Wrestling offers fairest competition for all participants

Wrestling offers fairest competition for all participants

CARMEL - There are a lot of things you see in wrestling that you don't get in other sports. One of them is middle-school students starting on the varsity.

Oh, every once in a while you get a Michael Coburn playing on the Mount Vernon varsity basketball team as an eighth-grader, or a Brittany Shields doing the same for Haldane. Most of the prodigies, though, are ninth-graders, freshmen, like Mookie Jones on Peekskill's basketball team or Devonte Brailsford on Dobbs Ferry's football team. And still very rare.

On the mats, though, you can't turn in any direction without seeing a seventh- or eighth-grader competing.

The reason is obvious: Weight classes start at 96 pounds.

"Being involved in wrestling for my whole life, the great thing about the sport is, when you have this 96-pound weight class ... it gives young kids, young, small athletes, the opportunity to compete at a high level," Mahopac coach Sal Imbimbo said. "Because at 96 pounds or 103 pounds, you're not playing varsity football as a ninth-grader or eighth-grader; you're not playing varsity lacrosse or varsity basketball. You might not even be playing varsity soccer. In wrestling, you can be small, be a good little athlete, and you can be participating in a very grueling, tough sport. That's why I think it's a great sport for young men."

Ardsley's Penn Gottfried won a Section 1 title as an eighth-grader, as a varsity rookie, last season. Yesterday, in the Super 16 at Carmel High, Gottfried lost the 103-pound championship match to sophomore Mike Rose of Carmel.

He said that competing as an eighth-grader can be a bit overwhelming.

"A little," Gottfried said, "because you don't know, like, what's happening or where things are. My first year, I didn't know certain things about wrestling at all. Through the year, you learn more and keep getting better.

"You learn so much more. There's so much more that you can't learn from the coach, that you can only learn from experience."

Starting so young helps create the many wrestlers who go on to win multiple Section 1 championships and break records for number of victories.

Former Carmel star Pat McCabe came to the mind of coach Bill Twardy yesterday. McCabe started as an eighth-grader, won three Section 1 titles, and had more victories than any wrestler Twardy has ever coached. Fox Lane coach Joe Amuso immediately thought of Joe Amuso Jr., who won Section 1 titles in 1986, '87 and '88. Twardy also pointed to his assistant, Seth Harrison, who started as a seventh-grader (at 119 pounds) and reached the pinnacle as a senior with a Section 1 title (at 145) in 1997. He missed his freshman year because of a hernia operation, and still had five years of varsity experience.

"I was overwhelmed (as a seventh-grader)," Harrison recalled yesterday. "I got my butt kicked. But that's the only way to learn. You've got to get in there and get dirty, get your hands dirty. You learn by doing."

Wrestling may be the toughest of sports, because you're alone.

Or, as one White Plains wrestler's T-shirt read:

"No timeouts, no substitutions, no place to hide, no one to blame, no excuses."

There are many lessons to be learned.

"It teaches you a lot of things in a lot of different areas," Harrison said. "Discipline, self-esteem, accountability, hard work, and a lot of different things."

While experience is an invaluable commodity, the playing field is level. Seventh- and eighth-graders have to pass strict state physical and strength exams before they get the OK to wrestle on the varsity, Sleepy Hollow coach Brian Tompkins pointed out.

"The way I see it is, this is the fairest sport of them all," Twardy said. "No wrestler will ever go against a guy who weighs significantly more than he is. You'll never get a mismatch as you will in other sports.

"What I have seen in our section is now we have kids' programs all the way to second grade, so kids of all weights seem to be moving right up and improving. Years ago when I wrestled, kids didn't start until ninth grade. Nowadays, if you don't start until ninth grade, you're way behind the eight ball."

Likewise, not all young kids come up in the lower weight classes, and it's a much more difficult road. Success may come much later. But the experience is still beneficial.

"When you come up as a 145- or 150-pounder as an eighth-grader, you're going to run into some experienced guys who are much older than you," Amuso said. "So I think it helps these younger kids get off to a good start."

Fox Lane's Steven Rodrigues, an eighth-grader in his second varsity season, lost yesterday in the 96-pound semifinals to seventh-grader Brian Realbuto of Somers. Realbuto (26-2) lost in the final to ninth-grader Justis Flamio of Mahopac. Rodrigues' eighth-grade teammate, Peter Grippi, lost to Rose in the 103 quarterfinals.

"I was 85 pounds," Rodrigues said of his seventh-grade season, when he went 20-12. "I had to drink like 3 pounds of water to make weight. It was tough.

"Yeah, it kind of is overwhelming. You wrestle kids that are five years older than you, and they're bigger and have more experience. I know what I'm doing, but it's hard because other kids are physically bigger than me. I think this will pay off because the experience of wrestling varsity is huge."

Flamio, who finished fourth in the sectionals as an eighth-grader, said, "Right now I feel more like an upperclassman because I have so much experience from last year."

When the official raised Flamio's hand, signifying his championship, he was alone. No place to hide. And it made no difference what grade he is in.

Reach Rick Carpiniello at rcarpini@lohud.com and read his blog at www.lohud.com/blogs.