The Apex Wrestling School mission is to teach, train, guide, and mentor wrestlers who are committed to doing the things that will separate them from the average human being, not only on the mat, but off it as well. The Apex staff are readily prepared to provide our dedicated athletes the edge they need to reach the next level of achievement, not only in the sport of wrestling, but in life. We stand firmly behind the affirmation that we are more than "just a wrestling club", because our athletes are more than "just wrestlers".
At The Apex Wrestling School, we teach all wrestlers the fundamental skills, techniques, and values necessary to achieve their personal goals. Apex is committed to guiding each wrestler through each level of the sport, from beginner to advanced, by actively supporting, evaluating, and understanding each athlete’s individual strengths and areas for growth.
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The Apex Wrestling School’s goal is to help build on each wrestler’s existing talents and help each wrestler improve in areas in which they may need support. At Apex, we will also work to strengthen each wrestler’s commitment to the sport by instilling essential values such as: competitiveness, sportsmanship, introspection, mental fortitude, intellectuality, responsibility, and respect. These values are critical to the development of not only a successful wrestler, but more importantly, a successful human being.
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While our physical training sessions certainly emphasize conditioning, technique, and positioning, we also incorporate competitive philosophies, core principles, and psychological strategies into our programming. We are also willing to incorporate film review and methodical critique into our training program for athletes of all levels and ages. We are also dedicated to your future success at Apex. Our staff has a wealth of experience in, and network contacts for, secondary school programming and postsecondary planning. We have close relationships with the most reputable high school, college, and senior level wrestling coaches across the United States, and we work hard to expose our members to these coaches, and vice versa. We regularly encourage and provide guidance for our athletes to make sound decisions for their future, whether it be continuing their athletic careers in college, or otherwise.
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The Apex Wrestling School is the manifestation of a long history of athletic and overall life experiences. The historical influences that drive our program are as widely diverse as the people that are, and have been, a part of it. The Apex Wrestling School is much more than just a “business idea”; we would never have been able to maintain the reputation and longevity we have in the wrestling community if that were the case. We are the history of our people. We are a history of success.
The term “Apex Wrestling” was first coined to describe a system of wrestling camps developed in 1994 by legendary New Jersey high school wrestling coach, Scott Weaver. Weaver has cornered some of the greatest wrestlers in New Jersey’s history, including three-time NJSIAA champions, Donny Pritzlaff and Frank Cagnina. Weaver’s system of Apex Wrestling Camps was created to provide athletes with the techniques and philosophies that helped athletes reach the “Apex” of their performance.​
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Upon graduating from the University of Michigan in 2000, The Apex Wrestling School’s founder, Damion Logan, began working as an assistant coach for Weaver at St. Mary’s High School in Rutherford, NJ. After building a strong relationship with Weaver, and assisting him with the Apex camps, Logan acquired the Apex LLC from Weaver to begin The Apex Wrestling School.
With a vision to create a program modeled closely after "The Godfather" Ernie Monaco's Edge School of Wrestling--where many of the current Apex staffers trained in their competitive years--Logan rented a small, second-floor warehouse space in South Hackensack, NJ. Remodeling the space to just barely fit one small competition wrestling mat, our first location was born.
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Logan's goal in South Hackensack was simple: to host a site where wrestlers could learn the numerous different successful approaches to wrestling, just as Ernie and the Monaco family did, and still do, for over three decades worth of historical wrestling figures in the tri-state area through the Edge program. With the support of lifelong friends, Dane Tabano and Jason Silverstein, classes began in South Hackensack in September of 2002.
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The success of the South Hackensack location was due in large part to Logan and his staff’s hard work, but we were also supported by an incredible group of families who believed in us. Our very first members, Pete and Phil “Philly Cheesesteak” Ruiz, and their parents, Pedro and Dawn, are perhaps the best examples of people who literally wanted us to succeed as much as they wanted their own children to succeed; without their support, we may not be where we are today. That first handful of members in South Hackensack also included NCAA champion Nick Suriano, NCAA champion, Shane Griffith, and a number of elite student-athletes whose names may still be on the broken sheetrock walls in black Sharpie marker.
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After firmly establishing ourselves in the northern New Jersey wrestling community, the Apex Wrestling School held New Jersey facilities in Saddle Brook, Teterboro, Pompton Lakes, and Union. In 2010, Logan decided it was time to expand our programming and opened our newest north Jersey location in Mahwah.
In July of 2018, Logan re-partnered with longtime friend and teammate, Dane Tabano, to open an Apex Wrestling School in South Jersey. Tabano, a co-founder and co-operator from the South Hackensack days, now operates Apex South in Egg Harbor Township. Soon after in August of 2022, we teamed up with Apex alum, Garret Beam to open our Apex West facility, located in Washington, NJ in Warren County. With the addition of the South and West locations, The Apex Wrestling School is now proud to have our training system span across the state of New Jersey, bringing elite wrestling training to the entire Garden State.
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