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| Wrestlers Max Abramsky and Trey Aslanian |
From 12/3/10; by Todd Sliss
2009-10: 14-12, league champions
Coaches: George DiChiara, Pete Jacobson, Jedd Chesterson
Roster: Juniors: Max Abramsky, Peter Berman, David Chun, David Hyon, Daniel Kornberg. Sophomores: Trey Aslanian, Rpss Kantor, Sky Korek, Jack McCormack, Oliver Oks, Michael Rothstein, Jason Worobow. Freshmen: Tyler Aslanian, Connor Eckert, Marc Ficuciello, Will Graybeal, Colin Hopkins, Tommy Jachemczyk, Chris Kim, Sam Klein, Rikesh Mistry, Nicholas Ron, Stephen Weiss, Noah Whittle.
A team with 10 seniors and no juniors on it last year is now a team with no seniors. And that’s OK for the Edgemont wrestling team, which has two years to build with its current group.
“Everybody we have is freshman, sophomore, junior and some of the guys are brand new to the sport,” coach George DiChiara said. “A lot of guys are going to have to fill spaces and gaps, because they were behind quality seniors and they didn’t get the same amount of time, the same amount of matches. And that’s a tall task.”
But it’s doable.
Edgemont has been a very strong program in Section 1, especially in small schools sectionals, where they had three champions and four state qualifiers last year. Only one returns, sophomore Trey Aslanian, and in his third year he’s got his sights set on becoming Edgemont’s first state champion.
Other Edgemont veterans are Max Abramsky and Danny Kornberg, along with the sophomore group of Michael Rothstein, Ross Kantor, Sky Korek, Oliver Oks, Jason Worobow and Jack McCormack, plus second-year wrestler Colin Hopkins, a freshman.
“I think sectional experience was very critical for many of those guys,” DiChiara said. “Our whole objective is to get as much mat time as possible, to get exposed at an earlier age to a lot of the varsity and double-entry tournaments, to really get a flavor of what to expect because there really is such a huge gap from modified to varsity.”
The sophomore class is one of the biggest classes that Edgemont has had and each time they’ve had a big class, like last year’s senior class, the results have shown.
“Every kid matures at their own pace and deals with adversity differently, but I do think that some of these kids are going to surprise people and start to make a name for themselves,” DiChiara said. “If you can start to do that as a sophomore just imagine what it’s going to be like as a junior or senior, so they’re in a very good position.”
Building the program ideally comes from having a solid number in each grade, though it doesn’t always work out that way.
“The hope is to get six to eight kids from modified each year and then you have your 25-30 wrestlers and everybody has some background, some skill sets,” DiChiara said. “We are lucky we have a large group of freshmen who came up. It’s in the right direction starting with the youth program.”
Edgemont probably won’t fill all of the weight classes and will have kids fighting each other for spots, but that’s normal. However, the more spread out they can be, the better it will be for the team.
“I don’t know if we’re going to fill every weight class, but we do have options, which is nice,” DiChiara said. “I think guys know where they want to be and how to get that starting spot. If you don’t fill weight classes you don’t win dual meets and you have a tough time building confidence as a team.”