Western Mass
As I look back on the last eleven years of chasing the Golden Eagles Wrestling team and chronicling their achievements, I am reminded that there has always been a point in the season when you knew what a certain team was going to be able to accomplish. There has usually been a point in the season that you could look back on and say, "That's when it all came together", or "That's when it all fell apart". I thought I knew that point this season. I know that after the meet with West Springfield, when the guys had gotten soundly beaten, I thought to myself that this may be the moment that we look back on at the end of the season. This might be the moment that defined the season. I think I may have been right, but for all the wrong reasons. At the time I was thinking that this might be the point that we were going to see that it all fell apart. How wrong I was. It was a defining moment, but not in that way.
After the West Springfield loss, the team was at a crossroads. Were they going to sink into the despair of defeat, or were they going to find a way to pull it all together and make a run at keeping the Western Mass Championship streak alive? One man knew the answer to that question, and luckily, he was the man that was holding all the cards. I was amazed at the way that Coach Darby McLaughlin handled the situation. The first thing he did was right away, I mean immediately following the loss to West Side, in their gym, he explained to the guys that winning this league match was not the goal of the season. He explained that even though they may have lost the league championship, the goal was always to win in the Western Mass tournament. He explained to them that they were a team that was capable of making the adjustments and coming back in the post season and winning the important title. Then he went into action.
There was an immediate change, from my perspective, in the way that the practices were put together. It was back to the basics. Drilling the basics, drilling the stuations, conditioning the wrestlers, and most importantly, building up the team's confidence. Over the course of the past week and a half, he has given the team some motivational talks that have inspired even the coaching staff. He made believers of us all. And then…………..
And then came the Methuen tournament last weekend. I remember the change in the guys. I remember the subtle differences in how the team approached the tournament. Mostly, I remember the look in the eyes of the wrestlers. It was the look of a winner. For the first time this season, they looked as if they wanted to achieve IT. Whatever that IT was for each and every one of them, you could see that they were setting goals. I remember the ride back home, sitting next to coach McLaughlin and saying to him, "If the guys wrestle next weekend (Western Mass Tournament) like they wrestled this weekend, I think they will win the tournament." It was dark, but I still saw the hint of a gleam in his eye when he replied, "There is no doubt we are going to win it." He knew before the rest of us. He had the plan. He was holding the cards, and yesterday at the Western Mass Championships, it was time to play the cards.
Before the tournament started, he gave instructions to the wrestlers. He told them what they were capable of doing, and how they were going to do it. He was pulling out the old playbook. We were going to win this tournament "Central Style". We were going to go out, wrestle aggressively, pin often and win the battle underneath in the consolations. In other words, we were bringing the fight to them. All out wrestling, no looking back. Punch em in the face first and hit em when they were down. If you get knocked out of the championship bracket, you wrestle harder than before. There is no time for feeling sorry for yourself, there was a job to do. It was amazing the way the guys responded. Six wrestlers battled their way through the championship rounds to get to the finals. Tyrique Dowdell (113), Ellison Robinson (126), Jonathan Viruet (138), Rick Viruet (145), Bryan Lebron (160), and Mickel Melendez (170) all won through to the finals. Nick Kushner (106) won his first match by pin (4 points), lost in the quarterfinals and then pinned in the consys (3points) before being knocked out of the tournament. He scored 7 points for the team as a first year wrestler without much experience, job well done. He would be the only wrestler on the Central team to be knocked from the brackets. The hero of the day, if I had to name one, would be Nick "Stogie" Stahovich. Nick made an improbable run that electrified the team and dashed the hopes of the West Side team. Nick's first match of the day was against West Side's Will Hearn. He lost badly. He was kicked down to the consolation round without scoring a point. The hope was that he would be able to score a few points for the team before getting knocked out of the tournament. He proceeded to win his way through the consolation rounds up until the consy semis (qualification round for states) where he faced West Side's Will Hearn one more time. It was a little disappointing to see him face off against Hearn. It was the third time they faced and he hadn't won yet. It looked like he was destined for fifth or sixth place. Instead, Stogie pulled off the upset of upsets by pinning Will Hearn and sticking a dagger into the heart of the West Springfield team. It was at that point when we knew (Central) and they knew (West Springfield) that the tournament had been won. That win energized the team like nothing I have ever seen. All the other wrestlers in the consy's won their semifinal match to qualify for states. That round featured four matches in a row with the Central Wrestler behind in the third period and coming back to win the match. Jerod Escribano (182), Matt Paris (195), Stephan Moldonado (220) and Kam Anderson (285) all were behind in the third period and came back to win the consy semifinal match and advance to states.
When the dust had cleared, the Golden Eagles had 4 champions, 2 second place, 3 third place finishers and 4 fourth place finishers. Thirteen qualifying for the state tournament next weekend.
We all knew this was a young team, we knew that it was going to be an uphill battle. At the beginning of the season we set the goal for this team. The goal was "Keep the streak alive!" It wasn't a lofty goal for Central, at least not usually, but it was a challenge for this young team. At times during the season it looked like it might be too much of a stretch. There were moments that we all despaired. But the man that was holding the cards, was holding them close to his vest. Whenever it got real tough he would show us an ace, but he never really showed his whole hand. Yesterday it was time to play his cards. He pushed all his chips onto the table and went all in. Then he laid out a beautiful, winning hand and came away with the championship.
Congratulations to the guys who put in so much hard work on a daily basis to make themselves better and achieve this championship. It may be the eighth in a row, and you would expect that it wouldn't mean so much after winning that many times, but I think this championship, this year, with this team, may be the most special one yet.