A Moment in the Spotlight
BY NICOLE TAFE
Ben Rings’ Wrestle With Your Buddy program brings sports opportunities to students with special needs.
Friendships, memories and best buddies were made once again this year at Pine-Richland High School. The“ Wrestle With Your Buddy” program experienced another successful year of bringing together wrestlers and students with special needs for a fun-filled event that promotes learning, acceptance and understanding for all.
Six years ago, Pine-Richland High School wrestling coach Ben Rings developed Wrestle With Your Buddy. Rings, 35, has a wife, Tanya, and two sons, Max and Joel, and is a Life Skills teacher for PRHS who works with most of the students who participate in the after-school program.
Rings attended Kent State University where he was active in wrestling and studied Special Education. In 2003, he was deployed to Iraq as a firefighter for the National Guard and had to postpone his education. Upon his return in 2004, Rings changed his major to Justice Studies. After graduation, he decided he still wanted to become a special education teacher and earned a master’ s degree at the University of Pittsburgh.
Rings became the PRHS wrestling coach as soon as he was hired as a faculty member eight years ago.“ I started wrestling when I was five years old, had a brother who wrestled and a stepfather who was a referee, so I have been around the sport my entire life,” he says.
Rings was inspired to create the Wrestle With Your Buddy program when a student with special needs decided to join the wrestling program.“ I really saw the benefits of having him on the team for both my wrestlers and the student with special needs,” he explains.“ I decided it would be a great opportunity to open up a program that would be available to any student with special needs who was interested in wrestling and lived in the district.”
The program is modeled after Best Buddies, an organization that helps facilitate relationships between students without special needs and students with special needs. Rings based his program on the same principles of creating relationships between the athletes and students with special needs.
As part of the Wrestle With Your Buddy program, students with special needs practice with the PRHS wrestling team once a week to learn some wrestling moves and build relationships. At the team’ s last home match, the buddies have a one-minute exhibition with their
practice partner in front of the home crowd, and get the opportunity to feel like they are in the spotlight in an athletic setting.
“ Since I’ ve started the program, we’ ve consistently had five to seven students with special needs participate,” says Rings. The buddies are also invited to attend the PRHS wrestling team’ s end-of-the-year banquet, and are especially recognized for their participation, receiving gifts and a varsity letter during their final year with the program.
Juniors John Folmer( back) and Ben Salas( front) with Buddies Jacob Smelser( left) and Isaac Smelser, both seniors.
PHOTO BY RACHEL HATHHORN
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