2:30pm
Team Awards & Individual Awards - 3:00pm
Rosters are gonna be capped at 22 weighed in wrestlers, the weights are all (+3),
100,106,113,120,126,132,138,145,152,160,170,182,195,220 and 285.
Freestyle Dual Team Points
In Layman's terms
Pin (5:0)
Tech Fall, Shut Out (4:0)
Tech Fall, Loser Scores (4:1)
Decision, Shut Out (3:0)
Decision, Loser Scores (3:1)