By Mark Walters
Chesapeake, VA-The Pride wrestling team won the 2009 CAA Championship. What else is new?
In a year that head coach Tom Shifflet described as being “the first in a long time that Hofstra was probably viewed as the underdog,” his team lit up Old Dominion by 20 points, a larger margin of victory than the previous year (17.5). That’s right, minus Joe Rovelli, Dave Tomasette, and Charles Griffin, Hofstra beat its closest competition by 20 points. Rebuilding year? Yeah, right.
And how?
It started in the first round, when the Pride won nine of its ten matches. The nine victories included four falls, two tech falls, and two major decisions. Bonus points anyone?
After the first day of competition, the Monarchs of Old Dominion trailed first place Hofstra by 26.5. The Pride had seven wrestlers in the semifinals, while ODU had only four.
Assistant coach Joe Dubuque quipped after Friday’s semifinal round that they were likely going to have to scratch out the number seven on Old Dominion’s flier that said, “Come witness ODU snap Hofstra’s seven-year conference winning streak.”
“Have ’em go for it next year,” Dubuque laughed.
Hofstra was just too much.
While the two schools split their championship bouts against each other 2-2 (125, 133, 141, and 165) it was Hofstra that had the flair of a champion, winning a title at 157 (Jonny Bonilla-Bowman) where ODU failed to even place, and placing ahead of the host team at 174 (Alton Lucas second, ODU’s Eric Decker third) and 184 (Ben Clymer third, ODU’s Joe Budi fourth.) Lucas pinned Decker, and Clymer decided Budi 2-1.
Sure, ODU’s Jesse Srawn beat Joe Fagiano at 197, but the Monarchs suffered a big loss when their heavyweight, Roy Dragon, went down against Drexel’s Kyle Frey and had to give up a loss by default in the semifinals. Dragon was taken away in an ambulance, but appeared healthy the next day.
It was a team effort from top to bottom, one that Pride head coach Tom Shifflet and his staff was pleased with. Shifflet knew what his team needed to do, and he knew their execution would yield success.
“Our guys just really focused and worked hard on the task at hand, which was coming in, each individual doing their job and if that was the case then we were gonna wrestle well and win a championship,” Shifflet said, holding the school’s eighth CAA Championship trophy, personally his third in as many years.
His coaching staff was not only the most successful in the conference, but easily the most calm and collected. While other coaches displayed childish behavior at times, Shifflet remained gentlemanly as his several assistants rotated on and off the bench with him.
Old Dominion’s Steve Martin offered congratulations to Shifflet shortly after my interview with him, and as the two shook hands it was easy to tell that those several seconds was likely the longest conversation held between the rivaled head coaches over the two-day tournament. But don’t blame Shifflet. He’s merely doing his job as his team continues to have a stranglehold on the CAA.
It’s a hold that is likely to tighten. As Hofstra bids farewell to one senior this year, it returns nine letter winners. Junior Lou Ruggirello said that he thinks his team has a pretty good future coming up, commending the freshmen for their efforts.
As difficult as it may be, you gotta believe that this team features five freshmen, two of which are redshirts. Three of them qualified for nationals, andit was Bonanno’s attitude that was a testament to what Hofstra wrestling is all about.
“Without a doubt I can see myself as All-American this year,” Bonanno said.