Austin Cooley 2014 Wrestling tour

My name is Austin Cooley. I am 14 Years old and a student at Somerset Middle School in Somerset, Massachusetts. Your donation will help send me to tour with the 2014 Ohio All-Star Wrestling Team.

Recently, I have been selected to take part in a 44 day cultural exchange / wrestling tour during the summer of 2014. The team will be scheduled to compete against all-star teams potentially from Washington, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and California. This will mark the 32nd Anniversary and since 1983 more than 550 of the top youth wrestlers, from Ohio and the East Coast have represented the team. I am only the 12th wrestler ever selected from Massachusetts to be a part of this team.

This will be the first time that I will be wrestling throughout the summer as for the past 7 years, I normally am a 3 sport athlete, competing in Wrestling, Football and Baseball. In wrestling, I am a 3 time RI State Champ and a 3 time MA State Champ (5 time placer). I won the Marshwoods New England Competition and took 3rd in the Youth New Englands in 2012. I've made it on the podium taking 3rd,3rd,4th and 5th in each of the individual National wrestling tournaments I've entered in the past 3 years and in April of 2013, I was also part of the New England Gold Team and wrestled in the Middle School National Duels in Iowa.

I've had success off the Mat as well. In football, I'm a captain on the Somerset middle school football team, and play on the starting offense, defense and special teams squads. This is my 2nd yr on the middle school team and before that I also played pop-warner for 6 years with the Warren/Swansea (later became East Bay) organization. In the past, I was also selected onto 7 All-Star baseball teams on either the SIBL (Swansea Independent Baseball League) or with the Somerset Little League.

I feel this type of learning experience will help me not only in my High School wrestling career, but also in my daily life learning how to budget money, do my own laundry and build life long bonds with other young athletes.

In order to make this trip a reality, each wrestler must raise $5000. I am contacting local businesses to ask for their help in sponsoring my portion of this tour and hope that members will provide a donation to help me participate. As an affiliated member organization of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), all contributions are tax deductible. (you will be provided the tax ID number via email after a donation is made)

Many thanks for your interest and support. Please contact me ([email redacted]) if you have any questions or if you would rather mail a donation directly to me.


Thank you,
Austin Cooley