By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

There’s no JV or varsity squad, and you won’t find it among the NCAA’s ranks. But competitive arm wrestling is growing in popularity, and Baker High School sophomore Alex Van Buren is rising in the ranks.

Alex, 16, won in his division Jan. 26 in a competition held at the Quality Inn and Suites near the Fairgrounds. According to his grandparents, Michelle and Peter Van Buren, it was his second major win.

“He just takes them down,” said Michelle Van Buren, Alex’s grandmother. “He’s not a huge kid either — he’s tall but he’s slender. You look at these arm wrestlers on TV and they’re huge.”

Michelle said Alex fell in love with arm wrestling when he attended a competition as a spectator a few years ago. Now, Alex works out almost daily with friend, George Dubois, and his father.

“He trains like all the time,” Michelle said.

Alex, who is a saxophonist in the Plan Bee pep band, connected with Michelle Dougan, a local female arm wrestling champion. A grandmother in her early 50s, Dougan took up arm wrestling five years ago while she was recovering from cancer. Nicknamed “The Black Scorpion,” Dougan has won multiple regional and state titles through the World Armwrestling League, including the 2017 Women’s Middleweight Championship Hammer.

“She helped him get practicing enough that he was able to compete,” Michelle Van Buren said.

Whereas football is hours of stop-and-start action, soccer drags on for 90 minutes, and baseball games stretch past dusk, arm wrestling matches last less than a minute. Spectators can get close to the action in “the pit” as competitors face off at tall tables outfitted with elbow pads. “Pullers,” as arm wrestlers are sometimes called, dust their palms with chalk to avoid slippage from sweat.

As in boxing and traditional wrestling, arm wrestlers are divided by weight class. Pullers are further classified by gender, experience and handedness.

“They do both right and left arms too so it’s not like they can just practice or wrestle with one arm,” Michelle Van Buren said.

Since it is a one-on-one competition, arm wrestling requires great focus.

“It keeps his head clear and it keeps him on the right path,” she said of arm wrestling’s effect on Alex.

The team spirit, however, is not lost. Michelle said the sport imparts camaraderie and sportsmanship.

“It’s amazing watching all these kids. They’re really good,” she said.

To learn more about local competitive arm wrestling opportunities, visit facebook.com/CNYarms or email [email protected].