Is it worth the risk? That's what Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area coaches and throughout New Jersey have been grappling with regarding dual meets in this late stage of a pandemic wrestling season.
With the girls state tournament on tap for Saturday and the boys regions slated to follow a week later at Phillipsburg High School, some teams have already pulled the plug on male starters -- with forfeits in as many as half the weight classes in duals -- who may be in the mix to make the Top 16 or be set as alternates for the regional events.
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| P'burg will host the girls and boys state tourneys. |
"My whole thing coming into the season was you only get 15 matches," said Phillipsburg coach Dave Post, whose team is 8-1 following a 61-9 win at Watchung Hills on Tuesday in which 27 bouts were contested between varsity and JV. "You get 15, and kids only get so many opportunities. As a coach my job is to fill them. But I had a change of heart [following the Watchung Hills match].
"I was going to wrestle all the way through to High Point [which was slated to take place on Saturday prior to the season until P'burg was designated the site for girls and boys state finals]. We're basically shutting our JV kids down to avoid cross-contamination [in the practice room]."
Phillipsburg, ranked No. 3 among public schools by the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association, are one of just seven HWS programs (out of 17) not to have undergone a COVID-19 pause to date. North Hunterdon (5-0) shut down following a 54-18 victory at Delaware Valley on March 25. We are on Day 15 of what was hoped to be a 10-day pause, but the Lions opted not to schedule any more dual meets.
High Point (1-1) is in the midst of a second shutdown and will resume on Monday, while Hunterdon Central and Warren Hills recently returned to action. Vernon/Wallkill Valley (1-2), a combined program for the first time this season, ended the campaign shortly after a 45-24 loss to Boonton on March 23. North Warren is another team battling COVID-19 exposure for the second time, while Belvidere is due to get back on the mats next week.
Compounding the issue for P'burg is the absence of one starter due to contact tracing following a recent match and several other injuries to wrestlers, according to Post.
Many area teams have multiple dual meets scheduled for the final two weeks. For P'burg, which figures to have as many as 12 region qualifiers and perhaps an alternate (those seeded 17-24), that presents a serious numbers problem. In addition, the Stateliners are sitting on 998 wins, with only two duals now tentatively remaining on the schedule -- Mendham at home on April 20 and at Hanover Park on April 21. A Skyland Conference cross-divisional match at Delaware Valley on Thursday was canceled via Skyland Conference officials this week.
"We were heading to Watchung and I said to [assistant coach] Scott [Silvis], 'I think I'm making a mistake,'" Post said of his decision to shut things down through boys regions, also canceling a match at River Dell for Saturday, and reassess from there. "Staying sharp is important and it's a big part of why we're wrestling well now because we got so many matches. But to push any further is being foolish.
"It's one of the more difficult decisions I've dealt with in season. It was not an easy call."
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| Delaware Valley beat Lenape Valley for No. 800. |
Del Val coach Andy Fitz, whose team recently logged wins No. 800 and 801 for the program, was not happy with the late cancellation of the P'burg match -- one of the staples in the HWS area. The 'Liners own a 38-6 edge all-time in the series dating to 1975, and have won 13 straight meetings, including a 45-3 victory at home on Feb. 6, 2020. We've lost too many of these traditional area matchups -- North Hunterdon and Warren Hills will not wrestle for just the fourth time since the series began in 1957 -- but now with several open dates for Del Val that final week, perhaps there remains a chance it gets P'burg back on the schedule after all.
"It's unfortunate that we are not wrestling this season," Fitz said via text message. "The match was on the calendar since Day 1, and could have been moved earlier in the season if P'burg was going to shut down the rest of their team at this point. But I'd be happy to wrestle that final week."
Part of the problem has been that this season is unique and fraught with constant change, so it's hard to put too much blame on coaches, school officials or the NJSIAA for how things were mapped out. Duals were put in place for the last two weeks in advance of the season in case there were no individual championships -- something that did not happen in the other winter sports.
In addition, it was not known until weeks into season that individuals competing in the region and state tournaments would be ineligible for duals after April 12, and not permitted to return to lineups until those wrestlers were eliminated from further advancement.
For now, Post said his remaining two duals are still on and he has been in touch with both coaches (Mendham's Steve Baig and Hanover Park's Tyler Branham). Post has also discussed the situation with his seniors, who are well aware that the program is within striking distance of the 1,000 milestone, something only three other New Jersey programs -- Paulsboro, Roselle Park and Hunterdon Central -- have reached. Of course, all dates at this point are subject to change down the stretch.
"Basically every hour, a half dozen emails [circulate from teams] looking for matches," Post said. "Our guys know that we'd have to win both [to hit 1,000]."
While that would be a special event for Phillipsburg and its wrestling-crazed community, those kinds of numbers have never been a driving force.
"We went the entire season last year with the wrong number of total wins by a lot," said Post, who guided the program to No. 900 -- a 62-6 win over High Point at The Pit on Jan. 30, 2015. "We had to call [Open Mike] to figure out that we were wrong. There is only one win that our kids care about and that's No. 23 [a 13th Group 4 team championship to go with nine in Group 3 for the 'Liners]."
For teams that figure to not have many wrestlers or none in the postseason, dual meets make sense in that you want to get kids, especially the JVs, as many bouts as you can. But for teams with individuals, like returning state champion Brian Soldano of High Point, who have a great chance to go deep into the postseason, why chance it? The last thing any coach should want to do is to jeopardize a wrestler's eligibility or health.
"Everyone knew there was an inherent risk entering the season," said Hunterdon Central coach Jon-Cantagallo-Rohm. "I've been beating myself up over that decision. Do you sit guys and risk them not being competition ready for regions? Or do you push forward?
Remaining HWS schedule (37 duals subject to change, check dates and times on school sites):
Saturday, April 10
Boonton at Lenape Valley
Independent
Warren Hills at West Morris
Hopatcong at Voorhees
Monday, April 12
Jefferson at Hackettstown
Sparta at Kittatinny, 6 p.m.
Skyland Conference
Warren Hills at Voorhees, 5:30 p.m.
Manville at Belvidere, 7 p.m.
Independent
Elizabeth at Hopatcong, 5 p.m.
Tuesday, April 13
High Point at North Warren, 4 p.m.
Sparta at Morris Knolls
Pope John at Newton, TBD
Kittatinny at Kinnelon, 6 p.m.
Hopatcong at Boonton, 5 p.m.
Skyland Conference
Watchung Hills at Warren Hills
Manville at Belvidere
Independent
Bayonne at Voorhees, 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 14
Newton at High Point
Skyland Conference
Delaware Valley at Ridge, 5:30 p.m.
Independent
Kittatinny at Wayne Hills, 6 p.m.
Pope John at Paramus Catholic, 7 p.m.
Thursday, April 15
Sparta at North Warren, 6 p.m.
Lenape Valley at Randolph
Skyland Conference
Manville at Voorhees
Bridgewater-Raritan at Warren Hills, 7 p.m.
Belvidere at Rutgers Prep
Friday, April 16
Mendham at Lenape Valley, 7 p.m.
Morris Hills at North Warren
Monday, April 19
Sparta at Roxbury, 7 p.m.
Morris Catholic at Lenape Valley
Tuesday, April 20
Randolph at Sparta
Skyland Conference
Mendham at Phillipsburg
Bound Brook at Voorhees, 5:30 p.m.
Montgomery at Delaware Valley, 6 p.m.
Independent
North Warren at Belvidere, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 21
North Warren at Morris Hills
Independent
Phillipsburg at Hanover Park
Thursday, April 22
High Point at Sparta, 7 p.m.
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