The Hewlett Bulldogs wrestling team began 2013 with three straight days of wrestling and continued to make their presence felt.
On Thursday, Jan. 3, against the always-tough Garden City Trojans, the Bulldogs held their first Annual Alumni Event. Due to the fact the program is only six years old, this was the first time holding such an event presented itself. The current team did not disappoint, as the nine alumni wrestlers in attendance were treated to a 41-32 win over conference opponent Garden City. Leading the way was Andrew Fang (106), Lucus Pincus (113) Simon Greebel (120) Aaron Weinberg (132) Robert Rosenberg (145), Tredd Smith (160), Matthew Kaminer (220) and Lester Enriquez (285), all of whom secured victories for the home team Bulldogs.
When asked after the match how he felt about the hard-fought win, Coach Stephen Jones said, "It was a great effort by all. Everyone contributed individual efforts and without everyone’s individual efforts, we would have never been able to pull this out. I think this win says a lot about the depth of our program".
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The Bulldogs then traveled to another conference opponent on Friday, Jan. 4, to face the Roslyn Bulldogs. The Hewlett team proved that their Bulldogs bite was much tougher than their foe from the north, proceeding to beat their opponents by a score of 70-12. In fact the dominance was so dramatic the only weight classes the Hewlett Bulldogs lost was 99 and 113, winning the other 13 matches. With this victory, the Bulldogs have moved their dual record to 6-1.
Coach Jones shared his thoughts on the match, "We went out there and took care of business. I tell the kids that no matter what the situation, we need to treat each team the same way. Instead of taking them lightly, we came to wrestle. This is something that will always make a coach proud".
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On Saturday, the team traveled to New Rochelle to participate in the legendary Ted Murphy Shoreline Classic as one of 24 teams invited to this year's event. Perhaps due to back-to-back nights, the team unfortunately got off to a very slow start and did not recover as well as Coach Jones had hoped. Although the team did in fact finish seventh out of 24 schools, Coach Jones expected a top 5 finish for his wrestlers.
"Overall I believe we wrestled pretty well. It definitely wasn't our best effort," Coach Jones said. "Those guys who were supposed to win did. There were a lot of good individual efforts. In order to take top five in this highly competitive tournament, everyone was going to have to put forth their best efforts. Several of our guys came out flat and did not contribute to our overall success. In their defense, we really had a rough week. Three days of weigh-ins and competitions can always take a toll on a wrestler. Not to make excuses, but I think our guys were a little tired and worn down."
Once again, senior captain Robert Rosenberg (138) took first place, leading six Bulldogs who finished on the podium. Matthew Kaminer (220) took second place, Justin Ciraolo (195) took fourth place, senior captain Simon Greebel (120) took fifth place and both Senior Captain Aaron Weinberg (126) and Junior Captain Oran Revivo (132) took sixth place.
The team continued their season with an away match against the powerful Plainedge Red Devils on Wednesday. Coach Jones was clearly excited about this extremely important match. “We will get a great week in of practice and look to bounce back strong against Plainedge. This is a huge league match for us, which will be broadcast on MSG Varsity."
