BILLINGS — For two decades, John Minow has been a familiar presence at the Montana Open Wrestling tournament.
“Originally, I started out as helping with security in the Ice Garden, and then it kind of moved to being a gopher for the head table, and now I’m up here at the head table,” said Minow.
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The event, hosted at MetraPark, is highly anticipated, bringing together thousands of young wrestlers and dedicated volunteers.
“We’ve had good years. We’ve had some not-so-good years, but we’ve—I guess, I shouldn’t say ‘not so good years.’ They’ve always been great years,” said Minow.
Though mostly empty at the time of publishing, the venue will transform into a bustling hub of competition Friday night.
“When registration starts, I’m sure people are literally sitting at their keyboard ready to go because it’s a mad rush. I mean, think about it, 2,500 registrations happening in 11 hours. That’s pretty impressive,” Minow said.
Those 2,500 young wrestlers will leave with match experience and valuable life lessons learned on the mat.
“You can hear it, just about, from anyone who’s wrestled for their entire life. They (attribute) wrestling to their great attitude, to their work ethic, to their ability to overcome obstacles,” said Minow.
For Minow and hundreds of other volunteers, the long hours spent at the tournament are all for one purpose.
“We just love giving our time to the kids. I mean, it’s all about the kids. That’s why we’re here— all of us,” said Minow.
