Duke was relentless in winning 2024 Junior Schalles Award

By Mike Finn

P.J. Duke recalls a time that his father did not want his son to pin so many people.

“When I was younger, I was always trying to pin everyone fast,” said P.J. (short for Peter John). “But my parents would drive me three hours to these tournaments. My dad got mad that I had only two minutes of mat time after he drove three hours one way. He used to make rules like, “You can’t pin a kid unless you take him down at least 10 times.” So, I grew into taking people down and letting them up and it’s more fun for me to stay on the mat.

Despite the pandemic and a shoulder injury that sidelined him in 2021 and 2023, P.J. Duke (top) of Minisink Valley has won three New York state titles. The junior is 107-1 in his career, including 39-0 in 2024 with 32 pins.

P.J. took up the sport at age 4 when he was a “maniac” as the child of Peter and Andrea Duke.

“I guess I terrorized them so I needed a way to relax,” he said. “As soon as I got on the mat, I was calm and listening to them so they let me stay and ever since I’ve been falling in love with wrestling.”

After transferring in eighth grade to Minisink Valley High School, located in Slate Hill, N.Y., and 70 miles northwest of New York City, the younger Duke has dominated opponents much of the time. This past winter as a junior, the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 157 pounds won a third New York state championship; going 39-0 with 30 falls.

In addition to finishing his junior folkstyle season ranked No. 1, Duke has also been named the 2024 recipient of the Junior Schalles Award, presented annually since 1999 by WIN Magazine to the nation’s top high school pinner.

Wade Schalles

“P.J. Duke knows how to win and he certainly knows how to pin,” said Wade Schalles, the namesake of the award who was a legendary pinner at Clarion University, who flattened 109 opponents during the early 1970s. “Simply stated, he’s a beast. There’s not much he hasn’t done and now there’s one less goal for him to achieve.

“Winning the Junior Schalles Award as the nation’s best high school pinner is something special because there’s only one given out each year. P.J. loves to take on the nation’s best and he doesn’t seem to care at what weight class they’re in. Not only did he win all 39 of his scholastic matches this past season, but he pinned 30 of them; many in under 30 seconds. Welcome to the family champ!”  

“There were some local matches where my friends could come and watch me and they would go crazy if I scored a fall,” P.J. said. “Being able to wrestle in front of them was pretty cool.”

This has indeed been a great season for P.J., who is 107-1 in his high school career and also won an NHSCA Junior National championship this winter before the former Fargo freestyle champ earned a spot in this summer’s U20 World Team Trials after winning the U.S. Open championship in May.

But it has not been an easy road for the future Penn State wrestler. After missing the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic, he suffered his only high school loss in the 2021 Ironman finals. Then one year later, P.J. won the Ironman in 2022,  but suffered a shoulder injury against Blair Academy’s William Henckle at that prestigious event, which prevented him from competing in the 2023 postseason.

“I tore my labrum in that match in the finals and it took me 10 months to recover,” Duke said. “The toughest part was being away from the sport and it’s definitely hard trying to get back to working out every day when you realize how easy life is outside of wrestling. That was a rough one but there was nothing that would keep me from coming back and doing what I love. Coming back to wrestling, I realize who I am and that wrestling is my passion. I was definitely glad to be back for this season.”

So too was his high school coach Kevin Gallagher, a former Minisink Valley wrestler who has seen Duke grow in so many ways the past few years on the mat.

“I would say he is relentless, just constantly wanting to score points,” Gallagher said. “He’s got the strength, the speed and his positioning is absolutely incredible and he’s almost impossible to score on. If he gets someone in trouble, he never lets them breathe. He’s constantly on the attack.”

Gallagher also said Duke has made quite an impression on his classmates who do not wrestle.

“What he does daily in school is incredible,” said Gallagher, also a physical education teacher at Minisink Valley. “I have P.J. in class and the way he treats others is pretty cool. People look at him as a leader because of the things he’s accomplished and the way he treats people.”

Duke also has been involved with helping those less fortunate, including a local young girl, Charli Martin, who was diagnosed with leukemia. With the help of friends, Duke has been raising money the past four years for Martin. He also works with many kids at local wrestling camps.

“I remember being their age and looking up to high school wrestlers,” he said. “Many of those older kids treated me well and my parents would always say, ‘Remember where you came from.’ I remember going up to wrestlers like (eventual NCAA champs from Cornell) Yianni (Diakomihalis) and Vito (Arujau) when they were in high school and they signed my trophy from a tournament.

“Now that I’m in high school, I want to give back to the sport that made me and help kids across the state of New York and bring back New York as a powerhouse so they will follow my footsteps. 

“Winning is what everyone wants to achieve, but at the end of the day, wrestling is just a game and a chance to do what you love doing every day. It’s a blessing.” n