Coach's Corner

Despite injury and illness, the Rebels won their pool going 2-0 defeating Hopewell and Manchester and advancing to the Championship Pool. We then lost to Landstown, Mount Vernon, and Lee-Davis, who ended up in the top three spots.

Robert Bane went 4-0 on the day defeating 4 very talented opponents. He is proving time and time again that he can wrestle up to the level of competition.

Sam O'Connor continues to impress going 3-1. He is probably one of the best wrestlers in the region that no one has heard of. It won't be too long before people start to talk about him.

Due to injuries and illness we had some new faces in the lineup. Grant Silvestri saw his first chance at varsity action and ended up going 2-3 in a very tough weight class. Grant showed plenty of promise and with the elimination of some mistakes he'll surely make a name for himself. The rebels also had Jack Somers back in the lineup at 160 lbs. He is maturing fast and getting comfortable on the mat. Jack went 2-2 on the day.

Andrew Donchez went 3-2 on the day also. As a first year starter at 138, he's been thrown into the fire and forced to learn on the fly. This weekend Andrew matured a lot on the mat showing better mat awareness and match management.

The rebels also took 2 backups that saw varsity action. Junior Anthony Tiller(145) saw action in the first match against Hopewell and with the elimination of 1 mistake who knows how the match could have ended up. Freshman Connor Glowacki showed plenty of promise wrestling tough against Manchester at 132. Connor got the first takedown to show that he can compete on the varsity level.

The Rebels look to expand on these opportunities this week against Godwin and at the Lee-Davis Tournament.

This has been a great preseason for Freeman Wrestling. The Freeman machine is starting to roll. There is a total change in attitude. Wresters are pushing themselves and each other harder every day. The coaching staff has two wrestlers and two coaches left over from the last regional championship team and we agree that the practices are starting to show the intensity and focus of the practices from those seasons. It’s an exciting time for Freeman Wrestling.

We have a good crop of Freshmen this year. Not a big group, but a group of quality wrestlers that we are excited about. The group of Connor Christian, Connor Glowacki, Daniel McGuire, Daniel Flores, and Jack Somers showed up to a majority of the preseason workouts. Those five got the equivalent of a season’s worth of practice in the preseason and they are already looking more like sophomores. We also have a solid group of freshmen that have come from football. Andrew Robertson, Christian Wilber, and heavyweight Brad Vassar look to bring a winning attitude from an undefeated freshman football team.

Wrestle-offs have been exciting as well. 138 is the most competitive weight class on the team this year. We have 5 wrestlers fighting for one spot. So. Sam Reiner lost a very close match to Sr. Zach Brown. The match was close the entire time until the third period when Brown caught Reiner hanging his head and reversed him to his back. The other match between Jr. Andrew Donchez and Jr. Anthony Tiller started off with tiller taking charge of the offence with a quick takedown. Donchez however was able to reverse and show control on the top for the win. So 138 came down to the winners of those two, and Brown vs. Donchez was another close match. There were takedowns, reversals, and back points to spare in the matchup. Donchez, on bottom and down on points with 15 seconds left in the match reversed Brown, who was riding too high, to his back for the win. Donchez and Brown will wrestle off again later to establish a starter.

Two other wrestle-offs of note were at 113 and 160. The 113 match was between Jr. Shawn McCall and So. Chris Echols. Both wrestlers matched up very evenly matching each other in take-downs and reversals, but McCall ended up on top with a 10-8 win.

At 160, Fr. Jack Somers challenged returning starter Sr. Cole Applegate. Applegate looked good on his feet scoring a takedown in the first 20 seconds but got caught riding high on legs and Somers reversed Applegate to end the period. The second period was a ground an pound period, Applegate road tough but got hit with an illegal head scissors. Jack reversed Applegate late into the period to get up 5-2. Somers looked good to start out the third period but Applegate’s experience showed up, reversing Somers to his back for a quick two count for four points. Applegate won the match 6-5. We look forwards to Applegate vs. Somers II for the starting position.

Coach Ailor