Chiropractor Honored for Aiding SPHS Wrestling Team

Chiropractor Honored for Aiding SPHS Wrestling Team

On April 11, the San Pedro High School wrestling team honored Alan Naim for his gift of $3,000, exercise equipment, and his pledge to become an annual donor to the team. Naim’s generosity will allow the team to build on their recent successes.
Treated like the stepchild of high school sports, San Pedro High School’s wrestling team didn't have a mat with their own school’s logo on it, let alone the sufficient exercise equipment.
Naim gave the team a $3,000 installment of $16,000 for a new wrestling mat. Until recently, the team was using an old 45- by 45-foot mat donated to them by Cerritos College.
Third-year coach Roman Hernandez said that the team was on the verge of not being able to compete because they couldn’t even afford tournament entries. The students who wrestled, ages 14 and 15, had to go out and raise money in order to have a wrestling team.
“Mainly, I’ve been putting it on our kids to go out and hit the streets and fundraise money,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think a kid should have to do that.”
    The wrestling team has seen its fortunes turn for the better since Hernandez became the team’s coach, despite the lack of funding and attention.
“We always have tough kids,” Hernandez said. “There’s 23 schools in the city and in our first year we took 12th and that just had to do with the San Pedro toughness. And, the next year we took 9th and in this past year we took 6th and we’re looking to make a move again.”
Naim learned of the wrestling team's woes from Richard Alvarez, a client of his chiropractic clinic. Alvarez is the parent of one of the members of the wrestling team.
During one visit, Naim mentioned to Alvarez that he had three exercise machines he no longer needed.
With a background in Israeli wrestling and his working with athletes on a regular basis, Naim was empathetic toward the situation.
“I see a lot of athletes,” Naim said. “I care for their well being. Whether it’s through equipment I’ve donated or through money I’ve donated.”
Naims’s plans on supporting the team for as long as his practice allows. With this new found support, the San Pedro High’s wrestling will make it to the top of their division.