By Andy Loigu

With nine champions in the 63rd John Goles Tournament on Tuesday, following an impressive win in their opening dual meet, the Warren Hills wrestling team has gotten off to a marvelous start, validating their statewide (all groups) number 12 rating.

Senior Mike Galka was awarded Most Outstanding Wrestler honors by a vote of the coaches at the John Goles event after he powered through the brackets at 215 pounds with a pin and three decisions against higher seeded wrestlers to win the championship. Warren Hills head coach Dave Sbriscia (a former Blue Streak standout in his day) was generous with praise in his comments to the media. He credited Galka with being as hard a worker as anyone else on this formidable team. The wrestlers, in turn, credited the coaches for training them to be at their toughest at the end of the bout, outlasting their foe who is nearing exhaustion. Six minutes on the mat can be really grueling.

Warren Hills reached the final in all 14 weights and won the team title, far outdistancing an old nemesis, Delaware Valley, by 113.5 points. A strong field of teams visited Warren Hills for the big day of wrestling including Voorhees, Hillsborough, traditional power Newton, Monroe, Verona, and East Stroudsburg North.

The eight other blue ribbon Blue Streaks were 106 pound freshman Charlie Piccione, Kevin Riedinger at 113, Josh and Jared Lee at 120 and 144 respectively, junior Shawn Redfield at 132, and seniors Steve Malia (165), Owen Frizzell (175), and Tyler McCatharn at 285. 

A week earlier, the Blue Streaks excited their fan-base with an impressive 39-21 win at Raritan Regional in Monmouth County in their opening dual meet. You can’t win them all if you don’t win the first one! Their “Murderers’ Row” lineup earned bonus points in the first four bouts against the Rockets and then, as George Burns would say, it was “time to say goodnight, Gracie.” Mike Drazek won a 16-0 tech fall at 157 pounds and then Malia, Frizzell, and Ryan Galka (at 190) all floored their foes. Frizzell needed only 14 seconds and Malia got his pin in 51 seconds.

Wrestling News

There are three new rules that are being enforced in New Jersey this year, although, longtime referee Joe Knipper, opines, “As far as I know, New Jersey is the only state using these particular rules.” 

As coaches often wait until the last instant to send a wrestler onto the mat for a certain weight class, depending on who the other team sent out there, the wrestler needs to arrive at the scorers’ table ready to wrestle, with headgear and mouthpiece in place and his shoelaces tied. That seems like a reasonable thing to expect.

I remember a match I covered at Mendham where the visiting Mount Olive squad was penalized a point in the team score because one of their wrestlers was wearing ear-phones during the national anthem. Mount Olive won the match despite the one-point deduction, but I’m sure that particular infraction never happened again.

Also in New Jersey (often accused of being an over-regulated state), wrestlers are only allowed up to half an inch of facial hair, so the fuzz won’t be abrasive in close contact. Also, several common stalling tactics will be penalized if a wrestler riding on the top does not improve his position after a warning and five-count.

A MADDEN TRIBUTE

Those of us who have watched NFL football on TV for the past four decades are saddened by the death of John Madden.

Something I really appreciated about him was how he demystified football. He didn’t try to impress the audience with all the coachspeak jargon, as so many of his contemporaries did (and some still do). Football is not really all that complicated. BOOM! It comes down to blocking and tackling. Without blocking, even Tom Brady in his best years would struggle to get a first down and his two Super Bowl losses to the relentless Giants’ pass rush prove that point.

I read Madden’s autobiographical book and have never forgotten that he said he retired from coaching to spend time with his family. By then his children had grown up and had careers of their own and his spouse also was leading an active life of community service. John was home all by himself, bored, with nothing to do, so he got involved with broadcasting.

When I did some high school football broadcasting for WRNJ, I tried to apply the John Madden style, and a little bit of Dandy Don Meredith, to my own commentary: keep it simple and have fun. I took it as a great compliment when Doc South, on his “front porch” afternoon show, said my partner Harlin Jeffries and I were “good enough to do the Super Bowl.” Thanks for that one, Doc.

Thanks for the memories, entertainment. and inspiration,John Madden. Rest in peace, riding in that big Madden Cruiser in the sky.

********

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.