Seton Hall Prep's Brenden Calas positions Irvington's Nehehima Shury while preparing to register a fall at 2:40 in their 113-pound quarterfinal mach of this past Saturday's Essex County Tournament. Calas, a 2011 NJSIAA state champ at 103 lbs., earned second straight ECT title. (Photo by Richard Morris/SHP)

Seton Hall Prep's Brenden Calas gains the upper hand on Livingston's Tommy Heller on the way to 8-0 major decision in semifinals at 113 during a strong Essex County Tournament run by Pirate junior. (Photo by Richard Morris/SHP)

Nutley's now 3-time county champion Robert Trombetta (top) finished seventh in the state at 112 pounds last March in Atlantic City. (Photo by Paul Rando)

Livingston's Jason Estevez (132 pounds) is also now a 3-time ECT champ and the No. 6 rated wrestler in his weight class should make some big noise the rest of the way in Districts, Regions and states. (Photo by Bill Allen-njsportaction)

Belleville's now 2-time ECT champ Justin Colon (right) had all he could handle with West Essex's persistent Mike Marotti in Saturday's 126-pound ECT final. The Bucs' senior standout now has 145 career victories. (Photo by Paul Rando)

Beyond ECT Remains Big Picture
As Wrestlers Eye What’s Ahead
By Steve Tober
For sidelinechatter.com

WEST ORANGE- Following quite an impressive performance in the Essex County Tournament in which he dominated three opponents in less than 24 hours, including a pin in the 113-pound championship match, Seton Hall Prep’s Brenden Calas still had his focus on the big picture when it comes to the start of February and what awaits those elite grapplers who have more than a notion of what it takes to compete at a high level during the next month in order to be a real factor at the NJSIAA state tournament in Atlantic City (March 2-4).

And, Calas is a perfect person to understand the process having been a state champion at 103 last March. Now, the junior, back in the Pirates’ lineup for only a week since recovering from a New Year’s Eve elbow sprain against Bishop Ahr, knows what really matters now while eyeing what’s ahead.

“I know it’s time to pick it up now and wrestle better, because we’re getting closer to Districts (Feb. 17-18) and Regions (Feb. 21 and 24-25),” said the impressive SHP junior who had a technical fall and major decision leading up to his pin in 113-pound final in the ECT. “I feel great now after spraining my elbow and I’m ready to do what I have to in order to try and get back for another shot at a state championship.

“I’m excited about what awaits, and I know the challenges will just keep increasing as I face a lot of good wrestlers.”

Calas, who is ranked No. 1 in the state in his weight class, according to The Star-Ledger; Nutley’s Robert Trombetta (23-1), who is No. 6 at 120 and finished seventh in the state at 112 last March, along with Livingston’s Jason Estevez (21-1), who is also listed at No. 6 in his 132-pound weight class and won a third straight ECT title, are probably Essex County’s three best shots, at this point, to do some real major damage the rest of the way, including Districts, Regions and states (March 2-4).

Also on the upcoming agenda is the NJSIAA state team tournament (Feb. 6, 8, 10 and 12).

Belleville’s outstanding Justin Colon (126), who has now won two straight ECT titles and has amassed 145 career wins, is another Essex standout in the lower weights to keep an eye on looking down the line to the individual state tourney in early March. He was a Region 4 champ at 119 last February.

“There are guys in my weight class like Troy Heilmann (of South Plainfield), who is No. 1 ranked, and Anthony Giraldo (of North Bergen and third ranked) who is my Region (4) that I know I have to be aware of moving forward, but I feel I can hang tough with all of them,” said Trombetta, who won his 100 th career match while helping to lead the deep Maroon Raiders to their first ECT team title while earning his third straight county championship. “While I certainly greatly appreciate winning three county titles and hope to shoot for a fourth next year, my work now is focused toward the Districts and beyond.

“And, my goal remains to win a state championship!”

Grapplers Who Will Look To Continue To Better Solid Essex Outings

Montclair coach Mike Friedman, who perhaps could be said patterns his unbridled passion for the mat sport much like his high school coach, Sam Fusaro of Bloomfield, was sounding rather upbeat after this past Saturday’s ECT, especially since his superb 132-pounder Katon Washington had just wrestled one of the best matches of the season in being edged by Estevez, 6-5, in the county final.

“That was a classic match and you could very well see both of them facing each other down the line in the state tournament because they’re both that good,” said the Mounties’ veteran coach. “Katon had a pin, won by technical fall and then had a major decision in his first three matches in the counties, and he was just dominant leading up to his championship bout with Estevez.

“I’m very excited about his prospects the rest of the way, plus I believe Donte’ (Bellamy) will wrestle much better as well. I don’t believe you saw the best from him on Saturday with his knee still bothering him, but he will continue to get healthier and I know he will rebound well in the Districts.”

Bellamy, the top seed at 195, was beaten rather decisvely, 6-0, by Nutley’s Nick Gaeta in the ECT title bout.

SHP’s Kevin Matlon (182) was another local wrestler, like Montclair’s Washington, and others, such as West Essex’s Mike Marotti (runner-up at 126), Anthony Pompei (runner-up at 138), who wrestled extremely well this past Saturday, but came up just short of county titles. Still, all of them could have strong runs the remainder of the tournament season.

“Matlon was very strong,” said Verona’s top-seeded Frank Greco, who edged the SHP standout, 6-5, in a terrific 4-overtime final at 182. “I could see him doing very well from here on out.”

Strong Influences From Past Grads And Former Essex Greats

Speaking of Verona’s Greco, he was quick to credit a former Hillbilly great, 2011 ECT and District 13 champion Colin Farawell, with enhancing his own development as a much improved wrestler this winter.

“All the credit goes to my drill partner last year, Colin Farawell, who taught me so much about what continued hard work in the wrestling room can mean in terms of constantly improving,” said Greco, a junior on the rise for coach Don Morganroth’s excellent small-school mat program. “We lost a lot of people from last year’s team, including Colin, who is now at the Hill (Pa.) School and was recently accepted at Bucknell University, but the lessons those seniors taught our current upperclassmen are now also being passed down in terms of teaching the younger kids about how to work at this sport.”

Great Wrestling Assistant Coaches Always Heavily Involved

Perhaps no high school sport has as many assistant coaches who are as heavily involved in the actual in-match coaching as in wrestling, where sometimes head coaches may take a bit of a step back while allowing assistants to do a great deal of the strategizing as their grapplers do battle.

Veteran assistants such as Dave Pepe at Caldwell, who does such a tremendous job complementing the Chiefs’ longtime head man Gary Garamella; Gene Kelly, the former West Essex mat star, who works so well with another ex-Knight standout, Jay Gerish, as a lead assistant at Newark Academy; and ex-Caldwell great Mike Markey, who works with Greg Ruggiero at West Essex, are just three top-notch assistants who come to mind in observing their strong work in a tournament setting.

MKA’s Dom Leone Makes First Appearance In ECT As Top Seed

In one of the more unusual occurrences of the 2012 ECT, The Montclair Kimberley Academy senior Dom Leone made his first appearance of the 2011-2012 high school season as the top seed at 170. He was pinned by West Orange's eventual runner-up, fourth-seeded Steven Benitiz, in 5:11 in the semifinals, and then was edged by Columbia’s strong seventh-seeded Chris Auriemma, 3-2, for third place; however, it’s just the start of what will be a busy next couple of weeks of increased training for the MKA first-team all-state soccer player while aiming toward the District 14 Tournament.

What is so unusual about Leone is that he is the lone member of the MKA wrestling team this winter as the program has been disbanded due to very low numbers that continued since last season’s low turnout plus attrition due to injuries, including to Leone, who missed part of his junior mat season.

“We tried to get Dom involved as a member of the team at Morris Knolls because he lives in that school’s district in Rockaway, but the (NJSIAA) told us, ‘no,’” said MKA’s longtime head coach Neil Picillo, a former scholastic standout at West Orange and ex-Seton Hall University collegiate star. “So, we decided to keep working with him to prepare for the counties and Districts and see what we could do.

“It’s been tough, because he hasn’t wrestled a high school match until the county tournament, but we see some things we need to work on and we hope to have him ready to make some noise in the Districts.”

Montclair head wrestling coach Mike Friedman (seated, center) and his staff are confident about the propsects of their two top wrestlers Katon Washington and Donte' Bellamy rest of the way. (Sideline Chatter photo)

Seton Hall Prep's third-seeded Kevin Matlon, here working over Shabazz's Delvon Artis on the way to registering a technical fall (16-0; 5:20) in the 182-pound ECT quarterfinals, was one of the runners-up that impressed mightily with terrific performance in Saturday's finals. (Photo by Richard Morris/SHP)

Verona's 2011 graduate Colin Farawell (on top), seen here working over opponent in last year's Region 4 Tournament, is wrestling at the Hill School in Pennsylvania this season, but has left a lasting impression on his Hillbilly teammates who continue to lead solid mat program at the Group 1 Essex County school. (Photo by Bill Allen-njsportaction.net)

Caldwell's Dave Pepe is one of the many outstanding assistant coaches who remain quite involved in directing their wrestlers in and out of the matches in big tournament setting. (Photo by Bill Allen-njsportaction.net)

MKA's Dom Leone, the top seed at 170 in this year's ECT, is the lone wrestler representing the Cougars, who do not have a team this winter. The senior standout will compete in District 14. (Photo by Doug Allen)

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