Beat the Streets offers CPS SCORE! student-athletes chance to try and excel at wrestling

By Dominic Scianna

One of the great strengths of the Chicago Public School SCORE!/Beat the Streets 5th-8th Grade Co-Ed City Wrestling Championships held on March 23 at Chicago Military Academy, is the impressive pedigree of several experienced mentors that have a hand in the event’s success.

Individuals like Patrick Martinez, a former U.S. Olympic alternate and wrestling director and coordinator with the Beat the Streets organization, and the trickle-down effect of grassroots CPS coaches like Alexander Peacock of James Madison Elementary School, who is a former high school wrestler at St. Laurence and Hubbard High Schools and Triton College, who lend their expertise.

These are just a few of the behind the scenes names who make the program run smoothly but it takes an army of several devoted and dedicated individuals to complete the task. Under the CPS SCORE! umbrella, this final event ties together those hard-working efforts throughout the season from entities like Beat the Streets to give several hundred elementary-aged wrestlers a chance to participate and thrive all across the Chicagoland area. The CPS SCORE! moniker (Sports Can Open Roads to Excellence) is an all-inclusive participation-based program focused on skill development, sportsmanship, and intra-school competition for fifth through eighth graders.

Half of the coaches are from CPS and half come from the Beat the Streets programs, both of which abide by the mission of mentoring and tutoring to develop positive relationships, and, in this instance, it’s wrestling which can change these young athletes lives. Beat the Streets (BTS) empowers Chicago youth through wrestling. They combine year-round wrestling programs with customized enrichment opportunities so that children can become their best selves.

The BTS staff’s dedicated leadership utilizes Martinez’s strengths, as a former U.S. World Wrestling team member and two-time U.S. Olympic Games alternate in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, to cultivate and oversee wrestling events and opportunities for the organization.

“Beat the Streets is really happy and proud to partner with CPS SCORE! in running the wrestling league with them,” said Martinez. “For us, it’s an opportunity to continue to grow the wrestling ecosystem that the City of Chicago needs and we’re happy to be a catalyst for that. If we can get one child in here, and they have siblings, we want to pull in the rest and then we become a family for all of them.”

Coach Peacock has been associated with the CPS SCORE! program since its inception. He is affiliated with James Madison Elementary School and coaches his Monarchs wrestling team. He brought 11 wrestlers to this year’s championships. Last season he only had two wrestlers in the program, which is a testament to the impact a sport can have when word spreads throughout the community.

“Wrestling is a beautiful sport because there’s no language barriers, no ethnicity barriers, no weight barriers, and anybody can compete. It’s been a great thing for Chicago right now,” said Peacock. “I really love seeing the Chicago Public Schools get the resources they need to compete in wrestling. It’s gotten better every single year.”

Two of the Monarchs fifth grade wrestlers, Elijah Qasim (boys 135-146 lbs) and Brazil Moore (girls 63-76 lbs), beginners in the wrestling room this year, won their weight classes to take gold medals and have high praise for their mentor in year one of competition.

“I love Coach Peacock teaching me because I’m learning a lot of moves and those moves are leading me to victories,” said Qasim. “There are a lot of talented wrestlers here (at the championships) and it makes me better (getting this kind of experience).”

And now that girls wrestling has been sanctioned by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), females like Moore can dream about bigger goals as they advance in their wrestling careers through this feeder system.

“He’s (Coach Peacock) teaching me a lot of new things, and I feel I have the talent to get better so I can go on and compete at state when I’m in high school,” said Moore.

Another intriguing storyline came from actual wrestling families like: the Finnegan’s, the Castellanos’, and the Miller’s who spent the day cheering on their children at Chicago Military Academy.

One of the top performances of the day came from eighth-grader Paige Finnegan, who won the gold medal rolling through her 96-103 lbs weight class with three consecutive victories, making quick work of her opponents in record time winning by consecutive falls in all of her matches.

“We found out about the SCORE! program three years ago and my daughter fell in love with wrestling,” said Paige’s father, Nick Finnegan. “We were impressed with the programs and coaches. They kept Paige’s morale high and she’s really worked hard at it since then.”

The hard work paid off for Paige, who wrestles for coach Brian Augello’s Rickover elementary squad. She is primed to take her talents to the next level waiting on an April 1 letter to see if she gets into her first choice high school, Rickover Naval Academy.

“I’m happy I won but it was emotional because I had to wrestle my last match against a teammate and friend Ava (Miller),” said Paige. “I’ve met so many new people and it’s been a great experience so far. Now I’ll get back to practicing and more wrestling competitions that are coming up.”

Paige’s step-brother Jackson Castellanos also wrestled in the championships following in her footsteps in his second year of SCORE! matches, which has been an eye-opener for him and his mother Darcy.

“She (Paige) got me into wrestling and the SCORE! program and I’m really glad I did it. I’ve also learned a lot from her because we are doing this together,” said Jackson.

Jackson took the silver medal for second place in his 115-121 lbs weight class. He and his mom were encouraged to take away a great learning experience at the finals that made it all worthwhile.

“We tried team sports but it didn’t go the way we planned,” said Darcy. “So we found wrestling and liked the camaraderie and support, plus it helped win or lose to pick yourself up (whatever the circumstance) and deal with the successes as well as the failures.”

Ava Miller (fourth place finisher in the 96-103 lbs girls weight class) has known about wrestling for quite some time during her early years of watching her brothers and her dad, Michael, who coached his sons. It came as no surprise when she agreed to don the headgear and compete – an option that the family felt might be a good fit for her to gain confidence and bring her out of her shell.

“We are a wrestling family and I’m from Iowa so I heard about the Beat the Streets program in the city through my ex-wife (Andrea). My daughter Ava lives in the city. We were looking for something for her to participate in and it was an after school introductory program that just made sense for her to try,” said Michael.

One of the more poignant scenes at the championships was Michael consoling Ava during a loss with his arm around his daughter as they walked out of the gym and spoke privately away from the mats. Ava returned and gamely finished the competition smiling from ear to ear with her family while waiting to get her medal at the conclusion of the event.

“Even though I lost today I’m looking forward to continuing on,” said Ava, a seventh grader. “It’s really fun with my Dad (helping as a coach) and I’m having a good time. We get a break now so I’m excited to spend time with my friends, like Paige this summer.”

The Top 6 Final Final Team Totals for the CPS SCORE/Beats the Streets 5th-8th Grade Co-Ed City Wrestling Championships were as follows: