The County Seaters won the Skyland Conference Valley Division title despite massive inexperience.
The formula for winning championships in wrestling usually follows a familiar path: a tested team full of experienced wrestlers, loaded with seniors, a team that knows how to win big matches.
Then there’s how Belvidere did it this winter to capture the Skyland Conference Valley Division championship.
“We graduated 12 starters,” County Seater coach Dan McIntyre said.
Belvidere’s lineup has several first-year wrestlers and some very athletic football players new to the sport.
Usually that’s a formula for a very long winter.
But not for the County Seaters, who won their division with thrilling victories over Manville (on criteria) and Pingry (by three points on a last-bout fall from junior Nick Cassidy) and qualified for a North 2 Group 1 sectional berth.
It all left McIntyre, a Liberty graduate, the former Saucon Valley and Pleasant Valley coach, and one of the sport’s true gimlet-eye types, a little baffled, if pleasantly so.
“I didn’t think the Manville match would be that close,” he said. “I was surprised by that, they have a really good team. Our goal every year is to qualify for sectionals, but I didn’t think that was going to happen.”
It did, as Belvidere (10-8 heading into Wednesday’s home match with Wilson) grabbed the last berth and drew the worst possible foe – powerful Bound Brook, which thumped the County Seaters 54-24 in Monday’s first round.
McIntyre kvetched about the power points and the seeding a bit, but he has no complaints about his team at all.
“The kids wrestle hard and are aggressive, that’s all we can ask,” he said. “They come out and work hard, that’s all we want.”
The sectional disappointment should not obscure what’s been a remarkable Belvidere season despite such a green squad, a team that was almost totally bare of varsity experience aside from Cassidy, a 2015 District 1 champion, and one or two other wrestlers.
Several factors help Belvidere succeed.
One, perhaps first and foremost, the County Seaters boast excellent turnout for a Group 1 school. Over 40 wrestlers came out for the team, a figure many larger schools would envy, and it’s something the coaching staff works on.
“We don’t cut kids,” McIntyre said. “We know we’ll get some athletic kids who will only go so far in wrestling but they can still make progress and help the team.”
Two, Belvidere builds on success, such as last year’s team that made it to the sectional final before losing to Bound Brook.
“The more success you have it’s easier to fill teams,” McIntyre said. “Kids want to be a part of that. We have a little tradition of success here from when Marty White was coaching (in the late 1990’s) and we build on that.”
Three, getting some new talent such as 106-pound freshman Quinn Melofchik, who has won 23 matches, helped.
The new talent came from different angles sometimes.
“Look (at sophomore 182-pounder) Ryan Kokawski,” McIntyre said. “He came from (now-closed) Pius X and he played basketball. Now he comes out for wrestling and he pinned seven straight kids.”
Three, McIntyre and assistant Seth Wisner make their wrestlers better. Some teams don’t improve much from December to February. Belvidere generally does.
“Ryan Kokawski is a good example of an inexperienced kid we’re getting that improvement from,” McIntyre said.
Four, an improved youth program has helped.
“We don’t have money for a middle school program so youth wrestling is really important,” McInytre said. “We have a good number of kids in the feeder program and they compete in two different league and they’re doing well. We’re looking two or three years down the road, but that will really help us.”
Fifth, the Seaters get their inexperienced wrestlers as competition as possible, not easy these days with the depressingly steady decline of junior varsity wrestling.
“We’re getting our JV kids 20 bouts,” McIntyre said. “That’s why they keep coming to practice because they know they’ll get to compete. That’s the reward for all that work in practice.”
Sixth, McIntyre does not baby his team. Belvidere’s non-divisional schedule is full of larger schools with successful programs such as Mendham, Voorhees, Hanover Park, and Pope John XXIII.
“Hey, I am a graduate of Liberty, we always wanted to wrestle the best competition,” McIntyre said.
Belvidere’s fun to watch, too. Cassidy and Melofchik are the standouts, perhaps, but others such as sophomore Ryan Lensi (113), senior Josh Pershpalaj (170), Kokawski, and erstwhile football standout Zach DeLuca (195) are well worth the price of admission.
Not everything is perfect at Belvidere. A 37-36 loss to arch-rival North Warren on criteria stung the Seaters badly, and individual success at a high level as eluded McIntyre so far in his five seasons.
But to win a championship with such a young squad says that the County Seaters are moving in the right direction – even if their formula’s a little different.
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
