East Lyme — Coach TJ MarcAurele calls two young wrestlers to the middle of a mat and asks them to demonstrate "the high C" at a Thursday night practice at his gym in the basement of a strip mall off Route 161.

As about 30 other youngsters sit and watch, MarcAurele, still legendary in southeastern Connecticut 25 years after his storied wrestling career at NFA and Ledyard High ended, the now 41-year-old breaks down the form of the two boys, pointing out their errors, and demonstrating the correct way the high-crotch takedown is done with another youngster.

They do it again and again. The two boys try the high C, MarcAurele critiques their form, and then he shows them how to do it correctly. Over. And over. And over again.

On the sidelines of the cavernous, dank cellar, where parents are watching the practice, father Robert Judd, who has two sons and a daughter in the wrestling program, explains what MarcAurele is doing.

"He breaks down every move. He's very technical. And that's what makes these kids better," said Judd, who travels with his wife, Jessica, and children Lucas, Brandon and Alyssa, twice each week from their home in Lebanon to visit MarcAurele's gym in the basement of a karate studio in the Midway Plaza.

For 11 years, MarcAurele has been training exceptional wrestlers and gaining accolades and trophies at competitions in New England and beyond. But the wrestlers he's trained, and their parents, say it's not just elite athletes, but exceptional young adults, that MarcAurele is producing.

"Meeting TJ was a life-changing experience for my son. It gave him the tools to make him who he is today," said Nicole Bellamy of Bozrah.

Isaiah Bellamy, a sophomore at Wesleyan University, where he is studying economics and sociology, is on a full scholarship for academics and wrestling. He also went four years to the private Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass., where tuition is just slightly less than Wesleyan at $58,000 a year, after making a connection with a Lawrence coach while wrestling for MarcAurele.

"It happens with a lot of MarcAurele wrestlers," said Isaiah Bellamy. "We kind of stand out in tournaments because of how we are coached. You can see the work ethic. And other coaches just know."

But what those other coaches may not know, but is common knowledge within the MarcAurele wrestling family, is that a good number of youngsters wrestle free for the coach who won the Greco-Roman World Championship in 1989, and who was a four-time class champion, and four time state open champion, when he wrestled in high school from 1989 to 1992. His overall high school record was 171-1, his only loss in the New England championship in his junior year, when he checked himself out of a hospital to compete.

When MarcAurele opened his East Lyme gym more than a decade ago, he did it to help his son, Devon, now 19 and a sophomore at Western New England University where he is studying electrical engineering, to hone his skills. But along the way, he invited other youngsters, like Isaiah Bellamy, to join them and, in many cases, waived their fees.

"If TJ hadn't let me come to his gym for so long for free, it wouldn't have happened," said Bellamy, of his opportunities at Lawrence Academy and Wesleyan University.

"He absolutely would not have been able to go to these schools without the club and TJ," Nicole Bellamy said of her son. "By no way are we living in poverty, but those schools cost more than I make in a year."

Now, MarcAurele is moving forward to make his gym a nonprofit. Once the status is achieved and a board is in place to direct operations, he's hoping he will be able to help even more youngsters without the financial wherewithal to participate, train, compete and find opportunities.

"I'm giving up the club. I'm giving up the business I've built for 11 years, but I've done very well in life, and I believe in karma," he said. "I'll help anybody and I only ask one thing. I tell them, you come down here and you work hard, you work your butt off."

Serinol Lowman of Groton, whose 11-year-old son, J'Mari, is prospering at MarcAurele Wrestling, said many families, including his, have been helped by MarcAurele.

Two years ago Lowman said he went to the coach to tell him he was ill and that money was tight, and he was going to have to pull J'Mari from the program.

"This made him very angry," Lowman recalled. "He said to me, 'If you think that I am in this for the money, you are sadly mistaken. I am here for the children. Look what wrestling has done for him. Do you think that I would allow your inability to pay to hinder his progress to becoming a productive citizen? You, sir, have got the wrong person.' "

"This blew my mind!" said Lowman.

But soon, Lowman found out he wasn't the only one MarcAurele was helping. When another family was facing tough times, the coach didn't just stop charging them, he also paid the family's mortgage.

And for years he's been covering some of the cost of competition entrance fees, hotel rooms, meals and transportation.

"It's all about the kids," said MarcAurele. "Everybody deserves an opportunity and just because your mom or dad don't have the money — you're not gonna be able to have an opportunity — that's just not right."

 If a kid can wrestle, the coach said, everything else in life is easy.

"It's all about desire, determination and believing. If you believe you're going to be the best, you will be best," he said. "When I look back now, back in my day, I believed I was Superman. I didn't believe anybody could beat me. And some of the guys I wrestled were way stronger. They were way better than me. But I won, because I had the heart. I believed."

That drive and determination is just as important outside the gym, as a citizen, and in the classroom, as a student, as it is on the mat, preaches MarcAurele.

He requires his wrestlers to work hard in the classroom, and has opened a homework center at the gym. Some youngsters arrive an hour before the Tuesday and Thursday night practices to finish homework, or get help.

Jessica Judd is a public school teacher in Norwich and offers her time with any youngster looking for help. On a recent Thursday, she helped her own children and offered support to other youngsters in the room.

Tom Bradley from Clinton was at the gym with two of his sons, Lewis, 12, and Joseph, 15. Another son, Nicholas, 17, is a junior at the private Choate Rosemary Hall school in Wallingford, on a full scholarship, a result of hard work at MarcAurele.

"Wrestling opened up the opportunity at Choate," said Bradley. "It's just the intensity of the sport, and the discipline. Look at what it takes to get to that level, and the conditioning. All of that helped."

Other parents said their children are getting better grades, are better behaved, and happier, since they started wrestling.

For J'Mari Lowman, his father said his son's self-confidence has blossomed, and he's viewed as a classroom leader and go-to person when it comes to solving problems among his peers. And his reading ability, which lagged two grades behind when he started the sport, has soared.

"Through wrestling, he's found a sense of self-worth, discipline, and he strives to be the best at anything he's challenged with," said his father.

Another parent and volunteer coach, James Keyton, agrees.

His son, Naaji Powell-Keyton, 12, is the young wrestler that MarcAurele called upon to help correctly demonstrate the high C.    

"It's more than wrestling at MarcAurele," said Keyton. "We teach life lessons. If someone has a kid that needs direction, or discipline, or needs structure or to learn how to set goals, wrestling, this program, well, it's just awesome."

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli