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Friday, December 16
Sudbury Town Crier Article: 12.16.05
LS Wrestling Starts Fast
Thursday, December 15, 2005
It's our favorite time of year again. Above the grunts and groans and the sweat being shed in the many scholastic wrestling rooms of Massachusetts, the anticipation of banner years for all is blowing in the wind.
In Dual County land the question is, will it be the usual: Wayland, Weston, Lincoln-Sudbury or Concord-Carlisle in first place by the end of the season? Or could it be another program working its way to the top of the pile? Will it be the Hop boys from Hopkinton? The Wolfpack from the city, Boston Latin? Or will the Westford grapplers follow the strides made by the Grey Ghost football program? To quote an ancient greybeard of Resilite Hall, "It's too early to tell."
Once again coach Harry Coffin and his erstwhile righthand men, Brian Quinn and Ryan Boyd, have huge numbers in the room. Over 60 young and not so old alike Warriors have chosen man's oldest sport to paint the strokes on their portraits of high school athletic endeavor.
The perpetual optimist is Coach Coffin, as well he should be. "It should be a fun year," according to Coffin. Coffin knows the L-S program is on a roll and it's only time to reload rather than re-tool.
With only two returning sectional place winners and seven seniors, underclassmen will have to carry the load. The captains this year will be the aforementioned sectional placers, Elliot Gibbs, who placed fourth in the Central, will bend and tilt his way through competition, and is expected to be the 140- pounder and the dynamic Dave Ciampa, who placed seventh last year, will go at either 119 or 125.
Giant junior Jason Orlando, at heavyweight, who blossomed to a robust 235, 6-6 hulk of man, should give shorter heavies a run for their money. Orlando jumped between 189 and 215 last year.
Evan Biller will get the nod at 103 and Biller is a junior, which bodes well for him since 103 pounders are usually freshmen.
Dave Garellik, a ninth grader or Steve Baez, a junior, will share 112.
Expected to give Ciampa a run at 119 will be Ryan Leggett, a ninth grader.
Ryan McCann, a junior, and Will Binder, a sophomore, will work at 125. Getting the call at 130 will be sophomore Jeff McKinnon. At 135, two sophomores, Mike Pace and John Starr will take the mat.
At 145 it will either be Lee Gavin or Adam Lane, who are both seniors.
At 152, Cyrus Elias or Dave Rowe, both sophomores, will be featured.
At 160, Nico Von Stackleberg and Chris Rowe, both juniors, will see mat time. Justin Nicholson will see some strong mat time at 171 and Nicholson is a junior, also. Eric Pennington, another junior will be on the mat at 189.
Both Jesse Smith and Derek Richards, juniors, will get the call at 215.
On a positive note, the youth wrestling program in town gets to see the fruit of his labor this year. Many of former youth grapplers are now competing for varsity spots.
Over the past few years, several L-S wrestlers have gone on to the collegiate ranks to pursue mat burns.
Scott "Bulldog" Wilson is now in his final year of wrestling eligibility at Bridgewater State. And lo and behold, if you check the Bear website, you'd find that Old Scottie is the captain of the wrestling squad. Needless to say, there is a great deal of pride attached to this wondrous achievement emanating from Warriorville. Warriorville coaches, past and present, were well aware of Wilson's tenacity on the mat. Wilson's selection as a leader in the Bear program isn't a surprise, but, indeed, a pleasant understanding of the young man. Way to go, Bulldog!
Toiling also on the mat at D-1 Princeton is sophomore Jared Nicholson. Nicholson is wrestling behind veterans, now. But who knows? It's our feeling Nick will soon be a regular in the Tiger lineup, if not this year, in the ensuing campaigns down in Jersey. Both of these fine young men learned early on in the L-S program wrestlers seem to need to serve apprenticeships. Both have done so and survived.
Joining Wilson at Bridgewater, will be last year's state tournament runnerup, Nick Antico. Matt Lynch is wrestling, according to Coach Coffin, "somewhere in Pennsylvania."
Unfortunately, Jeremy Gentle, down at Gettysburg College, has suffered from an array of concussions and had to give up the sport. Taylor Cruse will be finishing up at Plymouth State this year. Expect Taylor to show up on the coaching map somewhere soon. We believe Taylor's degree will be in the physical arts. Wilson is pursuing a degree in law enforcement and Nicholson recently served an internship in government on his way to a hoped for law degree. May Dan Gable stand by these once and still proud Warriors the rest of their way through life, protecting and relishing in their success. Wouldn't it be justice taken to the sublime if Wilson arrested them and Nicholson tried them?
Friday night last, December 9, the Warriors were supposed to open against Dual County League rival, Westford, but Mother Nature got in the way. Saturday, the 10th, Division 2 rivals North Attleboro and Somerset, along with D-1 St. John of Shrewsbury, paid a visit to Warriorville.
Wednesday, L-S will have wrestled Acton-Boxboro up in Acton. And on Saturday, the Warriors will have traveled up 128 to Wakefield for the annual Lisitano Memorial Tournament at Wakefield High.
On down the line, mark December 23rd with a star as Central Section rival Natick will come calling to Sudbury.
Saturday in Warriorville was an exciting day for fans. A packed house saw some very good high school wrestling. L-S won all three dual matches in a quad meet, beating St. John Shrewsbury, 44-24, squeaked by Somerset 39-34 and laid a slobberknocker on a strong North Attleboro squad 43-29.
Coach Coffin wrestled many grapplers up a weight, a common situation for early in the season. Still the Warriors looked strong up and down the lineup. Leading the charge were VonStackleberg, 160, with three falls, Orlando, L-S's heavyweight with three first-period falls, Jeff McKinnon, at 130 and 135, with two by fall and the third in overtime in the North Attleboro match, Gibbs, at 145, with three wins, two by fall and one major decision, Jesse Smith at 215 with two victories both by fall, McCann with two wins, one by fall and one by major decision, and Ciampa with two wins one a major decision. Nicholson, Mike Pace, Adam Lane, Derek Richards, Jordan Syatt, Cyrus Elias, and Garelik all had singletons for the Warriors.
With good depth the L-S coaching staff will wrestle a lot of grapplers. Since there are so many underclassmen nothing but good is in sight for the future. And after picking off perennial D-2 powers Somerset and North Attleboro and good years from the seniors on the squad, wrestling fans can expect good things this year from Warriorville.
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