It’s an event that started from humble beginnings.

It has since become a premier wrestling destination for both boys and girls.

The annual Coal Cracker has grown into a marquee event, one that is now spread across two weekends — and two schools — for two elite boys and girls tournaments.

“We love it,” said tournament director Tim Robb. “We have three organizations together. Jim Thorpe, where we did the girls tournament last weekend. The Tamaqua people come and run the gym here (at Lehighton’s Elementary Center) and do everything, and obviously the Lehighton people help at the high school.

“Everybody comes together. We’re to the point now where we’ve done it several times. They all know how to go about it. We try to do one more thing every year to just get it a little bit better. It’s fun for us, but it’s a lot of work. And we work really hard to try to make it convenient for everybody.”

This past weekend’s boys tournament pulled in 58 teams from all over Pennsylvania, including elite programs from Florida and Delaware, as well as the No. 1 team in the country, and two-time defending PIAA 2A champion Faith Christian Academy.

The first Coal Cracker took place at Panther Valley in 2011 and featured eight teams.

“There’s teams coming in from all over,” said Robb. “And they come here because it’s good competition. They come here because we have close to 400 JVs. They get to watch them wrestle. They come here because our people try to take care of them.

“I think Lehighton does a great job. Floyd (Brown, Lehighton head coach) and Dan (Heaney, Jim Thorpe head coach) and Jim McCabe (Tamaqua head coach), we work our butts off together. And it’s never, ‘You have to go do that.’ It’s, ‘What can I do? What can I do?’ We’ve all been in good tournaments and bad tournaments. We’ve tried to pick what we wanted and what we like, and we understand what makes it good and bad.”

While the Coal Cracker is unquestionably good on the mat, its biggest impact extends beyond producing high level competition.

“I think the last two years we’ve given away $40,000 in scholarships,” said Robb, who is an assistant at Jim Thorpe and was the longtime head coach at Panther Valley. “The three coaches decide where the scholarships go. And each booster club also really benefits from the tournament. This is one of their main fundraisers. The kids really work hard. The Tamaqua kids came to set the gym up Thursday night, and they’re breaking it down now. The Lehighton kids are doing the same at the high school, and the Jim Thorpe kids ran it (the girls tournament) all last weekend.

“We were close to 1,800 wrestlers in the last two weekends, and that’s great. It is at a high level, and that’s why I think coaches keep coming back, because they like it. We have some outside teams, but we keep all of our local flare. We want Palmerton, and Lehighton, and Jim Thorpe, and Tamaqua, we want all of those teams here. We don’t want to get it to the point where they can’t compete.”

And those teams did. Northwestern’s Luke Fugazzotto placed second at 191 pounds in a rematch of last year’s state final Saturday. Pleasant Valley’s Evan Gillespie (fourth, 217), Andrew Mihalichko (sixth, 287), Palmerton’s Dennis Lombardi (fifth, 175), Derek King (seventh, 154), Jim Thorpe’s Stephen Korte (sixth, 135) and Mahanoy’s Rory Dixon (eighth, 162), who attends Marian and wrestles for Mahanoy through a co-op between the two schools, all landed on the podium at the boys tournament.

A week earlier, Panther Valley’s Brenda Banks captured the 235-pound title at the girls tournament. Pleasant Valley’s Juliette Trout also made the finals at 112 pounds, while the Panthers’ Alisa Williams (third, 170), along with Lehighton’s Lillian Klotz (sixth, 124) and Claudia Pagotto (seventh, 112) and the Bears’ Isabella Altemose (seventh, 170) also medaled.

Each tournament also had separate JV events.

“I just hope that these guys keep coming back,” said Robb. “We have little glitches, but they’re all appreciative of the tournament. I don’t want to make it bigger and better, I’m really happy with where it is. If we lose a team, we go look for a good team. But I don’t want to get to the point where our local kids can’t compete here. We just want to keep it where it’s at, keep it at a high level.

“People have approached me about taking it elsewhere. It won’t benefit these schools then. I want to benefit the Lehighton program, the Jim Thorpe program, the Tamaqua program, and we’re working on trying to help the Panther Valley program. And every wrestler gets a scholarship when they graduate if they’re still wrestling. It goes a long way.”

Each school handles its scholarship program differently, with the amount varying depending on the number of years wrestled. Boys and girls basketball players also receive scholarships, as well as students who helped at the tournament and are involved in clubs.

No matter where teams come from — or how many attend — Robb will never forget where the Coal Cracker started.

Or why it exists.