SOURCE: www.lockportjournal.com

January 18, 2018

There are many reasons why the annual Niagara Frontier Wrestling Officials Association and Lockport wrestling tournaments are so successful.

Back-to-back on the local high school sports calendar each January, the tourneys thrust high school wrestling to the forefront and showcase some of the best scholastic grapplers not just from Western New York (including Rochester) but also, this year, parts of Pennsylvania. Great nationally-ranked teams brought their big, beautiful families and friends here for the tourneys.

It was Code Blue outside for sure, but inside it was green and red leg bands for competitors, with a collage of team colors in the stands and on the gym floor, as hundreds of wrestlers of all shapes and sizes competed for the chance to hear that "voice from the heavens," announcer Mike Gruenauer, call out their name as the champion of their weight class.