On Friday night in Sturgis, the community put on a one-of-a-kind youth wrestling event, which became known as ‘Rumble at Rally Point.’ It consisted of wrestlers from Sturgis, South Dakota and Gillette, Wyoming – ranging from the AAU age groups to high school aged participants.
In total there were five AAU matches, five middle school matches, and ten matches of wrestlers in the high school age group.
Along with featuring the current youth of both Sturgis and Gillette, the evening was main evented with an exhibition showdown of two elite’s from the past. Josh Keszler of Sturgis faced off with Tyler Cox of Gillette, who together have seven combined individual state championships to their resume.
Josh Keszler graduated from Sturgis in 2010. Throughout his high school career he won three individual state wrestling championships – 2007, 2009, and 2010.
Tyler Cox graduated from Campbell County High School (Wyoming) in the spring of 2009. As a high school athlete, he won four individual state championships. He was also an All-American honoree in college at the University of Wyoming, and a two-time NCAA qualifier.
Wyoming’s Cox would defeat South Dakota’s Keszler in the main event of the evening. Coming into Friday night, Keszler has a record of 2-7 all-time against Cox.
Alan Roth, who is a Scoopers alum, was one of the coordinator’s for the inaugural ‘Rumble at Rally Point’ event. He explained where the idea for a summer youth wrestling extravaganza came from.
“Sturgis is known for two things, and that’s the motorcycle rally and wrestling, so why don’t we wrestle on Main Street?” Roth asked himself. “It became an idea over a card game or something. We based it off of an event in New York where they do it at Times Square called ‘Beat The Streets,’ and it’s the elite of the elite wrestling in New York,” explained Roth.
Next comes the question, will there be a second annual ‘Rumble at Rally Point’ next year? Roth doesn’t even hesitate when he thinks of 2020.
“This is 100% going to happen again next year,” Roth stated. “It’s just going to be bigger and better. We had a month and a half to put it on this time. If you give us a whole year to put something together, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be next year.”
