Frosh helps WW-P South wrestlers make states
By: Bob Nuse
When Nick Avery was struggling at the beginning of the wrestling season, he wasn’t afraid to ask for advice from any number of places.
"I had a few bumps in the beginning," the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South freshman said. "I started off slow and my record was 4-7 at the beginning of the season. But I talked to Coach (Keith) MacDougall, my brother and my dad and they really helped me. I stepped it up and I’ve been doing a lot better.
"It was a big difference going from wrestling in eighth grade to high school. I think the losses in the beginning helped me grow as a wrestler."
Since his 4-7 start, Avery has gone 10-3 and helped the Pirates earn a Colonial Valley Conference Colonial Division championship, as well as a berth in the Central Jersey Group III state tournament. His Fourth-place individual finish at the Mercer County Tournament helped the Pirates finish second.
"We knew he was going to be good," said WW-P South coach Keith MacDougall, whose team had its CJ III opener against Hamilton moved from Tuesday to Thursday due to the snowstorm on Monday. "He ran into some tough kids early in the season, so he got off to a slow start. He was fourth in the county wrestling against some kids that dropped down. The thing about Nick is that he’s got a lot of heart and he’s very coachable."
And he’s also willing to listen to good advice. His older brother, Vince, has been a solid wrestler for the Pirates and was a county champion last year. His father was a standout high school wrestler as well, placing fifth in New York state.
"Wrestling has always been a part of our family," Avery said. "I saw my brother doing it and I wanted to try. My dad also wrestled, so I started early when I was in the third grade. They’ve given me a lot of good advice over the years. And so have my coaches."
In addition to advice, Avery had to find out first hand what the competition was like at the high school level. Opening the season against some tough competition made him learn those lessons quickly.
"I learned a lot from those matches," Avery said. "The first match against Hamilton, I lost to Cruz in the last 30 seconds. But that was one of my first matches and I was still wrestling like a middle-schooler. It’s nice that we’re going to get a chance to see them again in states."
The Pirates will enter their match against Hamilton riding a 10-match win streak. South topped Sayreville, 36-30, on Friday and then clinched the Colonial Division title with a 49-16 win over Ewing on Saturday. Since losing to Hamilton in December to fall to 0-4, the Pirates have won 12 of 13 matches and take a 12-5 record into their CJ III opener. With a win over Hamilton, the Pirates would face host South Plainfield later in the night in the CJ III semifinals.
"We’re a different team now with a different lineup than we had then," MacDougall said of the first Hamilton match. "We have J.T. (Hutchinson) down a weight class since that first meet. And Vince, Josh (Wagner), Tim (Woodhull) and Randy (Donatien) are all down a weight class since we wrestled Hamilton the first time.
"If there is a team we want to beat, we’d love to beat them. This is a chance for us to get revenge on them for that first match. It was real close and it could have gone either way. But I think we’re a better team now than we were the first time we wrestled. We need to wrestle like we did against Hightstown, where guys were picking up bonus points."
The Pirates lost the first meeting with Hamilton, 37-33. MacDougall is confident the result can be different this time around.

