District 4 Class AAA wrestlers stay home

By Harold Raker
The Daily Item

May 10, 2008 07:34 am

— SELINSGROVE — To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of the District 4 Class AAA wrestling tournament’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
After the district’s four head coaches, including Selinsgrove’s Todd Myers and Shikellamy’s Brett Michaels, agreed that they wanted to merge with District 9 for next year’s tournament, which would have put them into the Northwest Regional in Altoona, the plan fell through.
District 4 wrestling chairman Steve Gobble, of Towanda, confirmed that the district will maintain its own tournament again next year and that it will remain at Selinsgrove High School.
Gobble said the idea of moving to District 9, which includes schools as far away as St. Mary’s, was discussed at the PIAA’s spring meet, but it was decided to keep things the same. Gobble said there was no vote on the matter.
Selinsgrove’s Myers said that the District 9 steering committee agreed with the proposal, but the coaches voted against it. Gobble said he could not confirm that.
The PIAA allows a district to have its own tournament if it has at least three teams. Shikellamy and Selinsgrove are joined in the district by Jersey Shore and Williamsport as the only other Class AAA teams in the district.
The District 4 winners and runners-up in each weight class will continue to advance to the Northeast Regional in Bethlehem.
Myers said, “It would have benefited us to join up with another district and the Northwest Region is still a tough region when you look at how they finished at states.
“As far as quality of competition to get to states is concerned, I still feel the Northeast Regional is one of the toughest. It might make it a little bit easier of a path (in the Northwest), but you know if you get through the Northeast, you have a great chance of placing,” Myers said.
Shikellamy’s Michaels said he was looking forward to the move for two reasons — the elimination of the four-man tournament which he believes does little to prepare the wrestlers for regionals, and to eliminate some of the mental aspect for his wrestlers in competing against their Lehigh Valley counterparts.
“The kids in District 11 AAA, and to some degree, District 2 AAA, are more battle-tested when entering the regional tournament due to the rigor of their district tournaments,” Michaels said.
He noted that there are times when a District 4 wrestler (the top two from each weight class advance) enters the regional with only one win.
“Our kids battle some of the toughest kids in the state in the Big 7 League and compete right with them. Those kids are part of the Northwest Regional. Last year, we saw six of the 20 District 11 AAA teams in competition during the season and next year we will see even more over the course of the season with the new tournament we added,” Michaels said.
“But, the bottom line, is we went down to Bethlehem and competed well this past year with seven underclassmen winning matches. The kids realize they can compete with anyone. I can see a little moxie developing in some of the kids who are dedicating themselves to the off-season training and lifting.”
Myers said, “I don’t know if it is for better or worse. I think we still have great fans in District 4 and I think we will have the same turnout for the district tournament. I thought last year we had a real nice fan base and I thought District 4 had a nice representation at regionals.
He added, “I am looking forward to next year and improving on our finish and having more qualifiers.”
Last year, Selinsgrove’s Aaron Ernest was the lone state qualifier from the two local schools. Ernest, a Lock Haven University recruit, placed fifth at 160 pounds. Jersey Shore’s Joe Loffredo was the only other district wrestler to make it to Hershey. He finished second at 171.