By Alex Frazier
Highlighting…John Staudenmayer
There was a time not so long ago that Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Nate Wachter took John Staudenmayer for granted.
That was two years ago when the PW sophomore was practicing with Wachter at the Maverick Club before entering his first year in high school.
Wachter, a former National Prep champ at Germantown Academy and a four-time NCAA qualifier at Penn State, knew Staudenmayer for a few years. They had met when Wachter was doing some clinics at the Greater Norristown Wrestling Club and later when helping to coach Maverick’s at Germantown Academy.
“I’d always stay after to ask some questions,” said Staudenmayer. “I got to know him a lot better.”
When the two first started wrestling together, Wachter had more than 30 pounds on him, so they actually did more drilling than wrestling.
But the summer following his eighth grade year, summer Staudenmayer hit his growth spurt. He gained 35 pounds and when he came back from vacation. Wachter said he was a “monster.”
Staudenmayer was no longer a pushover.
During a shark-bait drill, Wachter was in the middle and Staudenmayer shot in on a single. He tried to come out the back. Wachter went one way and Staudenmayer went the other.
Suddenly, Staudenmayer heard a pop.
What he heard was Wachter’s MCL.
“I did it by accident,” said the humble Staudenmayer. “I felt so bad for him. He’s never let me live it down.”
“Ever since then I told him that I would never ease up on him again,” said Wachter.
Ironically, this year Wachter took over for head coach Bob Lorence and now gets to pound Staudenmayer every day.
“I was hoping to see him in the off-season and maybe at club practices, but it was a great opportunity for me when he came in. I was grateful,” said Staudenmayer. “He beats up on me all the time. It’s actually good for me, non-stop. He’s come back to haunt me a little bit.”
Staudenmayer doesn’t just work on wrestling. His father John is the head football coach at PW, so he divides his time between the two sports.
“I lift three days a week with my dad after practice and that’s like a workout for both,” he said. “And in the summer I go to practices for both. No matter what I do, I always try to improve myself.”
He likes having his father as coach.
“I enjoy the experience,” said Staudenmayer, who plays tight end and linebacker. “Getting to play for him I get a little more of a drive to do better.”
After an incredible 43-5 record his freshman year wrestling at 160 even though he was a true 152-pounder, Staudenmayer is undefeated through the regular season this year at 31-0.
Even more incredible, he has 13 pins, six tech falls, five majors, two decisions, four forfeits and one injury default for a total of 162 team points.
“Coach tells me I can’t even pin,” said Staudenmayer. “My goal when I go out there is to continue to improve. I want to do what I can for my team because we go to a lot of dual tournaments. Whatever they need me to do, I try to help them out as much as possible.”
Ironically, the closest match of the season ended in an injury default. Staudenmayer led Rodin Ndandula of Stonewall Jackson (Va.) by only 1-0 in the second period when he threw in a headlock and caused the injury default.
“That match I thought was going to be the best match so far,” he said. “It was a shame we couldn’t finish it.”
Besides working with Wachter everyday, Staudenmayer also credits his summer at nationals for helping him improve.
He placed fifth at Fargo in freestyle and was one match away from taking a place in Greco-Roman.
“That was my greatest experience ever,” he said. “The atmosphere of being at a national tournament was amazing.”
It was the first time Staudenmayer did any serious freestyle wrestling, and it helped him.
“You have to stay inbounds in freestyle and Greco so you learn to work the mat, know your limits and know your space,” he said. “It helped me a lot on my feet with reactions. That’s where I needed help a lot.”
“He is an amazing athlete and a very dedicated wrestler,” said Wachter. “He did great at Fargo this year. His wrestling freestyle this summer really helped make him more explosive and taught him how to launch people.”
The name Staudenmayer will be on people’s lips for some time. John’s brother Justin is now in eighth grade and weighs about 120.
“He’s really good,” said John.
It won’t be long before the two brothers butt heads at practice.
“I would like that,” said John. “We get along very well, so that wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Just wait until the other Staudenmayer comes up to the high school,” said Wachter. “He is going to be bigger and better than J.M.”
Now that’s a challenge.
Staudenmayer nearly qualified for states last year. At regionals he went 2-2, losing his final match in an overtime rideout to Spring-Ford’s Matt Patterson.
This year he has loftier goals.
“John's focus is on placing at states this year,” said Wachter. “I tell him, ‘Why just place...why not win it? You're talented enough.’”
Anatomy of a Winner – Coming into this season, Quakertown coach Kurt Handel knew he had proven wrestlers in Scott Wolfinger, Colin Bynum, Matt Rust, Eric Koch and Briar Malischewski.
They would carry the team from the lower through the upper weights.
“What we needed to do as a team is improve up top,” said Handel. “From 171, 189, 215 and heavyweight everybody looked at Quakertown and said, ‘That’s their weak weight classes.’”
What Handel didn’t know was how the upper weights would develop.
They have been a pleasant surprise, as was clearly evidenced in the district duals.
Admittedly, Boyertown was a bit demoralized by the time Tyler Wolfe stepped on the mat for the 160-pound match with Quakertown up 21-11.
But who would have guessed that the Panthers would have swept the heavyweights, four of the five by falls.
“We challenged them at the beginning of the year,” said Handel. “They worked hard. We have them doing some moves and they’re doing the moves we teach them. That was the key to us winning.”
Wolfe cradled Tyler Manger at 2:53; Seth Gray decked Brock Hallman in 51 seconds; Rob Basile headlocked Zach Hefner in 23 seconds; Randy Jorgensen decisioned Zach Rogers 7-6 on an escape with three seconds left; and Gregg Walker hit Denis Mulligan with a cement job for a fall at 2:27.
So much for the heavyweights not carrying their load.
“They just feed off each other,” said Handel. “When one gets the fall, the other ones want to follow suit.”
Of all the upper weights, Basile has been the most consistent.
“He’s been doing it week in and week out,” said Handel. “That’s been the difference for us all year—Robert, Gregg Walker and Randy Jorgensen, our three big guys. That’s the difference.”
One of the keys to the upper weights is their closeness.
“They’re good friends off the mat and great teammates,” said Handel. “They don’t want to let their teammates down.”
As Basile explained, “I’ve grown up with this group of kids since we were five years old in the Quakertown Youth Club. We’ve been working hard. Our coach didn’t give us any credit in practice. They didn’t once tell us we could take it easy for a match. The whole year they’ve been pushing us. One thing I like about us is even if we’re down and out, we’ll put everything we’ve got on the mat. That’s an awesome mentality we all have.”
And a winning one.
District Duals Notes – Council Rock South’s Matt Rappo had two great performances Friday and Saturday at the duals, appropriately enough in front of his home fans.
Friday, he had a nerve-racking match against Quakertown’s Colin Bynum. Rappo trailed Bynum 4-3 when he reversed with 10 seconds left to pull out a 5-4 victory.
The next day he lined up against archrival Zac Haynes of Council Rock North. It was another barnburner that came down to the final seconds. Rappo went up 2-0 on a takedown in the first period. Haynes reversed with two seconds left in the second and took Rappo down in the third, but Rappo broke free and took Haynes down with a double with 16 seconds left for a 6-4 win.
• There were two other highlights between the archrival schools. At 145, South’s Marc Helfrich took on Rock North’s Greg Lanctot. The two couldn’t have been more evenly matched. After a scoreless first period, Helfrich escaped in the second. He held on to his 1-0 lead in the third by using his long legs to ride Lanctot for the entire two minutes.
• Jamie Callender put Rock North into a good position to win, by beating South’s best upper weight, Bobby Lavelle, but it was close. Lavelle took a 2-1 lead in the first before Callender escaped. He broke loose again in the second to tie it up and then took Lavelle down with four seconds left for a 4-2 win. That win set the stage for four straight by North, which came from way behind to win 31-28.
• Council Rock South’s Ed Shupe bumped up to wrestle C.B. East’s Devon Passman at 171 in the Hawks’ quarterfinal match against East. It was a momentous win for Shupe who notched his 100th victory with a 10-2 major decision.
PIAA Dual Meet Tournament– By virtue of winning District One, Quakertown gets a bye all the way to the state quarterfinals. The Panthers also happened to land in the easier bottom bracket away from defending state champion Central Dauphin, runner–up Northampton and third place Central Mountain, all of whom must battle each other to get to the finals.
Quakertown will wrestle the winner of the Blue Mountain (11-2) Clearfield (9-1) champion at the Giant Center in Hershey at 2 p.m. Friday.
Boyertown beat LaSalle 38-21 to advance to Friday’s second round in Hershey against Central Mountain (6-1).
District duals – This year’s district duals was expanded from 16 to 24 teams. Is this a good thing?
There are some coaches that would like to see the tourney shortened.
“It’s a long season,” said Quakertown coach Kurt Handel. “These are the doldrum days of the season because you’re stuck between your dual meet season ending and you have the post-season right around the corner. I think the district duals should be pushed off to next week.”
In other words, Handel would prefer to complete the tournament on one weekend, which would be doable if the field was reduced to 16 teams.
“As a District One committee, I hope they’re going to look at that,” said Handel.
This year’s first and second rounds occurred on a Thursday with the rest of the tournament a week later on Friday and Saturday.
Most of the teams were wrestling back-to-back matches with a league match on Wednesday and the start of district duals Thursday. That didn’t sit well with some of the wrestlers, even though they are used to wrestling up to five matches on a single day.
“A lot of guys on the team are cutting weight,” said Quakertown’s Eric Koch, “and with back-to-back matches, it’s hard to do two days in a row, especially when you have a big match like this that could determine your post-season.”
With 65 teams in Class AAA in District One, having 16-24 teams compete is about the right percentage compared to other districts statewide.
“It’s not a stretch for us to go to 24,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Glenn Kaiser, who is a member of the committee.
He also said that because of subtracting the number of competitions by two, it gave teams additional matches.
Last year there were 28 applicants for 16 spots. This year the number grew to 30. By adding eight more teams, it gave some of those teams like Radnor or Garnet Valley, which might not have made it last year, a chance to compete this year.
Kaiser’s main criticism is that the committee wanted full wrestlebacks but District One denied that.
“Next year you’ll probably see the format return to 16 because you can go to full wrestlebacks with 16 teams,” he said.
When district duals first started, the idea was for league champions to compete, but now those champions aren’t determined before the duals start.
The committee will get together again in May to make plans for next year.
“I think you’re going to see a change,” said Kaiser.
Around the league – Council Rock North sewed up at least a share of the National Conference title with a 42-19 win over Pennsbury, which had it first losing season since 1999. The Indians still have to beat Abington on Feb. 12 to clinch the title outright.
Neshaminy 103-pounder Harry Wilson defeated Abington’s Kyle McCall 7-1 in the final bout of the night to give the Redskins a 33-26 victory.
William Tennent notched its first league win Wednesday evening with a 48-19 win over Bensalem.
• Norristown cruised to a 47-27 win over Upper Moreland in a battle of unbeatens for the American Conference title.
• Last Thursday, Upper Moreland pounded Springfield 82-0. Excluding two forfeits, the Spartans’ Bobby Andris was the only wrestler not to get pinned, but he still lost by a major decision.
• Quakertown’s Matt Rust has been cleared to wrestle again much to coach Kurt Handel’s relief. Rust injured his elbow last Friday in the semifinals of the District One duals against Council Rock South. He missed the championship against Boyertown, where he fortunately wasn’t needed.
But it will be a different story Friday when the Panthers take on either Blue Mountain or Clearfield in the PIAA team semifinals.
Top Five SOL teams
1. Quakertown
2. Council Rock North
3. Council Rock South
4. Norristown
5. Upper Moreland
Top Guns
103-Scott Wolfinger, Quakertown
112-Matt Harkins, Hatboro-Horsham
119-Zac Haynes, Council Rock North
125-Matt Rappo, Council Rock South
130-Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
135-Matt Rust, Quakertown
140-Zac Bush, William Tennent
145-Marc Helfrich, Council Rock South
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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