High school wrestling notebook: BC High muscles way into the equation

Many of the commonwealth’s traditional wrestling powers sit atop the latest dual-meet wrestling rankings.

At No. 13, you’ll find a parochial school located on Morrissey Boulevard ready to muscle its way among the elite.

As they head into the home stretch, BC High has an impressive 19-1 record under first-year coach Ally Sleiman. A standout wrestler under Lou Venturelli at Quincy High School, Sleiman assumed the reins from Paul Ahern and the Eagles haven’t missed a beat.

“The big thing I learned from Paul was how to run practices,” said Sleiman, who had a distinguished amateur career, competing twice at the U.S. Olympic trials as a Greco-Roman wrestler. “Fortunately we had a solid group with nine returning seniors and that provided some cohesion. We have a group of kids who really work hard in the wrestling room.”

It didn’t take athletic director Tom Conley long to see that the decision to hand the program over to Sleiman was the right one,

“When you have a demanding sport like wrestling which is a non-cut sport here, you tend to have kids from all walks of life,” Conley said. “Some kids come here with experiences and others don’t, but (Sleiman) has shown great patience with them. He set his standards early on and the kids have responded.

“If you asked me before the start of the year that we would have started 18-0 with a coach we hired a month before the beginning of the season, I would have called you crazy. But the kids have really put the work in and I’m happy for them.”

BC High put itself on the wrestling map on Dec. 21 in a meet against Rockland, Stoughton and Hingham. The Rockland and Stoughton matches were easy wins as expected, but the true barometer was Hingham. The Eagles defeated the Harbormen 41-21 to improve to 8-0.

“I knew that was a big match,” Sleiman said. “It was really important to see where we stood against a really good team and our kids responded.”

One of those kids who responded well is 132-pound senior Elijah Mendes. He admits the practices aren’t exactly for the faint of heart but the results speak for themselves.

“Coach Sleiman really pushes us, he’s very big on the cardio,” Mendes said. “We were ready for the Hingham match, there was a lot of motivation going into the match. It was one of our toughest matches and winning allowed us to clear one of those small hurdles.”

Added teammate Elijah Cincotti: “The emphasis in every practice is to go hard for six minutes. Our practices are pretty gritty and the coach is always giving us great advice which has helped for the matches.”

BC High’s only match loss was against longtime Catholic Conference power St. John’s Prep (52-16). Matt Thorley, who has won 24 matches at 144 pounds, feels the loss was a major learning experience.

“I think that night we had to learn to be tougher mentally and physically,” said Thorley, who raved about Sleiman’s impact on the program. “We knew St. John’s Prep was our toughest match and I think we might have psyched ourselves out a little too much.”

BC High has since finished second at the New Bedford Whaler Tournament and fourth at the Bob Gay Whitman-Hanson Invitational. One of the highlights was 113-pound sophomore Jake Scanzillo winning both tournaments.

“It’s an indescribable feeling to win a tournament, you have that immediate sense of glory,” Scanzillo said. “You’re the best wrestler pound-for-pound in that weight class and that’s a great accomplishment.

“It showed that all the hard work and effort I put in practice paid off.”

Scanzillo isn’t the only Eagle feeling that way these days.

Short takes

Kudos to Scituate (14-4) which captured the Patriot League Fisher Division outright with a 51-28 win over Quincy/North Quincy. Leading the way with wins for the Sailors were Cullen Fessenden, Colin Dubois, Grayson Loeffel, AJ Reimels, Brady Standridge, Liam Holden, Xander Pizer, Wyllys Ames and Finn O’Connor.

Taunton standout Michael Leskoski etched his name into the record books by becoming the first wrestler in school history to reach 100 career pins.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2E4Tev3