Beat the Streets Detroit
Board Members
Executive Director Mark Churella
Churella was raised in Farmington, Michigan. As a student at Farmington High School, he was selected as a High School All-American in wrestling in 1975 and won was a state champion three years. He has been inducted into the Farmington High School Sports Hall of Fame. Churella attended the University of Michigan where he was a member of the Michigan Wolverines wrestling team from 1976 to 1979. As a wrestler at Michigan, Churella compiled a record of 132–13; his .910 winning percentage is the second highest in University of Michigan wrestling history. He won the NCAA national championship in 1977 and 1978 and as a senior in 1979. His freshman year, he placed third in the tournament. Churella was selected four times as a collegiate wrestling All-American and was also named the most outstanding participant in the 1978 NCAA Division I wrestling championships. Churella also received the 1979 Big Ten Medal of Honor for proficiency in scholarship, athletics and community service. When he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1979, Churella was the school’s all-time record-holder in career wins, single-season wins and career falls. Churella’s collegiate success foreshadowed his qualification for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but the US’ boycott of the event prevented the opportunity. After graduating from Michigan, Churella served as the head wrestling coach at UNLV from 1979 to 1984. While holding that position, Churella established the Las Vegas Collegiate Invitational Tournament, later renamed the Cliff Keen Invitational. After UNLV discontinued its wrestling program, Churella returned to the University of Michigan as an assistant coach from 1985 to 1987. Churella later went into the insurance services business and became the president and CEO of FDI Group, in Novi, Michigan. Three of his sons, Mark, Jr., Ryan and Josh were wrestlers at the University of Michigan. Churella returned to the program as an assistant coach from 2007 to 2008. Son Josh Churella joined the Michigan Wolverines wrestling coaching staff in 2012. Churella was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1996 and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1999.[12][13] He was also a charter member of the Michigan Wrestling Hall of Fame.[2] In 2012, he received the Bob Ufer Award for outstanding service to the University of Michigan Athletic Department. Churella is married and has 3 sons and X grandchildren.
Vice President Mike Cox
Board Member Mindy Herrmann
Secretary Mark Churella, Jr.
Board Member Michael E. Wagner
Beat the Streets Detroit
Program & Club Directors
Director of Strategy and Development Joe Russo
Joseph continued to pursue his passion for wrestling while earning a bachelor’s degree in business management at Peru State College, Peru, Nebraska. His coaching career blossomed during his college years, starting as a volunteer coach at HTRS High in Humboldt, Nebraska, and advancing to head coach, a role he held for three years. Guided by the mentorship of Rick DeRoiser, a Maine Wrestling Hall of Fame Coach, Joseph further honed his coaching philosophy over seven seasons at Massebesic High School in North Waterboro, Maine.
In addition to coaching, Joseph has dedicated the past decade to educating and mentoring youth, serving as a 5th-grade teacher in Hamtramck, as a family teacher and program director in various group homes. His commitment to community service extends through Divine Child Wrestling (Dearborn, MI) and his founding of the System Afflicted Youth Independence Network (S.A.Y.I.N.), a non-profit that supports young people aging out of the juvenile residential and court systems.
Joseph’s upcoming role as Director of Strategy and Development at Beat the Streets Detroit is a culmination of his personal journey and professional expertise. It represents a heartfelt mission to empower Detroit’s youth through sports and education, drawing on his own experiences to inspire and guide others towards positive life choices. Joseph resides in Livonia with his wife Jennifer and their three children, Mason, Layla, and Michael, who continue to motivate his dedication to making a meaningful impact within their community.
Director of Operations Kerri Smith
Kerri understands how important it is to remove barriers for youth in Detroit, having served over a decade working in Detroit Schools.
As a lifelong learner and athlete; Kerri wants to provide life skills, as well as access and opportunity, to children in Detroit through the sport of wrestling.
Beat the Streets Detroit
High School & Club Coaches
Daisy Holthus, Wayne Memorial High/Divine Child High/Wolfpack Club/Romulus Southeast Fire
Bio Coming Soon
Anthony Kreucher, Detroit Cristo Rey
Jose Ramirez, Detroit Cristo Rey High School
Coach Ramirez will lead Detroit Cristo Rey High School in their inaugural season this winter as a varsity sport. He previous coached at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, Grosse Pointe South High School and ran a youth wrestling club called Detroit Wrestling Academy. His passion for wrestling started late as he didn’t start wrestling until his junior year of high school, “I fell in love with the sport immediately and excelled in a short period of time, I had the opportunity to continue my wrestling career at Eastern Michigan University where we won the MAC Conference Championship In 1996. Wrestling has provided so many opportunities in my life, I would not be where I am now without wrestling. That is why I feel so strongly about the work we are doing through Detroit Beat the Streets. We are teaching more than just wrestling, we are creating opportunities and transforming lives through this great sport. Together we will help the kids of Detroit, Beat the Streets!”
Chris Ray, Warren Lincoln Wrestling Club
After quitting the team, one of the assistant coaches took over as the head coach and began an aggressive campaign to recruit Coach Ray back. It worked! Once he came back, the coach made a focused effort to speak Coach Ray’s language and also made the effort to understand the culture he was raised in. That coach saw his struggles to separate himself from the previous company he kept and helped him to increase that distance. Coach Ray became loyal to that coach and the coach prepared him to lead. Coach Ray’s commitment to the sport paid off. In his short high school wrestling career, Coach Ray became an All-State Wrestler and got his picture in the school’s “Hall of Fame.” His team rallied behind him and pushed him to increase his grades above a 3.0 cumulative GPA. Coach Ray was voted Senior Class President, and Homecoming King – outcomes that directly resulted from his initial decision to step onto a wrestling mat.
After graduating from High School, Coach Ray felt an obligation to give back to others, as others had done for him. “I want to be the coach who inspires kids to reach their full potential,” says Coach Ray. To that end, he coached wrestling at his former high school as the Assistant Coach for 4 years and as the Head Coach for 6. During that time, teaching wrestling important, but secondary to teaching wrestlers the life skills which had helped him tremendously – how to be humble, to plan, to set goals, work hard and make better decisions. “In wrestling,” Coach Ray says, “we try to give kids the freedom to make decisions, while simultaneously helping to them to think about the effects and consequences of their decision(s) before they make them. Only a sport thought of as “a physical game of chess,” can do this so well.”
Coach Ray is extremely proud that within his program, kids who were already young fathers learned to better prioritize their lives, kids who were gang-affiliated, learned to question the decisions they made before making them, kids who came from homes where they were the provider for their younger siblings, learned how to better manage their time. Multiple All-State wrestlers were produced, and many of his wrestlers while in Saginaw turned into collegiate athletes and ultimately into productive citizens.
Coach Ray moved to Warren in 2016 and found Beat the Streets Detroit. He is thrilled to serve the same type of children he was involved with back at his home in Saginaw. Coach Ray says that “wrestling is a ladder for success in life, and I want to teach kids to climb it!”
Will Rewitzer, Warren Lincoln
Rich Sivak, Voyageur Academy
Coach Rich started wrestling in 8th grade for DeWitt’s MyWay team and quickly fell in love with the sport of wrestling, regularly splitting time between practices at Bath and DeWitt. He is a 2017 graduate from Central Michigan University where he served as an assistant Track and Field and Cross-Country coach at Shepherd Middle School during 3 of his 4 college years. Before that, coach Rich was a 2013 graduate from Bath High School and wrestled on the combined Bath/Laingsburg and Bath/Lansing Catholic Wrestling Teams. He placed 2nd in the CMAC 2 of his 4 years. Coach Leesivak posted an overall record of 81 wins and 69 losses.
Support BTS Detroit.
Beat the Streets Detroit exists to positively affect the lives of Detroit area youth through the sport of wrestling. All of our comprehensive services are made possible through generous donations and partnerships with individuals, charitable foundations and companies who want to make a great impact within Detroit. By investing in Beat the Streets Detroit, you invest in the future of this great city. We are currently in several Detroit area neighborhoods supporting over 150 students.