MHS wrestlers show early promise

Cougars fall after holding lead

By: Bob Nuse
   As debuts go, the Montgomery High wrestling team made a nice opening impression.
   The Cougars hosted their first varsity dual match on Tuesday night, dropping a 43-33 decision to Rutgers Prep. And while the final result was a loss, Montgomery got off to the kind of start that had the fans pumped up and excited.
   Mathias Cassar opened the match with a forfeit win at 119 pounds, giving the Cougars a 6-0 lead. Mike Oake and Trevor Thomas then followed with wins via pin, giving Montgomery an early 18-0 lead. And while Rutgers Prep would go on to win eight of the next nine matches to build a 43-21 lead, the Cougars had their moment on opening night in front of a nice crowd in their home gym.
   But in the end, the inexperience of a program in its first season at the varsity level showed, as Rutgers Prep rallied for the win.
   "They’re young and they make a lot of fundamental mistakes that I’m not used to, but I have to get accustomed to," said Montgomery coach Kevin Jacoutot, whose team had opened its season on Saturday at Princeton’s Garden State Classic. "We have to get back to square one. The good thing about your first match is you can see them all out there and I can access my coaching a little better. I can adjust what they need or what they don’t need and what’s right and wrong. We can take something good from that.
   "They’re not as bad as they think they are. They just make mistakes at odd times in the match. We’ll work on it and hopefully we will progress through the season."
   Oake and Thomas certainly gave the Cougars a reason to be happy, as did Alex Colarusso, who picked up a 3-2 win in his match at 160. For Oake, getting a chance to be in the first varsity match, and pick up the first win, was something he was excited to be a part of.
   "I was in the locker room and I was all pumped up before the match," said Oake, a junior. "I was getting my blood flowing. It was nerve-racking being the first person out there. You know you’re the first match and everybody is looking at you. You set the pace for everyone else."
   Oake won his match with a second period pin, Thomas then followed with a pin in less than a minute. The Cougars were close in several other matches, but a mistake here and there cost them a chance to add to the win total.
   "Most of these guys have never wrestled," said Jacoutot, whose team will wrestle again today at South Brunswick. "We have maybe a handful of guys that have any real experience. And even they are green. We had one year, but that’s deceiving because they’re wrestling on the JVs. They’re getting thrown to wolves this year with hardly any experience. We have a couple bright spots and individuals. But it is going to be a growing pains season that hopefully we can learn from."
   And once they’ve learned, they can take advantage of opportunities like Tuesday’s, where three matches were in hand before the match even started.
   "We had three forfeit wins, so right off the bat we’re up, 18-0," Jacoutot said. "So we should win that match. A lot of the guys who got pinned were winning, so that is discouraging. That’s experience. An experienced wrestler has better match sense.
   "Alex Colarusso, I used him as an example to the team after the match. He used what he knew up to that point and he executed it well. He didn’t make any mistakes and he was able to pull out a 3-2 win. The other guys think they know more than they know. Alex has good athletic instincts that he developed through football and he used them tonight. He didn’t make any mistakes."
   All of the Cougar wrestlers are looking to add to their experience. At Montgomery, Oake is considered an experienced wrestler. At most schools, he might be looked at as a novice.
   "I wrestled in second grade, and then I moved here to Montgomery and there was no program," Oake said. "I got back into it last year. I’ve been wrestling with a bunch of other guys on my team. We’ve worked well together.
   "Everybody wants individual improvement. Everybody wants to get better on their own terms. But we do need to get better as a team. We need to make decisions that benefit the team as far as cutting weight and working in certain positions. We need to make sure everybody develops as a whole and works as a team to get better."
   For Montgomery, wrestlers like Joe Smogard are the kind of guys who will grow and improve with experience. In his first match ever, Smogard built a 7-1 lead before his opponent rallied and recorded a pin at the 5:59 mark.
   "It was his first match," Jacoutot said. "He has been out for the team for six days. We couldn’t fill the weight class. We had a wrestler there who quit, so we had to fill the weight class. He came over from hockey, we got him certified, slapped a singlet on him and we threw him out there, basically with no knowledge. We’re going to teach him. He didn’t even know the scoring. But he’ll get it with experience."
   Already, the Cougars have a nice showing to their credit at the Garden State Classic. Eric Biago and Abdel Abouhaib each picked up a second place finish, while Nick Cassar and Oake each finished third. Thomas added a fourth place.
   "They show sparks here and there, but their inexperience gets them in trouble," Jacoutot said. "They show promise, then make mistakes and it costs them the match. Wrestling is a sport that takes years to get match sense and body awareness. They just don’t have that yet. It develops over time and repetition."