By: Ken Weingartner
Joe Dougherty is talking about practice.
Not like Allen Iverson and his infamous rant about practice, when the NBA star dismissed practice as, well, practice.
No, the South Brunswick High wrestling coach is, as one would expect, the anti-Iverson on this issue. Practice matters.
"We set goals and they look at them as things on a piece of paper," Dougherty said. "They’re not working to achieve the goals the team has set. Every day you walk into that practice room, you have to have a reason to be in there to practice. It’s not just going there to practice. If you don’t perform well, you’re work ethic has to reflect that. You have to start working harder, doing extra. The losses don’t seem to bother them one bit.
"Every day you should look at those goals and every day you should go into the practice room with the mindset that these are the things we are trying to achieve. You have to look at what the expectations are as a member of the team. You have to work every day to achieve those goals, not just show up."
Last weekend, the Vikings traveled to the Monsignor Farrell Tournament, where the goal was to place nine wrestlers in the top three of their respective weight classes. South Brunswick had three wrestlers achieve the goal, all with second-place finishes Ryan Smith at 135, Kyle Wadiak at 160 and Derek Shelcusky at 215.
"We had kids getting called out to wrestle and they were in the bleachers; they were taking off their warmups and running onto mat. That didn’t sit well with me," Dougherty said. "It was just their approach. It’s like they weren’t there to wrestle. If you’re not going to mentally and physically prepare yourself to wrestle, I’m not a proponent of that.
"You should be out there warming up, knowing you’re going to be called out there to wrestle. It was like it was something they had to do, not something they wanted to do. That was annoying."
Dougherty said he has talked about the issues of practice and preparation for weeks. Change must now come from within the ranks.
"As a coach you can try to encourage them to perform, but until it’s an internal thing where their peers are getting on their backs to achieve goals, things don’t really work too well," Dougherty said. "I think it’s a matter of leadership; that’s what it comes down to. Peer pressure is what it is. That’s where your good teams come from.
"We need that, and we don’t have it. Everybody is looking at things more from an individual standpoint; as long as I work hard it’s OK. But, no, that’s not the way it works. All of our best teams had chemistry and worked to achieve a common goal. You’re not going to be a good team unless you’re a team."
The Vikings fared somewhat better in their lone dual match last week, beating Colonia 42-28 to improve to 2-3. South Brunswick was scheduled to wrestle Old Bridge last night and meets J.P. Stevens tomorrow.
Against Colonia, which preceded the Farrell tourney, Joe Biondo (112), Smith (135), Justin DelPiano (152), Malcolm McQueen (160), and Derek Shelcusky (215) won by pins. Darren White (125), Cody Shelcusky (130), Anthony DelPiano (140), and Wadiak (171) won decisions all by three or fewer points.
"I definitely saw some improvement and we won several close matches," Dougherty said. "It was good for the kids. We won close matches, which is always important. They did the things they needed to do to win those matches."
