Welcome to Blackhawks Wrestling!
The
Youth Wrestling Club of Newington, CT is known as the
"Newington
Blackhawks."
It is our hope that you will read through
our website to become familiar with our program and better understand
the sport of wrestling. Whether you are just starting or a returning
family to wrestling, this website will help you throughout the season.
ATTENTION All Wrestlers!
Current Blackhawks wrestlers and future Blackhawks get ready as the season is quickly upon us. Start your push-ups and sit up NOW ! Be ready to defend what the Newington Blackhawks have accomplished over the past year.
Meet the Coaches Night / Sign Ups will take place on Wednesday Oct 14th at Newington HS from 6:00 to 8:00PM in the HS Café.
Cost is $120.00, includes USA Card and T-Shirt
10% discount for 2nd wrestler ( $216.00, family cap of $250.00.)
Checks payable to the “Newington Blackhawks”
First Practice for all wrestlers is Nov 16th at MKMS Aux Gym
The Start of the 2009-2010 Wrestling Season
As you prepare mentally for this season bare in mind that targets will be on our backs as we have emerged to become one of the premier wrestling clubs in the state. We completed our first season in the “Middle School League” undefeated and with the addition of Bristol this year things should become more competitive. We had SIX State Champions this past season which was a record in it self. Dylan Sousa, Brian Amato, Chris Chorzepa, Cole Sousa, Lucas Muntz and Quinton Bichall. Congratulations to all who remain Blackhawks as well to those who move on.
Pomperauge and Colchester are anxious to wrestle us this year and I consider that not only a challenge but a compliment to all of us in what we have done.
In closing be ready to work hard both physically and mentally.
Remember:
“The more you wrestle the better you get, the better you get the more you wrestle…"
Coach Chris
Here we are at the home stretch of another fine season. Hard to believe there’s less than one week to go, and the Blackhawks continue to roll forward. When we last left off the Blackhawks had placed 3rd at the McGee Tournament and 1st at the Berlin Tournament. Since that time we have been working hard and it has paid off. On Jan 25 the Blackhawks placed first at the Meriden Duals (formerly the Cheshire Duals). This was the third year in a row the team has placed first. A feat that no other team has accomplished in the 8 year history of the tournament ! After that, it was back to work and off to the Bobcat Brawl in South Windsor where the team placed 3rd in a very tough field that consisted of powerhouse Northeast Elite, KT Kids, and teams from Rhode Island.
In the past 3 weeks we reached another fantastic milestone ! The team competed in the first championship of the newly formed Middle School League, (MSL) ! It was held at Southington HS and was in the traditional High School State Championship format. For those of you unfamiliar, the team wrestles individually within their weight classes but points are combined for a team score based on wins and pins. The Championship round is held on one mat with each wrestler introduced to his opponent setting a great stage for battle!! The Blackhawks had 9 out of 15 wrestlers in the finals. That is amazing in itself. It was a great showing of the blue and gold. At the end of the day when the dust settled and the scores were tallied the results were as follows. The Blackhawks placed first with and incredible 185 points and a winning percentage of 722 %. To begin things at 70 lbs Joey Briganti placed first beating Zach Merillo 14 to 12 in a match that makes coaches lose their hair. Brendan Zotti easily cleaned up at 75 lbs. Mark Bargelski was next at 80 lbs filling in for the injured Michael Calvo. Bargelski had a great day beating 2 tough wrestlers to get to the finals but came up short in OT and settled for 2nd place. Christian Zotti took the same path as his brother and mopped the mat with his opponents for another first place finish at 85 lbs. Grayson Foster wrestled up in a tough 90 lb. bracket but wrestled strong all day and placed 4th. At 95 lbs. also wrestling up, Joe Kyle was impressive with his body scissors and placed 3rd. 100 lbs. was the next weight class and Brian Amato placed first dominating his opponent after recently coming off the injured list for 6 weeks. He showed signs of the tough Amato we are familiar with. At 105 lbs Brian Esposito filled in at the last minute due to a concussion to Jon Hamilton. He wrestled aggressively through pain all day and just missed placing. At 112 lbs the exciting Geovani Medina lived up to his expectations and placed first. There always seems to be one crowd pleasing move in every match he wrestles. Chris Chorzepa put on a clinic at 119 lbs and has his sights set on a State Championship ! Rookie sensation Allen Carrier wrestled like a veteran all day and placed 4th at 126 lbs. Lucas Muntz was able to get a shot at a wrestler he has had in his sights for quite some time and again put on a clinic sticking his opponent in the 2nd period for another first place at 135lbs. Joey Farrah wrestled up and tough giving up 10 lbs but was able to place 4th. In the final match of the day Cole Souza, who had recently regained his spot in the lineup after a wrestle off, took on a mountain of a wrestler in the heavyweight class. It was an exciting match that ended in a 7-5 defeat, and a second place finish. Cole is certainly looking for a rematch.
WOW it’s hard to believe that we are ½ way through the 08/09 season. To this point we have much to be proud of. I apologize for the late update but here it is.
The Blackhawk Middle School team is off to a great start for the inaugural season. On the 18th of December the Blackhawks had their first home match against a tough Meriden squad. In front of a packed house and the Newington looked strong from the start opening the match with 5 pins from a stacked line-up made up of Joey Briganti, Brendan Zotti, Michael Calvo, Christian Zotti, and Grayson Foster. All these wrestlers will be returning next year. More strong performances by Chris Chorzepa, Lucas Muntz, and Cole Souza helped seal the victory ! The team went on to win by the score of 66 to 15.
Our next match was away at Southington on the 8th of January. Through the years this has always been a difficult place to wrestle at any level for Newington. Things were different this cold Thursday night. Murder’s Row struck again, opening with 5 pins for a quick 30 – 0 lead!! This set the tone and took the wind out of Southington’s squad and crowd! The final score! Newington 54 Southington 32
Aside from the 2 league matches the team has wrestled in 6 tournaments so far.
I’m proud to say that for the first time in the Blackhawks history the team place tied for third with Danbury in the McGee tournament. This years squad placed ahead of power house Mt Anthony !! This was a great accomplishment considering the team had only 10 point scores out of a possible 15 !! Let’s go for 1st next year !!
On January 18th the Blackhawks reached another milestone by taking first place at Berlin Tournament.
For more details on the results of these tournaments go to www.usawct.org
Bristol on the 28th of December
Southington on the 4th of January
McGee Middle School on the 10th of January
Danbury on the 11th of January
Coventry Begininers on Jan18th
Berlin on January 18th
A few things to remember about practice.
- Be on time for practice. 6:00PM. This means ready to wrestle at 6:00PM @ MKMS Aux Gym.
- Parents DO NOT drop off your children when no Blackhawk Coaches are present. The HS practices before us and they are not responsible for your children.
- Do not wear your wrestling shoes to practice, as they will track in sand and germs. The mats get moped twice a day to keep them as germ free as possible.
- Bring headgear to every practice, as it is required to prepare the wrestlers for tournament format and HS wrestling.
- Bring a water bottle marked clearly with you name on it.
- Work as hard as you can at practice and do not be discouraged!
- Be good listeners during practice and you will learn quickly.
- Parents MUST be on time when picking up your child. Practice ends at 8:00 PM and we ALL roll up the mats after practice ends.
- Shower every night after practice.
Keep in mind our goal at the Newington Blackhawk’s is to develop young people into better athletes and citizens, along the way we aim to increase wrestling awareness in the state, and put CT on the map of wrestling throughout the Northeast. If we as coaches keep these wrestlers interested in the sport, make them tougher, have fun, develop self esteem, and confidence to be used later in life, than we have done our job. A few state champs along the way would be great.
In closing remember “The more you wrestle the better you get, the better you get the more you wrestle.”
Family
Faith
Wrestling
Coach Chris
Well as season comes to a close there are some things to talk about such as fun night and the season ending banquet, but before we do that lets take a time out for some well deserved props. The State Championship took place yesterday at Hartford Public HS and it was a very long and exciting day for all. It started out with Zach Braglia taking some laps to make weight. Something that drives coaches into temporary insanity! He did make weight! After that we found out that Coach Lou drove to New Haven to watch some other states?? Not sure what he was thinking, we’ll check his coaching card. When the wrestling finally started the Blackhawk’s were ready. We won nearly 70% of our first round matches. Elliott, Fahey, Chorzepa, Amato, Calvo, Pignoe times 2,Souza, Zotti times 2,Muntz, Foster and Briganti, were all first round winners. The second round, as it should be was much tougher and we picked up 9 victories. As the day moved on we witnessed some fantastic matches and tough wrestle backs. When the day was done and the dust settled, this is how the cards fell. Three Blackhawk’s placed third in the state, Lucas Muntz, Quinton Birchall and rookie sensation Grayson Foster. Ryan Elliott place 2nd and Cole Souza won his third State Championship and Joey Briganti became the first Blackhawk to win three consecutive State Championships.
Good luck to Lucas Muntz, Cole Souza, and Ryan Elliott who will be wrestling in the New England Championships this weekend.
Once again we are well into the heart of the season, and we are off to a great start. Again we have over 60 wrestlers on our squad many of who are very eager to hit the ground running in our first tournament. That being said we would be sending 14 Novice (first or second year non-medal wrestlers) to Coventry on Dec 30th, and 14 wrestlers to Bristol on Dec 30th. Good luck to all.
As the season unfolds I would like each of the Blackhawk’s to set individual goals for them selves. They can be small or large goals, and you can have more than one. As I have said you may want to set a goal to win a match or pin someone, maybe take one of the more experienced wrestlers down. Once you reach your goal move on to another, and keep rolling from there before you know it you will be setting your goal to become a State Champ.
Lets talk about team goals ! As I have said at practice or first goal is to repeat our first place victory at the Cheshire Duals on Jan 27th. Remember we have targets on our backs and it will be harder than last year, but I know we can rise to the occasion.
Secondly, we should make our visit to Lititz PA and win half our matches, last year we came very close and I know in my heart we can do it if we set our minds to it. If we do better than 2 and 2 fantastic!
Third goal, wrestle more out of state matches than we did last year (more than 210 matches). Can we hit 240 ? or 250 ?
State Champs, never before have we had 5 State Champs, is this the year? Go for it.
Keep in mind our goal at the Newington Blackhawk’s is to develop young people into better athletes and citizens, along the way we aim to increase wrestling awareness in the state, and put CT on the map of wrestling throughout the Northeast. If we as coaches keep these wrestlers interested in the sport, make them tougher, have fun, develop self esteem, and confidence to be used later in life, than we have done our job. A few state champs along the way would be great.
In closing, remember, "the more you wrestle, the better your get; the better your get, the more you wrestle."
Family
Faith
Wrestling
- Coach Chris
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Schedule...
Click on the link below for the updated schedule
2009-2010 Schedule
Practices are held in the Main
and/or
Aux Gym on Mon.,Tues.,Wed. or Thurs. depending on age and skill
level. Each squad will practice min of 2 times to a max of 3 times per
week.
Please note!
Practice / team wrestling
site is at:
Martin Kellogg M.S.
155 Harding Ave - Newington
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