WINTER NEWSLETTER

The wrestling season is more than half over and our Olympic wrestlers are doing great!

The Bergen, Passaic, Morris, and Essex County Tournaments have all been completed as of last weekend and we’re delighted to report that our kids did extremely well! Consider this, last year there were 18 Olympic wrestlers who medaled in these four county tournaments. This year there are 37! That’s twice as many medalists in one year! And, of those 37, 17 were 1st or 2nd, and ranged in weight class from 112 to 189. This terrific performance speaks to the quantity and quality of wrestlers in our room and really good coaching from Florian and his staff. Here’s a look at our 1st and 2nd place finishers:

9 COUNTY CHAMPIONS: 8 SECOND PLACE FINISHERS:

112 – Colton Chalkley – Lakeland (P) 112 – Ryan Romanchak – West Milford (P)

119 – John Trumbetti – St.Joseph (B) 119 – Joe Kover – Fair Lawn (B)

119 – Tyler Milonas – Jefferson (M) 125 – Zach Kane – Livingston (E)

130 – Tony Cariddi – River Dell (B) 130 – Vince Perry – Passaic Tech (P)

130 - Trevor Melde – DelBarton (M) 135 - John Barnett – Jefferson (M)

140 – Ken Monarque – Jefferson (M) 140 – Dan Adamo – Demarest (B)

145 – Matt Morganstern – Bergen Catholic (B) 140 – Mike Risimini – Cedar Grove (E)

171 – Ricky Eichenlaub – Pascask Hills (B) 189 – George Kocher – Bergen Catholic (B)

171 – Hye-Chung Gehring – Nutley (E)

We also want to take a moment to recognize some other outstanding performances, namely:

John Trumbetti finished 2nd at the Beast of the East Tournament and Trevor Melde finished 3rd. The Beast is a huge tourney attracting the best wrestlers from around the country. To medal here is extraordinary. Congratulations, guys! Also, Chris Villalonga, Brandon Rolnick, and Joey McKenna won national titles at the Tulsa Nationals in Oklahoma. In the finals, Chris beat the #1 rated wrestler in the country. Way to go, Chris!

As we continue to prepare for the high school Districts, Regions, and State Tournaments, all of which begin Friday, February 24th, we haven’t lost sight of the fact that our junior wrestlers are also in the midst of qualifying for their State Tournaments which take place at the end of March. So far, our Junior qualifiers are: Jimmy Reardon, Kyle Bierdumpfel, Connor Melde, Ryan Murphy, Chuckie Slater, Dante Porrazzo, Paul Lowry, Pat Creamer, Dean Sullivan, John Van Slooten, Jeff Rottingen, Chris Villalonga, and Brandon Rolnick…and more to come. Good luck in the States, guys!

While we’re on the subject of Juniors, we want to alert you to our new Junior YearRound Special program. This new program starts April 1st, 2006 and goes for a full year until April1, 2007. The YearRound Special rate is $1,100. For that you get unlimited attendance, an Olympic Back Pack, as well as a tee shirt and shorts! We’ll still offer our Summer and Winter Specials but if you’re looking for the most efficient program Olympic offers then you’ll want to speak with Scott about the Junior YearRound Special.

To complete our Bergen County Tournament coverage, the Freshmen Counties were last weekend. The future looks bright for Olympic as we had five County champions! They are;

112 – Greg Madormo - Ramapo

119 – Frankie Acosta – Don Bosco

140 – Chris Warren – Bergen Catholic

152 – Mike Magaraci – Old Tappan, M.O.W.

160 – Chris D’Amico - Ramapo

Well done guys…

In other news, we are delighted to announce that Uri Bussi has joined us as an Assistant Coach. He’ll be in the Club on Sundays when attendance is highest, especially among the Juniors. Uri has worked with Florian for several years and wrestled at Montclair State. He’s well versed in the European style of wrestling Olympic is rapidly becoming known for.

Back in November we had Heather Campanile visit with us at the Club. Heather is a certified Nutritionist and she conducted a few seminars for our wrestlers on how to lose weight the healthy way. It was really good information and has helped many of our wrestlers get through the season in good health. We intend to have Heather back next summer. If you would like additional information on Heather’s program we have flyers in the Club or you can ask Scott.

Several of you have asked if there’s a method to our madness…meaning, does Florian plan his lessons or does he work on what he thinks the wrestlers need at the moment? The answer is, a little of both, but there’s definitely a plan. At Olympic, we’ve designed a year long curriculum that basically breaks down into two six month cycles that repeat. In other words, we choreograph a month by month schedule of moves that flow January through June and then repeats July through December. For example, in February we’re working on a series of single leg and arm throw take downs, and various escapes from the bottom. We’ll drill these moves all month in the hope that each of the wrestlers will be comfortable enough to incorporate them into their repertoire. A month by month schedule is in the Attendance Book if you’re interested in knowing more.

Florian and I are very excited about the upcoming high school and junior tournaments. Our kids have worked hard and we’re certain many will do well. Here’s wishing good luck to all!

As always, if you have any questions about our program or comments as to how we can make Olympic better, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We appreciate your input!

All the best,

Florian and Scott