Assistant wrestling coach Corey Luce will be contributing blogs throughout the 2010-11 season.
Posted February 18
This season has certainly been a period of ups and downs. The UAA Championship is something our program takes very seriously despite the size of the conference (only three teams). We understand how important it is for our school to come out on top. Falling short to University of Chicago was disappointing for everyone, especially because we came so close the past two years.
Several guys had great matches, and despite not coming away with the team title our seniors had a good day overall. Clement Bommier walked away with his first UAA title, pinning his opponent from Chicago. Steven Contino and Matt Magill, our other two seniors, also wrestled tough all day and were UAA champions. Additionally, junior David Rice and sophomore Sam Galassi came away with titles.
With the UAA out of the way, I am focused on increasing the intensity of practice and getting the team ready for the Metropolitan Conference Championships. The “Mets” are a lot more significant to the team and our coaching staff because it is where our athletes compete for berths to the NCAA National Championship. Every season we aim to produce as many national qualifiers and All-Americans as possible, and this season is no exception. Everything prior to this event has been a stepping-stone to get our team where they need to be.
Magill looks to return and improve on his All-American finish from last year. He’s been working hard all year and is a consistent, dedicated leader for this team. Last week he reached 100 career wins, and will finish his season in the top five of NYU’s all-time match winners.
I’m certain the Met Conference is in for a few surprises from our squad. Gallassi performed great last week and is ready for a strong finish. Steve Massey and Rice have been two of our most consistent upperclassmen this season and I have high hopes for both of them next week. Our other two seniors, Bommier and Contino, are gearing to finish their careers on a high note.
We’re excited about putting our guys on the mat and watching them battle for conference titles and a trip to Wisconsin for the NCAA Championships.
Assistant wrestling coach Corey Luce will be contributing blogs throughout the 2010-11 season.
Posted January 13
The holidays are a great time for the team to regroup and relax (for a day or two), but every season I am anxious to get the team back in the practice room after their time off.
Unfortunately this season, with so many wrestlers up and down the lineup struggling with injuries, the coaching staff was not sure what to expect at our first tournament after Christmas. As it turned out, we were only able to bring eight competitors to the Wilkes Open, a tournament hosted in my hometown, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Sabino Galassi and All-American Matt Magill, two of our most explosive wrestlers, both wrestled tough throughout the tournament, finding some success while wrestling Division I opponents. Galassi came away with a fourth-place finish after a tough match in the consolation finals and Magill ended the tournament with a 4-2 record. Both wrestlers were hoping for better results, but their hard work through injuries continues to motivate our younger wrestlers to keep at it. On a positive note, my mom came to watch our guys wrestle and I got to spend some quality time with her.
When we took the team to Baltimore to take on Johns Hopkins, it was clear we had our work cut out for us. Magill, as well as consistent point-scorers Galassi, Steve Contino and Jake Pawlowski were each unable to wrestle due to injury. Unfortunately, the seven wrestlers who did compete clearly did not wrestle close to their potential. It was a frustrating loss for everyone.
Following the Hopkins fiasco, we hoped everyone could take something from the loss and improve at the Virginia Duals, a major tournament featuring some of the best teams in the country. During our pre-match warm-ups, it was clear we were much more prepared and focused. Against King College everyone came ready to fight. However, we let what we thought would be a hard-fought victory slip away and lost by one point (King went on to finish second in the tournament). We ended the tournament 1-2, also losing to Nassau Community College (ranked #4 in the NJCAA). Our experience and lack of depth really showed, but several wrestlers showed just how tough they can be.
So far, this is shaping up to be a rebuilding year…one where even our few veterans are struggling to stay healthy. We will continue to push our guys during double sessions and prepare them for our major tournaments later this month. We continue to use film-review and one-on-one coaching to enable our guys to learn from their mistakes. I have full confidence that several of our younger wrestlers will turn the corner by the time we host the UAA Championship in February. We also expect Magill, Galassi, Pawlowski, and Contino to return to competition this week.
Shifting gears, we were happy to add sophomore transfer Dan Gorman who had two big wins at the Virginia Duals. Gorman is an asset to have in the room, as well, giving our wrestlers another solid practice opponent to train with. Also joining the team is senior John Dack, who was not with us during the first semester. John brings a positive attitude, confidence, and years of experience to a team needing all three. In addition, we have a record 11 early-decision recruits already committed to NYU for Fall 2011. The coaching staff and I have never been this excited about a recruiting class, and with so many of our young guys already gaining varsity experience, we are approaching our goal of becoming a top-20 program.
Posted December 14
The first half of our season has just concluded and our wrestlers are gearing up for their final exams, which will take place next week. As coaches, we emphasize the importance of finals week to our wrestlers. Our goal is to be in the top 10 in the nation with the highest team GPA.
We had two competitions in the month of December. We started off at the Simpson Invitational in Iowa, where we placed fifth among some of the best Division III schools in the country. We finished ahead of three ranked schools in the team standings, so overall we were pleased with the results considering we were missing two weight classes at the tournament. The atmosphere in Iowa is always exciting for us since we don’t get to see these teams on the East Coast.
Our veterans seemed to handle the challenge of wrestling top teams Wartburg and Coe (who are currently ranked number #1 and #3, respectively, in the nation). Our freshmen, however, did not do as well as we expected. We were out-worked in most of the matches and didn’t provide ourselves with opportunities to score. We also need a lot of work on bottom, as it appeared in most of the matches.
Matt Magill and Jake Pawlowski both placed third in the tournament and both lost to the top seeds and nationally ranked wrestlers from the Iowa conference. Matt’s conditioning was challenged for the first time this season, and he now knows that in order to be at the top of the podium in March he needs to work on it. Jake wrestled the best tournament so far in his college career. He has a lot to be happy about with, but he still needs to work on some areas like the top position so he’s able to score points on his turns and pinning combinations.
Other notables that placed sixth were Calvin Hawkes, David Rice and Steve Massey.
This past weekend our wrestling team faced off against Stevens Tech from NJ and Elizabethtown from PA. It was a very disappointing day as we dropped both matches. I was unable to be there since I was out in Pennsylvania on a recruiting trip watching a few of our potential wrestlers.
As coaches, we’ll go back to the drawing board and figure out the things we need to improve upon. Bottom line is that we didn’t perform the way we should have and there is a lot of work ahead of us.
It starts today at practice.
Our next competition is in my hometown of Wilkes-Barre, PA, where we compete at the Wilkes Open.
Enjoy the holiday!!!
Posted November 29
After waiting 242 days, our wrestling season finally arrived. With only three seniors in our lineup this year, we are looking at a very young but talented squad led by returning All-American Matt Magill and veterans Steve Contino and Clement Bommier.
The beginning of our season started out on a sour note as we ended up getting bitten by the injury bug. We lost our 10th-ranked, 197-pounder, Jamie Myers, to a torn ACL that will sideline him for the entire season. We also got bad news before the start of the season that our sophomore HWT, Justin Murberg, would not be returning to the team because of a very serious back injury he suffered last season.
As with any successful team, you need to persevere and move on. With that said, we had two major holes to fill in our line-up. Before the start of the season, we knew we needed a heavyweight. We asked Rudy De La Cruz, our 184-pounder two seasons ago, to hit the weights and expect to wrestle at HWT. So far it has paid off. Rudy has done as well as expected despite giving up significant weight in some matches. Steve Massey, who wrestled at 174 for us last season, is a natural 197 and has been a great fill-in with Jamie out of the lineup. Steve had a key pin for us in the Hunter College match that put us ahead in points and sealed the victory. As the season progresses, I expect him to get bigger and become a stronger wrestler.
Our first competition was the Ithaca Invitational, where we go every year to start the season. As coaches, we had mixed emotions, as we felt there were a lot of matches we wrestled well and then there were some matches we didn’t wrestle to our ability. It’s good to have this happen early so we can go back and fix the problems that need to be fixed. Calvin Hawkes and Sam Galassi had good tournaments. Both finished second in their respective weight classes. Calvin wrestled tough and showed us he’s ready to challenge for All-America honors this season. He pinned two-time All-American Blaine Woszczak in the semifinals. Calvin is a very exciting wrestler who can put big points on the scoreboard at any time. Unfortunately, one mistake cost him in the final. But, we are expecting big things from Calvin this season. Sam also had a good tournament. He fell short in OT of winning his first Ithaca title, but I think it gave him the confidence he’ll need to keep moving forward in a positive direction.
Our next competition took us to the Binghamton Open. NYU and Brockport were the only Division III teams in attendance. Our guys knew coming in they needed to step their game up considering they would be wrestling some of the top Division I teams in the country.
Matt Magill placed sixth and had a great tournament. He looked like he got better in each match as the tournament progressed. Matt lost a close match in the quarterfinals to Justin Kerber form Cornell, who is currently ranked fifth in Division I. Matt ended the day with a 4-2 record, beating some quality kids. He looks like he’s picking up where he left off from last season. We expect him to challenge for a top spot on the podium this year in Wisconsin (at the NCAA’s).
Other notables in Binghamton were Sam and David Rice, who both went 2-2. Overall, our performance was solid. We won a lot of matches against some quality kids. It also provided our kids with the confidence they need, knowing that our competition doesn’t get any stronger than that.
Our most recent competition was a tri-meet against two of our Metro Conference opponents. Our first match was against The College of New Jersey. We saw a lot of great things despite only winning three matches. Hawkes looked great against a tough TCNJ wrestler. He controlled the entire match and got the pin during the last period. Our sophomore transfer, Will Ladnier, looked equally impressive at 125. He beat Dan Hughes form TCNJ, who was ranked #1 in our conference. Will’s takedowns looked sharp and he wrestled tough until the end. We also saw a lot of great things out of Sam, who wrestled All-American Mike Denver. In their previous meeting, Denver beat Sam 19-7. This year, Sam closed the gap and lost 4-3, which was not decided until the final whistle. He wrestled tough and gave himself a lot of opportunities to win. The effort built a lot of confidence, too.
The Hunter College match was not decided until Steve Massey came through with a big first-period pin. Ladnier and Hawkes won their second matches of the day, while Contino and Galassi came up with big wins.
Our next competition is in Des Moines, IA, where we’ll be wrestling at the Simpson Invitational this Saturday. Our guys come off a well-rested holiday break, and we’re looking to pick up where we left off.
