BTS Student-Athletes Medal at the Journeymen Fall Classic

Plus, Becka Leathers coaches mat-side for the first time

This past weekend, Beat the Streets took 16 student-athletes to the Journeymen Fall Classic in Manheim, PA, bringing home a total of seven medals back to New York City.

The tournament consisted of three different divisions: the Over-Flo Challenge, the Over-Flo Women’s, and the Fall Classic Main Event. At the Over-Flo Challenge, Sean Tansey and Adner Ramirez placed 4th and 5th respectively. At the Over-Flo Women’s, there were four medalists: Alessandra Elliot and Kathryn Louie both took 2nd, while Destiny Gibson and Destiny Bennett took 3rd and 4th, respectively. Sulayman Bah was the lone placer at the Main Event, taking 2nd in his pool and 8th place overall.

The tournament was also the first in which Becka Leathers, the organization’s new head girl’s coach, coached mat-side.

“The girls did super well and were all excited, as some had never placed as high as they had before,” said Leathers. “We had good takeaways as far as coaching and what we need to work on in order to achieve more moving forward.”

While the tournament was her first time meeting many of the student-athletes she will soon be working closely with moving forward, Leathers took the challenge as an opportunity to evaluate the athletes through a fresh perspective.

“It was great to see everyone in competition and be able to evaluate their strong suits and strategies,” said Leathers. “It’s always challenging to corner someone whose skillset you are not familiar with, but these kids are so flexible and resilient that it made it easy for me to take on that role.”

Along with Leathers, BTS Head Boy’s Coach Barry Hart was also in attendance.

“Working with Becka this week was great,” said Hart. “We were feeding off of each other’s energy and making sure the kids was ready to compete.”

As Leathers moves to coaching Training Center practices full-time, she is excited to narrow her focus on refining basic techniques.

“I’m looking forward to working with both teams and really instilling those basic techniques,” said Leathers. “I’m a basics wrestler, and I’m excited to bring a focus to the moves that really work in the long run.”