Editor's Note: This information was sent via email from Paul Rabinowitz.

Last month I received a call from Chris Marshall asking me if Darren would be interested in joining him, his brother Jake and his father, Wade Schalles and 50 high school wrestlers at an exclusive one week wrestling camp in Grundy, Virginia. My reaction was where???

Chris answered, Grundy, Virginia...as if I should know what that meant. So for the past month I have been doing my homework in an attempt to understand (and to explain to my wife) where we are sending our son for a week and why Chris would say that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that he himself had the privilege of experiencing for the 4 years that he was a high school student in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

What I discovered about Grundy is a story that is worth telling. It is a story about a rural town of 1,200 people nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the sport of wrestling has become a way of life and pride to this community, where a small town 'in the middle of nowhere" can boast perhaps one of the best youth and high school wrestling programs in the nation.

Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains in the far southwest corner of Virginia, Grundy lies in the heart of Virginia's coalfields, just a few miles away from West Virginia and Kentucky. Among its claims to fame are the Breaks Interstate Park, often referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the South and the Golden Wave Wrestling Team.tIn 2001 The Virginia House of Commons passed a state resolution to recognize the accomplishments of the Grundy High School Golden Wave Wrestling Team. That year they were ranked at number 12 in the nation, an unbelievable accomplishment for a High School that hails from a town with a population of 1,200.

The team won 12 straight championships from 1986 to 1998. In many of these championships, Grundy would have many of its wrestlers win individual championships. A rivalry developed with Poquoson High School about an 8 hour drive to the East, as they consistently finished second in AA State tournament. Poquoson would eventually break Grundy's streak of championships in 1999. Grundy would go on to win the 2000 and 2001 state titles.

Grundy was also voted in the one of the top 10 High School Scholastic Dynasty Teams of the Last Decade 1991-2001 (This Ranking is based on the number of state championships won between 1991-2001). Grundy won 10 state titles in 10 years and 14 state titles in the last 15 years. Others in the top ten include Blair Academy with 21 National Prep titles in 21 years and Paulsboro High School 19 state titles in 19 years.

At the center of this story was their head coach Kevin Dresser and Wade Schalles. 25 years ago Kevin discovered that Wade bought some land about 2 hours from Grundy. He invited Wade to assist him and run a special summer camp for the Grundy wrestlers. A father of one of the wrestlers donated his garage for the kids to practice in. The garage would become their summer camp wrestling room.

The garage was big enough to squeeze in one mat, but within a year other parents got involved and eventually raised enough funds to build an extension. The "room" doubled in size and with that more kids started to join the club. Within a few years they would piece together the Grundy Wrestling Club, a club that would feed the high school and would eventually become the envy of Virginia wrestling. Today they have a state of the art wrestling room on a large tract of farm land complete with a weight room, sauna and conditioning center.

The kids from Grundy wrestle throughout the year. Immediately after the scholastic season is over the High School team rejoins the Club and begins to train in Freestyle and Greco Roman in order to qualify for the National Tournament in Fargo (most of Team Virginia that goes to Fargo is made up of Grundy wrestlers). Then in the summer they open up their club to 25 kids that are chosen by coaches to join the other 25 Grundy wrestlers. In the fall they return to Folkstyle and begin to prepare for the season.

So...for the 25th consecutive year, the Grundy Wrestling Club will host their summer camp free of charge during the week of July 9-13 and once again Wade will be at the helm. This year there will be 25 wrestlers from Tennessee, Florida, New Jersey and Virginia that will be attending the camp and joining the 25 Grundy kids.

They will receive hands-on training from Schalles himself as he will demonstrate maneuver after maneuver for the boys to practice. Some of the activities that will be planned for the week will include swimming at the YMCA on Tuesday, the camp's annual pig roast on Wednesday and a movie at the Grundy Community Center on Thursday.

...After dropping a bit in the rankings since 2001, Grundy has started its climb back to the top finishing 4th in the State of Virginia in 2007.Paul

Below is information about Wade Schalles taken from the Wrestling Hall of Fame Website:
In 1991 Wade was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. One of the most exciting and spectacular athletes of his time, Wade Schalles would wrestle anyone, anytime, anywhere, at any weight from 150 to 180 pounds, with odds of 2 to 1 that he would win by a fall. Nor was he particular about the style. Schalles was a national champion, or an All-American, in Folkstyle, Freestyle and Greco-Roman, and in the allied disciplines of Sombo (Brazilian Jui Juitsu) and Judo. He earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as wrestling's all-time leader in victories with 821, and in falls with 530. Schalles also was renowned for defeating 36 national champions, pinning 17 of them, and defeating eight World Champions.

Each total is considered a record. His collegiate career at Clarion University was limited by an unusual NCAA rule which barred freshman competitors from the national tournament not only for their freshman year, but also as seniors. Eligible only for the 1972 and '73 meets, he won both Division II and Division I twice, and was outstanding wrestler of both events as a sophomore. Schalles compiled a collegiate record of 153-5-1, and amassed a staggering 106 falls. He won the Pennsylvania State Conference title four times and was outstanding wrestler all four years. This followed a high school career in which he pinned 96 per cent of his opponents. He won a gold medal in the 1977 World University Games, pinning all six opponents, and another in the Tbilisi International, with five falls in six bouts. In both events, he was hailed as outstanding wrestler.He is known for creating and perfecting a radically different pinning hold which he named the "spladle." It best demonstrates the limber physique which prompted one writer to call him "Plastic Man."

During and after his competitive days, he coached youth, collegiate and national teams. He is an author, a clinician and a top-flight collegiate referee. Because of his unique style, his emphasis on the fall, and for blending those elements into great success, Stephen Wade Schalles is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.