Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by Fire Heart Entertainment and viewers like you.

Thank you.

To.

What if a sport could do more than just build athletes?

What if it could cultivate leadership, respect, and a drive for excellence in young people?

Nationally, Beat the Street serves over 10,000 youth annually through wrestling.

Tonight, we'll explore their powerful impact with their executive director for Beat the Streets, Los Angeles.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

And then you from Los Angeles.

This is Clark's PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson and Innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody, with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

Yahoo!

Washington is our guest.

Yahoo!

Thank you.

So much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Answer.

It is incredible what beat the streets.

They've done for many years.

Not only nationally, but right here in Los Angeles.

However, before we start that, I want our audience to get to know you because it's your passion for wrestling that pretty much the way I understand your bio saved your life.

And it's why you're doing this today, correct?

Yeah, I owe a lot to wrestling.

Not just wrestling, but, the coaches along the way, the wrestling community and all the people you know, in the wrestling world, I think, played a played a big role in my life trajectory.

Yeah.

Well, because you didn't grow up in Los Angeles.

You grew up in Oakland.

Did they have beat the streets in Oakland at the time you were there?

No, there wasn't a beat the streets in Oakland.

At the time, you know, I grew up in, East Oakland, you know, inner city, tough situation.

You know.

No, father.

A father was killed, in fact, when I was just, a year old, you know, grew up kind of in the height of the crack epidemic and in Oakland in the 80s.

And was actually a in, dropping out of high school.

While I was in Oakland.

So, you know, tough life kind of growing up.

But then at some point, you know, stop stop going to school.

And I found myself actually leaving Oakland.

I was taken in by a brother and ended up in the valley, Central Valley.

So I ended up in Porterville, and that's actually where I started wrestling.

Did you think that wrestling would change your life, or was it just something you were doing to pass the time?

No, I didn't think it would change my life at the time.

It was just, You know, I'd never really been exposed to wrestling.

Wrestling is a combat sport, and so I had a lot of just energy and maybe a little bit of anger.

And, I loved the workout.

I love the training.

So there was something that just hooked me right away.

And I kept doing it.

When I always talk to wrestlers, they talk about it's the discipline behind it, and it changes who you are.

Do you believe that?

Or how did that work in your life?

Yeah.

I mean, you know, wrestling is it's an ancient sport.

So I always say that it's been around for a very long time and it's grueling.

You know, it's tough.

It requires a lot of discipline, a lot of focus, a lot of energy.

You get beat up, you get knocked down.

You got to get back up over and over and over again.

And I think there's just a lot of parallels with life.

You know, and so, yeah, for me, wrestling has been many, many things and taught me so many different, valuable life lessons and and not just the sport.

I think the sport, coupled with great coaches and great leaders really is the key.

And that was what was great for me.

I had just some pretty outstanding coaches all through my high school, junior college, college and Olympic kind of training for the Olympics, career.

So I feel very fortunate with that.

And because you mentioned it twice, of course, I'm going to ask you to talk more about some of those coaches, because I think that's what makes the difference between your organization and the coaches and the people who take the time to work with young people versus other organizations that still do great work.

But it really from what I understand from your story, it's really those relationships you had with those coaches that kept you going.

Is that correct?

Absolutely.

In fact, I saw one of my old high school coaches this past weekend at the junior college woman state champ wrestling championships or hosted in East L.A.

College.

But yeah, it's a, we call ourselves a sports based youth development organization.

So youth development through sport.

We call our coaches, coaches and mentors.

Not just coaches because they play such a pivotal role.

I mean, we have kids in our program from five years old to 18.

So we serve a, a wide array of young people.

You know, through the greater Los Angeles area.

And so, a lot of what we do, you know, the coaches on the front lines, we say, you know, they're working with the kids daily.

And, we have a pretty robust, coach in education program.

So we work with groups like the center for Healing and Justice Through Sport or Positive Coaching Alliance, and different groups like that to to give our coaches a strong base of foundation to work with kids, to teach them trauma informed coaching or positive coaching or, you know, anything that gives them tools to help kids in a more meaningful way.

It sounds like the coaches that you worked with growing up, it was more of an organic relationship.

I mean, because they just they encouraged you and you kept moving forward.

But now I'm hearing that you're taking it one step further and you're putting tools to those relationships.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Yeah, I would agree with that.

Yeah.

We are very intentional, I think.

Thank you.

You know, my my coach.

He never wrestled my first coach in high school, but he was just a great leader.

He was a good man.

He held me accountable when I skipped practice.

He held me to a higher standard because he saw a lot of potential in me.

And I could have gone in, you know, a couple different directions, but he kept me on track.

My senior year, the gentleman I mentioned.

So that was Jerry Vincent.

Okay.

My first coach, but, the my senior year, new coach came in, Mike Sandler, who, just good human, good man.

Still coaching to this day, a Delta junior college.

Wow.

I was his first state champion wrestler.

The first from my high school.

He brought in a lot of technical skills and tactical skills, and and I'm just, a lot of positivity.

Yeah.

You know, it's not every coach is positive.

You know, so I've, I've had some coaches that weren't as positive, but I, I tend to gravitate towards that positive coach, the encouraging coach.

And I think that helped me develop a lot of my own coaching kind of, strategy or the way I coach my approach.

And it's definitely embedded in kind of what we do a, B, B3, la.

You know, it's it's so important to me.

We established a strong coaching culture from the onset in 2012, and we do it every year.

It's required training.

Got to be a part of it.

You got to understand it.

It has to be our way.

No exceptions.

And I think it's it's, it's worked out well for us to this point.

And so I want our audience to actually see how you start to get involved with Beat the Streets, because it wasn't here in LA.

It actually happened on the East Coast.

Correct?

Correct.

Yeah.

So did you learn about them and you decided to volunteer because it from what I'm hearing from you, you've been able to pull a lot of these skills that you've learned from your great coaches and implement them into the way that you coach.

So I feel very fortunate in the sense that, you know, wrestling did so much for me.

Helped me to get to where I'm at.

Help me travel the world.

Help me get a degree.

So I found myself in New York City, coaching at Columbia University.

So I was an assistant wrestling coach there from 2002 to 2007.

Wow.

And in that early, you know, part of that, that's when beat the Streets.

New York City was established.

And so they were really the first Beat the Streets organization.

There was a very successful, philanthropist, Mike Novogratz, who wrestled at Princeton, who wanted to grow wrestling and urban areas and underserved communities.

And so he donated $1 million, and they they really grew.

And I used to volunteer at that time.

So I'd go over to the NYC, New York Athletic Club or NYU.

That's where some of the program programing was held, and volunteer my time Give back.

I always envisioned doing that and wanted to do it.

I never thought I'd have a career kind of leading an organization.

But I knew that I would always find a way to get back because of, again, all that wrestling did for me, all that these coaches did for me, and just kind of wanting to get back to that, I guess the next generation, generations now.

I know, I know, and I think it's a lot of people don't realize when they're watching, especially an executive director of a large organization in Los Angeles.

A lot of times you want to know, how did they get to that point?

And it's easily you can see volunteering is what opens up those doors.

Is that correct?

Yeah, I think that was part of it.

It was also so the the gentleman that, launched Beat the Streets of LA.

His name is Andy Barth.

He's a trustee at Columbia University.

He wrestled at Columbia University.

And so I got to know him during my time coaching there.

So I left Columbia, 2008, went to Iowa State, to be an assistant coach there under Kevin Jackson, who's actually doing a clinic for us and a couple of weeks is Olympic champion.

But, so when Andy was ready to start the Beat the Streets L.A.

nonprofit organization, they recruited me to complete it in 2012.

And so kind of this full circle story from the connection I had with Andy at Columbia, volunteering and kind of finding inspiration and wanting to do the work.

I found myself in LA in 2012, starting this organization from nothing.

And, you know, just a few kids and a couple programs now, you know, 1500 kids in 15 programs throughout the greater LA area.

And has it been a challenge for you to actually meet you?

You make it sound like the growth.

It was easy, but we know it's not.

It takes time, it takes dedication, and you have to constantly encourage yourself to keep it going.

And you were able to do this not only just grow the organization but grow it through a pandemic.

Correct?

Yeah, we had to we had to work through a pandemic.

So kind of going back, you know, it started in New York City and then spread to Philadelphia, started to be the outreach program.

Chicago and New England, kind of Boston, Connecticut.

We have a program in Cleveland.

There's one in Bay area now, and a couple of others.

But, no, not easy, I think.

But we're we're fortunate.

Is that it's not just me by any means.

You know, we have a strong board of directors that are committed philanthropist.

All wrestlers are connected to wrestling as a meaningful way.

We all believe that wrestling did something really important for us.

It either gave us the tools or the connections or, you know, something really meaningful.

And Andy feels, he was very successful.

He worked for capital Group companies for many years, did really well, portfolio manager.

And he attributes a lot of his success to wrestling.

You know, all the hard work you learn in wrestling and the connections he learned in wrestling.

And I feel the same way.

You know, without wrestling, I don't think, here, I'd like to think I'd be in a good place, but I just I just know that wrestling just helped me prepare for life and made so many connections and, but, I think, you know, the the big theme is that, it's a lot of people, you know, that helped, you know, all the staff we've had over the years.

We have 40 coaches.

You know, without them, we don't exist.

So there's so many people that play crucial roles.

And I get a lot of the credit, but I don't deserve, you know, I mean, the credit needs to be spread amongst all of us who are all kind of working together to, to do this work.

This is a perfect way to end this segment, because when we come back, I want our audience to hear how all of you work together to bring Beat the Streets Los Angeles into not only the next generation, but bringing it into the future as well.

All right, that sounds great.

Come back to hear more from Yoru.

I don't remember how it started.

Don't do that.

We have our back and forth.

It always came back.

Oh.

Thanks, dad.

You probably don't remember what you told me.

That was perfect.

But I heard every word.

My early Alzheimer's diagnosis gave us time to adapt as a family.

Welcome back.

That was a great first segment.

Thank you so much.

And also to thank you for giving us a little bit of a background on Beat the Streets.

I think that's important.

But before we end our conversation, I think our audience should know some of the strides that you've made as an organization, especially in promoting women in sports, because you've done a lot of first with this organization.

So let's talk about that, because that's in this impact report and shows it what you've been doing right here.

So let's talk about it.

Yeah.

So that's actually Valeria.

She's one of our participants and our Canoga Park program.

We've been, partnering with them and had that program for some time.

She's one of the best wrestlers in the state.

But, you know, from our early days, you know, when we started in 2012, one of our first, employees was a program director.

Her name is Marcy Van Dusen.

She was an Olympian.

And, she really helped kind of, introduce some women girl focused initiatives on the early stage.

It wasn't just her.

Again, it's a big group of us kind of working together, but we were very intentional about doing, women's events and doing kind of high level women's event.

So we brought in Team Japan to wrestle team USA in Little Tokyo.

I think that was like 2017.

We had two of our girls, actually, that wrestled in that event.

Brianna and Emily Gonzalez, who started with our program, are now wrestling at the University of Iowa.

Wow.

Yep.

And they they both actually qualify for the Olympic this past Olympic trials.

And I think they're going to be candidates for 2028, but we've been yeah pretty intentional.

We do an all girls tournament, which we just talked about.

We called Angel City Grand Prix.

We've had that tournament for the last ten years.

We had over 350 girls at it this just a couple weeks ago.

It was the biggest that's ever been.

Girls wrestling is is growing fast.

We have about 30% girl participation amongst all our programs, which is about three times the national average.

We have quite a few women coaches, that lead our programs and yeah, we and we plan to do quite a bit more as we look towards 2028 with the Olympics coming to Los Angeles, with a real meaningful focus on how do we grow, how do we go from 30% to 50%?

And, with some real intentional girls programing in other kind of women's wrestling events in the future.

So, and I love how you keep saying you set your intentions.

And I think that's really important for a nonprofit organization, don't you think?

Yeah.

I you know, the way I see it, is that, you know, boys have been wrestling for a really long time, and if we're ever going to get to a point where there's as many opportunities for the girls as the boys, we just have to do more for the girls.

And so, that's kind of through my leadership and kind of just being really intentional and focused on that.

And then bringing in strong women leaders like we just hired, recently Mallory Welty, she's our, director of mentorship and programing.

Mallory was a two time world bronze medalist wrestler for team USA.

And just she's smart.

She works hard.

And I think, you know, having people like her, working, you know, as part of our executive team is going to really help us kind of make that push to find ways to grow more girls wrestling opportunities to do more women's events.

And, but anyway, so, yeah, there's been a lot of intention about what we're doing.

You know, you mentioned something.

And while you were talking, I was thinking this because I don't know if it's just unique for people who love wrestling or who have been part of wrestling, but what I'm hearing is that the wrestling community really supports it's own.

It's really important for them to shape that next generation of wrestlers, because everybody you've talked about had a career in wrestling, and yet all of you are coming together to set the intention for the next generation of wrestlers making it 5050 for girls and boys.

I mean, is that something that's unique for wrestling or like just overthinking?

Yeah, I think it is unique.

You know, wrestling is hard.

So anyone that's gone through it, it's like this common bond that you have, you see it sometimes or you see it often.

I don't want to compare wrestling to the military, but you see this camaraderie and these bonds that form because you kind of both.

You've all been through the fight together.

And so there's this unique bond that happens, wrestling is a close contact sport.

So there's just the proximity, right.

But a lot of it is just the way you train what you have to go through to be a just an average wrestler, just to be average, you have to put in a tremendous amount of work and time and energy.

And I think anyone who's gone through that, I don't know, you just fill this bond to another person, who's been through it.

There's also this side.

So we have a couple of board members that they didn't wrestle, but they saw what they did for their son and the power of wrestling and how it helped, you know, their son was being bullied, you know, as a ten year old and was their dad.

Sam.

Yeah.

He's, he was also like in athletics.

He was watching like the NCAA wrestling championships on TV.

One day he said, you know, I'm gonna put you in wrestling and you just saw this kid get confident.

He got strong.

And it just it made such a difference for their child that they were all in.

They've been on our board.

They do so much for our organization.

So there's those stories as well.

It goes a bit beyond just the people that participated.

It's kind of being connected to the people that have gone through it and seeing what it does for them, and what it reminded me of is what we used to hear about, you know, in the past about a village.

And that's what wrestling is sounding like to me, and probably even to our viewers, is that it takes a village, not just the people actually wrestling, but the coaches and the parents or the supporters of wrestlers.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

So we were doing a site visit at our Canoga Park program recently, and we were very fortunate to get some funding from, the county of Los Angeles.

Through measure J. And on the site visit, it was one of the things that the kind of site person, commented on was how it just felt like, looked like a family.

Because, you know, there's it's generational.

So you'll have, you know, sisters and brothers and cousins and then, you know, of course, mom and dad and you have all these people that are there and, and so, yeah, it kind of you have these like communities of, of, of people.

And then the big group of us as a whole, you know, we come together for our big wrestling events or our tournaments or fundraisers and things like that.

But yeah, I'd say wrestling is like it is like that.

It's I think it's a little different than other sports.

And.

Yeah.

And I appreciate you taking the time to talk about that, because we've had some incredible guests on our show and a couple of pro wrestlers, okay.

And, and everything, but we haven't ever talked about the part that's the community and giving back and making sure the next generation has the tools to move forward.

And so this is why it's so important to have you here.

But I also to have another question as well.

There are people watching right now.

And they may have a son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter that's being bullied.

And you talked about that, and the importance of the sport and how it helped build character.

Why do you think that that's important, especially for our young people that are facing those types of battles today?

You know, I mean, the the world's a tough place can be.

You know, I wish it was always just positive, but, you know, you can't tell by me sitting, but I'm five foot two ish.

You know, I used to get bullied, you know, when I was in high school, and, I think wrestling just, won.

It's combat sport, so we don't.

We don't shy away from that.

It.

If you watch, mixed martial arts, you see that there's a lot of wrestlers, that there's a lot most of them are wrestling background.

There's no striking in wrestling.

So it is still a sport, but it it physically prepares you, it mentally prepares you, and it just teaches you kind of combat skills to kind of protect yourself and, and through that, you know, for a small guy, I have a tremendous amount of confidence in some areas.

Not interviewing like this.

I know you are doing wonderful.

Let him know he's doing wonderful.

I do have, but in other parts, you know, my life, you know, it just has given me a tremendous amount of confidence.

And I see that in kids.

You see them just stand up a little taller and feel a little stronger and more proud about themselves.

And again, back to the community.

They have a whole team of people around him that gives him that confidence and from their teammates to coaches and others involved.

So big proponent of wrestling.

I think everybody should wrestle.

And in fact, everybody can wrestle.

You know, wrestling caters to people like me that are five foot nothing if you're six feet tall or if you're 200 pounds or 100 pounds girl, boy over the age of a certain age.

Yeah.

Any age.

I mean, there's a, Anthony Robles.

There was a movie that came out called unstoppable, recently, I think Jennifer Lopez was in it, and we've known Anthony.

He's come out to do some things for us here in LA, but he was born without his left leg.

But he found wrestling and won an NCAA wrestling championship, which is amazing.

And it did so much for him.

So we always say that anybody can.

Russell, I'm a believer in wrestling, the power of wrestling.

And so while I'm putting you on this spot as we end our conversation today, because you talked a lot about intentions, what intentions have you set for a five or maybe ten year plan for Beat the Streets Los Angeles?

So, you know, currently we're working on a dedicated hub for the organization.

So we support 15 programs.

And this is, again, our fortune through some of the funding we got from L.A.

County.

We are working to find a facility now.

We're getting close.

Fingers crossed.

But our goal is to create a hub, mentoring center, wrestling space, tutoring office space so that kids always have a place to go.

That's our big vision as we kind of, again, being an Olympic sport with a lot of energy coming LA in 2028, our goal is to have the facility within the next year.

We want to grow, and support more kids.

And like I mentioned, you know, we have, a pretty focused effort on introducing more girls and women to the sport.

And so those are kind of some of our big vision goals.

For the next four years.

And what's your personal intention?

Oh, my personal, for you.

For me?

You know, I love my work.

I love the job.

You know, I'm passionate about it.

I feel I feel very fortunate, because I get to do something that I enjoy.

I work with a great group of people, and we're doing meaningful, really meaningful work.

And helping lots of young people.

And so, I don't know, I feel good about that.

And, I just want to stay focused on that, you know, for the next few years.

And, like to live a pretty healthy lifestyle.

So I, you know, just get in better shape and stay healthy.

That's okay.

Well, I think we all can agree with your intention.

So you have our support there before we end our time together, can you let our audience know the best way to keep in touch with Beat the Streets Los Angeles?

Yeah.

So the easiest way is beats L.A.

dot org, beat the streets of Los Angeles.

We, there's we we're always looking for volunteer support, partnerships, donations, you name it.

You know, we don't have any guaranteed funding forever.

And so we're always, you got to raise every dollar.

But we try to put that those dollars to good use and, and do meaningful work.

So, Yeah, you can find us online.

I love that we'll make sure our audience sees that as well.

I think that you've been doing wonderful work, especially I saw the work you were doing, even though we weren't able to talk over the pandemic to keep our young people strong, not only physically but mentally.

So I do appreciate you coming and talking to us about beat the Streets of Los Angeles.

I've been wanting to do this interview forever, so thank you.

Well, thanks for having me.

I appreciate it and keep doing great things.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson.

Viewers like you make this show possible.

Join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.

um die.