Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wrestling is a tough enough sport on its own, but to have your dad as your coach could add even more pressure to perform. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for Boardman 103-pounder Nick Mancini.
“I have five great coaches and I pick up as much as I can from each one of them,” said Mancini, after taking second at the Josh Hephner Memorial Tournament at Fitch High School last weekend. “We [My dad and I} mostly keep things in the room. When we’re at home, we do talk strategy sometimes about how to beat certain guys. But it’s all wrestling, all the time at home.
“I just try to use all my coaches to my full advantage. One guy is kind of my technical guy, another works with me on conditioning and maybe another for motivation. We have great coaches.”
Mancini had plenty of support in his corner at The Hephner, as his dad, Dom, is Boardman’s head coach and his uncle, Frank, helped out as an assistant coach.
The sophomore responded by taking second at 103 pounds, after wrestling the maximum of eight matches in two days. He went a perfect 5-0 in pool wrestling and won his two bracket bouts to advance to the finals. The effort was exactly what he had hoped for before the event even started.
“I want to win my pool and get to the championship match,” said Mancini after winning his opening match on Friday. “There is great competition here. I want to do well here, but this really doesn’t matter that much - state is all that counts. I’m happy with where I am so far, but I just want to get to state.”
Mancini is currently 23-3 on the season. All three of his losses have come the past two weekends, after facing tough competition at Top Gun (fifth) and The Hephner (second).
In addition to Mancini, three other Boardman grapplers placed in the top eight last weekend. Junior John Dillon won his second straight tourney title, beating defending Division III state champion Tim Wiseman (Jackson-Milton) 5-0 in the 125-pound championship. Sophomore Pete Ryan was impressive, taking fourth at 112 pounds. Nico Grazini finished fourth in the 152-pound bracket.
Boardman scored 165.5 team points and finished 11th among the 30-team field. Lake won the team title with 354 team points.
“It was really special to be a part of this tournament,” said Dom Mancini, whose team competed at The Hephner for the first time. “We told the kids about the history of this event and how important it is. As long as I’m the coach here, I hope we can be part of this every year.
“It’s a grueling tournament with all the pool matches and there are some tough kids here. We wanted to place four guys here and get a lot of matches for everyone.”