By Bob Nuse, The Packet Group
The lumps the seniors took as freshmen and sophomores in the Northern Burlington wrestling program are paying off.
The Greyhounds struggled through tough seasons when this year’s senior class was just getting started. But last year the team rebounded with a 19-6 record and this year has shown every indication of being even better.
”We’ve had a very good year so far,” Northern Burlington coach Jule Dolci said. “We’ve been trying to up the competition level this year because we do have a talented team. We lost a close one at West Deptford this past weekend. It was closer than the score looked because we were up in the third period of a couple of matches and lost.
”We definitely have a very solid team.”
The Greyhounds, who had a strong team in the early part of Dolci’s tenure as head coach, struggled with a young team a few years back. But those young wrestlers have developed into talented upperclassmen, giving Dolci a strong team in his 10th season as head coach.
”When I first got here we were always good,” Dolci said. “Then we went through a rebuilding period back when these seniors were freshmen and sophomores. We were under .500 those years and struggled to put quality guys in every weight class. But these guys worked hard and now they are to the point where we are a strong program again. I think that speaks a lot to the kids in the program.”
Dolci has been pleased to see the resurgence in the program. He has a quality lineup and has not been afraid to take the Greyhounds to the toughest competition possible.
”We went to the Beast of the East Tournament, which had 106 schools and over 100 nationally ranked wrestlers,” Dolci said. “So even though all our kids had two losses, they learned from the experience. We’ve been trying to push them to a higher level of competition so we’re ready for the districts and regions later in the year.
”It’s really been the kids that have made the different. When you have a group that is willing to work hard anything is possible.”
Through the early part of the season the Greyhounds already have a number of wrestlers with records well above .500. Cody Melton led the team with 11 wins coming into this week. Wayne Stinson, Harley Palyok and Evan Million all have nine wins. Zach Verity, Chase Potocny, Billy Stout, and Harvey Singh also sport winning marks.
”These seniors took their lumps and it wasn’t pretty at all,” Dolci said. “But they hung tough. They went to camps and clinics and took ownership of themselves and the program and it has paid off. We were 19-6 last year and this year it’s a different team, but we could be even better than last year’s record.”
