Wrestling
Favorite athlete: Bekhruz Sadridinov
Favorite team: New York Giants
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning District Duals
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My mom being the loudest person in the gym.
Music on playlist: Country and Rap
Future plans: Wrestle in college and major in finance
Words to live by: “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”
One goal before turning 30: I want to have a good job that I enjoy.
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to enjoy the outdoors.
By GORDON GLANTZ
The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
That advice, best-known from the movie “A Bronx Tale,” is hard to deny and is certainly applicable.
Conversely, making the most of your abilities can be equally gratifying.
Such is the case with Council Rock South’s Luke Reitter, a 121-pound grappler with big dreams for his senior season with the Golden Hawks.
“My goal is to place in the Top 5 in the state,” said Reitter. “With the way I’ve been looking this season, there is no way I shouldn’t be able to do that. I’m excited for the postseason. As a team, right now we are ranked No. 1, and that’s what we are going for.”
Although he began wrestling at the ripe age of 4 for the CRWA (Council Rock Wrestling Association), it would have been hard to conceive of Reitter being where he is today.
“I always joke around with him and his family,” said Council Rock South coach Trey Balasco, who is in his first year as head coach but was a longtime assistant who has known Reitter through the youth program as well. “He is probably one of the most non-athletic kids that I have ever coached.
“It’s actually been cool to see. You can say this about a lot of kids, but he is truly like that dream kid you would want to have on your team and to represent Council Rock South.”
So how has that been possible?
“He is a sheer product of having his nose to the grindstone and doing everything right. He never misses practice,” said Balasco. “He takes care of all his grades and schoolwork. He is always the first person there to help out.
“He’s not naturally gifted. He had to work hard to get everything to get where he is at. If you put him up against some of our all-time greats, in terms of hard work, he is right up there with them. He is always putting the work in and all about doing things the right way.”
In practical terms, what does that look like? It means living and breathing the sport – 24/7, 365 days a year.
“He has put in his time," Bolasco said. "There are very few weekends throughout the year where he is not competing in wrestling. He has definitely taken it very seriously with trying to achieve his goals and working year-round at it, that’s for sure.”
The Ah-Ha Moment
Reitter is the first to admit he was not much of an opponent in his early years, and he knows why.
There is a strong sense of self.
“I feel like I’m not the most athletic kid,” he confessed. “I got good from just hard work.”
Then, as it often does for athletes, something just clicked for him.
“I never really got good at it until I was in like 8th grade,” said Reitter, who wanted to also credit youth coaches Mike Rappo and Chuckie Connor and wrestling partner Antony Mutarelli for his steady rise. “That was when I really started to put a lot of time into the sport.
“It was really when I got more into strength training. The amount of hours I put into practice really changed a lot in middle school. I started taking the sport seriously.”
While he got to wrestle as a freshman at 106 pounds, COVID cast a bit of pall over the season.
“COVID definitely made it different,” Reitter reflected. “We were wrestling with masks on. We only got a 25-match season, as opposed to a 50-match season. It definitely hurt, not getting all the experience that a normal freshman would, I still say our coaches did the best they could with it. We still had good practice partners and made the best out of the room.”
Reitter was able to reach regionals as a freshman and used that as a springboard into his sophomore year, which brought more individual and team success.
“I knew I would be varsity all four years, but I didn’t expect to have the career that I have had. Getting a state medal my sophomore year really boosted my confidence,” said Reitter. “I got into CrossFit training. I was at 113 (pounds) for the first half of the year, and I had a decent season. For the postseason, I cut it down to 106 and I placed No. 8 in the state. That was a great feeling. As a team, we were really solid. We won districts. We were one of the top teams in the state.”
Adversity Arrives
Reitter was revved up for his junior year, hoping to continue his progression, but the meniscus in his right knee had other ideas. A full tear kept him out from November until mid-January.
While he still overcame the injury in a remarkable amount of time and made it to states and even won two matches there, he fell short of medaling.
Not the type to make excuses, Reitter could not help but wonder what would have been had it not been for the injury.
“I was definitely not the same,” he confessed. “It was hard to come back from that.
“It was a tough injury. I had to build strength back in my knee. It was uncomfortable. I had to get used to wearing a knee brace. I just had to figure a way around it, and the coaching staff helped me a lot with that.”
That brings us back into the present, where Reitter likes to live. He is up to 121 pounds and ready to chase his dreams before parlaying his 3.8 GPA into a goal of wrestling in college at the Division III level.
“Right now, I believe he is sitting in that eighth spot in the state rankings,” said Balasco. “But, between 4-8, they are all one-point matches. His seniority, his worth ethic, his wrestling IQ and awareness put him in a position where he can hang with any of them. He can beat them all. I know his goal is to get as high as he can on the podium at states.”
Stepping In, Stepping Up
Reitter, the son of Matt and Jennine Reitter, has never forgotten his roots, giving back to the youth program where it all began for him.
“I definitely like giving time back to the program because that is the future of South Wrestling, “ he said.
To Balasco, it is all part of a larger picture for a self-made wrestler who does not get the same notoriety as some of his fellow Golden Hawks (8 seniors among the 13 starters, and 8-9 legitimate state contenders).
“They all feed off of each other,” said Balasco. “For the younger kids, in and out of the program, he is definitely a leader. That is from spending time in youth club. He is always leading, one way or another.
“We do a lot of helping out with our youth club. We do a lot of offseason wrestling stuff. He never blinks an eye. He is a product of his parents. He is always ready to jump in and help out. It’s pretty cool.”
