Shamar Bailey – Board Member

Born and raised on the east coast, Shamar Bailey moved to Indiana during his high school years. Among all the sports he played, he chose to pursue wrestling the hardest. His senior year he achieved a record of 37-2, but falling short of his goal to become a state champion motivated him to wrestle at the collegiate level. Despite multiple Division I scholarship offers, he chose to wrestle for Olympic Gold Medalist Ben Peterson at a small NCAA Division III school where he earned his degree in church ministry and became the school’s first NCAA National Championship qualifier.

After returning back to Indiana he became the Assistant Director of Jireh Sports Outreach for nine months before being hired full time as a firefighter for the Indianapolis Fire Department.  During this time, he also began a career as a mixed martial artist. He traveled nationally and internationally for many organizations, which includes being a season 13 contestant on Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter, included the UFC.

In March of 2016, Shamar retired from the Indianapolis Fire Department to accept a position within the United States Department of Justice, which has resulted in his relocation to Chicago

Shamar has a vision for the sport of wrestling not only to survive, but to grow specifically in rural settings. Because wrestling is not readily available on network television, he wants to increase the awareness of the sport by making it more appealing and marketable to the community as a whole, while seeing young men grow up to be leaders. Shamar is currently a volunteer Coach for the Wrestling team at Chicago Hope Academy.