An Okotoks wrestler may force Holy Trinity Academy to expand its gymnasium to make room for all the championship banners he is winning

Reid Watkins, who won the high school provincial wrestling championships in March, added a pair of championships at the National Cadet/Juvenile Wrestling tournament at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., last weekend by winning both the National Cadet and the Federation Internationale des Luttes Associees (FILA) championship at 69kg.

Reid Watkins, here wrestling at the high school provincials in Calgary in March, won the Cadet and FILA championship at the Cadet-Juvenile National championships in Burnaby on the weekend.

The FILA championship means the Grade 10 student at Holy Trinity Academy will now wrestle in the Youth Olympic Trials in Monterrey, Mexico later in the year.

Cadet is for 15-16 year olds, while the FILA tournament was for wrestlers under 17.

Watkins feasted on a pair of Huskies in both of the finals in Burnaby.

Watkins beat Andrew Johnson of the Junior Huskies out of the University of Saskatchewan in the Cadet final Saturday and then bested Dominic Olver, another Junior Husky, in the FILA final on Sunday.

“I had wrestled Olver in the Paperweight tournament in Edmonton for third place earlier in the year,” the 15-year-old Watkins said Sunday from Burnaby. “I beat him up there so I was pretty confident.”

In the FILA final, Watkins took the first round 6-0 and then won the championship by winning the second round 9-3. (Wrestling matches consist of a best of three two-minute rounds. If a wrestler gets up by six points, the round is over).”

He called winning FILA the biggest win of his young career.

“Winning FILA is a bigger deal to me (than high school provincial or nationals) because I get to represent my country either at Pan-Am Games or Youth Olympic trials or hopefully, the Youth Olympics,” he said.

Nationals

Watkins went into the Cadet Nationals with all the tools to win on Friday, but absolutely no knowledge about the approximately 25 other wrestlers in his weight class.

“I would try and watch the other wrestlers to see what kind of moves I can do,” Reid said. “My dad was right beside, helping me. A lot of those guys I thought were stronger than me, so I tried to use my speed and technique.”

Watkins is a quick learner.

He won the gold medal match by beating Andrew Johnson in two straight rounds. He didn’t give up a point in the six matches he won en route to winning the national championship.

“That was kind of my goal not to give up a point because that’s what Spencer did last year when he won nationals,” said Watkins.

Spencer, Watkin’s older brother, won the Juvenile Nationals last year in New Brunswick at 84kg.

Watkins won the high school provincial championship at 72kg in March. He was able to cut down to 69kg at Cadet nationals by the Thursday afternoon weigh in.

“I woke up on Thursday and I was 70.1kg,” Reid said  “I ran some in the morning and then wrestled some of my teammates to take off the last kilo. I made weight that afternoon and then refueled that evening.”

Okotoks Wrestling Club coach Doug Watkins said he was confident his son would do well at nationals.

“I was pretty certain he would be national champion at his weight class,” Doug said. “That’s because the way he wrestled all year. When he wrestled at university meets he handled himself well. When he wrestled outside of the province, he was outstanding at the high school level.”

Cassidy Barnert of the Okotoks Wrestling Club placed fourth at 63kg in the girls’ Cadet division finishing with a 3-2 record.

Brock Deburger went 0-2 at the boy’s Cadet division.

“I thought Brock wrestled the best he did all year,” Doug said.

Matt Izyk of Blackie went 2-2 at 76kg in the Juvenile boys division while Andrew Lewis of Blackie was 1-2 at the Juvenile boys 69kg division.

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