The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team will have its own version of a vein drain today.
The Mocs are offering a free two-hour clinic with hopes of securing donors for Blood Assurance. The clinic is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at Maclellan Gym; the blood mobile will be on site starting at 8.
“Did you realize that more than 400 [blood] donations are needed every day in Chattanooga alone?” Mocs assistant coach Rocco Mansueto said.
While the clinic is free to any wrestler ages 5-18, the Mocs are asking that each attendee bring at least one potential blood donor to their “Wrestle-4-Life.”
“It can be a parent, brother or sister, coach or any other person age 17 or older,” Mansueto said. “We’re hoping that each person attending the clinic will bring along a donor. That’s what we are encouraging.”
Internally, the coaches and wrestlers are rounding up a supporter or two to donate.
Former NCAA All-American John Soiredas, a two-time Southern Conference champion who returned to the Mocs last spring as an assistant, will be conducting the clinic with the help of current UTC wrestlers.
“Coach Mansueto has done a great job of putting this event together, and we think it’s important to continue as a part of the community,” head coach Heath Eslinger said. “This is a way to give something back to a community that has endorsed and supported Chattanooga wrestling.”
During Eslinger’s tenure, the Mocs have volunteered at a number of events, including helping in flood relief in Nashville by going into trailer parks to help families salvage personal goods, running as a team in Race for the Cure and the Mud Run, volunteer maintenance at the Ivy School, 24-hour sleep-ins to help homeless in Chattanooga and at least a day each year helping finish homes for Habitat for Humanity.