NBC, BRHS wrestling working hard now for success later

By Sean Moylan, Sports Writer
   The first thing one notices about the 2007-2008 Northern Burlington County varsity wrestling team is that other than seniors R.J. “The Honkey Tonk Express” Melton and Phil “Prime Time” Bowen, there are no household names on this current Greyhounds’ team.
   Standouts like Geoff “All Day” Bauma, who made states last year and was one of the best wrestlers in NBC history, Johnny “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” Humble and Brandy “Good At Any” Price all graduated last spring.
   So this is the time when one is suppose to write about NBC having a rebuilding year. However, NBC has so much depth at every weight slot one just can’t do that. The Greyhounds will probably be very solid once again.
   ”We’ve got a lot of no-name kids who are hungry and dedicated. This is by far the hardest working group we’ve ever had. We’re going to keep on working and see how good we can get. There isn’t a ceiling with this group. Our seniors have been awesome. We’ve had two-a-days all week, and we’ve had wars at practice,” said Jule Dolci, NBC’s longtime head varsity wrestling coach.
   ”Our goal is simple, be selfish. Each one of our kids needs to get better every day. Nobody else matters. We need to have 14 hammers in our lineup.”
   Melton, a 215-pounder, will be a key. The only person who kept Melton from reaching States last year was Hightstown’s Kenny “The Beast” Amponsa, who just barely slipped by Melton at Regions. Melton, a District 25 runner-up last year, posted a 33-5 record last year.
   ”As always R.J. is slow, he limps and he is always bruised up. That’s what makes him special, you can’t be pretty in this sport and be successful. He will outslug just about anybody. Nobody works harder and nobody wants it more. He wrestled his tail off this off season and I think he’s going to get better every day,” said Dolci, who has always loved Melton as a wrestler.
   Bowen was 15-10 and a District 25 champ last year. Junior 112-pounder Rich Grove posted a 16-12 record and took fourth at Districts last season. Josh Jones, a sophomore 125 pounder, won 13 matches last year. Sophomore Kamaljit Singh (119) won 15 matches while at Bordentown last year. Jeffrey Townsend, a junior 171-pound standout, was 12-10.
   Melton and Bowen will certainly be in the lineup, but this year NBC has more spots up for grab than ever.
   Jonathan Ferrell (a freshman 103-pounder), Scott Gangel (a junior 112- pounder), Evan Million (a freshman 112-pounder), Alexander Gaudreau (a sophomore 119-pounder), Michael Owens (a sophomore 119-pounder), Lorenzo Laurenti (a freshman 119-pounder), Stephanie Schuster (a junior 125-pounder), Harvey Singh (a freshman 125-pounder), Austin Palombi (a sophomore 130-pounder), Harley Palyok (a freshman 130-pounder), Charles Keintz (a junior 145-pounder), Charlie Realmonte (a junior 145-pounder), Alec Routhier (a junior 145-pounder), Clayton “The Irish Hammer” Bucci (a 152-pound senior), Peter “Muscles” Kolev (a senior 152-pounder), DeShawn Washington (a freshman 152-pounder), Anthony “War Machine” Lentini (a senior 160-pounder), “The Heartbreak Kid” Joe Wolfer (a senior 171-pounder), Nathan Armontrout (a junior 171-pounder), Michael Fairlie (a freshman 171-pounder), Jared “Ramstein” Morris (a senior 189-pounder), Thomas “Wolfman” Regan (a senior 189-pounder), Glen Shaw (a junior 189-pounder), Eric Rogers (a sophomore 189-pounder), Scott Root (a sophomore 189-pounder), William Morgan (a junior 215-pounder), Joe Smylie (a junior 215-pounder), Shawn Crawford (a junior 285-pounder) and Jordan Foster (a junior 285-pounder) will all be battling for time on the mat.
   Rob “The Natural” McMullen, Arnold Starr, Gene Graf and Al Wonesh Sr. will be Dolci’s assistants. Former NBC stars Humble, Steve Makuka, Al Wonesh Jr., Erik George, Rich Feig, Ben “In Your Face” Case and Dan Lobue are all currently wrestling in college.
   Dolci’s motto is you can’t get better by blowing everybody out so despite its youth NBC added Howell to its already tough schedule. If Melton and Bowen stay healthy, NBC should make the post season again (it lost to Ocean in the state tournament last year). NBC is scheduled to compete in the Colt’s Classic on Saturday and next Wednesday it is scheduled to host Westampton Tech.

BRHS

   When Joe Sprague took over the Bordentown Regional High varsity wrestling team five years ago, he didn’t just rebuild the program, he revolutionized it.
   Under Sprague, Bordentown started a summer wrestling program for the high school kids. And last year Sprague helped to start a Bordentown Youth Wrestling program, which is being run by local legend Tony Arroyo, a former Bordentown wrestling star. That program is getting started this week and Bordentown kids, ages 6 to 13, who are interested in learning about wrestling can still register for it.
   Sprague also keeps close tabs on the Bordentown middle school wrestling program which is run by Tony Arroyo Jr., a former Northern Burlington star grappler.
   But Sprague’s greatest claim to fame, so far, is the way he turned around the varsity team. When he took over the Scotties, the team was struggling just to fill over half a lineup and win a few matches. In his first season as head coach Sprague, using his knowledge of the talent from the middle school, led Bordentown to a 9-16 record. Then Bordentown had a 17-11 season followed by back-to-back 22-10 seasons under Sprague. Last year, it won its first playoff match before losing to David Brearley in the semifinals a couple of hours later.
   ”I’m hoping we’re going to have a nice year,” said Sprague, who has a 70-47 lifetime record and is a master at making out a lineup. However, he knows that senior Josh Slezak is always going to be slated in as his 171-pounder.
   Last year Slezak became the first Bordentown wrestler in 17 years to qualify for the state tournament. He finished the year with an amazing 34-6 record and he has a 75-27 career record. This season, if he can stay healthy, Slezak has an excellent chance of becoming the first Scotties’ grappler to reach 100 wins. He also won the District 26 title at 171 last season.
   Last year Jason Cassidy (135) placed third at Districts and this year Sprague is expecting a big season out of his junior star. Tyler Sheehan, a senior 145-pounder, also captured third at Districts as did Thomas Lee, an extremely tough 189-pound junior. Sprague, however, knows that teams win matches by filling out the entire lineup card. And luckily, the Scotties have depth in every weight class this season.
   At 103, Ryan Lawrence (junior), Brandon Mazur (freshman) and an experienced Sam LaMothe (sophomore) will battle it out for time on the mat.
   Derek Chorba (junior) and Ian Harmening are the Scotties’ top grapplers at 112 pounds. Shawn Gavin, a freshman, will most likely fill the open slot at 119 pounds. After a great football season with the Bordentown Bulldogs, 9th grader Khalid Shakir could make an impact with the Scotties at 125.
   ”He’s a good wrestler,” added Sprague of Khalid.
   Junior Andrew Davis, a 130-pounder, won some big matches for Bordentown last season and he is back. Joe Everitt, an 11th grader, will also see some action at 130. In addition to Cassidy, Bordentown will have senior Gabe Gardner at 135 pounds.
   Senior Karam Khalifa (140), Sheehan (145), tough sophomore Brett Pedersen (152), junior Max Bohanan (152), senior Hayba Heba (160), freshman Matt Bauer (160), Slezak (171), Lee (189), senior Terrance Calhoun (215) and senior Jason Crivelli (heavyweight) will all be in the mix to wrestle varsity matches. But Sprague has some other kids in the system, who are sure to get in some varsity matches.
   Larry Larned is back as Sprague’s assistant.
   ”We’re doing well,” said Sprague, who expects to win most Matches.
   A lot has changed over the past five years. Bordentown is scheduled to host the Patriot Duals on December 14th and 15th.