Denzel Mabry is the Pride of Oakland Wrestling

We, at Beat the Streets Bay Area, have been extremely fortunate to work in Oakland. Oakland has a strong wrestling tradition built around the Wan Tu Wazuri Wrestling Club and legendary coach Ashlee Sherman. We are lucky to be able to provide support to the coaches of Oakland as we begin to expand our operations in the city. Without the support of coaches like Ashlee Sherman, Marcus Leon, Dennis Spencer, and Ben Barrientos we wouldn’t have the foundation that is in Oakland and we wouldn’t have met students like Denzel.

One of the first wrestlers we encountered in Oakland was Denzel Mabry. Coached by Marcus Leon and Freddy Lee Hurt at Castlemont High, Denzel has been unbelievably deserving of the efforts his wrestling community has made to ensure he receives the opportunities he has in order to benefit from the competitions he has qualified for. Denzel has a work ethic and character that is admirable in an adult and astonishing in a young man his age. He is the model of the youth we are trying to develop and is working with the first BTS Bay Area program at Westlake Middle School as an assistant coach.

Denzel finished top 12 at the CIF State Tournament with maybe the worst draw in my history watching the tournament. He lost on the championships side to the #3 ranked wrestler and after an upset of the #1 seed he lost to the #1 wrestler in the blood round. He followed up this tough and gutsy performance the following weekend by winning the CA USAW Folkstyle State Tournament, qualifying him for CA USAW Folkstyle Nationals.

Denzel will be wrestling at San Francisco State in the fall and the button at the top of the page is linked to his GoFundMe page. Every little bit helps. Please help ensure that a person’s opportunities are not limited by their socioeconomic status.

Tournaments Denzel plans to attend this Spring and Summer:

• USAW Folkstyle Nationals - Cedar Falls, Iowa

• USAW Western Regionals - Las Vegas, Nevada

• USAW Junior Duals - Tulsa, Oklahoma

• USAW Junior Freestyle and Greco Nationals - Fargo, North Dakotah

Denzel is looking to raise $3,000 on his go fund me. He is also working as a BTS coach this spring. $3,000 doesn’t cover these trips but it should be enough to get him through with the money he earns. Please take show Denzel some support if you have the means.

BTS Bay Area Conference Call

The current steering committee had a great conference call today and was happy to add Nancy Schultz to the committee. On the call was Larry Kane, Kevin Dunn, Tyrus Bookman, Patrick Diaz, Daniel McCune, Will Rodgers, and Nancy Schultz. This group will form the first Board of Directors for Beat the Streets Bay Area (Bay Area Wrestling, Inc.). BTS Bay Area has signed the Letter of Intent (LOI) with BTS National and is going to continue forward with the process of accreditation. This spring we will be operating the first program for our organization at Westlake Middle School in Oakland. More information to come, we will keep everyone informed on our progress through the website. The goal is to take our collective knowledge and positively impact lives through wrestling in the greater Bay Area.