The Herricks High School wrestling team completed its fifth invitational tournament with a second-place finish in the New Year’s Tournament last weekend.
Nineteen Highlanders won places in competitive action against Westhampton Beach, Babylon, Smithtown Christian, Southampton (from NYS Section XI), Clarkstown North, Edgemont (from NYS Section I), and Brooklyn Tech (PSAL). Eight Herricks grapplers reached the finals in Elite Division action.
Junior Anthony Rosa won his first major tournament championship at 189 by pinning all four of his opponents. This is his third straight tournament finals appearance, and all of that off-season serious weight training is really paying off. “He gets better every time he wrestles,” assistant coach Chris Auriemma observed.
“Coach Auriemma works hard with our big boys, and you can see the improvement,” Herricks wrestling coach Cliff Forziat remarked. “At 196 [pounds] Anthony was holding his own at 215 [now 217], but since he has been down to 189 [now 191] he is 9-2 with eight pins and three finals appearances.”
Ryan Singh (sr-112) made his fifth finals appearance and won his third tournament championship. He currently leads the team with 22 varsity wins and 15-pin victories.
Senior Dan Grandelli (125) made his first trip into the finals and brought back silver.
“Danny says virtually nothing,” Forziat noted. “He just comes every day, works hard, and does whatever the team needs him to do. It’s great to see him punch his way through to the finals.”
Carlos Rodriguez (sr-135) got bopped in the face during his third victory (a pin), and the coaches sent him out to have a medical professional check on him. “Los” returned shortly thereafter and is fine, but thus ended up in second place at 3-0.
“It was something that we had not seen before, and after all is said and done, the safety of these young fellows comes first with me and my staff,” Forziat explained.
Bethpage, Patchogue-Medford, and Locust Valley all had certified EMT’s or Athletic Trainers on duty at their tournaments for on-site higher level assistance. Herricks does not. Hmm.
Chris Farrell (sr-145), Tom Gonzalez (sr-152), Kevin Ryersen (sr-160), and Bill Rynne (jr-215) also reached the finals in Elite Division competition. This is the third time for Farrell, fourth time for Gonzalez, second time for Ryersen, and Rynne’s first foray at this level.
Will Rodriguez (jr-119) had two pins and a major decision on his way to a third-place finish.
Two sophomores, Paul Tantillo and John Temperino, shared third place honors at 140. These two young fellows are especially intense, though very inexperienced in Varsity Elite Division action, but they are both clearly ready to do battle wherever they are sent.
Matt Grandelli (fr-103), Andrew Farrell (so-112), Tom Dunn (sr-135), and Will Dowd (jr-215) all had fourth-place finishes.
On the Second-Man Varsity level freshmen Joe Tadros (125) and Solomon Aziz (215) both had second-place finishes. Dan Akhtar (so) came in fourth at 125.
When you first enter the Muller Arena during one of these wrestling events you find wall-to-wall folks and non-stop wrestling action on three mats. So far, nobody seems to be able to run a multi-team wrestling event as efficiently as Herricks can and does. In 10 hours there were over 300 individual bouts beginning on time and with flexible ability groupings for the athletes. The industry standard that venues hope to reach is eight bouts per hour per mat. Herricks has this a bit higher than ten per hour per mat (with no down time). The typical tournament averages about 125-130 matches over 10 hours.
Herricks wrestlers typically average 10 to 15 more matches per season than their counterparts in other districts at much lower cost.
“We want to provide a dynamic program with maximum opportunities for every eligible team member, not just the top few, at below industry cost,” Forziat said. “We have developed and continuously strive to improve an effective process. We have crack head table personnel, able team-member administrative support, and the best team of involved parents and alumni that you will find anywhere.”
