Check back on Thursday morning for SOS.com's complete coverage of the Council Rock South/Council Rock North showdown.
By Alex Frazier
Meet…Scott Wolfinger
Scott Wolfinger felt a bit “weird” when he stepped on the scale at Quakertown last Saturday.
It was the same scale he stepped on last February for the District One Tournament. After winning sections, Wolfinger was poised to return to states, where he had placed sixth as a freshman.
The day before districts, he weighed out two pounds over.
He ran much of the night trying to lose it.
When he got on the scale at weigh-ins, he was four-tenths of a pound overweight.
The officials allowed him to try all three scales, but it didn’t make any difference.
“Cutting so much weight the wrong way was definitely a lesson,” he said.
His season was done.
But Wolfinger didn’t mope.
“Scotty has a great personality,” said Quakertown coach Kurt Handel. “He rolls with the punches and doesn’t let things bother him too long.”
In fact, Wolfinger was back at it the next day and has been wrestling ever since to get ready for his junior year.
“It kind of made me wrestle better,” said Wolfinger. “I had to redeem myself from last year. Missing weight last year helped me out through the summer because I worked a lot harder.”
He placed in the top 15 at the Disney Duals and his MAWA team finished third in freestyle out in Iowa. He also wrestled in a lot of smaller open tournaments.
Last Saturday at the Quakertown duals, his hard work started paying dividends.
First off, he made weight.
“It was irony, poetic justice, whatever you want to call it,” said Handel. “His first weigh-in this year was at the same place he didn’t make weight last year at the end of the season. He got on the scale and I said, ‘The weigh-ins were a little different this time,’ and he said, ‘Yep.’”
Then he went 3-0, beating two good kids in the process. He caught Hazleton’s Mark Uliano, a District Two AAA champ, in a chin whip and pinned him.
Uliano had beaten Wolfinger’s former teammate Colin Bynum, so he was no slouch.
He followed that up by defeating Central Bucks West’s Bubba McGinley, who finished eighth at states last year and is ranked fifth in the pre-season poll.
The two had never met before.
“I knew he was going to be quick and finish everything good,” said Wolfinger. “I knew I had to get in on everything and had to be faster and more technical.”
McGinley reversed Wolfinger in the third period to tie the bout 4-4. Wolfinger didn’t want to make a move too early and have to ride McGinley or fend him off on his feet, so he waited until near the end, content to take it to overtime if he didn’t get the winning points.
With about 20 seconds left, he started a switch, which turned into a scramble, but he came up with a leg, stood up and then took McGinley to the mat for a reversal and a 6-4 win.
“That was a real good match,” said Handel. “They both were going the whole six minutes. It was exciting. There were some great shots, some great defenses off shots.”
Wolfinger’s strength according to Handel is on his feet.
“He has your traditional shots,” he said, “but he has that funk. He hits things a little differently, moves a little differently. He has tremendous speed and strength and it’s pretty tough to slow him down.”
Wolfinger will get another big test this weekend when the Panthers head to Delaware for the Beast of the East. It will be his third trip to the Beast, so he knows exactly what to expect. Last year he missed placing by one match.
“It’s tough to place there,” he said. “I’d just be happy making it to the second day. If I can make it to the second day, I have a pretty good chance of placing. That’s a real cool thing to do.”
Of course all this competition is just practice for the post-season tournaments.
Right now he is content to wrestle at 125 (three weights up from last year), but he’s certified at 119, so he can go down if he wants to.
As a freshman, Wolfinger placed sixth at states. His goal this year is to get back there and stand on the podium.
“I’ve had dreams about it ever since my freshman year,” he said. “I wanted to do it so bad last year. I’m hoping I can at least do it once more.”
Knight’s star rising– North Penn has a long had a tradition of excellence in wrestling, but the Knights have fallen on hard times in recent years.
This year it looks like they are beginning to pull out of the nosedive.
The first indication is numbers. North Penn started with just over 50 wrestlers and to date only a couple have fallen by the wayside. In recent years, the Knights often couldn’t field a full team.
North Penn is also getting help in the coaching ranks.
Two-time PIAA state champion Zac Fryling returns to his alma mater this year. He brings a wealth of experience and technique after being a four-time NCAA qualifier at West Virginia.
“I bring in the skills I learned from West Virginia, the drills I learned and the things I liked and the things I liked from my past coaches in high school,” he said. “I’m just trying to bring back an intensity and work ethic in that room. The boys are working really hard. They’re getting after it. They seem to be accepting what I’m showing them really well. It’s nothing fancy, just your basic in-your-face style.”
Fryling graduated with a degree in health and physical education. While he seeks a teaching job, he is working construction for his father.
“When I left North Penn High School my senior year, I knew I wanted to teach,” he said. “I always said I wanted to come back here and coach some day. The cards fell in the right place.”
This isn’t Fryling’s first coaching stint. As a grad assistant at West Virginia, he helped out at a local high school.
“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I almost like it more than competing. I love working with the kids and seeing them succeed and pushing them.”
The Knights are also getting help from Matt Uhrich, a 1991 graduate of Upper Perkiomen. Uhrich wrestled in high school but not college because Gwynedd Mercy didn’t offer wrestling. After college Uhrich has done some officiating and coached at one of the Quakertown middle schools.
Uhrich had been thinking about getting back into wrestling, and one night he had a very vivid dream that he was wrestling again. It prompted him to look for a coaching opening. After seeing a job posting on North Penn’s website, he wrote a letter of application, had an interview and the rest is history.
“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “This is the biggest turnout almost ever.”
He is working with the upper weights at North Penn.
Uhrich is hoping to give back to the kids some of what he got out of wrestling.
“I really like the sport and I enjoy inspiring kids, trying to help them to become good adults,” he said. “I learned a lot of good lessons in life through the discipline and through the things wrestling had to offer. I would like to help with this team, bring some maturity to the team and also teach these guys there are lessons in life to be learned through the sport.”
If last Saturday at the Southeast Classic is any indication, the Knights are on their way.
Overall North Penn placed seventh with Nick Gallagher (140) placing eighth; Will Bachert (171), Ervin Gaitan (119) and Evan Conti (125) finishing seventh; newcomers and freshmen Joey O'Brien (103) and George Shipp (189) taking sixth; and Tyler Romano (130) Randy Haun (152) taking second.
Around the league – Everyone in wrestling circles knows the quality of the Ironman Tournament, held annually at Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
It was that reputation that attracted Council Rock South’s Brad Silimperi.
“I would say that there’s probably15-20 of the top 50 teams in the country there,” said Silimperi. “I’ve been part of the sport for over 30 years now as an athlete and a coach, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a more competitive tournament in my entire life. Every team’s good, every individual is good. There are no pushovers.”
The Golden Hawks loaded on the bus last Thursday for an eight-hour ride. When they wrapped up on Saturday, they had finished 27th of 60 teams and had two place winners.
“There’s something you can’t put a price tag on being in an environment like that,” said Silimperi. “This was just backyard wrestling. I would definitely go back.”
The Hawks had a good first day, sitting in about 10th place for a while.
Matt Martoccio finished seventh and might have been even higher had he not lost two one-point bouts in the last seconds.
“He could have been right in the finals, that’s how close he was,” said Silimperi. “He wrestled really well, beat a state place winner. He’s really coming on.”
Bobby Lavelle also placed seventh.
“He was competing after a knee injury towards the end of the summer,” said Silimperi. “It’s good to see him back in full swing.”
Matt and Billy Rappo both went 2-2 and made it to the quarterfinals. Both were victims of one-point losses as well. Matt Rappo actually beat the kid that finished fifth, but the bracketing didn’t work out for him.
“He wrestled really, really well,” said Silimperi.
South’s Josh Dziewa sat out the tournament because of a shoulder injury.
“With him in the mix, we could have been in the top 10,” said Silimperi. “He’s getting close. We’re taking it day by day. There’s no reason to rush it now.”
The Hawks took a lot away from the tournament, even if it wasn’t medals.
“The plan here is to get better every week,” said Silimperi. “We have a nice ‘To Do’ list of things to work on right out of the chute.”
Pre-season TOP Five SOL
1. Council Rock South
2. Council Rock North
3. Quakertown
4. Upper Moreland
5. Norristown
Top Guns
103—Billy Rappo, Council Rock South
112—Mike Mathis, Central Bucks South
119—Matt Harkins, Hatboro-Horsham
125—Scott Wolfinger, Quakertown
130—Ryan Ginsburg, Upper Merion
135—Will Dill, Upper Moreland
140—Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
145—Briar Malischewski, Quakertown
152— Eric Koch, Quakertown
160— Greg Lanctot, Council Rock North
171—John Staudenmayer, Plymouth Whitemarsh
189— Jamie Callender, Council Rock North
215—Joe Stolfi, Souderton
285—Marcus Robbins, Norristown
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