Bound Brook Wrestling: 2008-09 Recap

CRUSADERS SNEAK IN WINNING SEASON IN FRANEY’S FIRST SEASON

CAMPOLATTANO WINS SECOND STATE TITLE AND TAFFUR PLACES FOURTH IN STATE

2008-09 Team Record (16-14) 

During the lead-up to the 2007-08 season the Bound Brook Crusader wrestlers had a tough break when Kyle Doerr was lost to a knee injury. Well,  the lead-up 2008-09 season was deju vu all over again as the Crusaders again began the season short handed when Kyle reinjured his knee and it was learned that State Qualifier Gabe Gleason would be competing on broken hip. Was this an omen that Coach Kyle Franey’s first season as Bound Brook’s head coach would be like last season? Well yes, but unlike the popular 70’s movie not all omens are bad and the 2008-09 Crusader wrestling continued some very positive trends this season such as:

-The team sweeping the year end quad to finish the season with a winning record.

-The team having at least one region champ for the 10^th time in eleven years.

-The team having a State finalist for the 8^th time in the last ten years.

-The team having at least one State place-winner for the eleventh year in a row.

-Placing in the top five in the County for the 13^th straight year, with eleven of those years being a top three finish.

-The team placing in the top three of the District for 12^th time in 13 years.

As in the past three years, the Crusaders started their season in scenic Dagsboro, Delaware at the Battle of the Beach wrestling tournament and although the team only placed 6^th out of the 21 teams competing, they did have three outstanding performances as Gabe Gleason, Nestor Taffur and Andrew Campolattano all won individual titles.  Camp was further recognized as the Outstanding Wrestler as he dismantled a Pennsylvania State place-winner in his final. It was the third time in the four years of the tournament that a Bound Brook wrestler was named most outstanding.

A few days later the Crusaders started their dual meet season on a exciting note by defeating Voorhees, with the highlight being senior Gabe Gleason becoming the Crusader’s fourth 100 win wrestler. A feat Nestor Taffur would match later in the season.

Unfortunately, the dual meet season became a bit rough after that as the Crusaders were missing six of their eventual starters and struggled to stay competitive and consistent. In a quad after Christmas the Crusaders showed these vulnerabilities as they lost all three matches, including a criteria lost to Nottingham on most falls/forfeits.

Next, the Crusaders took their annual trip to the Whitehall Duals in Pennsylvania with low expectations. However, the team wrestled more consistently and competitively then the week before and ended 2-2 on the day with wins against Milton and Bangor, while losing a heartbreaker to Elizabethtown and a competitive match against Northwestern Lehigh.

After that point, the Crusaders had a great break as two seasoned wrestlers from the youth program Ricky Ash and Frank Gianotti joined the team. Although both took time to get up to full speed they both contributed to the team’s success in a huge way. Right of the bat, they helped the Crusaders stay competitive against Montgomery in a 39-37 home loss.

Next up the Crusaders went to Madison for a tri-meet against the host and Westfield high school and although the coaches hoped to win both matches it was a 50/50 day. In other words, we only showed up for 50% of the matches that day. Against Madison, Ben Bentavegna delivered a match ending pin to deliver a close victory for the Brook, but then the team was just plain non-competitive against a undefeated Westfield team. The only highlights of the Westfield match was Nestor Taffur’s 100^th win by fall and some darn good pizza supplied by our host Madison High School.

After a record padding victory against Johnson Regional where Frank Gianotti boarded the winner’s train for the first time with a pin, the Crusaders hosted their biggest rival Somerville. And well you know what happened… We got killed again, as the match was a nightmare and Gabe Gleason was lost to sickness. It was at this point the coaches wondered: “Where do we go from here?”

Well the answer to that question would be Hillsborough High School and the Somerset County Wrestling Tournament, which the coaches did not look forward too as Gleason was out indefinitely and our heavyweight quit. But you know tough times sometimes get student athletes to give a little extra and the Crusaders did that in the County tournament placing ahead of Somerville and right behind Montgomery in fourth place. The winners were highlighted by senior Henry Shapiro who won his first County title, while Nestor Taffur won his third title and Campolattano his second. But two other valuable performances were offered by Ricky Ash who placed third and Kenny Taffur took fourth as our new and improved heavyweight starter.

The next week the Crusaders faced their other rival Middlesex and State powerhouse South Plainfield and were again missing four starters. But against Middlesex the Crusaders wrestled well as Ken Taffur and Ricky Ash continued their winning ways. Frank Gianotti gave his all in a loss to a good Middlesex opponent and the Crusaders held on for the victory against their rival to extend their winning streak against Middlesex to fifteen years straight.

Unfortunately, the Brook seemed to lay down against a tough South Plainfield squad and only Nestor Taffur and Camp were winners. The highlight was Nestor defeating South Plainfield State place winner Nick Vallone up a weight at 152 and then being called a scumbag with no one of authority seeming to mind.

After this point the Crusaders started to see some starters re-enter the line-up but it didn’t seem to matter as the Crusaders lost one-sided matches to their divisional opponents Del Val, North Warren and Hackettstown. In each match there might have been one highlight against a sea of misery. But the real highlight was the food offered by Bound Brook’s wrestling parents at the concession stand which included empanadas, ziti and sloppy joe.  Delicious yes, but not what you want to consider the highlight of a day on the wrestling mats.

 The Crusaders now had a miserable 7-12 record, but a line-up that should be coming together, and finally that started to happen with three conference wins against Manville, North Plainfield and Bernards. Then the Crusaders faced the eventual Group 4 State Champions Brick Memorial and lost by a respectable 42-33 score.

Although the Crusaders did not lose to a group I school all season, the quality of their schedule prevented them from qualifying for the State Playoffs, so instead they scheduled six matches the last week of the season and really started to show improvement.

First up was Bergenfield, who brought an impressive 215 wrestler for Camp  to tangle with and the Crusaders won on all fronts as they won the match and Camp gutted out tough 5-3 win.

Then after the only poor outing of the week which was a lackadaisical loss to Sayreville, the Crusaders defeated Pascack Hills. The highlights of that match included a major decision of a Region Champ by Nestor Taffur.

Finally, the regular season ended with a quad against host Toms River North, Shore Regional and Manchester Township. The Crusaders for the first time all season stayed competitive in all three matches and Gary Sensasoupha delivered a match ending victory to help the Crusaders upset TR-North who was the 7^th ranked team in the vaunted Shore area.

With that victory the Crusaders finished the season with 16-14 record and although there was a lot of discouraging moments for Coach Franey in his first season, it felt good to go back to his old conference and wrestle tough.

But Bound Brook’s ability to peak for the post-season has been common-place the last ten years, and this season proved no different as the Crusaders kept things rolling as they entered the District 18 Tournament as the team placed 2^nd behind Hillsborough and ahead of Montgomery and had the most individual Champions lead by Ricky Ash. That’s right, the kid who placed third in the County continued to improve and won the title out of the third seed as he used his own unique brand of wrestling which basically consists of throws and funk and which make him exciting to watch.

And although Gleason and Campolattano looked great in victory, the best finals performance was offered by Nestor Taffur who redeemed himself after 365 days of agony and beat New Jersey State place winner Colin Hewitt by a 5-3 score and earning the Outstanding Wrestler Award. Other placewinners included runner-up Ken Taffur,  third place finishes by Henry Shapir and Oleem O’Garro and a fourth place finish by Ben Bentavegna.

            Seven Crusaders moved on to the Region 5 tournament, but only three would make it out successfully as Andrew Campolattano won his second title, Nestor Taffur again defeated  Hewitt for his first Region title, and Gleason placed third for the second consecutive year to qualify for the State tournament in Atlantic City.         

       At the State tournament the first night saw the elimination of Gleason, but Taffur and Campolattano moved on in convincing fashion, as Taffur scored a major decision against Ethan Orr of High Point and Camp pinned Evan Dill of Watchung Hills in a minute.         

          On Saturday, Taffur let his guard down with 4 seconds left in his quarter final gave up a match tying take down against CJ Cobb of Williamstown, which Cobb then won in overtime. Camp meanwhile tech falled Leon White of St. Augustine to move into the semi-finals. In those semis Camp faced his State final opponent from the year before Jon Becker and controlled the match with 5-0 lead when Becker could not continue. With that Andrew moved to finals and a match with the 2007 189 lbs. State Champion Mac Mancuso.         

          Nestor meanwhile did diligent work in the losers bracket by pinning Frank Crocco of Passaic Valley by 14-3 major decision, pinning Cody Spatz of Burlington Township and then beating Colin Hewitt one last time by a 11-3 score. All these wins gave Nest the right to wrestle for third on Sunday morning. In that match he faced off against Jon Robertson of Long Branch and in what was thought going to be a high scoring match turned into a chess match which Robertson won on a bad shot by Taffur in overtime by a 3-1 score.                 

           Andrew Campolattano meanwhile later that day had a date with history as either he or Mancuso was to become a two-time New Jersey State Champion, and would Camp begin his first two years of high school with a undefeated wrestler. Well although Camp’s top and bottom weren’t his friend in the final, his takedown attack was and he defeated Mancuso to win his second State Championship and to become Bound Brook’s 16^th State Champion and 15^th State place winner in the last ten years.              Not bad, not bad at all! For these accomplishments Andrew was named the Star Ledger Wrestler of the Year.

Wrestler                              Grade       Record     Career

103      George Wohar            9           18-19        18-19

            Michael DeSantis        9          7-22        7-22

112      Stanley Asiegbulem    10          4-4         4-4

119      Gary Senesoupha        11        15-18      22-30 

125      Diego Ovelar               9          0-23       0-23

130      Ricky Ash                   10        20-11      20-11   ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 3rd Somerset County, 1^st District 18  and 1^st Team All County.

135      Gabe Gleason              12        33-3     127-32   (Tied for 4th on BBHS All-Time Wins). ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 1^st  Battle at Beach, 1^st District 18, 3^rd Region 5 and 1^st Team All County.

140      Henry Shapiro             12        31-9      87-64 (14th on All-Time BBHS wins list). ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 3rd Battle at the Beach, 1st Somerset County and 3rd District 18.

             Dominick Vatalare      9           1-9       1-9

145      Nestor Taffur               12        45-3     130-35  (3rd on BBHS All-Times Wins ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 1^st Battle at Beach, 1^st Somerset County, 1^st  District 18, District 18 Outstanding Wrestler, 1st Region 5, 4th State of New Jersey and 1st Team All County).

152      Ben Bentavegna          12        25-14   45-62  ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 8^th Battle at Beach and 4^th District 18.

160      Ghibran Zapata           11        7-26     10-39

            Kyle Doerr                   11        1-0       31-15

171      Frank Gianotti             11        6-18     6-18

189      Andrew Campolattano 10       46-0     89-0 (Tied for 12th on BBHS All-Time Wins)

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 1^st Battle at Beach (O.W.), 1^st Somerset County (O.W.), 1^st District 18, 1^st Region 5, New Jersey State Champion, O.W. of State Tournament and Star Ledger Wrestler of the Year.

215      Oleem O’Garro           12        20-18   37-73 ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 3^rd  District 18.

285      Ken Taffur                  12        15-9     20-28 ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 4^th Somerset County, 2^nd District  and 2nd Team All-County.