By Bob Bonett
With five consecutive Colonial Athletic Association titles, an 11th place showing in the NCAA Division I National Championships and the return of two All-American wrestlers, many would feel that the Pride would have an enormous target on its back entering the new season.
Yet, according to new head coach Tom Shifflet, the wrestling program is not even favored in its own conference (second to Rider).
However, returning a lineup with the likes of Mike Patrovich, Chris Weidman and Joe Rovelli may suggest even greater aspirations than a conference title for Hofstra.
Ranked by Wrestling International Newsmagazine (W.I.N.) as the 12th best team in the country, it looks like Hofstra’s program has once again caught the national eye, and that success deep into the postseason may be more than evident for Shifflet’s crew of determined wrestlers.
More confident than anybody, though, is Shifflet himself, who comes to Hofstra after four years as the head coach at UNC-Greensboro.
“We have quite a few guys that can make an impact,” Shifflet says with confidence. “We want to produce All-Americans, national champions and compete against the best teams in the country.”
With a lineup as deep as Hofstra’s, it appears that such extensive expectations are more than just optimistic cliché. Superstar Patrovich, who will be moving to an expected 165 pounds this year, is the “leader of the program,” and may be looking beyond another conference title and instead at a national championship with his preseason second-place ranking.
Aiding Patrovich is a supporting cast that looks more like an all-star team than role players. Weidman, who made a remarkable run in the NCAA Championships and earned All-American honors, is ranked seventh at 197 pounds. Rovelli, another wrestler noted by Shifflet, is ranked eighth at 184 pounds after winning the conference title.
And as if three wrestlers in the top ten in the country is not enough to create a few believers, Hofstra also brings back three other wrestlers in the top 20, including reigning CAA champion Charles Griffin (ranked 14th at 141 pounds), James Strouse, another defending CAA title-holder (15th at 157) and Dave Tomasette, a junior coming off of a CAA title (20th at 125).
With this success and high expectations for the Pride, humility may be the greatest challenge for the wrestlers. Yet, forced to heed the spotlight to the nationally accredited and more media-drawn Hofstra University basketball team, the motivated wrestlers may end up being the most humble top 25 team in the country.
With the absence of the ego-factor that plagues Division I teams across the country, Shifflet’s bunch may be looking at a team more successful than Tom Ryan’s teams of years past. (Ryan left the pride for Ohio State University during the off-season.)
“With Patrovich, Weidman, Rovelli, Strouse, Griffin and Tomasette, we are definitely looking to take it to a new level and gain a lot of success,” Shifflet said.
The experience factor may be the edge never before gained in years past, as trips to the National Championships gave the wrestlers a new look at the nation’s best competition. Shifflet encourages this angle greatly.
“Once you are at the nationals, and see where you can compete in the country, the bar is raised and you gain extra confidence not seen before,” he said.
Confidence that could lead to unparalleled success for the Pride’s program, as a fresh coaching angle from a successful, experienced coach like Shifflet could give the wrestlers the ability to “turn the corner,” and enable them to gain the ability to master “one or two moves,” Shifflet says.
Combining confidence, motivation and a new coach, preseason expectations by magazines or oddsmakers appear irrelevant to the true story of the Hofstra Pride. Twelfth in the nation is certainly not the limit for Hofstra, nor is second place in the CAA. Crowning All-Americans and perhaps a few national champions may be in the cards for the Pride this year, and perhaps in a few months, the team will have exceeded even its own expectations.
Opponents beware