New faces on the mats
By MATT WING - Tribune Sports
The Evening Tribune, Hornell, NY
December 2, 2005

ALMOND - For the first time in over 20 years, the Arkport Central School District fielded a varsity wrestling team. Although it's first match ended in a 60-11 loss at the hands of host Alfred-Almond Thursday, it's only the beginning for the brand new program.

“I'm thrilled,” said Arkport coach Brett Talbot. “They've been working hard for a month and I couldn't be happier. We got beat easily by a good team, but that's okay.”

Talbot started the program last season with 15 modified wrestlers and now has 21 wrestlers between modified, junior varsity and varsity.

“I coached at Hornell for several years and went over to Arkport several years ago and I've been pushing for it,” said Talbot. “It's a sport that serves a lot of kids. There was a population of kids that weren't doing anything and this is a good sport for them.”

Alfred-Almond coach John Gemmell, who was a state champion at Hornell in 1993 and NCAA Division III champion at Ithaca College in 1998, knows the importance of adding programs to the Steuben County league, no matter how competitive they might be during the first couple of years.

“Especially with wrestling, there are a lot of programs within the high schools and colleges that are getting eliminated, so any time you can bring a program in, regardless of their ability level, it's good,” said Gemmell. “Like I told Brett today, it's only going to get better.”

Arkport's first individual victory during the new era came in the very first head-to-head matchup of the evening as the Blue Jays' Bill Stewart built a huge lead before finishing off A-A's Robert Lounsberry in 4:52 by way of technical fall in the 152-pound match, giving Arkport an early 5-0 lead.

“We started out very strong,” said Talbot. “It was a nice beginning. I knew we weren't going to come out victorious in the end, but they worked very hard.”

“He's a very strong wrestler,” he added of Stewart. “But like all of them, he's got a lot to learn.”

A-A's Brad Matacale gave the Eagles the lead for good following the 160-pound match when he pinned Brandon Smith in 1:13 for his first ever varsity dual meet victory.

“It was a good one for both of our teams,” said Gemmell. “I know (Arkport) is real young and we are young. I have eight freshmen, three sophomores, one junior that has never wrestled before and two seniors. I'm pretty pleased.”

“I'm pretty pleased with most of the performances,” he added. “But, obviously, there are things we've got to work on. The numbers are up. This is the most kids I've had so far in the three years that I've been here and we've got a pretty good modified program that is starting to build.”

In the heavyweight match, the Eagles' Brian Harrison earned a pin with six seconds left in the first period over Arkport's Tom Robinson to give A-A a 24-5 lead and J.R. Emo, who failed to make weight earlier in the day and made it just before the match, pinned Jeremy Harwood in 1:22 at 112 pounds for a 30-6 lead.

After three forfeits by Arkport put the team score out of reach, the Eagles added 12 more points with pins from Tom Demetreu (135) and Travis Smith (140). Robert Comer, Curtis Benjamin and Lounsberry also picked up pins in exhibition for the Eagles.

“J.R Emo, my 112-pounder, didn't make weight (Tuesday) morning and had to make it tonight, so I'm pleased considering that,” said Gemmell, who will get his top wrestler, Jason Frasor, back from a fractured wrist suffered during soccer season next week. “Robert Comer had the exhibition match and wrestled well. Brian Harrison, who will be 215 by the end of the year, wrestled at 275 and he was giving up a lot of weight to that kid.”

“We had a couple of newcomers like Curtis Benjamin, who got a good exhibition wins for us,” he added. “Tom Demetreu got a big win for us and Brad Matacale got his first dual-meet win for his career.”

Arkport's first pin in the new era came from Matt Turner in the final match of the evening as he pinned A-A's Lucas Cady 2:42 into the match. Smith got his first varsity win with a pin over Kyle Burnett in the final exhibition match of the evening.

Arkport falls to 0-1 in its inaugural season, but the expectations are to just learn and gain experience for the future.

“Just to try our hardest and learn and get a lot of experience,” said Talbot of his goal for the team this season. “That's all we can do. I have nine varsity wrestlers - two of which wrestled for the first time last year and the rest are brand new this year. We just want to keep learning.”

Alfred-Almond (1-0) will be at the Byron-Bergen Tournament this weekend before hosting Fillmore on Tuesday. Arkport will host its first dual meet next Thursday against Campbell-Savona.