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experiences and gifts in my life,” said Gardner. “I can never repay him for what he’s done for me in wrestling.” Martori’s club was also on the front lines during the formative
stages of women’s wrestling. The club’s influence on women’s wrestling is known globally. “We were right there with Tricia Saunders and have been involved in women’s wrestling since the time people were laugh- ing and giggling about them wrestling,” said Martori. “We were part of getting them into the Olympics. We pushed (FILA President) Rafael Martinetti and worked out the weights with (then-USA Wrestling Executive Director) Jim Scherr and Tricia.” “The medals don't lie,” said 2012 Olympian Kelsey Campbell. Women's highest Olympic medalists have been Sunkist repre-
sentatives. Sara McMann, Patricia Miranda and our most recent World champion, Clarissa Chun – these aren’t just great wrestlers, they are respected wrestlers and known world-wide. “We pushed women’s wrestling to get into the Olympics. I pushed to get it into USA Wrestling and get it funded, so we’ve been involved since day one. Behind the scenes, we’re very involved and supportive of Terry Steiner, he’s the perfect coach for the women,” said Martori.
Campbell will represent the U.S. at 55 kg/121 pounds in women’s freestyle in London. Coming out of high school, Campbell’s best finish at the Junior Nationals was eighth in 2003. In the nine years since, she’s an Olympian and made two U.S. world teams. She was also the lone woman on the Arizona State wrestling team, which made Sunkist an easy club to embrace. “Sunkist was instrumental in my international success,” said Campbell. “Without their support, I could never have traveled to national team camps with the best females in the country, let alone compete with them.
“I was so limited early in my career. I didn't know a lot, and financially, I didn't have a lot. Sunkist opened doors and pre- sented opportunities for me that allowed me to be in the mix of international competition,” she said.
“Everywhere we go as a team, people know who Clarissa Chun is. It's wonderful. That's what Sunkist is. I knew when I started wrestling for this club that it meant more than wearing a singlet. It meant I was going to have a place among the top wrestlers in the world,” said Campbell. Being a part of the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club involves a lit- tle bit of involvement from both the club and the desire of the athlete. “They talk to our coaches and maybe our coaches will talk to them. We like to take them fairly young. We took on John Smith before anyone knew he was John Smith,” said Martori. “I listen to the coaches and the people I respect and they say we think he’s going to be good in two cycles, we’ll put him on,” he said. “Chase Pami is a good example. We think he’ll be on our Olympic Team.”
“Jordan Burroughs was a sure thing, we just help him out,” said Martori.
It was Mark Manning who steered Burroughs to Sunkist. Manning coached Burroughs to two NCAA championships at Nebraska and was in the corner when Burroughs won the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. “Manning’s pretty good friends with Art and right after the
NCAA’s my senior year, I got affiliated with Sunkist,” said Burroughs. “It’s been cool. Art and Kim (Martori Wickey) are great people. They take care of the athletes and make sure things get done and are organized. “It’s a tight-knit support group,” said Burroughs. “Financially, they make it a lot easier for me to not focus on finances and just focus on winning.”
14 USA Wrestler
Sunkist Kids wrestler Henry Cejudo became the youngest Olympic wrestling champion in American history when he won the 2008 Olympics at age 21. John Sachs photo.
Burroughs joins Sunkist teammates Sam Hazewinkel, Tervel Dlagnev, Ben Provisor, Clarissa Chun and Campbell on the Olympic team.
“I’m really excited about it,” said Burroughs. “I know Art and Kim are. For us to have the number one club in the world would be something great to be a part of.” Current Iowa State head wrestling coach Kevin Jackson joined Sunkist Kids in 1995 towards the end of his competitive career and has coached with them since retiring from active competition, except when he was the head coach of the U.S. National Freestyle Team. “Between myself, Kim and Art, we want performers that have an opportunity,” said Jackson. “If we (Iowa State) have an ath- lete who has the potential to be world class, (Sunkist) would be the first club I ask for to support my athlete. “I know how they take care of an athlete and their dedication to the sport first-hand,” he said. “They’re the first club I call.” Sunkist Kids ruled the roost at the U.S. Nationals for nearly 20 years, but the team titles aren’t what Martori is aiming for. “We’re about helping athletes be able to participate without a bunch of pain,” said Martori. “Wrestling’s grown into athletes making this almost a full-time job and it’s evolved to that, where athletes really train year round. We’ve cut down our roster; we maybe had 70 at one time. We support the individual athletes to a much larger degree. We sent some people to five tourna- ments overseas this year, and that’s $3,000-4,000 a tourna- ment. We’ve put nearly $30,000-40,000 into some athletes.” Sunkist Kids’ current stable of athletes is around 50. Programs like Sunkist have a direct impact on the college programs they’re tied to, according to Douglas. “I could not have won an NCAA title without the Sunkist pro-
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