Philly wrestling program helps students on and off the mat
The halls of South Philadelphia High School were silent. School had been out for slightly less than a half hour on this Thursday in March, yet a pair of dedicated student athletes remained.
The halls of South Philadelphia High School were silent.
School had been out for slightly less than a half hour on this Thursday in March, yet a pair of dedicated student athletes remained.
The two sat across from each other in a small, dimly lit wrestling room - not much bigger than the wrestling mat itself - located in the west wing of the building, tying up their shoelaces feverishly while trading friendly glances.
Fast friends and fellow Public Leaguers, 195-pound Southern junior Miles Lee and 170-pound Mariana Bracetti senior Edwin Morales were preparing to make history.
Only four days away from their first trip to Hershey, Pa., Lee and Morales had no time to waste. After advancing through the North East Regional tournament, they became the third and fourth Public League wrestlers in PIAA history to qualify for states and the first Public League duo to make the tournament in the same year.
The friendship came before the success, as Lee and Morales had met the previous summer through Beat the Streets Philadelphia, a program that provides funding, resources, and mentorship opportunities for youth wrestling and more than a dozen high school programs in the Philadelphia region.
"It's like a big family," Morales said of Beat the Streets Philadelphia, which was established in 2009. "They help you on and off the mat."
'Gave them a belief'
While Lee went 1-2 and failed to place at Hershey's Giant Center, Morales went 2-2 in his first and final state tournament appearance, narrowly missing out on becoming the Public League's first state placer. He was disqualified for an illegal slam 59 seconds into his match with Penn Manor's Jack Zimmerman, who ended up placing eighth.
Morales and Lee's run at states didn't go as far as they had hoped, but the result was a success nonetheless.
"Our kids, they're told their whole lives they suck," said Chris Hanlon, Beat the Streets Philadelphia executive director. "People are like, 'Your school sucks. Your community sucks. There's lots of crime. You're going to be a failure,' and until they see somebody that can do it, it's really hard to convince them that it can be done.
"So for our kids to see Edwin and Miles break through and get to states, that gave them a belief that they can do it now. It was disappointing that we didn't get to put a guy on the podium, but like most things that happen with Beat the Streets, it's not the end of the world."
Since he became a full-time employee in 2010, Hanlon's world has revolved around Beat the Streets Philadelphia.
The nonprofit organization at 3700 Market St. has a six-figure budget, sponsors 17 Philadelphia high schools - such as Southern and Mariana Bracetti - and tends to more than 1,000 wrestling program participants, including more than 100 girls.
Throughout the 2015 fiscal year, it received funding from 150 individual donors and 21 corporate and foundation sponsors, such as Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.
Seven years into its existence, Beat the Streets Philadelphia is the leading force in the revitalization of Philadelphia wrestling. It focuses on offering academic help to students and troubleshooting problems faced by local wrestling programs.
The goal is to use wrestling to inspire and propel students to success.
When Hanlon first jumped on board as a volunteer in 2009, the organization had a budget of $10,000 and was only beginning to get its bearings.
Beat The Streets Philadelphia wasn't born in Pennsylvania. The program's first branch started across the Ben Franklin Bridge in Camden when longtime resident Bill Wallace teamed up with Beat the Streets Philadelphia's founding board members to start Camden Youth Wrestling.
The founding board members, many of whom worked on Wall Street and hailed from Delran, were inspired by the success of Beat The Streets New York, which began in 2004, and wanted to create a similar organization in Philadelphia after setting up the Camden program.
So they turned to Hanlon, a 2004 graduate of Penn and former two-year Division I wrestler, to help build the program from the ground up.
Opened doors
A Baltimore native, Hanlon worked in his home city as an employee benefits broker for Franklin Financial Group for 61/2 years before moving back to the area and becoming a volunteer for Beat the Streets Philadelphia in 2009.
"I spent a lot of time just thinking I was just going to be a volunteer, but it obviously has ballooned beyond that, and I'm fortunate now that I actually work full-time as the executive director because, at the time, I didn't see that being the case."
In addition to serving youth and high school wrestlers, Beat the Streets Philadelphia also provides many former wrestlers with opportunities to get involved as coaches and mentors.
One of Lee's associate head coaches at Southern, Rory Gulak, wrestled at Northeast High School from 2004 to 2008 and now serves as the assistant program director for Beat the Streets Philadelphia.
"It has opened doors for everyone, like myself, giving them options to coach," Gulak said of the program. "They compensate their coaches so if you're going to school part-time, which I was doing at Temple University, it gives you the option like, 'Hey this is something that I can still do,' and they take care of you for that."
A key, organizers say, is that success on the mat alone is not enough.
"Beat the Streets is trying to make sure the kids are not only successful in wrestling but also in school, and they have really helped me," said Ernest Holland, a sophomore at Academy at Palumbo. "I'm getting on honor roll, and I'm able to get into other activities, like I'm on the Palumbo News team, and I finished out my wrestling season doing way better than I did last year."