DISTRICT I & XII Report
November 2015
by Glenn Kaiser
Boyertown, Council Rock South, and Pennridge are gearing up to do battle in a rugged District One. Spring-Ford, Downingtown East, and Owen J Roberts look to keep pace in 2015-16. While all eyes will certainly be on individuals looking to get to Hershey in March, the locals will be following their teams as they take to the mats this winter. While some big names will be in the limelight, it is often the young guns and wrestlers who breakout during the season that enable the elite teams to shine through out the dual season and team duals. Some of District One’s elite wrestler’s hail from the best teams in District I, Jordan Wood (Boyertown), Jakob Campbell (Boyertown), Zack Trampe (CR South), Pennridge’s Matt Parker & Kyle Gentile, and Wade Cummings (Downingtown East) will all look for individual gold in Chocolate Town, USA.
Boyertown returns 5 state medalists, and they will certainly be in the team title hunt at the Giant Center in 2016. Joining state champion, Jordan Wood for the Bears will be Jakob Campbell (3rd in 2015), Lucas Miller (5th), Gregg Harvey (6th), and heavy Tommy Killoran (6th). It will be very difficult for any team in D1 to topple Boyertown, as the Bears look to repeat as D1 (AAA) Team Champions. While the PAC 10 remains very strong, the Suburban One League teams will be well represented with the likes of Aiden Burke, CR North (4th in 2015), Neshaminy’s Bruce Graeber (5th) join Trampe (2nd), Parker (5th), and Gentile (5th) as D1’s other returning state medalists. The Ches-Mont league is led by 4th place finisher Wade Cummings who looks to cap his Senior campaign atop the podium at the PIAA State Championships.
Pennridge also returns light weight stand-outs, senior Kordell Rush and Micah Visuwan who had a breakout year as a freshmen last season posting 26 wins as a state qualifier. The Rams Josh Stillings also qualified as a freshmen, and will most likely move up in weight classification in 2015-16. Thus, the Rams should also be in contention as a team in March in Hershey. Council Rock South will have to keep pace with the Rams and Bears with Trampe leading the way with plenty of support from Ben Radner, Joe Doyle, and SE Regional Champ Dylan Schwartz all who qualified for states a year ago.
West Chester’s Bayard Rustin (Ches-Mont) could make some noise both individually and as a team as they are rugged and experienced with returning state qualifiers Brett Kaliner & Costas Hatzipavlides, along with Daniel Labus who just missed a trip last year finishing 6th at the SE Region. In the SOL Continental Conference Quakertown and North Penn return plenty of talent as well. Quakertown has two returning state qualifiers in Harrison Campbell & Gavin Caroff, along with 6th place regional winner Nick Bonomo. The Panthers always reload with young talent, and with their rugged schedule always seem to peak in the post-season. North Penn also returns two wrestlers who enjoyed some chocolate last year at Hershey Sofiane Bensmail & Colin Shannon, who will be joined by senior, Mikey O’Brien. And let’s not forget about Council Rock North, as they seem to be shadowed by South, but are always in contention with standouts up and down the line-up with Burke and SE Regional Champ Josh Shalinsky. Spring-Ford has quietly positioned themselves as one of D1’s best team’s over the past several years and will battle Boyertown for PAC 10 supremacy with power of their own in state qualifiers Matt Krieble & Steve Rice.
Some other D1 individual stand-outs to keep an eye on are Upper Darby’s Colin Cronin, a regional champ a year ago, Upper Dublin’s Colin Devlin, Owen J’s Xavier Ferrizzi & Ryan Resnick both qualifiers in 2015, Garnet Valley’s Matt Marino & Nick Puliti, Antonio Martuccio from Pennsbury, Methacton’s Bryce Reddington, Phil Stolfi (Souderton), Chase Stephens (Coatesville), Dustin Stone (Truman), Eric Thomas (Interboro), and Pottstown’s Bryant Wise.
District XII returns individual standout Sean Lyons from St. Joe’s Prep. The Philadelphia Catholic League could see some fireworks in the dual season with their final four format for the team title, as long time winner of the league, LaSalle College High School will be challenged by more than just Father Judge this season. Archbishop Wood are much improved, yet still a growing program under Vic Stanley. The league seems to have a somewhat wide-open feel to it this year. The Public Schools in Philly remain behind when it comes to D12 contention, but teams continue to grow and improve with the support of the “Beat the Streets” program who is a city wide support for wrestling.
An often forgotten league and division of Pennsylvania wrestling is the Patriot League and the Private School Division (PAISSA). Germantown Academy, Malvern Prep, and the Haverford School continue to be strong teams at Preps. Long time Germantown Academy Coach Steve Hill has retired from coaching, he will be replaced by interim head coach Zach Doll.
With all the talk of increasing classifications in the PIAA for all sports, including wrestling, here are a few thoughts from this old coach. Two classifications for wrestling has been a tradition, and has worked well for the PIAA over the years. Expanding the state brackets was big change last year, and caused some logistical issues, but all in all good for wrestling. It did not water down the competition, it just made it a bigger tournament. The PIAA will make adjustments to make the PIAA Championships a bit more fan friendly, and accommodate coaches and wrestlers needs for proper preparation for a great tournament. The addition of classifications will certainly water things down a bit, and make the days longer for all. The system is not broke, so don’t fix it. My suggestion here is to have the state champs from AA and AAA strap on the head gear one more time Sunday morning and decide a true Pennsylvania State Champion at each weight, no weigh-in, let the fans have one more match not another two tournaments, same goes for the team dual title, have the AA and AAA battle it out on the center mat at the Giant Center.
Good luck to all the PA Coaches and Wrestlers this coming season, and to the fans I say get out and support the sport by cheering on the greatest wrestlers in the land. See you on the mat…
- Log in to post comments
