Nick's Freshman Post Season Begins...
The Northeast Ohio Conference Tournament
After the GSW incident Nick, as you can imagine, was excited to get back to competing. He began practicing again with his teammates and preparing for the post season. One practice was a special clinic Brunswick attended that featured Olympic Champion Jordan Burroughs!
This was very exciting for the young wrestlers. It's always great to see the top athletes in your chosen sport. Nick said that at one point during the clinic JB told him that he had a nice double leg! That fired him up! There were also other high caliber Division 1 NCAA wrestlers there. Here's Nick with a picture of Jordan Burroughs and NCAA Champion Angel Escobedo, who is now the head coach of Indiana University:
It was a little over a full month before Nick received medical clearance to be able to wrestle again and the Northeast Ohio Conference Tournament, commonly known as the NOC, was fast approaching. The NOC tournament was a 2 day, very tough and exciting tournament, with an 18 team field:
- Brunswick
- Brush
- Cuyahoga Falls
- Elyria
- Hudson
- Garfield Hts.
- Parma
- Mayfield
- Medina
- Mentor
- Normandy
- North Royalton
- Parma
- Shaker Hts.
- Solon
- Strongsville
- Twinsburg
- Valley Forge
Brunswick wrestling was really looking good and team morale and chemistry was terrific. We felt confident that we could win the conference. This would not be an easy thing to accomplish as powerhouse Elyria, coached by Eric Burnett, was also a young and very hungry team filled with up and coming State Placers and future State Champions on their team.
With Brunswick being the defending NOC champions, Coach Koshar and the rest of the team decided to employ a little strategy in approaching the conference tournament. By the way...click here to see the 2012/2013 Brunswick Wrestling video! This was the team that really began the culture of winning at Brunswick...the year before Nick's arrival.
Cleveland.com's Scott Patsko described the strategy...and the result of the strategy perfectly in this article. The strategy worked well. The Blue Devils defended their title by placing 13 of 14 wrestlers and had 2 individual conference champions!
DJ Skiba our sophmore 106 lber. placed 3rd. At 113 lbs. Ethan Rivera also placed 3rd. Ethan, who was a Bill Dies Champion, was a solid wrestler who unfortunately quit the team after this season, his freshman year. If he hadn't quit he had the makings of a future state placer. Here's a picture of Ethan after a Summer tournament later in the year...before he decided not to return.
Great picture huh?
Our sophmore State Placer Josh Heil, wrestling at 120 lbs., lost a close and controversial overtime match to Elyria's Armondo Torres 1-0 to place 2nd after beating Torres at the Bill Dies to place 1st. At 126 lbs. our Senior Brett Thomas placed 1st by a decision of 7-6. My son Nick placed 1st at 132 lbs. More on that in a bit.
Our Junior at 138 lbs., Christian Camacho, lost to Elyria's Micah Price by a score of 9-2 to take 2nd. Our Junior 145 lb. wrestler, Austin Fallon lost his 5th place match by injury default. Our 152 Senior wrestler Ray Floyd lost by decision 10-3 to N. Royalton's Xavier Wasko. Our Junior 160, Brandon Bryant, placed 3rd by defeating Elyria wrestler Taylor Workman 7-5.
Our Junior at 138 lbs., Christian Camacho, lost to Elyria's Micah Price by a score of 9-2 to take 2nd. Our Junior 145 lb. wrestler, Austin Fallon lost his 5th place match by injury default. Our 152 Senior wrestler Ray Floyd lost by decision 10-3 to N. Royalton's Xavier Wasko. Our Junior 160, Brandon Bryant, placed 3rd by defeating Elyria wrestler Taylor Workman 7-5.
At 170 lbs. we saw another talented Blue Devil wrestler emerge. Freshman Aaron Naples defeated Junior Mike Bekeny at a wrestle off earlier in our season which provided the team with more depth. Aaron placed 4th, losing by decision 7-3 to a Strongsville wrestler.
Aaron would remain a starter throughout the rest of his high school career and have great success. Here's a picture of Aaron placing 1st at a Junior Varsity tournament earlier in the season:
At 182 lbs. Blue Devil Mike Bekeny placed 4th...losing to Ben Krizman of Hudson, while our Senior Dean Warchark placed 4th at 195 lbs. losing to Michael Desanter, another Hudson wrestler, by score of 5-1.
Our 220 lb. Junior Matt Purdue also placed 4th, losing by fall to Elyria's Connor Kamczyc. Brunswick didn't have a heavyweight.
Folks this team victory solidified our standing as a Division One Team Power House! Beating Elyria for the second year in a row, who had 9 placers and 5 finalists, was a significant victory and announced our arrival. Elyria had 3 future State Champs on this team... sophomore Ben Darmstadt, freshman heavyweight Kevin Vough, and JT Brown. With plenty of stud kids coming down the pike.
This win was a testimony to our talent and depth! In a major way.
I was super proud of Nick's coming back from an inactive period and wrestling like he did. He pinned his first opponent from Cuyahoga Falls and pulled out a tough win over a Mentor opponent 1-0. He said the kid was "the strongest wrestler he ever faced."
In the Semi's he defeated Hudson's Motter, whom he wrestled at the MIT while recovering from the flu earlier in the season, and completely dominated him winning 9-3. His win over Motter at the MIT was 8-6. Big difference when you're healthy.
The Finals match against Parma Senior Chase Csongedi was very exciting as was noted in this article on Cleveland.com. It was great to see his desire and "I'm not going to lose mentality" on display. His mental toughness and belief in himself was always one of his biggest assets and it came through again as he won a thriller in the 3rd period 12-10.
Here's is what Coach Koshar told the Cleveland.com reporter:
"That kid is going to give me a heart attack. I don't think I can watch this for the next three years," said Koshar. "He has really good hips and does some things you can't really coach. Pretty gifted and talented. But we have to control him a little bit and not have him be so wild. I think he's really going to be something special."
Such a great quote at the beginning of Nick's freshman year post season run. It was almost as if Coach Koshar knew what was coming in the future. The very near future at that.
Hey thanks for taking the time to read this installment about my son Nick's journey. It's in the comparatively recent past now, but the telling of a great sport story is timeless. The trials and tribulations...the actors involved...the peaks and the valley's...these are things we all can relate to as sports is a common denominator in most of our lives. Take care until next time.
Aaron would remain a starter throughout the rest of his high school career and have great success. Here's a picture of Aaron placing 1st at a Junior Varsity tournament earlier in the season:
Aaron is currently wrestling at Ohio University:
Our 220 lb. Junior Matt Purdue also placed 4th, losing by fall to Elyria's Connor Kamczyc. Brunswick didn't have a heavyweight.
Folks this team victory solidified our standing as a Division One Team Power House! Beating Elyria for the second year in a row, who had 9 placers and 5 finalists, was a significant victory and announced our arrival. Elyria had 3 future State Champs on this team... sophomore Ben Darmstadt, freshman heavyweight Kevin Vough, and JT Brown. With plenty of stud kids coming down the pike.
This win was a testimony to our talent and depth! In a major way.
I was super proud of Nick's coming back from an inactive period and wrestling like he did. He pinned his first opponent from Cuyahoga Falls and pulled out a tough win over a Mentor opponent 1-0. He said the kid was "the strongest wrestler he ever faced."
In the Semi's he defeated Hudson's Motter, whom he wrestled at the MIT while recovering from the flu earlier in the season, and completely dominated him winning 9-3. His win over Motter at the MIT was 8-6. Big difference when you're healthy.
The Finals match against Parma Senior Chase Csongedi was very exciting as was noted in this article on Cleveland.com. It was great to see his desire and "I'm not going to lose mentality" on display. His mental toughness and belief in himself was always one of his biggest assets and it came through again as he won a thriller in the 3rd period 12-10.
Here's is what Coach Koshar told the Cleveland.com reporter:
"That kid is going to give me a heart attack. I don't think I can watch this for the next three years," said Koshar. "He has really good hips and does some things you can't really coach. Pretty gifted and talented. But we have to control him a little bit and not have him be so wild. I think he's really going to be something special."
Such a great quote at the beginning of Nick's freshman year post season run. It was almost as if Coach Koshar knew what was coming in the future. The very near future at that.
Hey thanks for taking the time to read this installment about my son Nick's journey. It's in the comparatively recent past now, but the telling of a great sport story is timeless. The trials and tribulations...the actors involved...the peaks and the valley's...these are things we all can relate to as sports is a common denominator in most of our lives. Take care until next time.
