SODA SPRINGS — What do wrestling, basketball and rugby have in common? Most have to agree, absolutely nothing, except all are sports.

But what do you get when you combine these games?

Wrestleball!

Wrestleball was first developed in Russia roughly 30 years ago by Russian wrestlers. Wrestlers would evolve this sport in such a way to prepare for matches. In 2003, wrestleball was officially recognized as a sport and has since caught the attention and hype in places such as Holland, France, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia and most recently our very own Soda Springs, Idaho.

Soda Springs High School wrestling coach Cliff Garbett had heard of the sport and thought it would be a unique fundraiser to help his daughter, Chloe Garbett, reach her goal of getting to Africa this summer. Chloe, a Soda Springs High School senior, remembers a family friend from Twin Falls who would babysit and share her experiences of going to Africa on service missions. Since that very young age, Chloe has had a childhood dream of getting to serve a mission of her own.

“There is so much good to learn and give from such an experience,” Chloe said. “We grow up with everything and many have such a hard time being grateful. Yet they have so little (in Africa) and are beyond grateful for the simplest of things. I will be building classrooms to give kids a better learning environment and can’t wait to help give whatever I can.”

Chloe has had the daunting task of raising almost $5,000 to cover her cost to go on the mission. She’s worked hard saving all her extra income and with the help of a few local fundraisers, she will make the goal of paying her own way.

Cliff regrets that last week’s wrestleball fundraiser at Soda Springs High School was a last minute idea, but is grateful for the positive community response.

“I realize if we had the idea sooner the turnout would have been much better, but it was a great night enjoying something completely new,” he said. “Those who came to support Chloe were absolutely incredible and we are so appreciative of how awesome this community is. Many businesses, students, family, friends and my wrestling coaching staff jumped in to bake goods for concessions, take admission fees, play the game, ref the game, run scoreboards and most of all, watch and share a fun evening with us.”

If you had driven by the school that night, saw a bunch of cars and wandered in to see what was going on, there is no doubt your first thought would have been, ‘What is this mass chaos?’

There were wrestling mats covering the basketball court with two teams of six each running a basketball like a football with players wrestling each other in the midst of what seemed to be a basketball game without dribbling. Full on tackling and clipping were considered fair play.

Still Cliff said he knew the Russian rules of wrestleball would have to be altered to ensure extra safety for the Soda Springs High School student players. The rules of scoring were two points for a takedown and two points per basket.

The “wrestle” part of the game stated, “If a player ran through the small center mat circle, it was an automatic wrestling face off until a takedown was achieved.”

The basketball part included shooting and layups as usual, but with a no dribbling rule and a no traditional foul rule. No hits from the back were allowed and no body slamming, but most anything else was acceptable.

Members of the Soda Springs High School basketball and wrestling teams volunteered their time and efforts to help Chloe achieve her goal. The wrestlers and basketball players were divided evenly between the two wrestleball teams, playing 8 minute quarters. Halftime included drawing raffle tickets with the winners getting to compete in a wrestling dual, which included students, parents and coaches. It was apparent many were more than willing to participate and join the fun.

Cliff took the opportunity to lower the basket to nine feet to make for extra dunking opportunities for all the players, which included recently crowned three-time state wrestling champion, Tucker Bowen, who’s 5-feet-7-inches tall.

Bowen got a few opportunities to dunk the basketball and watch the crowd go crazy. The wrestlers showed up to play ball, but the basketball players shined on the mat as well.

Chloe said she was a bit skeptical of the wrestleball idea when her dad brought it up. But she admits it was a great success.

“It ended up being a great turnout and a ton of fun. I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone willing to show up and support me, especially the boys providing some impressively good entertainment,” she said. “To my parents, I can’t thank them enough for helping me through all of this. I definitely couldn’t have done it without them.”

Cliff threw out the idea at the end of the evening, asking if the community would be involved if they decided to make this an annual fundraiser event for the high school basketball and wrestling teams at the end of their seasons. The crowd and players confirmed this was a hit.

So if you happened to miss the excitement, have no fear, it will be back next year.