Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson is banking on his returning wrestlers to take charge at the beginning of the 2002-03 wrestling season.
“We should be very competitive,” explained coach Wilson. “We have a good nucleus coming back. Particularly at the beginning of our season, we need the guys who have been wrestling for us before to show the young kids what it takes, both in the practice room and on the mat.”
Wilson posted an 8-7 mark in his first season at the helm of the Blue Devils, in 2001-02 after one year as head coach at Tyrone and two at Punxsutawney. At Punxy, Wilson began the move back to respectability after the Chucks had gone for several years without a dual win.
At Bellwood-Antis, Wilson coached the Blue Devils to their first winning season in four years. Wilson is a B-A grad, who placed second at States in Hershey his senior year, .
A pair of returning seniors did much of the work in establishing the winning effort last year along with Josh Evans and Duane Ehredt who graduated.
Josh Rosella (19-10) led the squad in team points (63), match points (90), dual meet wins (12-3), pins (14), reversals and three-point nearfalls while wrestling opponents at the 275-pound class who were often 25 or more pounds heavier. Rosella also was second in takedowns and Tournament wins (6) and team points scored versus team points given up (.808).
Rosella is a light-heavyweight again, and will wrestle some at 275 and some at the new 215-pound weight class, depending on the opponent and the maturation of senior Chris Carrier, who is out for wrestling for the first time on the varsity level.
Daniel Himes, who may not be ready to go against Northern Bedford tonight in the Blue Devils season opener, is the second returning senior. Himes (21-14) made steady improvement from his freshman year on the mat to last season. Daniel was sub-.500 his freshman season, then improved to 12-12 as a sophomore. Last season, Himes dropped seven of his first 10 matches, before catching fire for the remainder of the campaign. Winning 13 of his final 16, Dan won a championship at the Blair County Invitational, the only Blue Devil to win a tournament and became the first Blue Devil to qualify for the Regional Tournament whose father had also been a regional qualifier for the Blue Devils. Himes is already a three-time placewinner at the Tri-County Tournament. Only Tracey Karlie and present B-A coach Ron Wilson, two names at the top of literally every statistical list at Bellwood have placed at four inseason tournaments.
Perhaps the most improved wrestler on the 2001-02 squad was Will Edwards, who had never participated before at any level of organized wrestling. Edwards (11-16) started slowly as could be expected, before winning seven of his last 10 matches and finishing second in takedowns with 12 and three-point nearfalls with six.
Also returning are seniors Derrick Miller, Padraig Flynn and Mike McGeary and juniors Greg Clark and Mike Thomas.
Newcomers Dwayne Cherry, Shane Evans, Ron Colyer, Travis Ehredt, Dustin Earnest, Josh Moore and Mark Rogers who are all sophomores and senior Jared Ervine and freshman Josh Ervine, who have moved into the area from New York state are expected to produce at some time during the season.
Numbers are always a problem, although if everyone can manage to stay healthy and maintain a safe weight, the problem could be negated this season.
“We have quite a number of senior,” said coach Wilson. “We have seven seniors and when you have the older kids, it lends itself to more physical type wrestlers and it provides leadership for the younger kids. I think we are going to have a pretty solid group of kids this year. As far as the Tri-County league is concerned, we are going to be very competitive. Outside of the league, we wrestle some pretty tough matches this year. I think we may be able to surprise some teams along the way before the season is over.”
Bellwood-Antis wrestling lineup
103 Shane Evans (Soph.)
112 Mike McGeary (Sen.)
119 Will Edwards (Jun.)
125 Josh Irvine (Sen.)
130 No entry
135 Ron Colyer (Soph.)
140 Pad Flynn (Sen.)
145 Dan Himes (Sen.)
152 Jared Irvine (Fresh.)
160 Dwayne Cherry (Soph.)
171 Derrick Miller (Sen.)
189 Dustin Earnest (Soph.)
215 Chris Carrier (Sen.)
275 Josh Rosella (Sen.)
