The B.C. high school wrestling championships started Thursday in Duncan, and grapplers from Prince George were in action.
Next year, local wrestlers won't have to travel anywhere for the provincial event because it will be held on the UNBC campus inside the walls of the Northern Sport Centre.
"It's great," PGSS wrestling coach Louie Van Grootel said of having B.C.'s most prestigious high school meet in the city. "As far as trying to build our sport and bring our sport to the public eye, we have a great venue for it. We're very excited to be bringing the sport of wrestling and the provincial championships to Prince George in 2014."
Close to 450 athletes -- and a total of about 600 people -- will gather at the NSC for the championships.
Prince George will be hosting the high school wrestling provincials for the third time. They were held at PGSS in 1991 and at the Civic Centre in 2006.
"They seem to be held in the Lower Mainland most years so to have them up in Prince George every six, seven or eight years, we really battle to do that," Van Grootel said. "Sometimes it's a political process, unfortunately, but this time we were successful."
For the 2014 championships, a Prince George group that includes Van Grootel submitted a bid during high school wrestling's 2012 annual general meeting.
"Usually, you bid only the year before but we stepped it up a notch," Van Grootel said. "We said two years prior that we wanted to host and I think it caught everybody a little off guard. We brought in a lot of our northern coaches for that vote and we were able to pull it off."
