The Pioneer Mat Club, a Lampeter-Strasburg area community youth wrestling program, attracted 68 kids this season — the largest number of participants the club has ever had.

The club's head coach Kevin Franklin, who has taught wrestling at the junior high and high school levels, said the club stresses correct positioning and a positive attitude. When aspiring grapplers have those things mastered, he said, winning follows.

Franklin said coaches try to keep wrestling fun at this level. The club is for kids in second grade and older. Members meet for practices where they do push-ups and stretches, work on skills and learn new moves. Each practice ends with a game.

"This is a sport you can get burned out in," Franklin said.

Wrestlers also have the option of participating in tournaments, where they use skills against opponents in their weight classes to win medals and trophies.

"I like getting hardware (medals and trophies)," said Franklin's son, Johnny.

Johnny believes he has about six trophies and 18 medals to show for his years of practice. Johnny's friend, fourth grader J.T. Hake, said his hardware collection includes four medals and four trophies.

Fourth grader Logan Davidson said while he likes winning, losing is not so hard. He sees it as an opportunity to learn something new. Johnny points out that when a wrestler loses a match, they can still wrestle to win a medal.

J.T. said he found it hard when he lost every match during a recent tournament, but he didn't lose his enthusiasm for the sport.

Logan, in his third year of wrestling, heard about Pioneer Mat Club from friends and decided to give it try. They both ended up staying in the club.