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Anyone competing in any sport wants to be the best they can be, which is to be expected. A clique, when you have a bad kid beating up on another bad kid you think you’re good, can sometimes be used in the Ohio Valley. There’s no mistake when I say the valley doesn’t have the most competitive wrestling teams in this part of Ohio, but that’s to be expected.
However, that doesn’t have to be accepted and some of the wrestling coaches in the Ohio Valley are doing this because they want to be more competitive.
Coming from the Mountain State, everyone knows Ohio wrestling is typically more competitive than West Virginia. This is why during my prep days at Wheeling Park the mat program left the valley to compete in tournaments like the North Canton Holiday Invitational and the Joshua Hephner Memorial Tournament at Austintown Fitch because that’s where the best teams were going to be on the mat.
We didn’t ever cruise to a team trophy over Ohio powers Lakewood St. Edwards, Tallmadge or Massilon Perry, but getting mat experience against good wrestlers only prepared us more for the OVAC and state tournament.
Hanging around the mats this weekend at the Best Value Inn Invitational in St. Clairsville I was in conversation with one local coach about seeing better competition. He said he liked what the Red Devils’ mat program has done promoting their tournament and bringing in high quality competition.
“I even try to have my junior high team get away for at least one tournament to see better wrestlers,” he said.
There are a lot of teams in the valley that prefer to stay home and not travel outside the OVAC. These coaches know who they are and only continue to limit their wrestling squads. To some of their defenses — some cannot escape funding issues, others aren’t at that level to see better competition and others are looking for an excuse.
“To win big matches you have to be in big matches, and a lot of them, it’s the only way to get better,” St. Clairsville coach Jay Michael said as his freshman standout Dominic Prezzia defeated Oak Glen’s Ethan Dray this weekend.
Michael went on to explain his plans of taking his squad — saturated by freshman and sophomores — to the Columbus area on Jan. 5 to compete against some better squads.
“Some people don’t realize why I want to head towards Columbus to wrestle, but its to get better competition,” Michael explained. “This is the only way to continue getting better is to see better teams. We may not come away with team victories, but it will help each individual wrestler improve.”
It has never been better to be a Park Patriot after toppling rival John Marshall 44-16 to claim the team title at the Wheeling Park Domino Duals this weekend.
“It was a good win,” Patriots’ mat mentor Sean Doyle said in a phone conversation. “These guys have not been given much credit from outsiders with only seven returning starters from last season.”
Drilling the Monarchs from the whistle, the icing on the cake came in the 215-pound bout as Wheeling Park’s Alan Earnest knocked off returning West Virginia Class AAA state champion Taylor Potts in a 8-2 decision.
“It was a great one to see,” assistant coach Steve Shaffer said as the victory will give Earnest the upperhand in seeding heading into the OVAC tournament. “Earnest really took it to him.”
The route to the Monarchs wasn’t an easy one as the Patriots — along with JM, Hopewell (Pa.) and Carrollton — won their respected pools. Park’s confidence booster in the pool victories came in defeating Ripley and Parkersburg South — both which were ranked higher in the West Virginia Class AAA standings coming into the weekend.
“Those two wins definitely got us going,” Doyle said. “They’re a motivated group and individually want to be OVAC and state champions.
“A lot of our early success came from getting so many pins. They are a very tight group and continued to feed off each other through the entire tournament.”
As the Patriots will jump up the poll in West Virginia Class AAA, they still have to clash with long time Class A/AA champions Oak Glen on Saturday.
“Wrestling Oak Glen is the first point when we start to target ourselves to peak and continue to improve,” Doyle said as his Patriots prepare to wrestle the high octane Gold Bears. “That follows right into OVACs and states.”
EVANSTON, Ill. – Buckeye Local graduate David Bertolino continues to trek through the fiercest of competition as Iowa State battled in the Midland Championships at the Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Staying alive in day one of competition, Bertolino pinned Cody Johnson of Wabash (Ind.) and Carl Howe or Northwestern in times of 2:46 and 6:22, respectively. However, the senior Cyclone wasn’t as lucky in his quarterfinal match as he fell short to Central Michigan’s Wynn Michalak by pin fall.
Battling back through the consolations, Bertolino handed Iowa’s Brodie Ambrose a quick Midlands goodbye in 5:40 before sneaking away with a 4-2 decision of Michigan State’s Joe Williams.
As the competition continued to get, better Bertolino hit a familiar face with Rider’s T.J Morrison. In their first matchup of the season, Bertolino was able to come away with a one point win from riding time in a 4-4 deadlock to hand Morrison a 5-4 setback.
However, this time the result wasn’t exactly the same as Morrison worked the mat more efficiently to earn 9-4 win sending the Mt. Pleasant native to a fifth-sixth place bout.
Needless to say, his placement match wasn’t a first time meeting either as Bertolino toed the line with Northern Iowa’s Andrew Anderson — who he pinned earlier this season. The result, not a pin fall, but still a win as Bertolino handed Anderson a 9-4 decision to take home fifth place.
“I thought overall we had a good tournament,” Iowa State head coach Cael Sanderson said to Iowa State Sports Information Department. “We won some big matches and lost some close ones. The important thing is we know what we have to do to get better and we will be working on those things.”
ON SUNDAY, Jan. 5 a member of our wrestling family will be remembered at the Lucas Sedgmer Memorial Scholarship Sportsman’s Feast at the New Athens Firehall. Sedgmer, a Cadiz standout wrestler, lost his life in an automobile accident a few years back.
His contributions as a prep wrestler and coach at Wheeling Park are well worth remembering. The event will begin at 4 p.m. with food service beginning at 5p.m. The cost is $10 per person and those under 21 must be accompanied by an adult. Auctions, door prizes, raffles, 50/50 and music will be available.
For more information contact or for tickets contact (740) 968-4419 or (740) 942-2118.
Cook can be reached at bcook@timesleaderonline.com