Every time Noah Tapia steps off the mat after practice, he’s dripping with sweat. His t-shirt is stained to a different shade and droplets fall off the ends of his hair. There’s no question that he worked hard that day.
As a freshman on the Hofstra University wrestling team, Tapia is the embodiment of blood, sweat and tears. After joining the Pride’s starting lineup this season, the 149-pounder has already started to leave his mark on the mat. With a record of 21-13 he leads the Pride in overall wins. His success was not immediate, however, as his season got off to a rough start.
“It got to the point that I was like, ‘Hey, you’re wrestling like you’re trying to protect something,’” said Hofstra head coach Dennis Papadatos. “Your high school credentials don’t matter, your 0-5 [record], no one thinks you’re any good except us.”
After Tapia won his spot in the Hofstra starting lineup, he came into the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas with just one win from a medical forfeit. There, in the city of second chances, something shifted. After dropping to the consolation bracket, Tapia won his first colligate match 7-5 over Jeff Boyd of The Citadel.
“He just had enough,” Papadatos said. “The first kid he beat, that Citadel kid, was good. And then he walked off the mat and goes, ‘I tasted victory, and I liked the way it tastes and I want some more.’”
Tapia didn’t have to wait long before he could satiate his hunger, beating No.14 ranked Jordan Williams of Oklahoma State University in his very next match. The match was tied 6-6 going into the third period where Tapia earned an escape before being taken down and escaping again to score a takedown of his own and make it 11-9. With time running out, Williams got a reversal to tie up the match with Tapia winning 12-11 after receiving a riding time point.
“It was really just a mindset shift that I had to make,” Tapia said. “Where it wasn’t enough just to wrestle hard, as our head coach Dennis puts it, I had to refuse to lose. I had to make up in my mind that like, even in tough situations, I was going to find a way to pull it out.”
Approaching matches with a newfound confidence and hunger, Tapia started dominating in his matches. In Hofstra’s toughest match-up of the season against No.1 Pennsylvania State University, he was just one of two wrestlers to earn a win for the Pride. His 11-2 major decision win over Connor Pierce was more than just a win against one of the best programs; it showcased Tapia’s best quality: his composure.
“That place was packed, it was loud and I was definitely really nervous before the match,” Tapia said. “When I stepped out there though, as soon as it started, it was just another match. And then I kind of forgot about the big crowd and everything else going on. And then when I won, when I was getting my hand raised, I kind of looked around again and realized, wow, this is big.”
His wins over Williams and Pierce may have grabbed national attention, earning Tapia a sport at No.33 in the national coach’s poll, but it was his win against Kaden Cassidy of George Mason University that really earned him the admiration of his team.
“At George Mason, I started out the match slow. I think it was a 10-1 deficit and then pull out a pin in the third period that felt really good to do,” Tapia said. “[I] just like the aspect of being able to keep my composure in a tough situation like that. And to get the pin for my team, that felt good. I was really excited; my coaches were really excited, my teammates were fired up, it was just a good feeling.”
Before the season even started, Hofstra’s incoming freshmen were dubbed as the most talented freshman class to join the program. Tapia came into the program as an Illinois state champion and two-time runner-up with a high school record of 163-13. One of three true freshmen on the starting lineup, Tapia was brought in to fill a critical weight class for the Pride.
“There’s definitely pressure [being a starter],” Tapia said. “But I think the pressure is good for me and without that pressure, without just being put on the line against the better guys, I don’t know if I would have been able to make the jumps I’ve made as quickly as I did. Because it’s definitely tough sometimes and there is pressure, but getting put in those tough situations, I think, has made me a better wrestler and given me a better mindset in a short amount of time.”
For the team, Tapia is more than a starter. He’s an example of what Hofstra wrestling can be.
“He’s turned into a little bit of a sparkplug,” Papadatos said. “He’s turned out to be one of the leaders, but not a leader by voice and not a [traditional] leader because he’s a freshman and trying to find his place and he doesn’t speak out of turn. But people look at him and they’re like ‘well, he works hard and he listens and he’s winning’. People follow winners and he’s winning.”
With the season ending, Tapia and his team head to the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships, fighting to earn a trip to Kansas City, Missouri for the NCAA championships. Already having been tested against ranked competitors, challenged by the best team in the country and winning a match after being put to his back, Tapia is ready for anything.
“I plan just to keep getting better at wrestling and keep winning matches,” Tapia said. “I want to qualify from the national tournament and even all-American this year. Those are my goals. Going into the postseason I think I can definitely do it; I just need to keep improving every week like I have been and work with my coaches. I think we’re gonna do some big things.”
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Rafael Suanes
