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The Bad Dogs youth wrestling team is hosting its first of two major tournaments Saturday at Moffat County High School.

The Bad Dogs Winter Rumble will host wrestlers from across the Western Slope as well as other parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Bad Dogs strength coach Jeff Pleasant said they are expecting over 200 participants to be in attendance at the tournament taking place in the MCHS gym.

Pleasant said there will be six mats at the tournament, starting at 10 a.m., with wrestling for children ages 4 – 14. This tournament, while not as big as the Bad Dogs’ spring tournament, is still an important one where Craig residents can see what the team is all about and check out some of the region’s best youth wrestling.

“We’ll have out of town teams from all over the Western Slope,” Pleasant said. “It’s kind of a warm-up and preview to what will happen in the spring. We’re going to see teams that have never been here before.”

The tournament was set up to be for the Intermountain Wrestling League, but attracted the attention of other teams outside the league. According to coach Rodney Klimper, teams from Grand Junction, Gypsum, Summit County, Kremmling, Avon, Vernal, Utah and Rawlins, Wyo. will all be participating, among others.

“We got outside interest from Utah and Wyoming, Grand Junction and some of the southern schools,” Pleasant said. “It used to be that just the Intermountain teams would get together. Now we’re getting interest from other towns and communities.”

The tournament will last into the afternoon with finishing time being determined more by the final numbers to show up, Pleasant said.

For more information about the tournament or Bad Dogs, e-mail Klimper at baddogswrestling@q.com.

Nate Waggenspack can be reached at 875-1795 or nwaggenspack@craigdailypress.com