Two Dallas-area high school wrestling programs held events in remembrance on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, Euless Trinity held an event the day before the anniversary to avoid conflicts with other ceremonies.
Members of the Euless Police Department, Euless Fire Department and Hurst Police Department took part in a workout with the Euless wrestling program — and some of those serving are former Trojans wrestlers.
The workout consisted of
- 1,402-meter run to honor the North Tower deaths
- 125 jumping jacks to honor the Pentagon deaths
- 351 stairs to honor the Firefighter deaths
- 65 push-ups to honor the Law Enforcement deaths
- 40 Squats to honor the Flight 93 deaths
- 614 yards of Buddy Carries to honor the South Tower deaths
While the wrestlers on this team were not born when this tragedy occurred, Clark makes sure his program continues to remember those lost during the attack. Clark previously served in the United States Marine Corps before becoming a coach.
The other connection that is just a few miles from the Euless Trinity campus is the headquarters of American Airlines in Fort Worth. American Airlines’ connection to the event included Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower and Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
On Friday, Sept. 11, Grapevine High School wrestlers gathered at Mustang-Panther Stadium in Grapevine for the 7th Annual 9/11 Tribute Stair Climb.
The event was started to honor the 412 emergency responders who died during the events in New York and Washington, D.C.
Grapevine wrestlers joined first responders, community members, city council members, and board of trustees representatives in making the trek up and down the visitors’ bleachers, replicating the 110 flights of stairs at the Twin Towers.
New wrestling coach Michael Mitchell, who came over from Azle, learned of the event before moving to town. He said his wife made a post about good places to live and eat and someone messaged his wife, relaying interest in sponsoring this event.
That is how Mitchell learned about the tradition, days after being hired.
“Just the community coming together is great,” he said. “The booster club, the city council members from Grapevine, Colleyville and Euless. All the first responders have been supportive. Everyone was willing to help and to me, that is not a very common thing in places. Seeing a community support something like this is just amazing. I didn’t know what to expect or who would show up.”
Mitchell had around 30 wrestlers running the stairs and those who did not run due to injury were handing out water or sports drinks, donated by the HEB Mid-Cities location in Euless.
A few of the Mustangs took turns carrying the American flag up and down the stairs. One of those was junior Jose Uscanga.
“It was great; I felt like I was motivating others and showing that we needed to give our very best to climb those stairs for the people who died,” he said.
