PRTC Wrestling

PRTC Developmental Training Prepares Juniors for Fargo!

2024-06-30

The PRTC Developmental Training program continues to grow. For all USA Wrestling athletes who qualify to participate at the PRTC, training has gone well this spring!

New Penn Assistant Coach and U23 National Champion Doug Zapf has led the way as we have helped prepare developmental athletes for the upcoming Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. Doug knows firsthand how valuable this program is. He is the first person to work his way through the Developmental and U23 levels before joining the PRTC as a professional athlete.

The PRTC Developmental Training program is free to all who qualify. To train with the PRTC, all athletes must meet USA Wrestling RTC criteria. Click here for more information.

Jordan Burroughs Wins 7th Gold To Make History

2022-09-21

Community and legacy are on his mind after record setting performance.

Philadelphia, Pa. – Last weekend, the PRTC’s Jordan Burroughs became the first American wrestler to win seven gold medals at the World/Olympic level. Surpassing Six Time Gold Medalists Adeline Gray and John Smith, Burroughs has become, arguably, the greatest of all time in USA wrestling history.

For the second year in a row, Burroughs defeated Mohammad Nokhodilarimi of Iran. Behind 1-0 after the first period, Burroughs quickly scored a push out to tie it up. A shot to finish secured a takedown giving him a 3-1 lead. Nokhodilarimi pushed back with a late step out score to close the gap but Burroughs would hold off for the 4-2 victory.

This is the second World Championship title for Burroughs since moving to Philadelphia in the Summer of 2021 to train with the PRTC.

“Philly is everything I could have ever imagined as a training location,” said Burroughs. “Great partners, amazing leadership, and a community that truly loves the sport. There has been so much encouragement from the Drexel and Penn family to help prepare me to take on the world, and to celebrate my success after victories.”

Three of Burroughs’ teammates were also in Belgrade, Serbia for the World Championships. New PRTC senior athlete Tyler Berger was Burroughs’ main training partner leading up to the event. Joey McKenna helped prepare USA 61kg Seth Gross. David McFadden traveled with the team from San Marino as 86kg Myles Amine’s training partner.

“As a team, we were all focused on maximizing Jordan and Team USA’s performance,” said PRTC Executive Director and Head Coach Brandon Slay. “Joey, Tyler, and David also benefited from being training partners and servant leaders.”

PRTC senior athletes Mark Hall and Richard Perry stayed in Philly to coach U23 and Developmental practices while the team traveled. Hall is also the volunteer assistant coach at Penn. Serving others, a core value of the PRTC, is deeply rooted in the local wrestling ecosystem.

“Jordan’s record setting performance breathes life into the entire wrestling community and way beyond,“ said Slay. “His faith, full effort, and fortitude will continue to blaze a path for wrestlers from the PRTC, Penn, Drexel, Beat the Streets Philly, and a myriad of age group wrestlers all around the greater Philadelphia area.”

The PRTC practices at both the Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania training facilities in West Philadelphia. The Beat the Streets Mentoring Center is located between the two. Burroughs lives in the city and often brings his family with him to practice. He frequently volunteers his time with the underserved youth of Beat the Streets.

“I desire the legacy of this World Championship to be tied to representation,” he said. “In a sport with many heroes, but few of color, I get to be the standard now for which all young brown men and women hope to achieve someday. It’s an honor.”

Burroughs will next compete with Team USA at the 2022 World Cup to be held in Coralville, Iowa on December 10th and 11th.

Photos by Levi Ventura

Story by Kevin McGuigan

Prtc Continues Ambassador Campaign to Raise Funds for Paris and Beyond

2022-09-14

Philadelphia, Pa – The Pennsylvania Regional Training Center(PRTC), an official USA Wrestling Olympic Training Center, is ten months into a two year campaign to raise $1 million for the growing 501c3 non-profit organization. With an increase in support of their mission to enrich lives locally and globally through the sport of wrestling, they are more than halfway to their goal.

“We are blessed with the opportunity to fully fund our senior level athletes as they pursue World and Olympic Championships,” says PRTC Executive Director and Head Coach Brandon Slay. “At the PRTC, our senior athletes are professionals. They compete at the highest levels of our sport. We provide training, health care, and salaries that allow them to focus on their goals in wrestling. More importantly, our athletes spend a lot of time outside the training facilities volunteering as coaches, clinicians, and mentors in the community.”

Executive Director and Head Coach Brandon Slay coaching Senior Athlete Jordan Burroughs

The PRTC is partnered with Drexel University, The University of Pennsylvania, and Beat the Streets Philly(BTSP). The two universities train together weekly with the PRTC. All three organizations work together to mentor and coach the kids of Beat the Streets Philly.

BTSP is a sports based youth development non-profit that is committed to fostering the holistic growth of student-athletes living in at-risk underserved communities. The PRTC, along with Drexel and Penn, volunteer their time to mentor the young student-athletes of BTSP.

Penn and Drexel student-athletes at Beat the Streets event.

CJ Composto, a student-athlete at Penn, volunteers much of his free time to Beat the Streets. “The lessons I learn from the senior athletes, especially from my coach Mark Hall, are invaluable,” says Composto. “I use them when working with the athletes I mentor at Beat the Streets.”

The PRTC is at the forefront of the Philadelphia Wrestling Ecosystem which includes the two universities and the youth development program. A “Philly professional sports team” as Slay calls it, the PRTC hopes to continue their mission while preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and beyond.

“The Ambassador Campaign is a fundraising effort to help further expand our impact,” says Slay. “Our goal is to raise an additional $1,000,000 over the next 5 years for the PRTC. We chose the title “Ambassador Campaign” as a tribute to Benjamin Franklin and what he represented as a treasured American icon.”

“The additional income from the Ambassador Campaign will help us continue to support our senior athletes with training, housing, sustainable income, injury prevention care, and healthcare insurance coverage. With increased funding, we will be able to expand our reach in helping to develop future leaders through developmental training, community outreach, and coaching initiatives.”

Click here to learn more about the Ambassador Campaign including how to donate to the PRTC.

Photo by Aaron Morekin

Story by Kevin McGuigan

Jordan Burroughs Earns World Team Spot and Reflects on His Impact at Beat The Streets

2022-06-21

June 21, 2022 – Two weeks have passed since Final X fans from across the country gathered in awe at Madison Square Garden to watch PRTC resident athlete Jordan Burroughs earn his way onto an 11th World Team. This is no ordinary feat—to make a US World Team and secure the opportunity to compete for a World Championship year after year, 11 times. It is a task only legends are capable of achieving. Burroughs is just that, one of the greatest to ever take to the mat. An Olympic champion who also holds five World titles, eight World/Olympic medals, a 69-match winning streak, Burroughs seems to have evolved as much as the sport itself over the past 11 years.

Jordan Burroughs, 79kg for Team USA.

What’s more impressive than Burroughs’ achievements and performances on the mat, which included two dominant and strategic wins against Chance Marstellar of the NYC RTC in a best-of-three series, is the interview after Jordan’s victory. A man who has so many accomplishments and yet, is a humble and wise individual. Burroughs spoke more of the PRTC coaching staff and his support system, than he did of himself.

While reflecting on his performance, Burroughs was asked about the Beat the Streets program. Beat the Streets NYC held their annual gala in collaboration with the Final X event. The PRTC works alongside BTS Philly in an effort to mentor and guide underserved youth through the sport of wrestling, “We work very closely with BTS Philadelphia now, a derivative of BTS National. They do a phenomenal job of raising money and keeping kids off the streets and out of trouble in underserved areas,” Jordan explained. He has spent years partnered with Beat the Streets in an effort to grow support around the program that serves nearly 9,000 youth from 37+ cities annually.

At first a clinician and now a mentor, Burroughs added, “When you really start to work with these kids daily, and when you really recognize the difficulties they are going through on an everyday basis; what they go home to, how difficult their lives are, my job now is less wrestling and more mentorship. I am trying to be a father figure to these individuals. They go home to a fatherless home, with five younger siblings, in a parental role at 15-16 years of age. They are dealing with real problems—danger on the streets, possible incarceration, tempted by drugs daily. There are a lot of things these kids deal with that we are trying to combat. The sport of wrestling is great for that because it teaches character development unlike any sport in the world.”

Coach Brandon Slay attends to

Jordan Burroughs between periods at Final X.

Burroughs attributes his strength as a leader to the sport of wrestling. He adds that his role as a mentor, alongside the roles of his PRTC teammates and coaches, is one that has the ability and power to break generational patterns plagued by broken homes and a lack of encouragement and parental support. “I have a civic duty to the public and to the people who follow me. I want to encourage and motivate individuals I spend time with at all BTS locations.” It is clear, Burroughs does just that as all of his PRTC teammates have shared. David McFadden notes, “When Jordan talks, the room grows silent and we listen to every word, every piece of advice, and word of wisdom he shares.” Led by Coach Brandon Slay, the PRTC athletes all demonstrate the desire to live out the core values on which the organization was founded: Faith over fear, full effort, struggle well, and last but certainly not least, to serve others.

Burroughs will represent Team USA at 79kg in Belgrade, Serbia September 10-18, 2022.

Story by Gina Perry

Pictures by Aaron Morekin and Tony Rotundo

Futrell Heads Back to Upenn

2021-07-10

By Gina Perry for Intermat

The University of Pennsylvania announced their new Assistant Coach today, one who is familiar with the program and its principles—BJ Futrell, a former PRTC athlete and incredible asset to the Philadelphia wrestling community.

Futrell was most recently the Director of Mentoring for Beat the Streets Philadelphia where he worked very closely with Penn Wrestling, Drexel Wrestling, and the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center to deliver mentoring and academic enrichment to BTSP Student-athletes. Thus Futrell will prove to be a tremendous asset to Penn’s program both on and off the mat.

Futrell returns to coaching after serving as an Assistant Coach at the United States Naval Academy during the 2019-2020 season. Under his leadership, Navy qualified five wrestlers for the NCAA Tournament and crowned two EIWA champions. Additionally, Navy had three wrestlers become NWCA Scholar All-Americans.

Collegiately, Futrell was a 2x All-American for the University of Illinois. He was a 3x Academic All-Big Ten selection, and achieved NWCA Scholar All-American status twice. Futrell earned a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology in 2012, and earned a Masters of Education in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership in 2013.

As a member of the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center from 2016-2019, Futrell was an essential member of the Philadelphia wrestling eco-system as he participated as a mentor for the BTS program, offered team clinics and spoke at various FCA events. Futrell was the first PRTC athlete to become a member of the U.S. National Team, which he accomplished in 2017. Throughout his career, Futrell placed at over 20 different Senior-level events and won titles at the Dave Schultz Memorial International, the Bill Farrell International and the Ion Corneanu & Ladislau Simon Memorial.

Despite facing various injuries over the course of his athletic career, BJ’s positive attitude, faith and solid understanding of discipline and hard work, continues to propel his career forward. “Beat the Streets Philadelphia is an amazing organization and I am super proud of the impactful work we were able to accomplish for our students during this extremely challenging academic year. BTS is positively altering life’s trajectory for students in under invested communities and I’m glad that in my new position at Penn, I will be able to strengthen the partnership between BTS and the University. At this time I feel a calling on my life to go back into coaching. The opportunity to learn from a Hall of Fame Coach like Coach Reina, who is CEO-minded and also understands the importance of community, I had to take it. The University of Pennsylvania athletic department as a whole, and the wrestling team, has a set of core values that I truly believe in. The University of Pennsylvania is a world class institution, and I am passionate about the holistic development of these students athletes; I am excited to not only help them become better wrestlers, but better men.”

Futrell was welcomed into the infamous wrestling room earlier this week by UPenn’s team, “BJ brings tremendous talent, and a broad experience set both nationally and internationally to Penn Wrestling at exactly the right time in our national climb,” said Reina. “Moreover, he embodies our program’s core values of Character First, Aiming Big, and Community Matters.”

The energy and experience Futrell has to offer, will prove to be valuable as UPenn once again takes the mat and enters the competitive scene after taking a season off due to Covid restrictions.

Pennsylvania RTC 2019 Fargo Recap

2019-07-25

Pennsylvania Regional Training Center wrestlers brought home eight medals from the prestigious USMC/USAW National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota last week.

Leading the way were Junior Greco-Roman champion Angel Garcia and Junior men’s freestyle runner-up Cole Urbas. Angel is the PRTC’s first Fargo champion and one of four Beat the Streets Philadelphia wrestlers to earn All-American honors.

The other three were Steven Foster (8th in Junior Greco-Roman), Grigol Kochiashvili (5th in Junior Greco-Roman) and Tatyana Ortiz (8th in Junior women’s freestyle). Tatyana also made history, becoming the PRTC’s first female All-American.

The other three wrestlers that earned All-American status were Joey Slackman (6th in Junior Greco-Roman), Gabe Miller (8th in Junior Freestyle) and double All-American Nick Hall (3rd in Cadet Greco-Roman, 7th in Cadet Freestyle).

Urbas, Slackman, and Miller will be incoming freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania.

This tournament’s results exemplify one of the core tenants of the Pennsylvania RTC: Creating an ecosystem for elite student-athletes to strive toward national and international success in wrestling and in life.

Fargo Nationals is regarded as the most elite tournament in high school wrestling. Placing is no small feat. These wrestlers should be proud of the work they have put in that has allowed them to achieve their goals.

If you are a high school athlete interested in training at the Pennsylvania RTC, check to see if you meet the criteria here.