Marlin starts wrestling club

A new opportunity for wrestlers to improve their technique and knowledge of the sport with competitive practice partners will begin soon at facilities in Creston and Martensdale.

Beginning Aug. 4, Team Marlin Wrestling Club will offer two 90-minute sessions per week in both locations beginning Aug. 4. For a $125 monthly membership fee, wrestlers can attend the sessions in either location, and are welcome at all four sessions per week at both Martensdale-St. Marys High School and the former middle school wrestling room in the Early Childhood Center in Creston, adjacent to the old Burton R. Jones middle school gymnasium.

The club is open to boys and girls in grades 3-12. The Creston sessions are scheduled 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sundays and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Sessions in Martensdale will be held 6:30 to 8 p.m. Sundays and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Fridays.

(The Martensdale practice on Aug. 4 is rescheduled until Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. due to the “dead week” for athletics this week.)

Registration forms and more information on the new club are available on the Team Marlin Wrestling Club Facebook page.

Payments can be made at the first practice but director Jake Marlin would like to have an idea of the enrollment numbers in advance.

Marlin is one of the most accomplished wrestlers in Iowa history. The 2013 Creston graduate finished with a career record of 204-6 and set a state record at the time with 147 career pins in 210 matches. He became southwest Iowa’s first four-time state champion. The Pin Doctors, a wrestling-oriented website, called Marlin one of Iowa’s best all-time scramblers on the mat.

Marlin wrestled one year at the University of Iowa and one year at North Iowa Area Community College, where he was national runner-up at 141 pounds. He is now a self-employed electrician living near Bevington with wife Molly Schimp, a former Southwestern Community College athlete, and their two children.

“I think he’d be a heck of a good teacher and coach,” said his NIACC coach, Steve Kelly. “He’s very technical, and he’s good at showing you how to do it.”

Marlin was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Wrestling Hall of Fame at the 2024 state tournament, and joined the Creston Wrestling Hall of Fame in November 2019.

Marlin has helped coach Cody Cline, a Lenox native, in the Martensdale-St. Marys wrestling program. Through discussions with Cline and Creston boys wrestling coach Cody Downing, the idea for a club for wrestlers looking to take their skills to the next level was hatched.

Marlin, now 29, said he liked the idea of giving back to the sport that gave him so much, recalling how much he gained from being involved in the High Altitude Wrestling Club now based in Des Moines. When he was young Marlin often went to HAWC workouts held in Martensdale, directed by Chad Tunick.

Both Marlin and Downing said the concept of the Team Marlin Wrestling Club is not to replace the Express Wrestling Club in Creston in any way. It’s an enhancement for those who are serious about reaching their full potential in the sport. They are working on schedules to avoid any direct conflicts of practice times between the clubs.

”What we’re offering is practices and knowledge to work on technique with other wrestlers who want to get better, not conditioning,” Marlin said. “We want to keep it fun and keep kids in it. It’s a big advantage to have good practice partners with high quality coaching. We’ll bring in some guest clinicians with strong wrestling backgrounds at different practices.”

Quin Leith, 2008 Creston state champion who wrestled at Cornell University, resides near Martensdale and has expressed interest in helping, Marlin noted, as well as several former Creston standouts still living in the area available to help at the Creston sessions.

“In the spring we’ll have some freestyle and Greco-Roman practices for that tournament season,” Marlin said. “I don’t want to compete with Express. Everyone should go to Express stuff. But, if you want a little more, that’s what I’m offering.”

Downing said the club is a great opportunity because wrestlers often travel as far as Des Moines or Council Bluffs to work out at an enhanced wrestling club for competitors from multiple school districts.

”Jake said he still wanted to be involved in the sport and there is a need for a club in this area,” Downing said. “Kids are traveling an hour and a half in some cases to get to any type of club focused on wrestlers going to the next level. As long as enrollment in Express stays healthy, we look at it as a positive thing, especially for kids who want to practice with kids from other clubs. Jake was part of Express and High Altitude when he was young. Having it at the ECC avoids being in the way of all the things going on at the high school.”

Marlin can be contacted by email at team.marlin24@gmail.com .