Warrensburg School Resource Officer adds student arm wrestling club

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Besides keeping students and staff safe at Warrensburg Central School, Resource Officer [SRO] Matt Fish forges connections with kids one arm wrestling match at a time.

In fall 2023, when Officer Fish was just starting out as the district’s first SRO, he launched a school arm wrestling club that was eventually sanctioned by the school board the following spring.

Office Fish says it’s the first such sanctioned arm wrestling club in the state.

He said the club helps him build relationships with students that creates a foundation for addressing bigger issues.

“It’s been a great way for me to start conversations with students, and it’s been a great way for students to start conversations with each other, or even with parents and family at their own residences,” Officer Fish says.

The club meets after school in the high school weight room.

Coaching it has been “such an incredible tool for me to just humanize the aspect of wearing the uniform and become part of the actual school family, and not just be seen as the cop pulling up in the squad car,” says Office Fish.

Hannah Hurley, the school’s public information specialist, said, “The club is so beneficial to him as an SRO and being a trusted person at the school.

“And also, the kids have a blast. You see them walk down the hall and they’re all waving at him and want to say hi, and they trust him with their problems.

“To have the students come in not knowing much about the sport and step out feeling really confident in themselves and also have a new hobby that they’re doing in their free time has been a really positive addition to the district,” she said.

Club members come from grades 7-12. In year-one about two dozen signed up. By the second year, it was three dozen.

Demand was so high that Officer Fish scheduled different age groups on different days. “We had so many kids at the start of the 2024 school year that I was meeting with students basically Monday through Friday.

“Kids are constantly wanting to see who’s the best on the right arm, who’s the best on the left arm, who’s the best at super heavyweight, who’s our best lightweight.”

Both boys and girls partake, even against each other.

“We end up having girls arm wrestle guys all the time,” Officer Fish says. “And to be honest with you, there’s a handful of girls who smoke the guys. They are incredibly powerful young ladies, and they shock a lot of their boy classmates when they incorporate a little technique and a little style into how they pull.”

Officer Fish says, “The dream is that we can grow this sport big enough that we get other school districts that say ‘we want a program like this.’”

Officer Fish is a North Warren and Adirondack Community College grad who was a Warren County Sheriff Patrol Officer for 12 years. He got into arm wrestling after sustaining a back injury in his early 30s while powerlifting.

“I was seeking another outlet for my athletic drive,” he said.

His brother put him in touch with a professional arm wrestler he knew.

“I lost every time I put my elbow down on a table for about two years,” Officer Fish says.

“It just created a drive in me to want to learn more, understand more, and the greater the passion grew the more I wanted to share that with other people.”

He helped start one of upstate New York’s largest adult arm wrestling clubs, Upstate Arm Force, based in Mayfield.

In 2023, the year he turned pro, he was heavyweight champion of the East vs. West New England Arm Wrestling competition, qualifying for nationals.

Officer Fish’s passion for the sport is catching on with the kids. “We are starting to see more kids become actual fans of the sport, where they’re coming in and talking with me about pay-per-view events that occurred the night before or over the weekend,” he said.

In February, the club scored VIP backstage passes to a professional arm wrestling event in New Jersey, with a half dozen club members getting to interact with pros from around the world.

In the summers Officer Fish works as an overnight patrol officer for the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, but still finds time to coach a handful of kids from the club “that have fallen in love with the sport as I have,” he said.

So far the kids have practiced on Officer Fish’s personal table that he brought in. But he says the club is looking to do some fundraising this year to get a table with a Warrensburg logo, and some gym equipment for kids to train on.

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