I started wrestling my freshman year of high school in 2000 in Northern California. My first match lasted about 16 seconds and ended with me on my back. I am proud to say that my second one lasted a bit longer, but sad to report that it ended the same way. That year was my hardest year. I lost every match except for one.
My sophomore year I threw out my back and couldn’t wrestle but I still showed up to practice nearly every day and became the general “mat monkey.” Junior year I was back. This was the year that I suffered most of my injuries. I broke fingers, cracked ribs and dislocated both my shoulders at the same time. It was also the best record I had.
My senior year was just another year for me. I came out with a couple more injuries, but nothing big. I never took a tournament; in fact the best I ever placed was 4th out of 7. After high school, I knew there was no way that I could continue to wrestle on a college level, but that didn’t change the fact that I loved the sport, and that is how wrestlefattie.com came about, just for the love of the sport. I really want everyone that comes to the site to see that love that we have here and the commitment that we have to the sport. We are constantly looking for new suppliers to offer you the best price on wrestling shoes, singlets, knee pads, head gear and much more. We even offer mats!! Be sure to put us on your favorites and check back often. We would also love to hear from you so shoot us an email…

We love what we do and we love to help out. So cruise around the site and if you have any questions, just let us know!!

Teach a man to fish... 

There is an old saying that if you give a man a fish, he will have a meal for a day. But if you teach him how to fish, he will eat for the remainder of his life.

Because of limited abilities, those in poverty are not likely to become leaders in their communities or in the world. They are more likely to find themselves in need of welfare help. They will marry and rear families who will continue in the same cycle that they have known.

With good employment skills,  young men and women can rise out of the poverty they and generations before them have known. They will better provide for their families. They will repay their loans that made it possible for them to escape poverty, making it possible for others to be blessed as they have been blessed. It will become a revolving fund.

From the earnings of one of the charities we support, the perpetual education fund, loans will be made to ambitious young men and women,  so that they may borrow money to attend school. Then when they qualify for employment, it is anticipated that they will return that which they have borrowed together with a small amount of interest designed as an incentive to repay the loan.

Initially, most of these students will attend technical schools where they will learn such things as computer science, refrigeration engineering, and other skills which are in demand and for which they can become qualified. The plan may later be extended to training for the professions.

It will not be a welfare effort, commendable as those efforts are, but rather an education opportunity. The beneficiaries will repay the money, and when they do so, they will enjoy a wonderful sense of freedom because they have improved their lives not through a grant or gift, but through borrowing and then repaying. They can hold their heads high in a spirit of independence.

Where there is widespread poverty among our people, we must do all we can to help them to lift themselves, to establish their lives upon a foundation of self-reliance that can come of training. Education is the key to opportunity. This training must be done in the areas where they live. It will then be suited to the opportunities of those areas. And it will cost much less in such places than it would if it were done in the United States or Canada or Europe.

It is our solemn obligation, it is our certain responsibility to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees". We must help those around the world to become self-reliant and successful.

Jonathan Barker
CEO/Founder WrestleFattie.com
Wrestle and make a difference!