Wrestlers Are Said to Have Heart

Last year’s huge turnout of seventh and eighth graders for the East Hampton Middle School’s wrestling team prompted the high school’s veteran coach, Jim Stewart, to predict a resurgence here in the sport, which had been languishing.

During a conversation following last Thursday’s practice, along with his energetic assistant, Ethan Mitchell, Stewart showed the interviewer a yearbook photo of the team.

“I count 42,” this writer said after a few moments.

“And five were missing,” said Stewart, who two seasons ago retook, after about a decade’s hiatus, the high school coaching reins when Anthony Piscitello, a former Ross School teacher, moved to Brooklyn.

It had been a long, long time since East Hampton High had been blessed with such numbers, Stewart, who coached championship teams here from the mid-1980s into the ’90s, agreed.

Thus he and Mitchell, who for the past six years has assisted Paul Bass, a national wrestling Hall of Famer and recent retiree, at Westhampton Beach, will enter two competitors in each weight class in the League V tournament at Eastport-South Manor on Feb. 8.

Having two or more in each weight class furthers growth, the coaches said. “They’re pushing each other every day, that’s how you improve — we have wrestle-offs as often as we can,” said Mitchell.

“We’re on the way back, Jack,” said Stewart, whose 95-year-old father, Walt, is also in wrestling’s national Hall of Fame.

But while the numbers are very good, Stewart and Mitchell’s charges lack experience, which has resulted thus far in a 1-7 league record.

No matter. “They’ve been learning,” said Mitchell, who wrestled when he was a student at Westhampton. “We’re very pleased with them, very proud. The other coaches have been saying that we have ‘scrappers.’ That’s a huge compliment, especially when you consider they’ve only had six weeks to work on technique. What they have is heart,” he said, placing a fist on his chest.

Mitchell and Stewart hastened to add, however, that their ultimate goal, in addition to wrestling success, was to send forth into the world confident, responsible, resilient men.

Consequently, they’ve demanded that their charges keep up with their studies, that they stay organized and do their work, just as they do in the wrestling room, and that they pay attention to nutrition and hydration. “When you take care of the little things, like mak­ing sure your backpack is organized for the next day before you go to bed, the big things will take care of themselves,” Mitchell said.

There are only four seniors on the team — Austin Brown, Mark Sanchez, Brando Locero, and Brahian Usma — and of those only Usma has had previous experience. At a match with Rocky Point here on Jan. 15, Mitchell had good things to say about all of them, including another senior, Zoe Leach, the team’s manager and a prospective biomedical engineering major.

In addition to Usma, only Santi Maya, Caleb Peralta, and Kevin Coria have had actual experience.

“Brando has made huge gains over the past year,” said Mitchell. “Mark’s been with us for two months. He came from Chicago and moved in with his cousin, Kevin Coria, which has been good for both of them. Usma was made one of our captains two weeks ago because of his transformation in the classroom . . . his leadership was never in question. He’s the epitome of what we want.”

It was Stewart who should get all the credit for recruiting the team, said Mitchell, who was hired as a special education teacher at the high school “two weeks before the school year started.”

“It was all him — he pulled them out of everywhere, and then the kids began talking to each other,” Stewart’s assistant said.

Needless to say, East Hampton lost at league-leading Hauppauge Friday, though many of his and Mitchell’s charges were competitive, Stewart said after Monday’s practice. Maya won by forfeit at 113, and Coria won 5-0 at 220.

The next day, in nonleague contests, the team notched two wins, by 57-9 over Jericho’s B team, and by 54-9 over the host school, Stony Brook. “Some of our kids had their first wins that day, and some their first pins,” said Stewart.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” he added. “They’re becoming more confident . . . we’re just beginning.”

The starters, by and large, have been J.P. Amaden, a freshman, at 99 pounds; Robert Stewart, a freshman, at 99 or 106; Maya, a sophomore, at 113; Cooper Ceva, a freshman, or Richie Perez, a freshman, at 120; Peralta, a sophomore, at 126; Brown at 132; John Marin, a sophomore, at 138; Alex Vanegas, a sophomore, at 145; Usma at 152; James Barros, a sophomore, at 160; Sebastian Baculima, a sophomore, at 170; Mark Sanchez at 182; Locero at 195; Coria, a junior, at 220, and Sebastian Sanchez, a junior, at 285.