December, 2007
Dual Meet Championship 2nd. Round Analysis/Predictions
After going 9 for 12 out of the first round of 16, we were 1 and 1 on called upsets (Beacon and Ossining) and 1 and 1 on called close matches (Harrison and Brewster).<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I doubt anyone would have called the big Sleepy win over Mahopac. We felt it would be closer than anticipated, but an outright win by Sleepy Hollow was unexpected. Congratulations on their win.
With the cancellations and subsequent re-scheduling of all the matches, the first and second rounds will over-lap for a few teams today. That’s why we’re going to use the balance of our 1st round predictions and move to analysis/predictions for the second round.
So here we go for round #2.
John Jay CR over <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Harrison – No chance for an upset here. JJCR rolls to the pool final.
Somers over Ossining – Brewster has shown that with a line-up shuffle, you can come back and beat a team you previously lost to. But Somers wins again in a close match.
New Rochelle over Nanuet – New Rochelle should sweep in the middle weights and take at least half of the upper and lower weights for the win.
Suffern over Arlington – If Suffern gets past Port Chester, we’re calling for an upset over Arlington in a very close match.
Fox Lane over Brewster – No surprises here. Fox Lane simply too much for Brewster.
Beacon – Underrated Beacon squad wins a close match over underrated Sleepy Hollow.
Carmel over RCK – Looks like a lot of good match-ups here – Davidson/Cabibbo Lorenz/Cabibbo etc. Goin’ with Carmel in a close match.
North Rockland over Edgemont – Called for an upset of Edgemont over W.P., but North Rockland wins the second round match regardless of its opponent.
Section 1 Dual Meet Championship Analysis/Predictions
Turn on any sporting event and the pre-game analysis is always about who’s it gonna be?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Some sports allocate a whole hour of pre-game commentary, analysis and predictions for the outcome.
No difference here …so here’s SectionOneWrestling.com’s analysis and predictions for the first full round of the 2007 Section 1 Dual Meet Championships.
JJCR over <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Eastchester - JJCR is the 800 lb gorilla standing quietly in the corner.
Harrison over Clarkstown North – Both teams evenly matched. It’ll come down to the team who gets more wins by pin.
Rye over Ossining – Ossining giving up too many forfeits.
Somers over Nyack – Somers too much for a battling Nyack team.
Nanuet over Mamaroneck – This match might be a little closer than some people thought coming into the season.
New Rochelle over Westlake – After beating Carmel, New Ro. can lay claim as the third best dual meet team. No surprises here.
Suffern over Port Chester - Underrated Suffern squad pulls out a close win over another underrated dual meet team.
Arlington over Scarsdale – Scarsdale no match for the Section’s largest squad.
Fox Lane over JJEF – Fox Lane’s solid lineup overwhelms JJEF.
Lakeland/Panas over Brewster – Another battle of two evenly matched teams.
Beacon over Ardsley – Beacon underrated coming into the season.
Mahopac over Sleepy Hollow – Mahopac advances, but not without a hard-fought battle from D1 newcomers from Sleepy.
Carmel over Pleasantville – Carmel pretty solid top to bottom.
RC Ketcham over Pearl River – Not enough weapons on Pearl River to overcome RCK’s lineup.
North Rockland over Dobbs Ferry – NRK rebuilding, but still dangerous. Not enough of those State football finalists on the DF wrestling team.
Edgemont over White Plains – White Plains rebuilding and seems vulnerable here.
November, 2007
2007 Port Chester Tournament Preview
For 2007, Port Chester will try to defend the first team title they ever won at their own tournament. It won't be easy, but with returning standouts like the Calero brothers and Andres Salcedo, they should put 4 or 5 guys in the finals.
White Plains, Ossining and Nyack are out this year, replaced by McIntosh high school from the great state of Georgia. This lightens up the field to 12 teams this year.
McIntosh boasts a strong team with many of their wrestlers placing in their district championships last year. We'll see how the competition down South stacks up against the kids from Section 1.
Matches of the Night
Baring any upsets at 130, the final should be a rematch of the 2006 96 lb. Section final of Mark Arcara and Ryan Tompkins. Although Tompkins looks to have a tough semi-final match with one of the McIntosh (Georgia) kids (Richard Hughes), I'm giving Ryan the edge. I think the level of competition might be stronger up here, but with an unknown team, it's really like a blind draw until they hit the mats.
A second projected final with possible post season implications is Port Chester's JP Calero versus Beacons Derek DeCandia. JP finished last season 3rd in the Sections at 189, while DeCandia took home the bronze at 171.
Upsets and Sleepers
Strange things are common the first few weeks of the season. Often, kids are in the early stages of a long season. The ones that did a lot of work in the off-season have an edge over the kids that started training a few short weeks ago. In other words, upsets happen.
In a short field at 96 lbs. look for Harrison's Andrew Planemento to surprise everyone. At 112, last year's prep school state champ Adlee Fayyaz from Rye Country Day only garnered a 4th seed. Look for him in the finals and a possible champ at 112.
Domestico's "Dirty Dozen"
One thing you can always expect from a Greg Domestico coached team is that every kid is like a soldier and battles it out to the end. That's why they've been such a consistently good dual meet and tournament team.
Look for Port Chester to pile up the points and contend for the team title in the wrestle-backs and consolation finals. Harrison, Beacon and McIntosh (Georgia) should round out the battle for the top 3 teams.
Others kids to watch:
Westlake's Will Carter at 160- You could stick this kid in a surfing tournament and everyone would still say, "he looks like a wrestler." And he's pretty darn good to boot.
Harrison's Louis DiFazio at 189 - Last year's Port Chester champion at 189, DiFazio dropped a close 4-3 decision to eventual Section Champ TJ Nelson in the quarterfinals of the Sectionals.
Wrestling starts at 9:00 am.
-Rick Contrata
Section One Wrestling Gets Mobile Website
Release Date: 11/28/07
Section One Wrestling goes wireless by launching the first mobile high school wrestling website in NY. The site, located at http://www.sectiononewrestling.mobi is the mobile sister-site of SectionOneWrestling.com.
PC based websites are formatted poorly for browsing on mobile phones, PDA's and Blackberrys.
Mobile users will be able to access tournament results, rankings, news and other media any time, anywhere. There are twice as many people with cell phones versus PC's. As the technology catches up with user demand, wireless websites will be able to serve up more and more media.
September, 2007
Remembering Tod Giles - Wrestler - Coach - Husband - Father
With the tragic passing of Tod Giles on August 22, 2007, wrestling prematurely lost a true champion of the sport. For those unaware of Tod's wrestling accomplishments, the list includes being a 2X Olympic and World team alternate, Division 1 wrestling coach for ARMY in West point, NY - Boston University's first All-American wrestler, World Military Games Champion and numerous other remarkable achievements.
But his most important job was that of husband and father.
I first met Tod almost 30 years ago when we were members of the Hudson Valley Empire States Games team. Even then, I recognized him as being a charismatic guy with exceptional talent. We crossed paths many times over the years, both socially and through the sport. He will be missed by all who knew him.
I'm dedicating this blog post to the memory of Tod Giles and invite anyone wishing to leave a note about your relationship with Tod to post it here.
-Rick Contrata
July, 2007
Pitching & Defense Powers Harrison Little League Baseball Over Staten Island
“It’s all about the draw.” Ever hear that before?...
Imagine winning the Sections in wrestling and finding out you drew Corey Jantzen in the first round of the States? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Well, that’s what Harrison’s Little League team was facing down today after drawing the defending New York State Champions (Staten Island’s Mid-Island Little League) in the first round of Little League Baseball’s Sectionals.
But the kids from Harrison used four innings of shutout pitching from Vin Nicita Jr. (yep, the son of longtime Harrison Wrestling coach Vin Nicita), a towering two run homer from Jeff Grasso, some stellar defensive play from shortstop Tyler LaBarbera and two solid innings of relief pitching from Max Bruckner to eke out a hard fought 2-1 win.
Both teams were outstanding, but starting hurler Vin Nicita Jr. shook off 2 game-opening walks, then kept the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Staten Island hitters out of rhythm and off the scoreboard with a slick combination of fastballs and off-speed pitches.
In the second inning, Jeff Grasso hit a 2 run “Howitzer” which cleared both center field fences and left a permanent mark after it landed on the hood of a Toyota that was “parked in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
At the time, most of the Harrison fans wondered, “Is that enough runs against this team?”
After Nicita was forced off the mound at the end of the fourth due to Little League’s 85 pitch rule, Max Bruckner survived two lead-off singles and struck out two of the next three batters to shuttle a Mid-Islander’s rally in the top of the fifth.
In the top of the six, Staten Island closed the gap at 2-1 with a one-out solo homer over the center field fence. Then…
With two outs, shortstop Tyler LaBarbera sealed the victory by throwing out the final batter from his knees.
The little guys advanced to the next single elimination round and travel to Harlem on July 23rd. …We wish them luck.
By: Rick Contrata
June, 2007
SectionOneWrestling.com's Traffic Tops 5,000 Unique Visitors
SectionOneWrestling.com attracted over 5,000 unique visitors in May. Not too shabby for a 1 month old website that isn't using paid advertising. Traffic to many websites on the Internet doesn't reach 5,000 unique visitors for an entire year, so we are optimistic that the word is getting out.
There was a strong influence from many of the social bookmarking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Del.icio.us, but many of our visitors are finding us in Google and Yahoo searches. In May, SectionOneWrestling.com also attracted visitors from 38 countries around the world, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Military.
A big "Thank You" goes out to everyone who has visited so far. The content is updated daily, so bookmark the site, check back often for updates and keep spreading the word.
Rick Contrata
May, 2007
SectionOneWrestling.com Acquires Associated Domain Name
In a transaction with TUCOWS through devNIC, SectionOneWrestling.com successfully acquired its numerically equivalent domain name (Section1Wrestling.com).
Details of the transaction weren't disclosed, but the Section 1 Wrestling domain and all associated incoming links were previously directed to a web page containing only Internet advertising.
By acquiring the Section1Wrestling.com domain name, type in traffic, search engine rankings and all inbound links will now give Internet surfers real value by directing them to the SectionOneWrestling.com website.
TUCOWS.com is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar. devNIC.com is a TUCOWS domain name reseller and a small business portal.
Quick Hits from the New Rochelle Spring Tournament
About 250 wrestlers participated in the 6th annual New Rochelle spring tournament today, with a large contingent from Sections 8 and 11.
I'll post the box scores for the semis and the finals in the next day or so, but here are some notable Section 1 match-ups.
At 115, Gottfried (Ardsley) dec. Contrata (Somers) 4-0
At 115, Contrata (Somers) dec. Greenberg (Clarkestown North) 7-5
At 138, Manley (Ardsley) dec. Almodavar (Oss.) 9-7.
At 148, Galea (Lakeland) dec. Scott (Mt. Vernon) 7-2
At 155, Genovesi (JJCR) dec. Antonioli (New Rochelle) 4-2
In one of the best matches of the day; at 155, Egypt Burrows (New Rochelle) rallied back from a 4-0 first period deficit and edged out Clay Neivert (Oss.) 5-4.
New Rochelle as a team should be pretty strong next year. Dan Zimon (148) looks to be fully recovered from an injured ankle suffered prior to the Sections and literally beat up everyone he faced.
In notable Long Island match-ups, Jake Benedetto from Islip edged out Matt Rich from Plainedge 2-0 in the 122A semi-finals. In the 122B pool, New York State 103lb runner-up Nick Arujau from Syosset scored a takedown in overtime to edge out Francisco Periera of Huntington 6-4.
Rick Contrata
April, 2007
SectionOneWrestling.com "Exclusive" Summer/Pre-Season D1 Rankings
The Spring/Summer tournament season is just gearing up, so SectionOneWrestling.com put together a selection committee to evaluate the returning Section 1 wrestlers and come up with our Summer/Pre-Season Individual and Team Rankings.
If you haven't seen them yet, go here:
Lets get some feedback and comments.
The rankings will be controversial, but please try and keep the tone civil. We are working on D2 rankings and should have them posted within the week.
Rick Contrata
| 
