Poland wrestlers place at tourney

January 27, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

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Poland's A.J. Shields looks to control the back of Boardman's Peter Ryan.

It’s official: Poland now has a wrestling team.

After years of wrestling the equivalent of junior varsity schedule with only a handful of competitors, this has been a breakout season for the Poland wrestling team.

The Bulldogs boast a full lineup for dual matches and tournaments and have tasted success by beating such storied wrestling programs at Fitch and Jackson-Milton this season.

“When you start beating programs like that, it creates a buzz,” said Poland wrestling coach Tony Stellato, a former coach at Alliance. “The school administration is starting to support us and the student bosy is picking up on it, too. At our last home match, we had a nice crowd.”

Poland has been successful in dual matches this season because of the ability to put someone in all 14 weight classes. That’s something that wasn’t always possible, even last season.

“It’s tough to be competitive in a dual if you give up a bunch of forfeits,” said Stellato. “We have a full team, so now it’s possible for us to win the match. It puts us in position to compete as a team and build some unity. Before, it was just an individual thing.”

The Bulldogs took that team concept with them last weekend when they competed in the 19th annual Josh Hephner Memorial tournament at Austintown Fitch. Poland scored 89.5 team points to finish 17th out of 28 schools.

Lake (272.5) won the team title, followed by Lancaster (232) and Massillon Jackson (229).

Poland’s A.J. Shields took fourth place at 132, while teammate Anthony Mancini took sixth at 138 to lead the Bulldogs.

“We’re improving and tournaments like this help us get better,” said Stellato. “Our numbers are up and I hope we’ll get even more kids come out for wrestling. We don’t powder puff our schedule and we want to wrestle the best. Our program is really starting to take off.”