Pony Boy Wrestling

Here are the current PonyBoy Non Profit/ School Based Club Team rankings for the 2023-2024 season. We looked at 3 key factors to determine these rankings. The ranking factors are listed below. Information was compiled from 2024 Ga Freestyle State and 2024 USA Kids State results. 

1. Number of state champions at qualifying tournaments 
2. Number of state placers at qualifying tournaments 
3. Total number of state champs divided by the total number of kids competing for the club giving you the percentage of state champs in the club. We call this the Gold Medal %

We here are PonyBoy are no strangers to the fact that not every club is the same and has access to the same resources as others. There are some clubs around our great state that has coaches who work for free and who practice anywhere they can find some open mat space. We didn’t think it was fair to rank these teams with the clubs who have access to more resources. The same way the GHSA has classifications based on school size, we here at PonyBoy decided to have classifications based on access to resources. Every team in these rankings has kids who will be attending one local high school program or is a smaller club team who we would consider to be “Non-Profit”. 

In all honesty these were the most difficult rankings to do because its easy to miss stuff. Some kids when they sign up for the tournament put in a different name for the team and wont get counted for their overall team points and placements. So if my team and I have made a mistake please let us know! Never the less, we did our best, so here are the Non Profit/School Based Club Top 10 Team Rankings. 

1. Backyard Brawlers 
2. Troup Wrestling Club
3. Rockmart Wrestling Club
4. Tift Wrestling Academy 
5. Bison Takedown Club 
6. Dragons Wrestling Club 
7. Woodland Wrestling Club 
8. West Forsyth Wrestling Club 
9. Backyard Bullies 
10. Foundation Wrestling 

1. From what I can tell the Backyard Brawlers are a direct pipeline for the 1A high school Social Circle. I might be wrong, but I’d be willing to bet money on that one. If you don’t know about Social Circle and the standard of wrestling they have there then you haven’t been paying attention to Ga wrestling. The kids coming out of this community K-12 can flat out wrestle. From the two qualifying tournament that we looked at the Backyard Brawlers walked away with 7 state champs and 10 state placers. They only wrestled 19 total kids in both competitions. 17 out of 19 kids representing this program walked away with a medal, that’s crazy. With 7 state champs out of 19 kids that gives the Backyard Brawlers a Gold Medal percentage of 36%. 

2. Troup wrestling has been a mainstay at the USA and AAU levels for a long time in this state. The kids coming from the Troup youth program are gamers every time they step on the mat and you can tell that from how many times they win. Troup ended up with 5 state champs and 11 state placers out of 23 total wrestlers. This gives Troup a championship percentage of 21%. 

3. Rockmart comes in at number 3 in our list. This was a tough decision between Rockmart and Troup because they had almost identical numbers from the two tournaments we looked at. Rockmart also had 5 state champs and 12 state placers but had 34 kids competing under the Rockmart banner. Giving Rockmart a state championship percentage of 14%. Which ultimately put them below Troup for the time being. 

4. The Tift Wrestling Academy is one of the smallest teams in our top 10, which makes what they did this year so impressive. They had 8 wrestlers participating in both of the qualifying tournament and walked away with 4 state champions and no state placers. Normally having such a small team would put them lower in the rankings, but they have more state champs than anyone below them on this list and they did it with less kids. These numbers give TWA a 50% gold medal percentage. These boys must be coached by Ricky Bobby, because they are either first or last. 

5. Bison Takedown Wrestling Club is a relatively new organization within the club scene but that does not mean they are not very capable wrestlers on the mat. These kids can flat out get after it. They finished up these two tournaments with 3 state champs and 6 state placers, out of 17 total wrestlers giving them a state champ percentage of 17.6%. Given the fact that the majority of their wrestlers are younger, its going to be interesting to watch this program on the rise to see where they end up. The teams on the top of this list need to take note. 

6. The Dragons Wrestling Club out of Pickens Ga came out swinging and ended up with 3 state champions and 11 state placers out of 22 total wrestlers. 14 total placers out of 22 kids participating is an extremely impressive win rate. Their gold medal percentage is sitting at 13.6%. Its clear that the kids coming out of this program know how to wrestle. I am excited to see how they develop as they get older. 

7. The Woodland Wrestling club came in with almost the exact same numbers as the Dragons who just slightly edged them out. Woodland also came home with 3 gold medals and 11 state placers, the only difference being the number of kids participating. Woodland had slightly more kids with 24 total. Giving them a gold medal percentage of 12.5%. Its clear that the Woodland wrestling program is a juggernaut from top to bottom. 

8. West Forsyth comes in at number 8 in this list. They are just like TWA at number 4. They brought 4 kids to Macon for the USA state tournament and walked away with 2 gold medals. They have by far the smallest number of kids representing them but were still able to produce 2 golds. A 50% gold medal percentage is nothing to take lightly. These coaches and wrestlers clearly know what they are doing, I guess the rest of the state is lucky there aren’t more of them. 

9. The Backyard Bullies, in my opinion, have one of the best names in the business and their kids do a pretty good job of living up to it. The times I’ve been able to watch them wrestle they are in your face and aggressive, with some outstanding technique to go with it. The Backyard Bullies walked away with 2 state champs and 8 state placers out of 21 total wrestlers. 2 state champs out of 21 total kids gives them a state champ percentage of 9%. 

10. Rounding out the top 10 is Foundation Wrestling out of Fitzgerald Ga. These south Georgia boys are tough and do not back down. Foundation finished these two tournaments with 2 state champs and 6 state placers out of 14 total wrestlers. Giving them a state championship percentage of 14%. With a little more work it would not surprise us here at PonyBoy to see these Foundation kids climb these rankings.