Some of the top Empire State wrestlers from the Class of 2012 committed to colleges during or before the early signing period in November of 2011, including Brian Realbuto (Cornell), Quinton Murphy (Indiana), Chris Nevinger (Buffalo) and Tony Lock (Buffalo).  However, in the past month, several more standouts have chosen where they will continue both their education and wrestling career next fall.   New York Wrestling News spoke to some of these grapplers and will post the articles throughout the week.  Earlier in the week, we shared the stories of Ryan Fox and Tom Page.  Today, we discuss Shoreham Wading River’s John Keck.

By Betsy Veysman

John Keck’s December commitment to Navy was a long time in the making.

The Shoreham Wading River senior began the arduous process of applying to the Annapolis, Maryland school at the end of last summer.  After letters of recommendation, physical tests, medical clearance exams, essays, forms, interviews and a nomination from Congressman Tim Bishop, Keck was finally able to give his verbal commitment.

“It was a long and involved process,” Keck said. “But it was worth it because I think Navy offers a good balance of everything.  I really like the structure of the school, the great academics and the wrestling.”

In fact, the 152-pounder had Navy at the top of his list even before the wrestling coaches at the school were recruiting him.

Keck’s third place finish at the Super 32 tournament in North Carolina in the fall of 2011 changed everything.  In a field with highly regarded grapplers from all over the country, Keck went 6-1 and defeated Ohio state champion Kyle Burns, Pennsylvania state runner up Garett Hammond and nationally ranked Garrett Peppelman.

“Super 32 was big for me,” he said.  “I had never won my section or been to the state tournament so I didn’t have the credentials to get noticed by colleges.  My main goal for the tournament was to put myself on the map and it worked.”

When he returned from the tournament, Keck sent Coach Bruce Burnett the Flowrestling link to his match against Peppelman.  He said the coach responded quickly and the relationship began.

Other schools contacted Keck as well.  The strong student said he had some interactions with the Coast Guard Academy, the Merchant Marine Academy, American, Cornell, Duke and Virginia.

But Super 32 did more than just put the future Engineering major on the Division I radar.  It also gave him a jumpstart into his final year on the mats for the Wildcats.

“It was a good boost to my confidence,” he said. “Wrestling the best competition in the offseason helps so much during the season.  After I beat state champs and other tough wrestlers, I felt like I should do really well in my senior year back in New York.”

To this point, he has.  Keck has a 37-1 record, with 23 of those wins coming by pin or technical fall.   His one setback was to eventual champion Dylan Palacio of Long Beach during his run to third place at the Eastern States Classic.

“I was really frustrated by that loss, especially since it wasn’t close,” he said. “I didn’t reach my goal of winning the tournament. But otherwise the season has been going well.  Our team clinched the league title and winning as a team, not just as an individual, makes things so much more fun. I’m focusing on getting bonus points for the team and keeping up my technique, even against less competitive kids.”

Keck, who expects to wrestle at 157 pounds in college, has been learning that technique for years.  Although he said he really started focusing on wrestling in seventh grade, he has been around the sport for most of his life as his father and two older brothers wrestled.

He credited his family and several coaches for his development.

“My dad has spent so much time working with me,” he said.  “We have a 10 x 10 mat in the basement and we go down there, watch tape from matches, critique it and then drill for a while.  I wouldn’t be able to do it without him, I’m lucky to have him working with me.”

He also mentioned the contributions of Mike Patrovich at Razor Wrestling Club, Shoreham Wading River coach Joe Condon and Nick Garone, Steve Hromada and Darren Goldstein at X-Cel Wrestling Club.

All of that training will be put to the test in the coming month.

“Last year, I won the league and I was the runner up in the county to Kyle Wade, who wound up winning states. I didn’t have the criteria points for a wildcard, so I was disappointed that I didn’t get to go to the state tournament.  This year, I want to change that.  I want to win the county and then my goal is to win states.”

Some of the top Empire State wrestlers from the Class of 2012 committed to colleges during or before the early signing period in November of 2011, including Brian Realbuto (Cornell), Quinton Murphy (Indiana), Chris Nevinger (Buffalo) and Tony Lock (Buffalo).  However, in the past month, several more standouts have chosen where they will continue both their education and wrestling career next fall.   New York Wrestling News spoke to some of these grapplers and will post the articles throughout the week.  Yesterday, we shared the story of Ryan Fox.  Today, we discuss Eden High School’s Tom Page.

By Betsy Veysman

Tom Page considered staying in New York after graduation, looking at both Columbia and Buffalo.  But in the end, the Eden High School wrestler, who has moved up to 132 pounds this season, chose American after taking a trip to the Washington, DC based school.

“When I went on the visit down there, I felt like it was a great campus and I liked all the people I met,” he said. “I was really welcomed by the coaches and all the wrestlers on the team.”

The three-time state placewinner plans to focus in Pre-Medicine studies and expects to wrestle at either 133 or 141 pounds for head coach Teague Moore.

This season, the future Eagle has compiled a 41-1 record with 33 victories by bonus points.   He has made the podium on all of his previous trips to Albany, taking fifth as a freshman at 96 and third as a sophomore and junior at 112 and 119 pounds, respectively.  In each of the past two years, he lost to the eventual champion, then fought his way back in the consolation bracket.

Page doesn’t plan to be in the wrestlebacks this year.

“I feel like my season is going very well,” he said.  “I think I’ll be peaking at the right time.  I’ve been putting in all the extra workouts and I’m mentally focused.  I have what it takes to win the state title.”

Standing on the top of the podium on February 25 is most important to Page.  But when the campaign began, he had another goal in mind as well – reaching 200 career victories.  He currently stands less than 10 wins away.

Page’s road to 200 triumphs started back in first grade when he first tried wrestling.  For years, Page wrestled in the winter and played soccer in the fall and summer.   But when he reached seventh grade, he realized he wanted to focus on one sport.

“I feel like I grew into wrestling and started to realize that I loved it,” he said.  “I started to wrestle year round in seventh grade, including freestyle and Greco in the summer.”

He lists his freestyle victory at the Northeast Regional tournament the summer of tenth grade year as one of his most memorable results.  He also mentions his two bronze medal matches at the state tournament, but acknowledges that he wants to be on the biggest stage this year and has the opportunity because of several people who have aided him along the way.

“My dad [Thomas Senior, Eden High School’s head coach] has helped me so much with my wrestling for a long time.  I really want to thank my family for all of their support over the years.”

Some of the top Empire State wrestlers from the Class of 2012 committed to colleges before or during the early signing period in November of 2011, including Brian Realbuto (Cornell), Quinton Murphy (Indiana), Chris Nevinger (Buffalo) and Tony Lock (Buffalo), among others.  However, in the past month, several more standouts have chosen where they will continue both their education and wrestling career next fall.   New York Wrestling News spoke to some of these grapplers and will post the articles throughout the week.  Today, we share the story of Ryan Fox.

By Betsy Veysman

Ryan Fox’s dream was to wrestle at the highest level in college, but when his career at Huntington High School concluded in February of 2010, he wasn’t recruited by Division I teams.

Now, almost two years later, the Nassau Community College grappler has moved a step closer to his goal, committing to Binghamton University for the fall of 2012.

Fox’s first exposure to wrestling was in the summer before ninth grade when he attended a camp in his hometown.  He said up until that point he “had no idea what wrestling was all about.” He was discouraged after not winning a single match in the camp’s tournament.  However, he decided to try out for the team once school started, largely because of the support he had received from Huntington’s head coach at the time, Lou Giani, at the camp.

“His words and encouragement stuck with me from then through high school,” he said.  “He mentored me through a lot of adversity.”

According to Fox, his first year on the mats wasn’t too promising.  He struggled to a losing record as a member of the junior varsity.

“It was an uphill battle,” he said.  “It took me a long time to get anywhere.  My freshman year, I got beaten on so badly on JV that at first I didn’t come back to the team sophomore year.  Some teammates encouraged me to return and I did, but sophomore year wasn’t that much better.”

Yet he persisted, and as a junior, things really started moving in the right direction.  Fox started working more intensely with assistant coach Stephan Sair, a former national champion for Cortland. He fell in love with the sport and committed to doing whatever it took to get better.

“I felt that I had the athleticism but not the wrestling skill set,” he said.  “I started studying, watching matches and learning from everyone I could.  I decided I would put 100% into it because I really wanted to succeed.”

His objective that season was to win the Suffolk County title.  However, he needed a top three finish in his league to go to the county event, and he placed fourth.

In his senior campaign, Fox demonstrated how far he had come with a 37-2 record at 171 pounds.  His two losses came to the two New York state champions that year, Billy Coggins (Division I) and Tyler Beckwith (Division II).  However, Fox’s year ended abruptly when his 9-6 setback against Coggins in the County title match ended his season since he did not have enough wildcard points to qualify for a trip to the state tournament.

“I would sum up my high school career as huge improvement but extreme disappointment,” he said.  “It was heartbreaking to end my high school career with that loss to Coggins without even going to states.”

Fox’s success in his final high school season, despite the painful conclusion, convinced him that he only wanted to wrestle at the Division I level.  That desire was one of the main reasons he decided to attend Nassau as a part-time student for 2010-11.

“Nassau has a lot of advantages,” he said. “It’s close to home and I knew junior college was the best way for me to get to Division I.  I also was so focused on wrestling at the end of high school, I put aside my schoolwork and my grades weren’t where they needed to be.”

The Huntington native refocused both on the mat and in the classroom, spending significant time working with Vougar Oroudjov at his club in Syosset as well as taking courses.

During this time, Fox believes he made huge strides; the most important ones mental.

“A problem with me was my mental attitude and my anxiety,” he said.  “In high school, I put so much pressure on myself to get better, I sometimes froze up in big matches.  Vougar helped me focus on myself and my mental toughness and having confidence in the things I could control on the mat.  The technique comes, but the level of mental toughness you need to do well is a big difference I see from high school to college.”

During that first “greyshirt” year at Nassau, Fox had some impressive victories, including a win over Penn State’s James Vollrath.

Now in his first official campaign with the Lions, Fox has continued to see success, taking second at the recent New York State championships held at Cornell University, third at the Wilkes Open and second at the TCNJ Open.  He has registered triumphs over Columbia’s national qualifier Eren Civan and Nick Visicaro of Rutgers (who also beat Fox this year).

“Visicaro and I were the same graduating class in high school,” he said.  “He was a top ranked recruit and I wasn’t on anyone’s radar.  I wasn’t on his level in high school but I feel like I’ve been catching up to guys who were way ahead of me.”

Fox attributes a large portion of that development to Nassau head coach Paul Schmidt.

“I think the support Coach Schmidt gives is so important,” Fox said.  “He believes I can be a national champ and having someone else believe it is the encouragement I need to keep improving.”

After taking a visit to Binghamton in early January, Fox knew where he wanted to spend the next several years.  He plans to study Engineering and he expects to spend his three seasons of eligibility (plus a possible redshirt year) at 165 pounds.

“I am so excited about going to Binghamton,” he said. “The coaching staff is great and it’s a place where everyone has the same mindset of getting better every day.  I liked that it’s close to home and that it’s an up and coming program.  Coach [Pat] Popolizio has brought the program from not even close to being ranked to a really tough team. I can’t wait to be a part of that.”

Fox’s ultimate goal is to be an NCAA champion at the Division I level.  But he would like to earn a national crown for Nassau this February first.

“I think I’m progressing at the right pace this year, but I haven’t been wrestling to my potential yet,” he said.  “I’ve had some good wins and a couple of tough losses, but I expect to peak at the right time and turn it up for nationals. I don’t want to just be a national champion this year, I want to win while dominating.”

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