History

Wrestling started in the Central Florida Area with Leesburg, Lyman and St. Cloud High Schools having a JV teams during school year 1970 - 1971.
The Varsity teams in 71 - 72 were Bishop Moore, Leesburg, Lyman, and St. Cloud.
Teams in 72 -73 were Bishop Moore, Lake Brantley, Leesburg, Lyman, and St. Cloud.

During that time there only a few qualified officials available. When an official was needed, the coach would call one of the officials and ask him to officiate the meet.

Richard Gilmore in Seminole county and Larry Blackburn, Brevard CC Wrestling Coach and Bernie Scott of Brevard and Kenneth Pl of Osceola County were the officials who the schools called to do their meets. In 1972 Tony Palermo arrived in the area.

Because of the shortage of officials in the Orlando area, Bishop Moore and Lyman had to travel to Cocoa, Daytona Beach, Leesburg and St. Cloud.

When Orange County started to field wrestling teams in the 73 - 74 school year, the coaches saw a need for more officials. Through the efforts for Johnny Rouse and Bill Scott, they convinced the Central Florida Officials Association to act as the assigning agent so that more officials would be available and be trained to officiate the Orange and Seminole Counties schools wrestling meets. Because Johnny Rouse and Bill Scott desired to have coaches be apart of the official’s association because they saw the need to establish a working relationship between officials and coaches in order to improve the sport. Thus, the Central Florida Wrestling Association CFWA) was started in the fall of 1975.

While wrestling was getting started in Central Florida it was getting started on the East Coast also. Wrestling started at Father Lopez by Coach Larry Labno in 1967 and at Mainland by Coach Jerry Brunner in1969. Officials were hard to find in those days. They came from Jacksonville and Brevard County. In the Spring of 1968 the state championship was delayed because of a statewide teacher’s strike. Thus the few wrestling teams just showed up in Miami for the state championship.

The Central East Coast Wrestling Association (CECWA) was formed in the fall of 1975. The roster consisted of: Jack Cevercko, Steven Croak, Alvin Gullion, Peter Keating, Larry Labno, and Ronald Pagano. They serviced the following schools: Deland, Mainland, New Smyrna Beach, Seabreeze, and Spruce Creek. In those days things were very parochial and officials rode with the team when they went to dual meet.

Through the efforts of Bill Scott, Skip Pletzer, Johnny Rouse and Richard Dehler from CFWA and Larry Labno and Peter Keating of CECWA talks were held at Deland High School to bring the two associations together to better service the schools of Mid-Florida. This association is known as Mid-Florida Wrestling Association, MFWA was started the fall of 1978. The first Constitution and By-Laws were typed by Mrs. Gretchen Pletzer. The roots of the association is to have coaches and officials working together to improve and promote the sport of wrestling. The underlying goal is that officials promote and maintain an open working relationship with coaches to develop consistency in wrestling rules enforcement.

In 1987, the Association was almost dissolved due to internal strife and loss of faith in the Association by some of the wrestling coaches. With a change in leadership and re-direction of purpose, MFWA, under President James Brown and his successors, has become stronger and proving to be a leader among the officials organizations in the state of Florida.

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