Team Alavanca: Canadian Success Thru RMN
RMN Events’ Influence on Canadian Wrestling - Team Alavanca
By Bill X. Barron
In 2015, a dark cloud hung over Canadian athletics, thus motivating a wrestling club headed by Cory Coles to travel south to the States. Their very first U.S. wrestling exposure came in New Mexico at the RMN Events’ Aztec Championships in New Mexico.
While wrestling in the northern province is only in freestyle and Greco, Coach Coles is a forward-thinking person who believed that the folkstyle experience would be a game changer even after “initially getting our butts kicked.”
“Wrestling is a powerful martial art. Folkstyle wrestling is far more applicable to hand-to-hand combat and relevant to submission grappling when compared to freestyle wrestling,” Cory explains.
“BJJ programs that do not include folkstyle are at a competitive disadvantage. Folkstyle teaches athletes how to hold someone down to the mat. That’s why our wrestlers often choose to start on top rather than in neutral.”
The Alavanca wrestling program (formerly MMAU) was launched in October 2017 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Alavanca is Portuguese for “Leverage.” While initially specializing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpX0TP99zDg), the program embraced wrestling.
From the outset, the Canadians have felt welcomed by the extraordinary “kindness, patience, and understanding” shown by tournament referees, particularly RMN CEO Ed Gutierrez and his family of tournament organizers and directors: Josh, Adam, and Jordon.
“The Gutierrez family always makes it a point to find us at their events and even at the hotel,” relates Cory. “They take an interest in how we are doing and make the time to explain the technical differences of folkstyle.”
“We had absolutely no idea about the possibilities of folkstyle participation, but then Ed extolled the virtues of Division I college wrestling. Jordon elaborated that the ultimate goal of many high school wrestlers is to compete in college.”
“Through the persistence of RMN Events, we mapped out a pathway which began with winning individual titles at their folkstyle events, then aiming for the Triple Crown, and eventually earning a national title,” cites Coach.
“Wrestling is the most inclusive sport: you can succeed whether you are a 5’3” man or a 200-pound woman.”
The fruit of this patient pursuit of excellence can now be seen in Cory’s son Danny, a Canadian national champion in freestyle and Greco.
Though Danny may have set a dubious record for most locked hands penalties in a single tournament (nine), he later became the first from his country to win RMN’s Rocky National Championships and Triple Crown (titles in 3 states).
Great White North universities have freestyle teams, yet it is not at the highest level. Danny is the first Albertan to compete in NCAA Division I, where he is now a member of the Princeton University wrestling team.
Cites Danny: “RMN Events have been a massive part of my development. In my first year competing at RMN events, I got my butt kicked ... literally. I went 0-2 in my first tournament. But I wanted to go back to the next event because I saw that there was this amazing competition.
“I love the energy of their events ... and, if I am totally honest, I really wanted one of those big trophies! Fortunately, I stuck with it because, in my senior year I was able to win every RMN event that I entered, including the big one: Rocky Mountain National Championships.
“One of the highlights of my wrestling career was when Ed Gutierrez presented me with the Triple Crown in Denver as the first Canadian to ever win that incredible award.
“There has never been a Canadian-raised man to win the NCAA championship (Matt Gentry had dual citizenship but was raised in the United States), so I will work hard to achieve this goal.”
Canadian gold medalist Adam Thompson followed a similar path to D-I. During Covid, while wrestling was shut down in Canada, he wrestled with a club in Iowa. While he medaled at but never won the highly competitive Freak Show, Adam is now competing for the University of Pennsylvania.
Team Alavanca drove a whole day to bring 20 wrestlers (9 female) to RMN’s 2022 Pocatello (ID) Punisher, then continued their folkstyle journey to Las Vegas, where they spent the week training with Bill Sullivan’s Legends of Gold club in preparation for the Freak Show.
“RMN Events has consistently led the way for female participation,” Cory states. In addition, seven of this year’s Freak Show officials were top-level female referees from Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Cory’s daughter Kaura Coles is a Canadian national champion and a 2022 49K Cadet silver medalist at the Pan Am Games in Buenos Aires.
Her first folkstyle experience – and first tournament ever – was the RMN Rumble in Reno. This October, the gigantic 2022 RMN Freak Show attracted over 3500 wrestlers from forty states, where Kaura became the first Canadian girl to earn a championship in the 15U 109-lb. class.
In high school, Cory recalls: "I was a bit of a troublemaker. The vice-principal was also the wrestling coach, so if we were in detention, we had two choices: to watch or to participate in wrestling practice. Over time, I learned that more than a way to stay out of trouble, wrestling is a way of life.”
“Wrestling has changed my life in many powerful ways because wrestling is hard,” relates NCAA wrestler Danny.
“As a wrestler, you must be prepared to put your body through the pain and exhaustion while resisting your opponent as he tries to throw you down and hold you on your back.”
A person’s character is the measure of how one responds to adversity. Canada’s Team Alavanca has never wasted an opportunity to transform a momentary setback into an expectation for success.