Nick Senderling

School: Wissahickon

Wrestling

 

 

Favorite athlete:  Tom Brady

Favorite team:  New England Patriots

Favorite memory competing in sports:  Getting my 100th win

Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports:  One of my teammates did a funny celebration after he won his match.

Music on your mobile device:  Mainly rap & rock

Future plans:  Go to college and major in Finance or Accounting

Words to live by:  “Anything’s possible.”

One goal before turning 30:  To have my own house.

One thing people don’t know about me:  One of my favorite hobbies in the summer is surfing.

 

By Ed Morrone

In his time as the head wrestling coach at Wissahickon High School, Anthony Stagliano has worked with four of the school’s nine wrestlers to reach 100 career wins.

Nick Senderling, Stagliano says, is different than them all.

Senderling has had quite the journey in his wrestling career, which actually didn’t even start at Wissahickon. Senderling spent his freshman season at Archbishop Carroll, but eventually made his way back to Wissahickon and Stagliano for his sophomore campaign.

“I knew he was a Wissahickon kid from middle school and I was looking forward to coaching him,” Stagliano said. “When his parents sent him to Carroll his freshman year, I was a little disappointed. He had a really good freshman year there, and I saw his father that summer and he told me Nick was transferring back to Wissahickon because the commute was too much. It was a real big boost to the program, getting a kid that good. We were a team in need.”

Senderling started wrestling in high school at just 113 pounds. But as he got older, Senderling got bigger and stronger, ascending to wrestle at 138, then 152, then 160 and even times at 170. As he continued to rise in weight, Stagliano noticed something about his pupil: his level of consistency never dipped.

“That’s not easy to do,” the coach said. “Kids who start at a lower weight don’t always seem as good when they go against bigger kids who have always been that size. Whenever Nick jumped weight, he was just as good, if not better than he was before. To be as successful at 138 as 113 - it just doesn’t happen. He’s just one of those rare guys who comes along and has all the things needed to be great.”

Like most kids, Senderling tried his hand at many sports, but from the time he was 6 years old, wrestling was kingpin. By Senderling’s recollection, his father’s best friend was a high school wrestler and suggested to his buddy that he sign Nick up to wrestle for the Lenape Valley Youth Club. It wasn’t necessarily love at first sight.

“I loved practicing, but before my first match at Upper Moreland, I was so scared that I started crying,” Senderling recalled. “My dad told me that I would be fine, and all I had to do was try my best. I think I lost the match, but I came off the mat feeling happy and I knew that I loved it. Over time, I stopped with other sports and focused only on wrestling.”

Because it took Senderling awhile to hit a growth spurt, he always seemed to be the most diminutive one out there when competing in most other sports. But with wrestling dividing its competitors by weight class, Senderling enjoyed being able to do battle with kids his own size. He was also drawn to the self-accountability the sport demanded.

“As much as it is a team sport, you also have to focus on yourself and what you need to do because in the end, that benefits the team,” he said. “The team depends on me to work hard and get the job done, instead of depending on someone else to get it done for me.”

In other words, in addition to going out and actually having to win matches for his team, Senderling has to be meticulously focused on his weight, which means he needs to carefully monitor his workout routine, the food and drink he puts into his body as well as ensuring he recharges his batteries by getting enough sleep. He has a strong support system to check in on him (namely his parents), but ultimately, it’s his responsibility to be where he needs to be, a task made even harder by the fact that he has so frequently shifted weight classes.

Fast forward to this season, and the results are reflected by the numbers. Early last week, Senderling became the ninth member of Wissahickon’s 100-win club, and is 104-23 in his career, a number that ranks him seventh on the school’s all-time wins list. The accomplishment of getting to 100 was something Senderling dreamed about his entire life, so to actually reach the milestone was a surreal feeling.

“Going into the match I didn’t want to think too much about it,” he said. “I just tried to relax and do what I usually do, but once I won, I heard the people cheering and looked into the crowd. I pointed at them and acknowledged them for their support. It was a really cool moment I’ll always remember. It’s been a dream since I was a little kid to be on that banner inside the high school. I don’t think it hit me until later that day that all those practices as a youth paid off. You dream it as a kid, but to actually achieve it is something else.”

Stagliano said that Senderling’s senior season has been even more impressive in context because health-wise he’s been wrestling at far less than 100 percent. Senderling has been one of Stagliano’s captains each of the past two seasons, and the latter said that although the former is not a vocal, rah-rah leader, Senderling leads by example, and getting results even while injured sums up both the wrestler and the person.

“Nick does the right things on the mat,” Stagliano said. “He knows how to do the little things like make weight, and while he may struggle here and there, he never shows it. He knows what to do and when to do it. Being not 100 percent healthy, he’s actually impressed me more this year than in the past. He’s won some tough matches just by gutting it out when other guys would have bagged it.”

When asked about some of his favorite memories as Senderling’s coach, Stagliano pointed to the recent 2017 Ralph Wetzel Holiday Classic, held at Hatboro-Horsham High. The event had been off Wissahickon’s schedule for a few seasons but was added back for Senderling’s senior year in large part because he always wanted to compete and win the Wetzel, located down the street from his home.

Far from his peak health, Senderling won four matches, including a 7-6 decision over Bensalem’s Dan Esenov and a 3-2 sudden victory decision over Alec Arnold from Connecticut.

“Those last two wrestlers were top-notch guys,” Stagliano said. “And Nick just gutted it out. I was prouder of him in that tournament winning close, overtime matches than I ever was of him winning 12-3 or pinning someone. Here he is wrestling kids hurt, and I’ve just never been prouder of him given how he did it. That takes some serious mental fortitude when other kids would have given up. He always wanted to win it, and to see him walk off the mat in total exhaustion having nothing left, it was a pretty cool moment.”

Added Senderling: “From the time I was in sixth or seventh grade, I always wanted to win that tournament as a high school wrestler. I wasn’t at 100 wins yet and my coaches said there was no risk hurting myself even worse, but I wanted to do it. I went for it, and it paid off. It will be just another cool memory to look back on one day.”

With his time as a Wissahickon wrestler almost up, Senderling doesn’t have much else left he realistically hopes to accomplish. Going into this season, 100 wins and qualifying for states — and maybe even winning a state medal — were Senderling’s main goals. He hit the first one, but based on his health and where the team is presently, qualifying for states is going to be a tall mountain to climb. Not impossible, mind you, but far enough away on the horizon to maybe temper initial expectations. (Stagliano said it’s possible but won’t be “clear sailing.”)

“When I was healthy, 100 percent,” Senderling said of getting to states. “Now at this point, I don’t know. I just want to give it my best shot. If I make it to states, it would be awesome, but if not I’ll be able to say I tried my best given the hand I was dealt and still be just as happy with the result.”

Off the mat, Senderling holds a 3.6 GPA and, with math classes always his strongest, has his sights set on majoring in either finance or accounting. He’s involved with the Wissahickon High Fan Club, which promotes school spirit and the support of all the Trojans’ athletic teams.

As part of his senior project, Senderling helped coach young wrestlers at the Greater Norristown Wrestling Club. While he said he’s unlikely to pursue wrestling in college beyond the club level, Senderling said this experience will allow him to stay connected to the sport and try his hand at more coaching when he is on break from college, or after he finishes it.

“If he doesn’t wrestle in college, I think he’ll miss it,” Stagliano said. “I could see him coaching down the road depending on what he ends up doing with his life. Maybe this will be his first foray into it. He’s just a good overall kid in general and I couldn’t have asked for more. As a high school wrestler and student-athlete in general, they don’t come much better than Nick Senderling.”

Although Stagliano will lose one of his best wrestlers ever at the end of this school year, Senderling will still be around the program. After all it’s given him, he simply won’t be able to stay away, even as he enters college, adulthood and eventually, the professional workforce.

“I would love to coach, 100 percent,” he said. “Our all-time wins leader, Pat Fennell, comes back and helps coach when he has time. I’d love to be a volunteer and help coach the younger guys in the room and at tournaments. If I have the flexibility when I’m older, I’d like to be an assistant or even a head coach, just to stay involved in the sport. When I have my own kids, maybe they’ll wrestle and I can coach them. I can definitely see it in the future.

“I’ve always wanted to give back, which is why I chose that for my senior project. To be able to give back and coach kids that are 5, 6, 7 years old, it’s super cool to see them develop and think back to when I was that age. To have the kids look up to me as a role model, it makes me super happy to be able to help out. I don’t really look at it as extra work because I just really enjoy the sport of wrestling that much.”