The Niagara Falls Wolverines captured the team’s first Niagara Frontier League title in exactly one decade on Wednesday night, nine years after DJ Giancola took over as head coach.
This is the third time Giancola’s Wolverines have wrestled in a league championship showdown and the first in which they’ve claimed the outright NFL title. After losing a big senior class in the spring, the coaching staff held moderate expectations for their young squad, besides a second state title quest for senior Willie McDougald. However, the early season success of the team led Giancola and staff to realize that the best asset to the squad was in the practice room the whole time.
“We are competing so hard in the room and we have so much respect for one another that we wrestle for one another…when one of us goes out there, we’re all going out there,” said Giancola after his team’s 40-22 win over Grand Island for the NFL title. “I think that’s a big part of who we are as a team…having competition makes you better. We’re having wrestle-offs every three weeks for starting spots. When it comes to our live wrestling, the kids love to scrap. We’re wrestling so much I think the kids are making each other better every day.” Niagara Falls has enough wrestlers on the team to regularly field a full lineup and set up junior varsity duals with some other area schools like Orchard Park and Newfane.
The Wolverines improved to 7-0 in NFL duals and 15-7 overall this season with the win. The Wolverines defeated Niagara Wheatfield on December 11th to give themselves an early opportunity to build a lead at the top of the NFL standings. After the Vikings defeated NW on January 22nd by tie breaking criteria, the Falls/Grand Island showdown set Wednesday’s dual up to be a rare league title match that didn’t feature the Falcons.
For the Falls coaching staff, the way that last year’s team was coached and this year’s team were different strategies, as the 2018-2019 Wolverines featured a lot of experience while the the 2019-2020 squad features more youth throughout the lineup and subsequent skill development, but with even better participation and better parity within the practice room.
“We’ve had a long term mindset where we have looked to bigger things and not so much day to day, immediate success,” said Giancola. “We took on challenges and wrestled tougher opponents & tougher teams this season. Our team is much different now than in the beginning of the year and I think that is credit to the kids and their mindsets on how they handled losses and the challenges they have faced throughout the season.”
Wednesday’s match started at 126-pounds. Darren Christian put Falls on the board first with a 4-0 decision. However, Grand Island star Jack Randle answered with a 5-1 decision at 132-pounds, but the Wolverines’ Wilfredo Borges held strong to allow the Vikings senior no additional bonus points for the team score. An El-Shaddai Ashely pin at 138 for Falls proved to be the only pin in the entire match for either team, and gave NF a 9-3 advantage after three weights.
At 145 the Vikings’ Jake Miller was looking for a pin late in the match, but again a Wolverine stepped up to not give up in a tight situation as Jesiere Carter fought off of his back, ultimately falling by decision but avoiding giving away costly bonus points to GI. Then, at 152, a bout between two of the area’s top wrestlers met as Grand Island’s Brian Bielec took on Willie McDougald in an exciting bout. McDougald, needing two points for a major decision, secured a takedown with only one second on the clock to earn the additional team point and 13-6 Falls lead.
De’Shaun Swanson and Javion Carter would win decisions for Falls at 160 and 170-pounds, respectively, for a 19-6 team score lead. Adam Daghestani would recover some team points for GI at 182, however, another Wolverine wrestler stepped up, this time Carl Ealy, to hold Daghestani to a 14-4 major decision whereas the Vikings hoped for a pin. Levi Cox captured a decision win at 195 for a 22-10 team lead for Falls before they were forced to concede forfeits to Blake Bielec and Gavin Larson at 220 and 285-pounds, respectively.
With the team score tied at 22-22 and only four bouts remaining, Jaden Crumpler earned a crucial 7-2 decision win at 99-pounds to all but seal victory. Amarfio Reynolds and Nick Syposs collected forfeits at 106 and 113 now with the match in hand while Ja’shad Bumpers ended the night with a decision at 120 for a final score of Niagara Falls 40, Grand Island 22.
Giancola recognized the help of his assistant coaches after the dual, saying “Coach [Josh] Eagan really does a good job of coaching in the match and getting the kids to listen to him and talking them through positions and the scoring. Coach [Don] McCoy was the brains behind our lineup. He looked at their lineup and looked at our lineup and came up with a great plan for our team to execute.”
“It’s quite a relief,” said Giancola reflecting his first league title in nine years as head coach of the Wolverines. “To win the flip and then see the team go out and wrestle so well…there’s a big sense of pride right now. And, since we are only losing Willie (to graduation), it’s even more exciting for our future if we can keep our mindset and stay together, there is potential for a very high level of success.”
Comments