Central Mountain Wrestling Returns Lots of Talent
By Tom Elling
MILL HALL, PA-Central Mountain should once again produce a very competitive team on the mats. Biff Walizer enters his ninth year as head coach, having compiled an excellent 100 wins and 19 losses while at the helm. He did spend twelve years as head coach at Red Lion where he led the team to 139-65). Veteran Doug Buckwalter will be returning to the staff as the full time assistant coach. Last year Buckwalter was in a ‘volunteer’ post. Dylan Caprio moves to head the first year PIAA girls’ team. Steve, Krouse and Mike Brown, Richie Thompson also return with Lucas Porter also on the bench. Caprio was named the PWCA Assistant of the year last season.
The Wildcats were 10-2 last season losing only in the PIAA State Team championships. The Wildcats won the Heartland Conference. Losses to graduation include: Gino Serafini, Braylen Corter, Brayden Blackwell and Dakota McDermott. Walizer mentioned their contributions to the team and that those losses “will be difficult to overcome.”
The squad does return twelve wrestlers who saw several varsity matches last season. The top returnees are the three state placewinners (listed at last year’s weight class). Luke Simcox (133) took the state AAA title, while previous state champ Dalton Perry (139) grabbed a third and Griffin Walizer (145) placed 5th. Rocco Serafini (189) qualified for states. All four are expected to have banner seasons. Other returners include Giovanni Tarantella (215), who was a win away from going to states; Jake Weaver (172) and Collin Bauman (107) both Regional 5th placers. Jaggar Pardoe (114), Caden Stoner (121), Carnell Noone (127), Luke Ananea (139), Hunter Donley (152) and Bryce Brungard (172) are expected to see action and compete for starting spots. Newcomers include Aiden Kunes (114) and Gavin Heverly (107-114).
“We are starting the season out with 29 total and 9 seniors,” the veteran coach stated.
Taking a look at this year’s outlook, Walizer mused, “We hope to have another successful season where the team comes together and improves from start to finish. Teams on our schedule who will be tough this season include Mifflin County, BEA, Selinsgrove and Shikellamy. And while we don’t have State College on our dual meet schedule, they return several state placewinners and will be strong again in District 6 AAA.”
The Wildcats’ first competition is the Tom Best Memorial Top Hat Tournament on December 1st and 2nd. Walizer assesses the top competition should come from “Hempfield, who we beat close in the state quarterfinals will be there. Saucon Valley is always strong. The tournament has increased the level of competition with the additions of traditionally strong programs like Connellsville, Northampton and Easton. We may be missing a starter because of injury, but it is always a good, strong field.”
His assessment of the girl’s participation: “The girls are going to start out the season practicing separately from the boys, but we plan to run some combined practices as the season progresses. The girls will compete against BEA before the boys match at LHU’s Thomas Fieldhouse in January. Selinsgrove and Shikellamy also have recognized girls programs. So we are hoping to have those duals set up as well.”
Finally the biggest change involving this season was adding the girls to the state format, Walizer, like many other coaches offered, “I think it’s too much to try to take in all at once as a wrestling fan. It will also be extremely taxing on the media trying to cover kids from the same area. I’m not sure why they couldn’t run the final round with the 4 mats as in the past. This way the 5th-8th placers and their families have a reason to attend the final round, other than just getting on the podium for pictures. It would just add another round with the girls finals/medal matches.”
