The Edmonton Wrestling Cub (EWC) was founded in 1986 by Mike Payette and Jerry Derewonko. Mike went from wrestling for the University of Alberta Golden Bears in March to being named the head coach two months later. He recruited Jerry, a Golden Bear alumni and a junior high school coach at St. Cecilia Junior High School, to be an assistant coach with the Bears in September.
At the time, Edmonton had a very robust junior high school wrestling program but only a handful of high school wrestling programs. As a result, most of the junior high school wrestlers dropped out of the sport prior to high school. EWC was formed to allow those athletes from both the junior high schools and the high schools to continue to wrestle and be coached at an elite level. Part of the goal was to create a feeder system for the top athletes to eventually move on to success with the Bears wrestling team at the university. The concept was partially based on Mike’s high school wrestling career where he was part of the National Capital Wrestling Club in Ottawa founded by U of A Bears alumni and Canadian Olympians, Gord Bertie and Ole Sorensen.
In the fall of 1986, EWC practices were held in the U of A wrestling room following the Bears practices four days a week. Mike and Jerry coached the initial athletes, with Jerry’s junior high school wrestlers from St. Cecilia making up a significant portion of the initial EWC team. The “Edmonton Wrestling Club” name was chosen so that all of the high schools and junior high schools would feel part of an inclusive club that would represent all of the wrestling teams in the Edmonton area.
Since its inception, EWC has had the pleasure of helping many athletes become national and world team members.