Excellence: Part 4 - Kaila

Kaila's story is already a BTSC legend.  As a Taft HS student, Kaila found her way to wrestling practice.  By 2019, she earned All-American status at Fargo.  As you'll see from this video, Kaila has heart, presence, discipline, talent and a commitment to excellence.

Kaila also had a place to train and experienced, dedicated coaches.  Whether she was in season with the terrific wrestling program at Taft headed by Coach Brad Engel or working with BTSC coaches in the fall, spring and summer, Kaila had year-round wrestling community.

We're excited to open the new BTSC facility at 59th and Archer in Chicago not only because it will create space for athletes like Kaila to train off-season, but it will build a place to go in all four seasons for those not so fortunate as Kaila. 

Across the City (and indeed across the country), we are seeing sports programs cut at every level: from college programs all the way down to youth.  As education budgets are slashed, so-called "nice to have" programs like sports and arts are often the first to go.    The short-term cash crunch facing administrators and boards of education can obscure the long-term benefits to academic outcomes of the very programs being cut.

Programs like Beat the Streets Chicago always have filled the void for off-season high school programming in the city.  Increasingly, we expect that need to grow to more and more schools without wrestling programs. 

https://youtu.be/TPObNwTc-S8

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