Matt Dehney made three journeys to Fargo, North Dakota, to wrestle within the National Championships. Now the previous Dracut standout makes a fourth journey west this week as head coach of a Team Massachusetts squad looking for glory towards a number of the finest the nation has to supply.
“It’s probably the toughest high school tournament in the world,” stated Dehney, who was a New England champion and wrestled on the University of Buffalo. “Having an opportunity to represent your state is the cool part of all this. You go out there and get a chance to wrestle in this football domed stadium (FargoDome).”
Dehney will deal with the 36 members of the boys crew, whereas Joe Nugent will coach the women crew. Two of the ten women on Team Massachusetts are reigning All-Americans. One of them is Nugent’s daughter Dani (who’s wrestling at Phillips Andover), who took a seventh-place at Cadet 117, successful her ultimate match in dramatic style to safe her All-American berth.
The different feminine All-American is Central Catholic standout Jackie Dehney, Matt’s cousin. The runner-up within the 117-pound class on the Junior Nationals final 12 months, Dehney gained a gold medal at Pan-Am Games in Mexico City and is extensively thought to be one of many highschool skills within the nation.
“It’s a tough tournament because you are wrestling multiple matches for several days, but it’s definitely great competition,” stated Dehney. “It is a fun trip and a great experience to be able to represent Massachusetts.”
On the boys aspect, final 12 months was a hit of kinds as three achieved All-American standing: Herald All-Scholastics Isiac Paulino of Monty Tech and Max Leete of Danvers, together with Tristan Kemp of Quabbin, who earned honors in each Freestyle and Greco-Roman.
Kemp, who’s now wrestling at West Virginia University, took sixth at 285 in freestyle and eighth in the identical weight class in Greco-Roman. Leete took fifth at 106 kilos and is now competing at American University.
Paulino definitely paid his dues to realize All-American standing. The reigning New England champion at 113 kilos, Paulino made his first journey to Fargo three years in the past and it wasn’t precisely the expertise of a lifetime.
“I went out there as a freshman and it was the first time I did freestyle and I got destroyed,” Paulino stated. “But it was something I learned to love, I really trained to get back there.”
Paulino’s onerous work paid off final 12 months. He didn’t relinquish a degree in his 5 wins, ending seventh at 106 kilos. The Springfield College-bound Paulino remembers the enjoyment of successful the ultimate match to cement his All-American standing.
“It meant a lot to me, it was something I dreamed about,” stated Paulino, who ended his highschool profession with a stellar 160-10 file. “I worked so hard to get there and made sure nothing got in the way. It was definitely one of my best moments ever.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com