During the 2025 winter season, the wrestling team had to adapt to a new scoring system and a variety of injuries and illnesses.
“It’s a sport where a lot of people get injured. So, we had to count on some JV guys to step up for us,” senior Matthew Kelly said.
During the winter season, Coach David Drath and the wrestling team adapted to the loss of a large amount of their team. A multitude of the wrestling team’s members were unable to participate for the majority of the season due to multiple injuries and illnesses. Mono and pneumonia prevented seniors Matthew Kelly and Gabriel Longthorne from participating during the majority of the season. Meanwhile, injuries incapacitated students including sophomore Troy Byrne, junior Luca Franzoni, senior Dominic Rossi, and team captain junior Jared Haddad. Byrne tore his ACL leaving him out of commission until next year.
“Troy’s a good athlete and could have helped us when some of these other guys got hurt. There’s no doubt,” Drath said.
Not only did the team adapt to a lack of team-members, but they also adjusted to a revised scoring system. This season, takedown scoring was modified. Takedowns are now allotted points based on the time taken. Two points are allotted for two seconds, three points for three seconds, and four points for four seconds.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years, and I’m used to two-point takedowns, and now you got [to do] what they call scrambling in order to not give up points. It’s a lot more fierce now than it used to be,” Drath said.
Multiple junior varsity wrestlers were asked to step up and move up to varsity to compensate for their lack of wrestlers. Among them were senior Lorenzo Cappellaro and freshman Andrew Haddad, who filled in for team captain Jared Haddad.
“Jared Haddad’s little brother Andrew stepped in, and I was pleasantly surprised,” Drath said. “I think he realized that you might be able to go undefeated in the JV season, but the experience of wrestling varsity is so much better for his future.”
