By Alex Frazier
Highlighting…Dave Smith
Hatboro-Horsham senior Dave Smith is one tough hombre.
Last summer he and a couple of teammates went to the two-week intensive wrestling camp held by Minnesota coach J Robinson.
“That really put a couple of our seniors in focus,” said Hatter coach Glenn Kaiser.
It was probably the hardest thing Smith had ever done.
He described it as boot camp.
Wrestlers were divided into eight running groups of 20 and four wrestling groups.
The wrestlers were roused at 6 a.m. for a 3-5 mile run with their running group. Each day was a different run, depending on the counselor.
Negatives were awarded to wrestlers who were passed at the end or who came in last. Positives were difficult to acquire. The prize at the end of camp was a T-shirt, which may not sound like much of a reward, but it was symbolic, and every wrestler wanted one to prove he had made it.
After breakfast there was a two-hour technique practice.
“You’re still drilling hard,” said Smith.
That was followed by lunch and then a two-hour “hard” practice.
“Those were the ones that killed you,” said Smith. “Once you start running around the circle warming up, you don’t stop until the two hours is over.”
Smith earned his T-shirt. He finished with four positives and no negatives.
Now, he’s reaping the benefits.
Smith is 23-8 and on target to improve on his regional debut last year.
“It helped me more mentally with confidence, just knowing you did it,” he said. “It’s probably one of the hardest camps you can go to if you’re in high school. I saw kids break.”
Smith wrestled midgets for a couple of years before quitting. He came back to wrestling thanks to his Keith Valley football coach.
He decided to go out in the middle of seventh grade. His older brother Don, who was in eighth grade, started at the same time.
“We played football with Adam Mowry,” Smith explained. “He wrestled his whole life. Adam lived in the same neighborhood and we played football with him. We were always messing around in the backyard. He was smaller than both of us, but he could beat us up, so we were like, ‘We have to learn how to wrestle,’ so we started wrestling. He helped us a lot.”
Smith didn’t start taking wrestling seriously until after eighth grade. His goal was to make varsity as a freshman at the high school. To that end, he wrestled for Apache at Council Rock South in the spring of eighth grade, that summer and the fall of his freshman year. He certainly had some tough competition and good mentors in Germantown Academy’s National Prep Champ Chris Henrich and North Penn’s John Dale.
He made the team as a freshman although he lost his wrestle-off at 160 and had to go at 171. Still, he finished the season at 19-19 and qualified for districts.
With that promising start, his sophomore year turned out to be a bust. At the beginning of the season, he popped the cartilage in his ribs and missed some matches. Then a problem with his femur made walking a chore for him.
“That whole season it was bothering me,” he said. “There was a bump on the top of my femur. It felt like my hip was popping out. I’d walk like an old man, it was so bad.”
He would have finished the season anyway, but he and two others were suspended the day before sections and his season was over at 9-13.
He had surgery on his hip following the season and wasn’t allowed to wrestle for nine weeks. While he was incapacitated, he went to tournaments with his brother and learned by watching.
“I saw some good wrestling,” he said. “I think that made me better, just watching so many good matches. Once I was allowed to wrestle, I jumped right into it.”
He was cleared to wrestle in August just before football camp. His coach wouldn’t permit him to wrestle during football season, but he and his brother would roll around and drill on their basement mat on Saturdays.
He was ready when the season rolled around and improved as it went on. He won Section Three and placed third at districts, finishing with a 24-17 mark. At regionals he went 1-2. Both matches he lost were by a single point. Springfield’s Andre Petroski, who finished fifth at states, only beat him 1-0.
“I started opening up a little bit,” he said.
This year when he returned from wrestling camp, he discovered he had torn his meniscus.
“I was at the camp the whole time with a torn meniscus,” he said. “Halfway through the camp I felt my knee pop. If you get hurt at the camp, they send you home, no refund.”
He underwent arthroscopic surgery in August and a couple of weeks later was back on the mat. He decided to quit football this year to focus on wrestling.
“When you do that, that’s a pretty big commitment,” said Kaiser. “Dave’s attitude and approach on the mat has shown that he’s done that.”
During the fall, Smith went to tournaments on weekends and wrestled with the Avengers and the Gladiators as well as ran on his own.
“The biggest thing for Dave has been wrestling in the shadow of his brother,” said Kaiser. “This year he has a chance to shine on his own, and he’s really stepped up and manned the upper middle weights for us.”
Smith already has a couple of good wins, including a defeat of Quakertown’s Rob Basile, when he bumped up to 189. He also gave C.B. East’s Devon Passman a good match at the Wetzel Classic.
“He’s opening up more offensively than he has in the past,” said Kaiser. “He’s always wrestled defensively and kept things close. This year he’s being more aggressive at the whistle and trying to get the lead and then with the lead, staying aggressive and scoring points. We want him to be scoring takedowns at the end of the match rather than fending them off.”
Next year, Smith would like to continue wrestling. He is considering Delaware Valley, where brother Don is wrestling, and Elizabethtown. The Aggies are currently ranked third in the country in Division III. While Del Val offers a great program and proximity, he likes the coaches at E-town.
He is considering criminal justice as a major, but that’s not etched in stone.
“You can do a lot of different things with that degree,” he said. “I’m still figuring that out. There’s always business.”
Smith set a couple of goals for himself this year. The first was to be a team captain.
“That was one of my biggest goals,” he said. “I’ve been on varsity all four years and we’ve had some good captains. I thought I would be a good leader for the team.”
He would also like to qualify for states and place there.
“If I keep practicing hard and I wrestle the way I know I’m capable of wrestling, stuff like that will happen,” he said. “But I don’t like to look ahead. I take one match at a time. You have to go through sectionals, districts and regionals to get there, so I don’t want to look too far ahead.”
District Duals – This is the week that will decide which teams are the best in District One.
Once again there is a team dropping out due to herpes infections. West Chester Henderson notified the committee Tuesday that it wouldn’t be able to participate because one of its wrestlers was showing symptoms of herpes gladiatorum.
Great Valley dropped out before last Thursday’s preliminary rounds. Unionville and Conestoga also reportedly have wrestlers with skin infections. It seems that the common link among all four teams is their participation in the Conestoga 5-Star Duals on Jan. 17.
It’s a shame that those teams won’t get a chance to see how they stack up against the best in the district.
For many teams, the District Duals are one of the highlights of the season.
“This time of the year is different than the regular season,” said Council Rock South coach Brad Silimperi. “The regular season is practice for this. Now it counts, now it’s on, now it’s for real.
“This is why we do things all year long the way we do them. There’s a specific reason. We still don’t have our best lineup yet. Hopefully it’s on its way.”
There are those who think defending champion Rock South could knock off Quakertown and give Boyertown a run for the title.
Quakertown coach Kurt Handel is naturally leery.
“These are high school students and you never know what you’re going to get,” he said. “No. 2 seed doesn’t guarantee a place at district duals. Council Rock South looked really tough.”
But before he looks too far ahead, he has to first make sure his squad does what it needs to get by Upper Perkiomen.
“You can say that Upper Perk is down,” Handel said after last Thursday’s second round against Norristown, “but Tommy (Hontz) still has a good group of kids in that lineup. If we come out (against Norristown) like we did tonight, it could be ugly.”
District duals schedule –
Friday, Jan. 30 (at Council Rock South)
6 p.m.
Match 1—No. 1 Boyertown bye
Match 2—No. 5 Council Rock North v. No. 4 Springfield Delco
Match 3—No. 14 Central Bucks East v. No. 6 Council Rock South
Match 4—No. 7 Upper Perkiomen v. No. 2 Quakertown
8 p.m.
Match 5—No. 1 Boyertown v. Winner Match 2
Match 6—Winner Match 3 v. Winner Match 4
Match 7—Loser Match 1 v. Loser Match 2
Match 8—Loser Match 3 v. Loser Match 4
Saturday, Jan 31
Class AAA
1 p.m.
Match 9—Loser Match 5 v. Winner Match 7
Match 10—Loser Match 6 v. Winner Match 8
Class AA
Match 11—No. 1 Octorara v. No. 4 Cardinal Dougherty
Match 12—No. 2 Harriton v. No. 3 Springfield Montco
4 p.m.
AAA Championship
Match 13—Winner Match 5 v. Winner Match 6
AA Championship
Match 14—Winner Match 11 v. Winner Match 12
AAA Consolation
Match 15—Winner Match 9 v. Winner Match 10
On Friday, Jan. 30, weigh-ins begin at 5 p.m. with quarterfinals at 6 p.m. on four mats. Wrestlebacks and semifinals begin at 8 p.m. on four mats
On Saturday, weigh-ins begin at 12 noon with consi semifinals and AA semifinals at 2 p.m. Class AA and AAA finals and consi-finals will begin at 4 p.m.
Three AAA teams advance to states along with one AA team.
Around the league – League titles are getting closer to being decided with just over a week left in the regular season. All Suburban One teams had to wait an extra day due to Wednesday’s school cancellations because of the snow/ice storm. Most of the matches were postponed to Thursday.
Three matches of interest, and ones that could affect title runs, include Abington at Council Rock North. The Indians are in control of their own destiny, but Abington could be a spoiler.
Council Rock South trails Rock North by one match. If the Hawks defeat William Tennent and North loses, the top spot will be deadlocked.
Norristown also appears to be headed to a clash with Upper Moreland for the American Conference championship, but if the Cardinals upset them, the best the Eagles could hope for is a tie.
Tournament action from last weekend:
• Plymouth Whitemarsh went 3-2 at the Buckskin Duals last Saturday. The Colonials defeated Donegal 40-27, Stonewall Jackson (Va.) 63-15 and Turner Ashby (Va.) 39-25 and lost to Conestoga Valley 32-27 and Hershey 35-34.
Luke Wisniewski (130) and John Staudenmayer (160) were both 5-0. Wisniewski had three decisions, a pin and a tech fall, while Staudenmayer pinned three opponents, teched one and received an injury default.
• Central Bucks South finished sixth at the Sun Valley Tournament. Mike Mathis placed third at 103, while Julian Gulbinski came in second at 189.
• Souderton finished second at the Lackawanna Round Robin. John Lewis (112) and Peter Jenne (160) went 5-0, while Joe Stolfi (189) was 4-1.
• Upper Moreland won the Octorara Tournament with 131 points and Central Bucks East finished third with 110. Springfield was eighth.
Upper Moreland crowned three champions in Tim Santry (125), John Bolich (160) and James Nicholson (189). Sebastian Medina (285), Mark Poderis (152) and Jake Ellis (119) placed second, while Zach Lyall (103), Will Dill (135) and Max Agasar (145) finished third.
Central Bucks East had two champions in Jon Brodzik (135) and Jarrett Sanders (140). Doug Silveria (112), Joe McMannino (152), Andrew Foltyn (160), Devon Passman (160) and Joe Burke (215) placed third.
Springfield’s Steve Carpenter placed third at 160, and Pat Feehan was fifth at 189.
• At the Koncrete Duals, Pennridge pounded Emmaus 57-19 and Blair B 54-18, while powerful Northampton handled Quakertown, 48-19. The lone winners for the Panthers were Scott Wolfinger (103), Colin Bynum (125), Eric Koch (140) and Nick Lubenetski (152).
Top Five SOL teams
1. Quakertown
2. Council Rock South
3. Council Rock North
4. Upper Moreland
5. Abington
Top Guns
103-Scott Wolfinger, Quakertown
112-Matt Harkins, Hatboro-Horsham
119-Zac Haynes, Council Rock North
125-Tim Santry, Upper Moreland
130-Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
135-Matt Rust, Quakertown
140-Zac Bush, William Tennent
145-Briar Malischewski, Quakertown
152- Jim Vollrath, Council Rock South
160-Ed Shupe, Council Rock South
171-Devon Passman, Central Bucks East
189-Jamie Callender, Council Rock North
215-Dan Clemenson, William Tennent
285-David Osei, Abington
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