Unique training experience awaits at Tri-State Training Center
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in WIN’s recently published Volume 31 Issue 9, the annual Awards Issue. For more information on the TSTC, click here.
By Tristan Warner
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Craig Manno sat on the porch of a hunting club property he had joined decades before in Trout Creek, N.Y. He imagined converting the 250-acre remote property in upstate New York’s remote wilderness into a unique training ground for wrestlers.
“I started by drawing it out on a paper, and then we built it in three months,” Manno, who owns a construction company in New Jersey, matter-of-factly stated. “The premise was to get the best people around to come up and spend the weekend together.”
Located approximately 3.5 miles from the Cannonsville Reservoir in the picturesque Catskill Mountains, the vision for the Tr-State Training Center is to “create an atmosphere where athletes come together to learn and train in the sport of wrestling while bonding through that experience.”
“It is not about the numbers and being a machine,” Manno said. “It is about quality over quantity. I want to do 50-75 kids, which is manageable, and they’re getting the most out of it going over technique and details.”
Manno’s daughter, Bella, who just won a U15 Pan-American gold medal in Guatemala in May, has not been the only benefactor of this quickly-flourishing facility.
Available for booking every weekend throughout the year, Manno prides himself on providing a first-rate experience for any team, club, or group looking for a unique training experience. Team-bonding activities, unique outdoor experiences, delicious home-cooked food and world-class wrestling instruction and training are all promises Manno looks to fulfill.
“We started inviting Olympians up there,” Manno explained. “Kevin Jackson came up. Helen Maroulis just recently came up. We are bringing in people from all over the world. Italy came. Kyrgyzstan came. It keeps evolving like a high-end wrestling school.
“Now we have a dorm built with beds and showers in a separate building. The next step is to build a house and 10-mat building.
“We have quality food. I cook for them. Real stuff. Real eggs. Real chicken. Filet mignon. It costs an average of $125 per day, which includes food, lodging and wrestling.”
The typical procedure consists of a team or group booking out the facility for a three-day, Friday-through-Sunday, training weekend. Manno provides transportation to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive, for a fee, for those groups choosing to fly.
Coaches have the option of requesting a premier coach for the experience, Manno says, or they can run the sessions themselves.
Either way, the benefits offered to groups seeking a special training experience will be nothing short of premier, Manno asserts.
“Surround yourself with good people that know the sport, which is essential for growth,” Manno said. “People are coming from all over the country and world.
“Learn life lessons, run through the woods and roads, hike, swim at the lake in the summer, fish, build fires, chop firewood, and so much more. We just got 20 bikes.
“Kids these days are always on their phones and don’t get to see the stars that they never realized are right above them. Tri-State Training Center is 20 miles from town, in a spot where maybe five cars pass by a day. The remoteness is great for team bonding and helps bring teams together.”
Prospective groups can learn more information by visiting https://tristatetrainingcenter.com or by contacting Craig Manno at info@tristatetrainingcenter.com.
