South River program a true work in progress
BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

South River head wrestling coach Bobby Young made it clear what his expectations are for his team this winter.

“We’re not going to win a lot of dual meets, that’s for sure,” the fifth-year coach said. “We’ll be an exciting tournament team, though.”

The reason for the discrepancy — low numbers. The Rams, who graduated 13 wrestlers from last year’s 10-10 team, don’t have nearly enough grapplers to compete on a consistent basis in dual meets.

In fact, Young’s team will forfeit seven matches every meet.

That makes it very hard to win as a team.

“We’ll be rebuilding for the next two or three years,” Young said. “We’ve got a lot of holes in the lineup due to people not coming out for the sport for a variety of reasons.”

And that’s a trend that disturbs Young.

“It seems like it’s becoming a tough sport to sell to the new generation of kids,” he said. “I’m most disappointed about not having a couple of kids that were supposed to come out. I was looking forward to coaching them, but for a number of reasons, they didn’t want to be there.”

That’s left Young in a tough spot, asking his remaining grapplers to take to the mats knowing they have little to no chance at any team success. However, the coach is quick to praise the enthusiasm of the guys on the team.

“The kids that are back are excited to be here and are working very hard,” Young said. “And I’m excited to coach them.”

The Rams are an extremely young team, maybe the youngest in the GMC. Sophomore Adam Mongelli is back after a stellar freshman season, which saw him go 24-8 and finish sixth in the region.

“He’s getting better every match,” Young said of Mongelli. “This is going to be a big year for him.”

Young is also expecting some good things out of the Fodor brothers, Brian (at 189) and Ray (at 215), both juniors.

“Brian is a tough kid who works very hard, while Ray is also another good wrestler,” the coach said. “I really don’t have to coach them too much.”

Young has also been impressed with the progress of sophomore Dan Litz, who is new to the sport.

“This guy’s a football player who has never wrestled before,” Young said. “But I got him to come out, showed him a few moves, and he’s 2-1 early on.

“I coach football, too, so I’ve got to recruit somebody,” the coach joked. “The tough thing about being at such a small school, particularly here at South River, is that you have to compete with basketball. We had four kids that wrestled last year in middle school that got here and tried out for basketball.”

As a result, Young has had to patch together a lineup filled with vacancies.

Junior Zoe Iqbal starts at 103, and is improving quite a bit thanks to being able to work with Mongelli every day in practice.

With Mongelli at 112, Young turns to freshman Joe Zyskowski at 119, while another freshman, Irvin Gonzalez, will also get some time there.

Freshman Brandon Vanderbeek starts at 125, while the Rams are forced to forfeit at 130 and 135. Freshmen Keith Hagins and Philip Mitiv go at 140 and 145, respectively, followed by forfeits at 152 and 160.

Philip’s brother, Andreaj, a junior, starts at 171, with freshman Chris Bossio also seeing time there. The Fodor brothers start at 189 and 215, with Litz following at heavyweight.

“This is a very good core of kids,” said Young. “We wrestled Piscataway and Sayreville on Saturday, and in every match that we wrestled, we were competitive. Then we wrestled New Brunswick, had seven forfeits, and still won.”

New Brunswick is in a similar position as the Rams, with a number of first-time wrestlers scattered throughout a thin lineup.

“I feel his pain; he’s going through the same thing we are,” Young said of New Brunswick coach Jason McLean.

As the Rams look ahead, Young admits that progress will be tough to measure for his young team.

“Our record is not going to tell you how well the kids are wrestling,” he said. “But we should be competitive with everyone in the matches we do wrestle.”

South River will participate in the East Brunswick Tournament next week, where Young expects some of his young grapplers to surprise some people.