This is Marcus Bowman, I am currently a student at Pittsburg State University. With the help of a few other students, a wrestling club has been organized at Pitt State. We recently held our first meeting and have around 30 students which are interested and excited about getting this club going. Everyone is pumped about getting back on the mat, but we have a problem, we have no mat to practice on at the college. There is no way we could a afford a new mat so I was wondering if anyone has any info on where I could possibly find a full size used mat.

Marcus,

Good to see that Pitt State is up and running with this endeavor. I think if you contact some local high schools or maybe even a college or kids club team some would be willing to give you a mat as a tax write off. Try that route.

Public schools in Kansas do not pay income or property taxes and a donation for a tax write off will not happen.

Generally, public schools do not look favorably upon giving away taxpayer's property.

The vast majority of kids clubs do not own their mats and practice at either the local public school or recreation center.

I suggest contacting Pittsburg School District and arrange a time to use the high school or middle school facilities.

If Pittsburg has a recreation center, contact the recreation director for possible assistance.

I was suggesting that route because Oklahoma State gave UCO its old weight equipment on the condition UCO went to get it. A rental of a U-Haul and some hard working guys on a few trips and voila: Free Equipment and a write off for OSU.

Marcus contact the local ymca director Jack Bache they have an old mat that is not used very much its not in the best of shape but he may help you out if the mat is going to be left at the college i have a section of it in my barn but i would be glad to give it to you guys.

There are so many things that has to be done to get a club like this going. But we are really close to getting there! We presented in front of the student government on monday to try and get some funding. I am pretty sure we will get atleast $300 or so, hopefully more. Finding mats and a place to practice has been the toughest. I was informed the other day about a local high school that might be generous enough to sell us one of their old mats for a reasonably low price. I will know for sure hopefully within a few days on their decision. Yes we are planning to be part of the NCWA. We will use the money from the student gov. to pay th fee so the club can be a member. We are currently discussing fundraisers and seeing about donations to help with the mat and also some team singlets. The one big problem we are trying to figure out is where to practice. There is a room at the Weede (PSU gym) that could possibly be used, but we would have to roll the mats out and roll them back up after every practice. There are also many other classes, practices, etc. that use the room for their own purposes. I am trying to locate a place in pittsburg, some type of building that has a room that isnt being used. This would be nice because we would have our own practice room. If anybody knows of a place let me know. Like Bailey said, anybody who would like to donate or help out in anyway, it would be greatly appreciated. We are close to getting this going and I and the rest of the people in the club can't wait to get back on the mats!

I'm going to talk to Independence. They have a REALLY old, really hard mat, but it would be better than nothing..

i think andrew said fort scott was the ones giving u the mat, but i don't remember the price he told me