Stibitz hopes to promote wrestling in summer
By: Rudy Brandl
The mats are open, so come on in and wrestle.
Manville High head coach Brett Stibitz is hoping his new Open Mats program will generate more interest and excitement in a sport that has a great tradition in town. After the high school team won several championships during some glory years in the 1990s, wrestling has hit a down cycle in the new millennium. The best way to start rebuilding is to get young people involved in the off-season.
"The major goal is to get the younger kids more experience and to promote the sport of wrestling," said Stibitz, a former MHS wrestler who will enter his third season as head coach this school year. "We want to gain their interest. Even if we don’t keep all of them, we’ll teach them something about wrestling. I want to get kids who never wrestled before into the room. If I can keep some of them, I’m a step ahead when the season starts."
Participation numbers have been low in recent years. Manville was able to field a successful team without large rosters in the past, largely because all the individual wrestlers entered the high school with experience. This hasn’t been the case in the last four or five years and Stibitz wants to start correcting this problem.
The Open Mats program, which runs from 6-8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, will address both problems the high school program has faced in recent years. It will revive the interest of youngsters and also get them some off-season experience so they’re not as green when they show up for the first day of practice around Thanksgiving.
Although the attendance for last week’s opening sessions was spotty, Stibitz expects the numbers to increase throughout the summer. He’s encouraged by the fact that 28 freshmen signed up for football. He’s hoping to lure some of those athletes into his wrestling room. Stibitz is also expecting his 10 returning varsity wrestlers to show up on a regular basis.
"I’m making it almost mandatory for those guys to show up at least once a week," Stibitz said. "I’m looking forward to having all those guys returning and all the freshmen coming in. If we can get some of them, we’ll have good competition."
The program is open to wrestlers entering grades 4-12. Stibitz hopes to get a good mix of ages at the sessions. The incoming fourth grade class includes a bunch of good young grapplers.
An experienced group of instructors has been assembled. Longtime head coach Paul Kolody will teach cradles and granbys and former Slovakian national champ Jan Kepich will work on throws. Frank Passe and Aaron Sohl, a former Region 5 champ at Manville, may also do some teaching.
"Each instructor will teach his specialty and bring something to the table," Stibitz said. "We’ll have an introduction with some instruction and then mostly live wrestling. As long as I have two guys around the same age and same weight, we can do some live wrestling."
If there’s enough participation and interest, Stibitz will hold a takedown tournament at the end of the summer. This will allow the individual wrestlers to measure their ability on their feet.
For now, to get things rolling, Stibitz is offering another prize as a reward for regular attendance. Any wrestler who shows up for five Open Mats sessions will receive a Manville wrestling T-shirt.
"We want to promote wrestling here during the summer," he said. "I think it’s really going to take off."
Anyone interested in learning more about the program should contact Coach Stibitz at (908) 295-0580.