By Betsy Veysman

Hofstra, the 24th ranked team in the country in the latest USA Today/Division I Coaches Poll, is off to an 8-0 start, including victories last week over American and CAA squads Old Dominion, George Mason and Boston.  Dating back to last year, the Pride wrestlers have won 13 duals in a row.

This weekend, Hofstra puts that unbeaten streak on the line against two tough foes, Rutgers on the road and Pennsylvania at the Mack Sports Complex.

“We’ll be facing two very good teams,” said head coach Rob Anspach. “We know that in this sport everything is about March.  But you don’t do well in March if you don’t really challenge yourself during the season.  Rutgers had a great year last year with close to 20 dual wins and they have some very good individuals.  Penn has a returning All-American at 141 and a highly ranked 197 in Micah Burak. So we will definitely be challenged.  We need to continue to do the things we’ve been doing like dictating the pace and winning hand fighting battles and if we do, we should be able to come away with two more wins.”

One of the bouts Anspach is looking forward to this weekend is at 165 pounds where senior PJ Gillespie will face ninth ranked Scott Winston of the Scarlet Knights.  Gillespie, a returning All-American from nearby Long Beach High School, sports a 19-5 record and some strong placements in tournaments this year – first at the Binghamton Open, second at the Las Vegas Invitational and fourth at the Southern Scuffle.  Four of his five losses have come in his last 9 matches, however.

“PJ started off the year really well but hit a rough spot at the Scuffle and the Drexel dual,” Anspach said.  “Last weekend I was much happier with his performance.  He even dominated almost the entire match that he lost.  We just want him to use all of his tools. We rely on him to score bonus points in close duals and when he’s offensive minded, he looks great.”

The captain finished on the podium last year at the NCAAs in Philadelphia after entering the tournament unseeded.  Currently ranked #19, he may have to take a similar path this March.

“Wherever he winds up, even if he is unseeded again, PJ is capable of winning those matches at NCAAs.  His road may be a little tougher than we hoped, but he is certainly capable of placing high this year.”

Gillespie is one of the team leaders fueling the Pride this campaign, in addition to junior Steve Bonanno and senior Ben Clymer.

Bonanno has consistently gotten the team off on the right foot.  The Long Island product has gone 20-5 overall, including finishes of third and sixth at the Las Vegas Invitational and the Southern Scuffle, respectively.  In addition, he has racked up an 8-0 record in duals, including six bonus point wins.

“I’ve been really impresssed with Steve,” Anspach said.  “He’s been our most consistent wrestler.   We’ve been able to start at 125 in all but one dual and he gets things going the right way. It’s really nice to start off the dual 4-0 or 5-0.”

Anspach also added that Bonanno is a top student, with a grade point average around 3.8 in International Business.

“You don’t find too many guys like Steve,” he said. “He’s outstanding.  You never worry about him academically or in anything else.  He’s always doing the right things.”

Clymer, a two-time NCAA qualifier, has been competitive throughout his career.   However, the nation’s 11th ranked grappler at 184 pounds has raised his game, according to Anspach, to the tune of a 20-4 record.

“Ben has picked up his point scoring to the level he is capable of,” the coach said.  “He’s very strong and long and hard to score on, but he relied too much on his defense.  He’s had a lot of 2-1, 3-2 matches against good opponents in the past.  Now he’s working really hard on his feet and starting to put some distance between him and the guys he’s wrestling.  He’s also been working hard on top and has been able to ride some of the best in the country.”

Anspach pointed to Clymer’s fourth placing showing at the Southern Scuffle as a turning point.  The Pennsylvania native lost in the first round to Clarence Neely of Missouri, but rebounded to win six straight bouts, including victories over Jon Fausey (who eliminated Clymer from last year’s Scuffle), Luke Rebertus (who knocked Clymer out of the NCAA tournament in 2011) and Neely.

While Bonanno, Gillespie and Clymer have starred, any good dual team needs contributions throughout the lineup, and Hofstra has had solid performances from a number of wrestlers.

133: Lou Ruggirello was a nationally ranked wrestler throughout his four years in Hempstead and his graduation in 2011 left the 133-pound slot vacant.  However, Anspach has been pleased with his replacement.

“133 has been a win and often a pin for us for several years with Lou,” the coach said.  “But Jamie Franco might be the biggest surprise on the team.  He has gone out and done a great job for us.”  The Monroe, New York native is 14-8 in 2011-12.

141: Luke Vaith has been competitive all year (14-7) and is waiting for a breakthrough victory.

“Luke isn’t getting the recognition he deserves,” Anspach said. “He’s very strong and talented.  The problem is that he is losing to very good kids in tight ones.  He was beating [5th ranked] Jake Sueflohn of Nebraska the whole match and gave up a very late takedown.  He just had a good win against Justin LaValle from Old Dominion, who had beaten him at the Scuffle.  I’m hoping he can turn the corner and win some of these close ones.  He definitely belongs at nationals.”

149: Following Vaith in the lineup is 149-pounder Justin Accordino, who has taken a difficult path back onto the mat for the Pride.

“Justin suffered two torn ACLs, in back to back years.  Both times it was in the first half of the season,” Anspach said. “After the first one he put in an intense, long rehab and he was just getting the rust knocked off when it happened again.  You don’t know how a kid will react to that, but Justin rehabbed again and came back stronger.  His body isn’t fully where his mind is yet wrestling wise, but we’re starting to see him getting back to the wrestler he was.  If he can keep it going, he will be good come March.”

285: Anspach also mentioned the efforts of heavyweight Paul Snyder, last season’s CAA champion, who has registered a 14-7 mark.

“Paul has been working hard on his offense and his handfighting.  He’s run into some guys in the conference who weren’t here last year in [19th ranked] Kyle Frey and [12th ranked] Nick Gwiazdowski.  He’ll have to beat them to get back to the national tournament.”

174:  The head coach believes that recent CAA Rookie of the Week Jermaine John has made significant strides since the beginning of the campaign.

“Jermaine is coming along nicely,” he added.  “He had a great match with Te Edwards from ODU last week. [10th ranked Edwards won 7-6].  Jermaine is strong, quick and athletic. He has all the tools; he just needs more confidence. He needs to get that one win that triggers him to the next level.”

The next level is where the new, young coaching staff hopes to get Hofstra as a team.

While Anspach is in his first season as the head coach, he has been around the Hofstra program for most of the past 13 years, first as a student-athlete and then as a member of the staff.   In addition to second-year coach Zach Tanelli, Anspach added a pair of recent All-Americans, Gregor Gillespie and Dan Vallimont, before this campaign began.

“They are all young and bring great enthusiasm,” Anspach said. “We only have 22 guys in the room, so having coaches that wrestle with the guys every day really makes a difference.  They all come from very successful programs and have great minds for wrestling.  I think it’s been a good formula so far.”

Anspach acknowledged that ultimately success is judged in March and he believes he knows what it would look like for the Pride.

“We want to win our conference championship, which we’ve done 10 out of the last 11 years.  Binghamton has a really good team as does Old Dominion, but we feel like we’re the favorites,” he said. “When we get to nationals, we believe we have the potential for a lot of our guys to place.  From my perspective, three or four All-Americans would be a great success.”

*Rankings are from theopenmat.com

By Betsy Veysman

Paul Gillespie has been deeply involved in wrestling for years, as a competitor and as a coach.  The National Coaches Hall of Fame member and two-time college All-American at Westchester State University in Pennsylvania, was the longtime leader of the Long Beach program and is now the head coach at Wantagh High School.  The 18-0 Warriors are the top-ranked team in the New York State Sportswriters Association poll.

Coach Gillespie talked with New York Wrestling News about the top ranking, the season to date, what’s left to come and the growth of the Wantagh program.

New York Wrestling News (NYWN): Wantagh is ranked as the top dual team in the state for the first time.  What does that mean to you?

Coach Gillespie: It’s nice to have for the kids and I’m delighted with the way the team is wrestling.  We’ve really come together.  We have a bunch of good wrestlers and good young men. But the truth is, I don’t really believe in rankings as far as championships go.  You have to get it done at the end of the year.

NYWN: The 38-37 dual meet win on criteria over #2 Shenendehowa is a key reason for the #1 ranking.  What were the keys to winning that dual?

Gillespie: It didn’t start out good for us.  We were behind 22-0.  We have a really good kid, Chris Araoz (who wrestled in the dual at 126) and when he got caught and pinned, I thought we were in trouble.  But everyone hung together and we got great performances out of some of our lightweights, including Kyle Quinn at 106.  They have a great kid at 113 and, as you know in wrestling duals, sometimes just not getting majored or teched or pinned is basically like a win.  Holding them to a regular decision at 113 was huge for us.

NWYN: Was it a bigger win because of near misses against Shenendehowa in recent years?

Gillespie: I think so. We have been knocking on the door.  Last year was a very close match, so was the year before. Shenendehowa is a great program and we feel like we’re on the upswing, getting better.  We’re just hoping to keep improving.  We’ll definitely wrestle them again next year.

NYWN: Why has Wantagh been on the upswing?

Gillespie: I think the way our program is going now we should be really strong for a number of years.  It mostly comes down to hard work and lots of great people in the community who care about the program and are willing to help.  People here are interested in wrestling and people like winners.  Things are good on all levels – the Wantagh wrestling club is doing great things and Ray Handley Senior is doing an outstanding job with the kids program.

NYWN: In the revised brackets, Wantagh tied with Long Beach for third at Eastern States.  How did you feel about the team’s performance?

Gillespie: We ended up third, beating Hauppauge, Longwood and some other great schools with only nine kids wrestling for us.  We were only allowed to take nine because it was our first year in the tournament.  The other teams around us had around 15 kids.  So I think we did pretty well.  I think we could make a run with a full team there next year, although I’m not sure anyone is beating Wyoming Seminary.

NYWN: Jose Rodriguez dominated his way to the 99-pound championship at Eastern States.  What did you think about his tournament?

Gillespie: Jose Rodriguez is amazing.  He’s just a ninth grader and I think he’s one of the best around, pound for pound.  He actually beat the kids that finished first, second and third at 106 this summer.  He really reminds me of Al Palacio, a three-time New York state champ and an All-American in college.  He has that fire in him and he’s a great competitor.  He has an outstanding work ethic and is a good student too.  I certainly think he will make a run for the state title.  It will take someone with great talent to beat him.

NYWN: How do you assess the performance of the rest of your team at Eastern States?

Gillespie: Our other three placers, Steve English (fifth at heavyweight), Chris Loew (sixth at 170) and Chris Araoz (seventh at 120) did well and all were capable of placing higher. I think they are all potential state placers, but they have to get through our county first and that won’t be easy.  They are more than capable, but it’s a matter of how they perform when it counts.

Some other kids looked good too. Vinny Terano has been wrestling well.  Dan McDevitt is a very good wrestler.  They didn’t use head to head in seeding and he had beaten the two-seed James Dekrone earlier but was only seeded 10th.  We’re looking for big things from him in the future.

NYWN: What’s next for Wantagh?

Gillespie: In our county there will definitely be some challenges from teams like Long Beach and MacArthur, among others.  But I think we’ll be pretty tough to beat because we have good kids in all weight classes and I think that makes us a little bit of the favorite.  I think with the work we put in and the types of kids we have, it’s ours to lose.  I usually don’t speak that way, but these are such solid kids with great focus.

NYWN: What are your expectations for the state tournament?

Gillespie: We’re hoping to have several kids in Albany.  I think it will be a great tournament that will be won by the team that steps up to the plate.  There are a lot of teams that will have a bunch of kids there – teams like Shenendehowa, Longwood, Hauppauge, John Glenn, Eastport South Manor and some very good upstate teams too.  I’m sure I’m leaving teams out.  I would say Shenendehowa may have a bit of an edge because of some of their upperweights that are really good and Nick Kelley, who I think is one of the best wrestlers in the state as a junior.

NYWN: The top dual team receives an award in Albany as well.  What would it mean to receive that award?

Gillespie: I think it would be absolutely great for the kids and the program.  When you’re a successful program, you are able to get more and more people wanting to be a part of it.  It only gets stronger.  We want to be able to keep everything going.

NYWN: Quite a few recent Wantagh wrestlers have gone on to wrestle in college.  Who are some of the notable alumni?

Gillespie: We have a few guys at Hofstra: Steve Bonanno, Matt Loew and Joe Kavanaugh, who is redshirting.  Joe Barbato and Paul Liguori are at Harvard and John Greisheimer is at Edinboro.

Bonanno is having a great year and Greisheimer lost a close match in the All-American round at NCAAs last year.  We take a lot of pride in all of those guys.  The community in Wantagh understands that the key to everything is getting an education.  A very small percentage of guys are going to the Olympic level; there aren’t too many places to compete after college. So we stress the education and those kids are great examples of that.

NYWN: Have those wrestlers stayed involved in the program?

Gillespie: When they’re home, they always stop in.  With the new rules, they can’t wrestle at practice, but they talk to the kids and tell them about their experiences and college life.  It’s great to have them back to tell their stories.  They give our kids a lesson on what it will be like to be a college student-athlete.

NYWN: How would you sum up your time as Wantagh head coach to this point?

Gillespie: It’s really a pleasure for me to be here.   It’s a new and different environment.  It’s a great school district and a lot of the sports are on the championship level. The parents are so determined to see their kids succeed in sports and academics. They understand what I think is most important – that it’s all about the education.

After leaving Long Beach [High School] after a long time, I was sitting on the beach, since I’m the chief of the lifeguards.  A few guys came down to see me and asked if I would come and help develop the Wantagh program and then all of a sudden the coach left for personal reasons.  My wife wasn’t all for it at first because she knows the time and effort it takes, but I wouldn’t have done it without her blessing.  I thought my coaching days were over, but I guess I was wrong.  I’m glad to be back.

Top-seeded Wantagh returns to action on January 27-28 at the Nassau County Dual Meet championships.

By Betsy Veysman

14 pounds may not seem too heavy.  50 feet may not seem too far.  The Paddocks would disagree.

When the winter holiday break ended in January, eighth grader Aaron Paddock returned to Warsaw Middle School with his classmates.

“I was pretty excited to go back,” he said.  “But it was a pretty normal day.”

After the events of the past five months, to the outsider it seems far from normal.  In fact, according to Aaron’s father Brad, one of the doctors at Buffalo Children’s Hospital said she “had never truly witnessed a miracle firsthand” before.

The story began at the end of August.  Members of the Paddock family were cutting down trees in their yard when a branch weighing about 14 pounds fell over 50 feet and hit Aaron in the head, crushing his skull.

After rushing him to the local hospital, he was quickly airlifted to Buffalo where the outlook appeared grim.

“There was a lot of brain swelling,” Brad Paddock said. “We just kept getting more and more bad news over those first few days.  First, they weren’t sure if he would even live.  But if he did, the doctors told us he may never walk again or ever speak again.  He was paralyzed on his left side and they thought that might be permanent too.”

The original plan outlined by the doctors was for Aaron to be in the hospital through November.  They removed part of his skull and inserted it into his stomach so it would regenerate.  At the end of the three months, the plan was to place the skull back into his head and then have him live in a full time rehabilitation facility in Rochester for 60 days to try to help him regain function.

The Paddock family, made up of Brad and his wife Jeanie as well their children Jessica (26), Nikki (24), Paul (23), Luke (22), Ian (21), Joey (18), Burke (16) and Ellen (12), decided that if Aaron was going to call the hospital home for months, he wouldn’t ever be alone.

“My mom and I stayed in the hospital pretty much the whole time,” Ian said. “We took shifts.  I did the nights, my mom did the mornings and everyone else came in at other parts of the day.  There was always someone holding his hand and encouraging him, 24 hours a day.”

For Ian, a scholarship wrestler at Ohio State University, the decision to stay by his brother’s side was an easy one.  The former four-time New York state champion had already decided to redshirt this season as a junior but was planning to go back to Columbus.  However, after the accident, he called Buckeyes head coach Tom Ryan, who immediately suggested that he stay in New York to help Aaron with his recovery.

Despite the original prognosis, Ian recalled some of the hospital milestones that suggested that Aaron was going to overcome the accident.

“The first day of real excitement came about two weeks in,” Ian said. “They had just taken the tube out of his throat and they were trying to wake him up out of the coma. I remember Paul and I were trying to get [Aaron] to follow instructions like ‘move your thumb, move your fingers.’ Pretty soon he did it.  He wasn’t moving for two weeks then there he was, following commands. It was so encouraging.  He was way ahead of where they thought he would be.”

And then there was the first time Aaron spoke.

“After he was out of the coma, I asked one of the nurses when he would be able to talk again,” Brad Paddock said.  “She told me I had to be more patient, it would take at least a month. Ian was in his face that day, talking to him and telling him he could do it.  [Ian] just wouldn’t let him off the hook.  Eight hours later, he looked at Ian and said, ‘Your breath smells.’  It was just unbelievable.”

“We both starting laughing,” Ian added. “It wasn’t the first thing I wanted to hear him say, but it was great for him to be able to talk again.”

34 days after entering the hospital, the day before his 15th birthday, Aaron Paddock was released from the hospital to his home in Warsaw.

“They thought it would take three months for the skull to be ready, but it went much faster,” Brad Paddock said. “The swelling in his head had gone down and the doctors were able to put it back successfully.  They said the recovery process was accelerated beyond what they had seen before.  Since he was already walking and talking, they decided he could skip the rehab facility altogether and just come back home.”

Aaron was supposed to slowly continue his rehabilitation when he returned.  But according to Ian, the first thing Aaron did when he entered the house was sprint up the steps as fast as he could.  Right behind him was Ian, which became a common theme.

Every day in the Paddock household for Ian, Jeanie and Aaron was busy, with both therapy and schoolwork.

“There were a few hours of homework each day,” Ian said. “He had his physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) for a few weeks. We did some light lifts and strength training.  We did other workouts too.”

“Ian went to every therapy session with Aaron and then doubled it and tripled it once they got back home,” Brad added.  “We all worked to stimulate him non-stop, whether it was bean bag toss, darts, Connect Four or checkers.  Ian stayed by his side the whole time and showed him love and support while pushing him hard.   Both he and Aaron used a wrestler’s mentality.”

“I don’t think I would have had the strength to fight through everything without the wrestling mentality,” Aaron agreed.

The Paddock family is full of accomplished grapplers.  Paul, a two-time state champion, competed at Edinboro.  Ian was an NCAA qualifier in both his true freshman and sophomore campaigns at Ohio State. Burke was a 171-pound state runner up as a freshman last year and is nationally ranked.

Aaron, however, had the best seventh grade performance of any of the brothers, going 50-5 according to the NWCA Scorebook and taking sixth at 103 pounds at the state tournament in Albany in 2011.

He has been cleared to participate in some team sports and plans to run track this spring and possibly play soccer in the fall.  Of course, there’s another squad he would like to join as well.

“I’m running two miles everyday and working out also,” Aaron said. “Wrestling is my favorite sport, though, and I really hope I can wrestle again by next year.”

Brad Paddock said that next month they are going to Washington D.C. to get a brain scan and see one of the top doctors in the country for brain injuries.

“We know it’s his desire to get back to wrestling,” he said. “But we can’t let him do it without knowing for sure that it’s not a greater risk for him than anyone else.  He was determined to start wrestling this January but we knew that wasn’t going to happen.  We will make sure we aren’t taking big risks.  The best doctors in the country will tell us what they think.”

In the meantime, Ian feels he has gained a new appreciation for the sport he and his family love. He is coming off a neck injury and is not yet able to fully train and practice.  However, he is working toward rejoining the Buckeyes lineup for the 2012-13 campaign at 133 or 141 pounds.

“[Aaron] might not be able to do something he truly loves ever again,” Ian said.  “It puts it in perspective for me. I have to give all I have for me and for him.  There are no excuses.  If I don’t feel good in practice or workouts, I think of him and how he doesn’t have the chance to wrestle and make myself go harder.”

Ian Paddock’s talent has never been in question.  He handed Cornell’s two-time national champion Kyle Dake his last high school loss, 9-4, in the 2008 130 pound state championship match when both were juniors.   According to Ian, he then beat Dake again a few months later in a freestyle event in Las Vegas.  The difference in college as freshmen, Paddock said, was mental.

“In high school, I never expected to be beaten.  When I came into college, I accepted that some kids could beat me.  I should have had the mindset that I had the ability to be the best and I would have had a better outcome.  It seems that Kyle Dake believed that no one could beat him from the very beginning. That’s one of the reasons for his success.”

Success is something Aaron Paddock has certainly achieved over the past five months.  Despite missing 17 weeks of school, he completely caught up and is doing well academically.  He is beating his father in darts and other family members in other games.  He is, in his own words, “back to my old self.”

While he will not have his hand raised on the mats this season, he will be receiving another honor.  Buffalo Children’s Hospital informed the Paddocks last week that Aaron has been named its Inspirational Patient of the Year.

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For an update on the Paddock family from October 2012, see here.