Alex's National Wrestling Fund

My fifteen-year old daughter Alex Hedrick is a sophomore who attends Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, CA.  She began wrestling in 6th grade on a boys wrestling team at Carnegie Middle School, and since that time, she has been an active member on wrestling teams at the middle school and high school level.  She has competed at multiple local and state level wrestling events competing sometimes in boys divisions and sometimes in girls divisions.  In 8th grade she medaled in the Northern California Championships for boys and won the Middle School State Tournament for girls.  Last year, as a freshman, she placed 3rd in the California Girls High School State Championship after missing most of the regular season with a dislocated shoulder.  She was the only 9th grader in any weight class to medal in the Girls State Championship last season.  This season she recently won the Sac-Joaquin and North Section Championships and will be wrestling in a couple of weeks at the State Championship.

Although Alex has been able to compete at the state level, she has not had the opportunity to compete at the national level yet.  Her dream is to represent the United States in the Olympics most likely in 2020 or 2024 so we are trying to help her shoot for that goal. I am a school teacher, and my wife recently went back to work in the attendance office of our local high school after taking care of her ailing mother for a few years.  We simply have not had the financial means to send Alex to national tournaments.  She is turning 16 soon, and her plan is to get an after school job once the high school wrestling season is over so that she can help pay her own way to a couple of the national tournaments that take place between March and July after the high school season is over. 

Because she will still have off-season wrestling practice and quite a bit of homework, we are looking for donations to help her with her goal of competing at the national level tournaments.  We are looking at two tournaments in particular – the Girls Folkstyle Wrestling National Championships held in Oklahoma City on March 26-29, 2015 and the Cadet and Juniors Women’s Freestyle Championships and training camp held in Fargo, North Dakota in mid-July.  We are not looking for any more than we need to help offset the costs of these trips which should be between $1200-$1600 per trip for airfare, hotel, entry fee, etc.  If we are able to raise more than we need, anything extra would be used to help Alex attend a third national tournament in Irving, Texas in mid-May that determines spots on the US World travel teams. 

We realize that there are many worthy causes that individuals and businesses contribute to, and we certainly understand if your charitable contributions go elsewhere.  We are hoping that we might be able to reach former wrestlers or others who might have the means to help a local girl from the Sacramento area reach for her dreams. 

Thank you for your time!