Brick Tournament So Far

OK, I have some information but I don't have box scores (yet), who we're wrestling, who we already wrestled, none of that. Here's what I know.

103: Tyare Ford - wrestling back for 7/8 (Ya gotta love this kid!)
119: Joe Duca - wrestling back to 5/6
125: Eddie Wurtenberger - wrestling back to 3/4
130: Niko Lopez - in the Finals
140: Ryan Hoehn - wrestling back to 7/8
145: Jimmy Gentile - wrestling back to 3/4
160: Jeff Hamilton - wrestling back to 5/6
160: Mike Cucinotta - wrestling back to 3/4
171: Zach Greenwald - in the Finals
189: Gerald Hodges - in the Finals
215: Alex Silvestro - in the Finals
HWT: Demitrius Hester - in the Finals

Excellent job Red! Young Mr. Dunnet did not wrestle in the tournament - banged up his ankle running yesterday. I'll let you know when I hear more.

RESULTS:

103: Ford took 8th
119: Duca took 6th
125: Wurtenberger took 4th
130: Lopez took 2nd (apparently got caught by Maloney)
140: Hoehn took 7th
145: Gentile took 3rd
160: Hamilton took 6th
160: Cucinotta took 3rd
Murderer's Row:
171: Greenwald took 1st
189: Hodges took 1st
215: Silvestro took 1st
HWT: Hester took 1st

Way to represent the Red fellas! A couple of tough losses but overall - excellent day! I'll post box scores when/if I get them.

Demitrius Hester

Look out - big fella is on a mission. Big D is preparing himself for another trip to the State Finals in AC, one match at a time. Wouldn't that be perfect! It seems that the Courier Post is Paulsboro's best friend these days - I guess that's a good thing. Here is the article they had today:

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612270472

Brick Tournament

Just wanted to wish all the Red Raiders good luck in the Brick Tournament Thursday. Definitely going to be some tough competition. I haven't talked to my clandestine informants today but I'm pretty sure they're going and I'll be able to post the match results.

Here are the participating teams: Delsea, Eastern, Paulsboro, St. Augustine, Winslow Township, Avon Grove, Pa., Brick Memorial, High Point, North Hunterdon, Ocean Township, Pt. Pleasant Beach, South Brunswick, St. Peters Prep and Wall Township.

Have a safe trip up and back everyone and belated Merry Christmas!

Mike Cucinotta

Now here's a story that personifies the Paulsboro Red Raiders. Hard work, never give up, keep grinding away. That's Mike Cucinotta and the Courier Post has the story. Slight correction - the Courier wrote that his "dad" is his inspiration but it should read "grand dad". If you were ever pulling for a kid to do well, Mike's the one. Here's the link to the article - enjoy.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612240368

Remember the Inquirer Series

Hey folks - remember when the Philadelphia Inquirer ran the series about Paulsboro Wrestling - 6 Hard Minutes. Guess what I found. The memories that these articles brought back - wow. So for your enjoyment - here's the link.

http://www.angelfire.com/ky2/laruewrestle/Heroes.htm

Congrats to Big D and Alex!

Congratulations to both Demitrius Hester and Alex Silvestro on their 100th career wins. Actually Big D got his this past weekend but it didn't count until he got to celebrate with the Raider fans and family. Unfortunately I didn't actually see either of them wrestle tonight (I was fulfilling my PWA duties) but I did HEAR Demi's match. My co-worker and I were commenting that it was very quiet in the gym, then all of a sudden we heard a thud, followed the ref hitting the mat and the crowd going nuts.

OK, here's the Buddha story.....he weighs 160+...he needs to get to 157 by Friday to certify at 152 on a descent plan. I have no idea if he'll wrestle Saturday against Oakcrest or not. I guess we'll all find out together.

Ummmm...no Mr. Hoehn tonight. Rumor (again) is that he has left the team (again). So this is what I'm going to do: if he's on the mat, I'll cheer for him. If he chooses not to wrestle, I'll wish him well. Other than that, not much anyone can do.

I made a new friend tonight - Uncle Bob from Maryland. Hi Uncle Bob! Your nephew is a beast.

Apparently Eddie Wurtenberger got the memo because he pinned his kid tonight. We told him we don't care how interesting he makes his matches...we're not watching!

The only wrestling I actually saw tonight was the end of Niko, Niko, Niko's match - excellent job Niko! And I watched Brandon Samuels who had been on a roll over the weekend so my watching him was a jinx. Sorry Stix, I won't do that again.

Lastly... I think the JV will be wrestling Saturday starting at 11:00am. The varsity match is scheduled for 12:00noon. No 7th and 8th grade that I know of. So.... see yall Saturday. If you haven't paid your PWA dues yet - let's get the checkbook out.

OK - I lied...this will be last. I deleted the News and Info page and renamed this Page to include news and info. It was getting repetitious and believe it or not, I can't think of that much to say!

Sterling Tomorrow

Geez....I almost forgot to even post something. I'm elbow deep in flour....mmmm cookies. I don't really have anything to say (ha, like that's ever stopped me) other than Go Big Red. I don't know anything about Sterling this year...it's too soon. How did Sterling sneak in the schedule so early anyway? I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some wrestling for myself. It was great reporting the Westfield Tournament results but not the same as actually being there.

Don't forget, get your 50/50 tickets! You can't win if you don't play! Season tickets, PWA membership, AC ticket reservations and "Piece of the Mat" raffle tickets will also all be available tomorrow night. Get them while the gettin's good.

Slay the Knights!

For the Record

Just had to toot my own horn (sounds personal). If you look at my projected line-up in an earlier post and compare it to the line-up that actually wrestled in the first match today....flip flop Ryan Hoehn and Jimmy Gentile at 140 and 145.... I was dead on. Boy I'm good.

Westfield Tournament

What a fabulous day for the Raiders and the Raider faithful. It's not every year you can start the season 5-0, let alone in one day! Congratualtions to all our kids who wrestled today, some for the first time in the varsity line-up. Seven of whom got their first varsity wins: Patrick Zold, Joe Duca, Brandon Samuels, Bruce Martell, Matt Funston, Casey Grimes and Zach Greenwald. How great is that!

Definitely a great beginning. Fresh faces, familiar faces and pins everywhere. I think young Mr. Duca had the record for the day with a pin in 0:14. That's just nuts! I was surprised by the number of forfeits today though...I just don't associate tournaments with forfeits.

Note to Eddie Wurtenberger - you will stop making these matches interesting. God Bless Eddie - the whole team either wins or loses by 6.....not Eddie. He takes his match into triple over time. Ya gotta love'em!

Thank you to the top notch informants this afternoon and evening, Spielberg, Mrs. Spielberg and stat girl of the year - Maddie Giorgiani. I think Santa Claus should get her something nice for Christmas.

We're off to a wonderful start. I say we just skip ahead to States but nobody asked me. Next stop: Wednesday night at home vs. Sterling. How the hell did Sterling slip in there so early? Until then....enjoy your week.

Wrong Again

When will I ever learn? My apologies to Ryan Hoehn. Yesterday I said that he didn't make the trip to Virginia and that he wasn't wrestling this season. So of course he did make the trip and he is wrestling, at 140lbs, for the tournament this weekend. Sheesh, some reporter I am.

I'll list the box scores of the tournament on the Match and Individual results page.

Let the Season Begin!

It's finally here - well almost - tomorrow. Paulsboro kicks off it's 2006/2007 season at the Westfield, Va. tournament. I wish all the fellas good luck and hopefully they'll bring home some hardware for their efforts.

I already know I'm going to have to do some tweeking to my line-up. From what I understand Ryan Hoehn won't be wrestling this season. No details....and I wish him the best in whatever he choses to do. This, however leaves my line-up with a hole at 145. I'm thinking Jimmy Gentile. It would help if I knew where everyone certified but I've been slacking on my bugging the hell out of Paul duties so I'm clueless.

I'll be posting results on the nj.com South forum as I receive them and hopefully I'll be able to post more in depth results when the team gets home. I'll probably create another page for Individual Match Results....that way I'll be set for the season and y'all will know where to go for results. I haven't bribed the stat girl yet but have no fear...I'm very good at bribing stat girls. My target this year: Maddie Giorgiani. She does all the work and I take all the credit....sounds like a win/win situation to me.

The tournament is scheduled to start at 11:00am tomorrow. Everyone get a good night's sleep and we'll be off to the races in the morning. Ahhhhhhhh, wrestling season.

Projected Line-up

Ahhhhhhhh.....tis the season....wrestling season! OK, so we had Media Night which was very successful. Very nice to see the Raider faithful turnout for such a festive occasion. It also gave us a look at what we have to work with this year. I don't know about you but I was VERY impressed with the number of kids out for wrestling this year.....very encouraging. And no juniors - that's odd. So without further ado, here's my projected line-up. Keep in mind that this is by no means an official line-up - it may not even be a good guess - but here goes:

103: Pat Zold(FR)/Tyare Ford(SO)

112: Eric Dunnet(SO)

119: Joe Duca(FR)

125: Ed Wurtenberger(SR)

130: Niko Lopez(SR)

135: Brandon Samuels(SO)/Jimmy Gentile(SO)

140: Jimmy Gentile(SO)/Alfred Abate(SR)

145: Ryan Hoehn(SR)

152: Bruce Martell(FR)/Ra'Chard Braxton(JR)

160: Mike Cucinotta(SR)

171: Zach Greenwald(FR)

189: Gerald Hodges(SO)

215: Alex Silvestro(SR)

HWT: Demitrius Hester(SR)


Correction: My bad - there is a junior: Ra'Chard Braxton. For whatever reason he wasn't at Media Night and that's when I made my "No Juniors" discovery. Oh well - if I have to be wrong, I'm glad it's about Ra'Chard.