It’s time to hit the mats again.
Five area wrestling programs are set to open their respective seasons Wednesday night, while the sixth, Mohawk Trail Regional High School, opens its third season overall and second as a varsity independent program Thursday evening.
Franklin County Technical School is the only area school in the Suburban League, and they’ll compete for top honors against Granby High School, Gateway, Hampshire and Southwick-Tolland regional high schools, Sabis International Charter School and Hampden Charter School of Science.
Athol High School and Frontier, Mahar and Pioneer Valley regional schools all compete in the Tri-County League with Pathfinder Vocational and South Hadley high schools. Belchertown High School, which has been a TCL entry in years past, has folded its program.
Here’s a closer look at the area teams:
FC Tech
The Eagles, now in their fourth season in the Suburban, are coming off a season in which a young and inexperienced squad finished sixth with a 2-3-2 record. However, head coach Joe Gamache is excited for the upcoming campaign and expects a lot of improvement.
“We have our biggest turnout, in terms of participants, in the history of the program and have a nice mix of experienced wrestlers and new guys,” said Gamache. “We will still wait to see how things ultimately shake out in terms of who wrestles in what weight classes but we have some ideas and are very excited as to how this season could turn out.”
A great deal of the strength and leadership of the Eagles lineup will come in the 145-, 152- and 160-pound weight classes, from where three of the four team captains will lead the way.
Junior Chris Ludwig will get the nod at 145. Gamache said that Ludwig has worked tremendously hard in the off season to become more successful in the win/loss column.
Junior Spencer Telega will bump up to 152 after a successful 2015-16 campaign in which he placed fifth in the Western Massachusetts Division III Tournament at 145.
At 160 it will be senior Jordan Bashaw, whose experience and dedication look to pave the way for a successful season.
Freshman Cameron Wood and sophomore Tim Fritz will both continue to grow and develop and may see action as the season progresses.
Caileb Milton — the team’s fourth captain — looks to have a strong senior campaign at 182. Sophomores Brody Wood and Ayden Stacy, both in their second year with the program, will battle for time at 170.
In the heavier classes of 195, 220 and 285 pounds, senior Mike Mattson leads the way. Mattson returns from a shoulder injury that sidelined him last year, and Gamache hopes he can return to the form that saw him place fourth in the Western Mass. tourney at 195 as a sophomore.
Sophomore Walter Picard and freshman Jacob Tefft will also both get action, with who wrestles in each class still to be determined.
At 120 and 126, Returning sophomore Skyler Rouse who wrestled at 120 last year, along with junior Jaden Sadlowski who competed at 113 are in the mix. Freshman Colin Pettis also joins the squad. Pettis wrestled at 113 for Frontier last year as an eight-grader, and placed fourth at Western Mass.
Six wrestlers are competing for the 106 and 113 classes.
Sophomore Griffin Young returns after wrestling at 106 last year. Freshmen Kyle Brunelle, Justin Dobias, Peter Saladino, Bryce Hill and Nathaniel Holden round out the competition.
Five newcomers, all freshmen, will compete for time at 132 and 138. They are Antonio Govan, Daniel Block, Ian McClure, Kyle Snyder and Donte Rosewarne.
All in all, the Eagles are poised to make a run for the crown.
“We are thinking that if things work out we could be in the running for the (Suburban League) title,” said Gamache. “But we have tough challenges in Hampden Charter and Sabis who have a lot of returning wrestlers.”
The Eagles will be tested right out of the gate when they open at Hampden Charter Wednesday night at 7.
Athol
The Red Raiders finished third in the TCL last season, but are a little bit thin coming into this season.
“I feel like we’ve entered sort of a perpetual rebuilding cycle,” said head coach Phil Saisa, who used to teach at the middle school. “It’s hard now that none of the coaches are in the building to get kids interested and to recruit them into the program.”
With that said, the Raiders still have a good deal of veteran leadership and talent, and some young and hungry wrestlers coming up.
Senior Merrick Decker is looking to have a strong swan song season after getting injured last season in the 120 pound Western Mass. final for a second place finish. Saisa said that Decker is back healthy and looking to make some noise as he wraps up his high school career.
“He’s pretty into it,” mused Saisa.
At 182 and 195 respectively, senior captains Trever Mousseau and Ryan Hulbert also look to have strong finishes to their careers, and will provide much needed leadership as well.
Also returning from a strong 2015-16 campaign is junior Ryan White, who will wrestle at 132 and is also coming off a runner-up finish at Western Mass.
At 170, sophomore Chris Waslaske will get the nod, and Saisa is excited for what he brings to the table. “He’s a real tough kid, I think he’s going to surprise some people,” said the coach.
Freshman Derek Erali, in his third year, will compete at 145, and fellow freshman Jon Mahony will get the nod at 106. Eighth-grader Kedrick Raymond will wrestle at 126, while seventh-graders Caleb Cox and Joe Gray will slot in at 113 and 138, respectively.
Senior Jacob Brozell, who is brand new to wrestling, will compete at 285.
The Red Raiders open Wednesday at 7 at Pathfinder.
Frontier
The Red Hawks enter the season with a new coach and a stacked lineup that should fill out every weight class.
Frontier graduate Brian Bagdon takes over the reigns of a program that finished fourth in the league last year at 2-3-1, but should have a much better season this year.
“I fully expect us to compete for the Tri-County League title,” said Bagdon, who brings 12 years of varsity head coaching experience to the program, having spent three years at Smith Voke and nine at Northampton.
Senior Jordan McDonough and eighth-grader Jordan Finch will compete for the starting slot at 106 pounds, with the likely outcome being that they split time.
At 113, sophomore Emirhan Ahad Yildiz has the inside track, though one of the wrestlers at 106 could bump up and split time there.
Bagdon expects an open competition at 120, with newcomers Avery Tuttle and Bailey Murry battling it out.
Junior Connor Pettis, who Bagdon calls very solid and one of his best wrestlers, gets the nod at 126.
At 132, returning freshman Rearkeous McMillan will battle for time with eighth-grade newcomer George Tsaplin.
Returning sophomore Josiah Murry and freshman KC Mattson, along with newcomer freshman Victor McNutt, will vie for time at 138.
Returning eighth-grader Dave Grover looks to take hold of the 145 slot, and according to Bagdon is looking good. He will face competition from newcomers sophomore Eric Trueswell, as well as seventh-graders Dan Diemand and Dan Gesualdi.
Sophomore Nate Austin will get the nod at 152, with seventh-grader Julienne Kinsman as a protege.
At 160, returning junior Miguel Olivera Aguilera, who placed fourth at Western Mass. last year, has the upper hand. He faces competition from freshman Andrew Logan, a newcomer.
Junior Pat McGranaghan returns to the program after taking last year off, and will slot in at 170. It is also possible that Aguilera might occasionally move up to wrestle at 170.
At 182, junior Joe Hildreth is locked in. Bagdon said he is one of the best wrestlers on the team, ando a leader that all of the kids look up to.
New sophomore John Creque looks to take most of the time at 195, with the possibility that Hildreth will occasionally move up.
Returning eighth-grader Jackie Phong will wrestle at 220, while junior Matt Carlson gets the nod at 285, with freshman newcomer Jeffrey Stiles learning the sport and picking up the basics.
Pound for pound, the Red Hawks look as solid as any team in the league, and Bagdon is excited for the season to get started.
“I always preach that the goal is to get better every day and work together as a team,” said Bagdon. “We expect to be in contention for the league title, and our ultimate goal is to win it.”
The Hawks open Wednesday at 7 when they visit South Hadley.
Mahar
The Senators are coming off back-to-back years in which they shared the league title, and coach John Speek is hopeful that his troops will keep the train rolling.
Leading the way will be a quartet of senior captains, At 145, it will be Miller Richardson, who is in his fourth year. Ben Gilmore will move up from 160 to 170, and Speak describes him as the team’s “Alpha,” and a natural leader. At 182 it will be Chad Marcoux, who is extremely strong and a hard worker who will be looking to fine tune his technique. Branden Burke will get the nod at 285. Speek expects them all to wrap up their high school careers with successful senior campaigns.
At 195 and 152 respectively, it will be second-year seniors Matt Herk and Jonathan Oakes, both of whom Speek calls solid and improving, get the call and look to make some noise.
Sophomore Adam Clement, entering his third season, will move up from 126 to 132. Speek has a lot of praise for Clement, calling him a future leader in the program.
Freshman Peter Tattan, also going into his third season, will wrestle at 160. Speek says that he is “quite strong and loaded with potential.”
Eighth-grader Christopher Vezina will slot in at 113, and while relatively inexperienced, has shown an abundance of natural ability.
The remainder of the weight classes feature several wrestlers, and who competes in each will be determined by wrestle-offs.
At 106, there are three seventh-graders in the mix: Max Gilmore, Robert Watkins and Austin Fontaine.
Junior Cassidy Layton, sophomore Justin deDiego and eighth-grader Jayjay Miller will vie for time at 126. Sophomore Camden Mosher is out with injury.
Freshmen Todd Chiasson and Carrie Gilmore lead the charge at 138, with seventh-grader A.J. Newman also in the mix.
At 120, eighth-grader Henry Ndayisaba, who moves up from 106, looks to take the slot, but will face competition from seventh-grader Gareth Gordon-Halpern.
Junior Nick Sharpe is on the roster at 285, but has elected not to challenge Burke, and will continue his development in preparation for his senior season next year. Only the 220 slot is vacant, and Speek hopes that it will be filled as the season progresses.
Mahar gets started Wednesday, hosting Pioneer at 7 at Grzesik-Bixby Gymnasium.
Pioneer
The Panthers will be challenged this season by a young and inexperienced roster that has only eight wrestlers — six of them eighth-graders.
Two upperclassmen will provide leadership and should be competitive in their weight classes, senior captain Alex Tyson and junior Tristan Dresser.
Tyson will lead the way for the Panthers at 160, and head coach Ernesto Sanchez expects him to be very competitive in the TCL this season.
“Alex is an incredibly talented kid, very athletically gifted, and unquestionably our team leader,” said Sanchez.
Dresser is likely to earn most of the starts at 152, but will face a challenge from first-year entry Isabella Day in weekly wrestle-offs.
“I never like to predict how things will end up in wrestle-offs, but Tristan obviously has an edge in experience,” said Sanchez. “Isabella has a fire you don’t see with a lot of first-year wrestlers, though, perhaps stemming from her martial arts background. I expect big things for her going forward.”
Two newcomers will also compete in wrestle-offs for the nod at 113, Cody Gibbons and Noah Fuess. The winner will wrestle in that class, and the loser will bump up to 120.
Rounding out the squad are Bryson Spinner at 126, Cameron Dresser at 145, and Lilith Kilburn at 195.
When asked about the low turnout, Sanchez pointed to two things that make forming a larger roster difficult.
“First, Pioneer is a program that does not do cuts, so some of the more popular sports like basketball end up with very large rosters, with a lot of kids who hardly play,” offered Sanchez. “When I was growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, wrestling programs counted on cuts from the more streamlined sports to fill up the wrestling room.”
Also hurting the Panthers’ numbers is that Pioneer is a regional school and is subject to a lot of kids moving on to new placements.
“We’ve lost six kids in the past two years to transfers,” said Sanchez.
Even with all the challenges, the Panthers approach the season with optimism.
“We aren’t going to measure our success by our record, but by the goals we set for ourselves,” explained Sanchez. “We are going to focus on our conditioning and the mental aspect of the sport. We will approach every day with the philosophy that we bring to the mat tenacity, heart, and the will to never give up.”
Pioneer visits Mahar for its opener Wednesday at 7.
Mohawk
The Warriors enter their second varsity season a program on the rise, and head coach Mark Biagini is looking for a big step forward this year. He expects Mohawk will join the TCL next season during PVIAC realignment.
Mohawk is led by its co-captains, junior Jameson Dailey-Picor and sophomore Mason Biagini, at 170 and 160 pounds, respectively.
“As a second-year varsity team, coach Bob Mastorakis and I look to our upperclassmen to lead,” said Biagini. “Despite having limited experience they have really stepped up to bring the new wrestlers along. These are the first captains Mohawk wrestling has ever had. They are building a team from the ground up, while learning a new sport at the same time. We are all having a lot of fun learning as we go, and balancing that with making our team real competitors.”
While the program is not quite big enough to fill out all 14 weight classes, it should be able to fill 9 or 10 regularly.
Seventh-grader Nate Wooldridge will get most of the time at 106, while eighth-grader Jaden Moore will wrestle at 120. Eighth-graders Dylan Wooldridge and Quinton Romer will fill out 132 and 145 respectively, while senior MacKenzie Mayhew, a newcomer, will go at 152. Junior Gabe Bower occupies 182.
Biagini said that some of the younger wrestlers are still figuring out at which weight class to wrestle, but also said that seventh-grader Jakob Bower may see some time at 126. Also in the mix is freshman Ethan Bower, but he fits best at 170, where Dailey-Picor currently resides.
Rounding out the roster are freshman Jordyn Corliss, eighth-grader Kaitlyn Randall and seventh-graders Tristan Keyser-Parker and Aiden Oakes.
One thing that Biagini says will be helpful in his recruiting is that the school will host five meets this season, which will give his program more exposure within the school. That includes the Warriors’ season opener Thursday at 7 p.m. against Northampton. Their other home meets include Pioneer (Dec. 21, 6 p.m.), Athol (Jan. 4, 7 p.m.), South Hadley (Jan. 11, 7 p.m.) and Pathfinder (Jan. 18, 6 p.m.).