Wrestling federation making a comeback

From left, Northern Marianas Wrestling Federation board president Jason Tarkong, treasurer Kerri Bauer, and vice president and head coach Rick Bauer. (LEIGH GASES)

Wrestling is making a comeback after years of being dormant in the CNMI.

Rick Bauer and Jason Tarkong are spearheading the Northern Marianas Wrestling Federation, with Bauer the vice president and head coach, and Tarkong the president of the board Kerri Bauer is the treasurer and Heather Calderwell will do administrative work for the board.

Rick Bauer, a federal employee who moved to Saipan with his family three years ago from the East Coast, was an avid wrestler in his youth. He started wrestling when he was 6 years old, wrestled in NCAA Division I for Rider University in Pennsylvania, graduated and coached high school wrestling, then coached for his son’s team and assisted in youth wrestling. 

He is passionate about wrestling and about getting back the CNMI’s interest in wrestling for inter-island competitions and off-island competitions such as the Pacific Games.

When he found out that wrestling was not offered on the island, he said “[he]would love to see something offered here for my kids… and I would be interested in helping that build back up and coaching… because it’s a sport that I think would be great for the island,” he said in an interview with Saipan Tribune.

“As I started meeting people, I went to Trench Tech Gym. I’m friends with Cuki [Alvarez] and I help coach a class there for MMA kids on Saturdays… So again, I have a fighting background, but wrestling is hands down my forte, but when I found out there was no wrestling here, Cuki told me that there used to be something so he put me in touch with Jason Tarkong”. 

From there, over the last year and a half, himself and Tarkong “have been working on reestablishing and getting NMWF back into standard, which as of last month, we got our business license back in good standing and we just got a couple other small things to check the box and we’re back where we need to be.”

They are also currently identifying locations for a wrestling facility and getting wrestling mats. 

With the mats, according to Bauer, “they’re 2-inch thick, because they have to be soft enough to land hard on and still be okay… Wrestling mats are designed to take falls and hard takedowns, so they have to be thicker and more protective- to that point, they’re not cheap. I’m currently hoping that we can eventually get funding to get two of those.” 

Wrestling, an ancient and modern day Olympic sport, has two events—freestyle and Greco-Roman—and many medals are at stake in every competition, as it has different weight classes. It is a combat sport that has grappling, takedowns, and joint locks as techniques.

It is one of the programs offered in the Pacific Games and Micronesian Games, in which the CNMI won five of the 42 medals at stake in wrestling in the 2006 Micronesian Games. That was the last time the sport took place in the Commonwealth. 

Interest in wrestling died down after that and Bauer wants to change things and bring back the sport in the CNMI’s consciousness.

Bauer then appealed to the CNMI community and said he is “looking forward to hear from anyone interested”—parents who would like their children to take up wrestling, adults who would like to learn more and join, anyone with a background or experience with wrestling or coaching wrestling, or anyone who would like to learn more and offer help to the federation, to email cnmiwrestling@gmail.com and follow them on their Facebook page at Northern Marianas Wrestling Federation for updates.