Welcome to Mill Hall

by Tom Fox

Posted on December 13, 2008

Welcome to Mill Hall

Coaches hoping for answers at ML tournament

By TOM FOX

MILL HALL - Deep in the Central Mountain wrestling room, Doug Buckwalter and the Wildcats are at work.

For the head coach, it's about finding answers to questions.

While Saturday's Mountain League Tournament won't help him with any questions concerning dual meets, it will give him a chance to see where his kids are lining up against the remainder of the league.

"Obviously, Bellefonte has a really nice team. Indian Valley, Lewistown, Bald Eagle Area are all going to come here and compete," Buckwalter said. "There isn't a whole lot separating them and us. We have a pretty good tournament team, but in the dual meets, we need some guys to really pick it up in order to get where we were last year."

The first and then annual Mountain League Tournament will be held on Saturday at Central Mountain High School with wrestling starting around 9 a.m. There are five rounds before the championships that begin at approximately 7:30 p.m.

It's an individual tournament where each weight class will be split in half. For example, the Wildcats may see grapplers from Bellefonte and Bald Eagle in one weight class, but not in others.

In addition to individual championships, a team title will be crowned.

There's no denying that Central Mountain, ranked No. 6 in the nation, will be the overwhelming favorite for the team title. Individual grapplers, such as Jordan Rich (125), Dylan Caprio (135), Andrew Alton (140), Dylan Alton (145), Jake Park (171), Jacob Bachman (189), Glenn Barnes (215) and Zach Corl (285) will all be considered tops in their respective weight classes.

But that's why they wrestle the matches.

"When we get to this Mountain League Tournament, we just have to perform," Buckwalter said.

Central Mountain already has a tournament and dual meet under its belt; a challenging one in both with the Walsh Ironman and Bellefonte.

Bald Eagle Area is just getting started.

New coach Steve Millward has been working his wrestlers to the bone, and his new reign over the program begins Saturday.

The Eagles (0-0) have some tough heavyweights in A.J. Robinson and Jon Gingrich, and several that participated deep in the postseason - such as Coleman Hoffman, Justin Giedroc, Kyle Granite and John Decker - return back.

BEA finished third in last year's district meet, but have lost key grapplers in Quentin Wright and Tim Watson.

Bellefonte is off and running in 2008-2009, and put up a good fight in a 10-point loss to Central Mountain on Tuesday.

Leo Wortman and Thomas Traxler made successful freshmen debuts as Traxler picked up a pin of classmate Joey Miller and Wortman upset PIAA qualifier Forrest Bechdel.

Team those two underclassmen with experience in Mitchell Port and Christian Oberle, and first-year head coach Mike Maney could have a team to push the Wildcats. Another Red Raider standout, Shane Alterio, didn't wrestle on Tuesday.

"When you have someone like Mitchell Port that wrestles all over the country, you know that you can expect a solid performance," Bellefonte head coach Mike Maney said.

"But with some of the younger guys, you just never know. We're wrestling in a pretty tough environment that had a lot of energy, and I think our guys handled it pretty well.

"I think this is going to be a positive tournament for us.

"You always tell the kids to go out and wrestle each match individually, and the team thing will take care of itself. We're going to see a lot of these teams along the way, so it will be good to gauge our process as the season goes along."

For Joel Brinker and Penns Valley, the Rams are coming off a 30-point loss to Tyrone where a series of forfeits dampened the chances for a victory. The middle weights held up well against the Golden Eagles as Drew Zettle (140), Cody Bjalme (145) and Adam Yarger (152) were all victorious.

It also gives the Rams an opportunity to see how they stack up against the top echelon of the league, such as Central Mountain, Bellefonte, Bald Eagle and Indian Valley - teams they don't wrestle in the regular season.

The winners of each pool will meet in the championship finals.

While it's already pre-determined who will face who, each wrestler has a chance to control his destiny.

"They need to go each match, remained focused and just do their job," Buckwalter said.

"You don't know much about the set-up and who you are going to face. You could get the very best guy in the first match or you may not. You have to be ready every single time you step on the mat."

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