THUNDER BAY – Sports – Lakehead wrestling coach Brock Curtis will be among the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association’s (CAWA) senior women’s team as an assistant coach during the Ion Corneanu Memorial tournament in Torgoviste, Romania. Curtis will depart this weekend for Romania, where he will train the 8 Canadian female wrestlers who make up the senior women’s team.
Curtis’ work will begin on Monday, May 21, with a 4-day training camp, followed by weigh-ins on Friday, and the tournament Saturday and Sunday. He will be working with head coach David Spinney, who is an assistant with the Western Mustangs program.
The Ion Corneanu Memorial tournament attracts the world’s elite wrestlers, although given the upcoming London Olympics in a few months, Canada’s Olympians are on a separate training schedule, which includes the Senior Women’s World Cup in Tokyo, Japan on the same weekend as the Corneanu event. This has opened the door for Canadian senior women (19+) who are not on the 2012 Olympic roster to represent Canada on the international stage. Among the wrestlers Coach Curtis will be training are 3 Brock Badgers, 3 Western Mustangs, 1 Calgary Dino and 1 athlete from Simon Fraser.
“I’m excited to be part of my first project with the CAWA,” begins Curtis. “David Spinney is a coach who I look forward to working with, as well as all the elite athletes that will be competing for Canada in Romania.” He continues, “This is a great learning opportunity, and my first international event with top calibre athletes from around the world.”
Coach Curtis will have the chance to glean some lessons to bring back home to Thunder Bay, as he mentions, “I’m looking forward to seeing these athletes in all of their routines with their coaches. To be part of an international camp will be interesting. In Canada, when you go to a camp, it’s a fairly small community. To see and work with international clinicians will be a nice opportunity.”