Several hundred young athletes will assemble Feb. 3 at Englewood High School at 3800 S. Logan St. to compete in the state youth wrestling tournament.

“We expect there will be 300 or 400 4- to 14-year-old wrestlers here during the tournament,” Trish Schrock, director of the Englewood Youth Wrestling Program, said. “We will have about a dozen mats set up in the gym. Some of the mats will be subdivided for the matches for the younger kids.”

The tournament begins at between 9 and 10 a.m. Admission is $2 per person for everyone 18 and older. Plans are to have the tournament completed well before the start of the Super Bowl.

She said wrestling is becoming more popular with girls, so there will be a separate girls tournament. The girls are permitted to also compete in the regular tournament.

She also said state is a no-coaching tournament, which means the coaches cannot call instruction to the wrestlers on the mat.

Schrock has worked with youth wrestling for about 20 years. She said a lot of volunteers, including all the coaches, work with the team.

Englewood High School graduate Matt Burton is head coach. The other coaches include Mitch McGee, Chris Garcia, Josh Jones and Alan McGirl. Englewood High School wrestling coach Lorenzo Moreno also helps coach the youth team athletes. Both Burton and Moreno were members of the Englewood Youth Wrestling Team.

“We have 54 wrestlers on our team this year and this is the largest team we have since 2008,” Schrock said. “It is great to have a large team again. There was a time when we only had 12 wrestlers on our roster.”

Youth wrestling is divided into five age groups, 4 to 6 years old, 6 to 8 years old, 8 to 10 years old, 10 to 12 years old and 12 to 14 years old. Weight brackets are also set up for each age group.