By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. Columnist
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — When those of us whose opinions help shape the discussion of national high school wrestling confer among ourselves, the state of New Jersey does not come up very often.
In the aftermath of the Garden State’s blowout win in the NHSCA National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships, March 24-26, at the Petersen Events Center on the University of Pittsburgh campus, it’s become evident that discussion will begin taking a different direction.
New Jersey scored its first team title in the 17-year history of the NHSCA Senior Nationals, scoring 249 points, with California and Ohio jockeying back and forth for the runner-up spot. In the end, two-time state champion Billy Murphy’s 8-3 decision over Willie Saxton in a key head-to-head finals match-up between the two states at 130 pounds helped the Californians secure second place, 231.5-230.
But the tournament clearly belonged to New Jersey, thanks to its depth and its share of unsung heroes. Even though they scored in just 12 of the 14 weight classes, New Jersey wrestlers were everywhere; an amazing feat considering the state has just one tournament, and therefore just one champion. Two incidental products of that depth: 112-pound semifinalist Ryan Fullam of Emerson-Park Ridge High, only eighth in the state tournament, and Shane Ricco (145) of Watching Hills High, who failed to place in the state meet, secured All-America honors with an eighth-place finish.
Mike Grey (125) of Morristown Delbarton High, Jordan Burroughs (135) of Atco Winslow Township High and D.J. Russo (215) of Stanhope Lenape Valley High — never a state champion — won titles for New Jersey. But they were merely the headliners.
A dozen New Jersey wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals, with six making it to the semifinals. Maybe not unique, but certainly numbers usually reserved for the Pennsylvanias, Ohios and Californias of the world.
And there might have been more, had three-time state champion Darrion Caldwell (152) of Rahway High and state champion Keith Dobish (189) of Lodi High not been competing on the United States team in the Dapper Dan Wrestling Classic, just a couple hours before the finals and 100 yards up the hill on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
It’s a product of the metamorphosis of a state known as much in past years for its insular nature and archaic rules as for its competitive — if not necessarily nationally known — wrestling.
Less than a decade ago, New Jersey wrestlers were permitted a miniscule 22 matches per season, the nation’s most restrictive match limit. The official season start date — the weekend prior to Christmas — remains the nation’s latest, but it does permit participation in one of the nation’s top early-season tournaments, the Beast of the East in Newark, Del. And many of the state’s southern powers do.
Jackson Memorial High, one of the leaders of central New Jersey’s powerful Shore Conference, took the state another step forward this year by traveling halfway across the nation to compete in The Clash National Duals in Rochester, Minn., the farthest any non-prep New Jersey school had ever traveled for a competition. There, the Jaguars, led by sophomore sensation Scott Winston, impressed many and beat everyone except Illinois powerhouse Orland Park Carl Sandburg High.
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