As the sports sales manager for the Rochester Amateur Sports Commission (RASC), I consider one of the most enjoyable parts of my job to be building strong relationships with the various sports organizations we’re involved with.
One of the RASC’s primary responsibilities is to work with our local partners and find ways to either grow their existing events or to add a regional or national championship tournament to our calendar. A key objective in this process is to increase the economic impact to the city of Rochester and to continually build win-win partnerships with our many local sports organizations.
An excellent example of this collaboration can be found in the sports commission’s strong relationship with Minnesota USA Wrestling. Led by Bill Hinchley and Tom Kuisle, Minnesota USA Wrestling is a non-profit volunteer organization that represents all of the good qualities a youth sports organization can aspire to have. Bill and Tom are selfless advocates for the sport of wrestling and always put the interests of the athletes who compete first.
As an example of this dedication, Bill and Tom can often be found officiating at their tournaments when they’re not leading a group of 30 dedicated MN USA Wrestling volunteers at each event.
Each year, the RASC assists Bill and Tom in running two large tournaments, the State Folkstyle tournament in March and the State Freestyle tournament in May.
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In addition, the RASC and Minnesota USA Wrestling have partnered in bringing numerous national USA Wrestling events to Rochester in recent years. Chief among these are the 2009 and 2010 Cadet National Duals, a premier national event that brought over 1,000 wrestlers to Rochester, plus an additional 500 family members, officials and coaches.
The RASC and MN USA Wrestling also worked together to host the 2010 Northern Plains Kids & Cadet Regional Championships which also brought significant economic impact to Rochester hotels, restaurants and area businesses.
With the RASC being a non-profit organization, we were able to help Minnesota USA Wrestling by applying our event profits from these national tournaments toward the purchase of new, top quality wrestling mats that MN USA Wrestling was in need of to continue to grow their annual programs.
And as we look to the future, we are all working closely together in hopes of winning a bid to get another USA Wrestling national event to Rochester. With a continued strong relationship with great people and partners like Bill Hinchley and Tom Kuisle of Minnesota USA Wrestling, we have an excellent chance to host many more national tournaments.
