Newton South Lions Wrestling

SUNDAY, February 21st, 2016

FROM: COACH ROTATORI

Division I States

What an exciting tournament.  Some of the best wrestlers in the state battling for two days.  Our three wrestlers performed well and certainly earned recognition as being with this elite group.  There was no room for mistakes and it didn't matter what the score was, at this level you have to wrestler the entire 6 minutes.

Malik Elmore-Coke wrestled against the west sectional finalist in his first match.  He was winning the entire match until the last 20 seconds as he made a mistake that the Agawam took advantage of and Malik was pinned with :08 left on the clock.  Malik faced a tough wrestler from Methuen who ended his day and season.  Malik is just a two year wrestler!  He finishes his season with 17 personal wins, that is outstanding, congratulations Malik!

Zach Doherty wrestled for both days and placed 8th.  In his first match he lost a close one being defeated by the south sectional champion 5-7.  He pinned his next opponent and then won a thrilling 2-1 match against the 182 pounder from Peabody.  Zach qualified for second day with that win and secured at least 8th place.  Zach wrestled a sectional finalist and champion the 2nd day and lost both matches.  He finishes the season with 23 personal wins, best on the team and puts him with some of the elite wrestlers in the history of our program.  Zach finishes his career with 53 wins.  Congratulations Zach!

Gabe Betancourt might be wrestling in the toughest weight class in the state.  Gabe destroyed his opponent from Andover 11-3 and then had to face the state ranked wrestler from New Bedford.  Gabe got the first takedown but ended up losing 2-6.  He pinned his opponent in the 3rd round and wrestled the west sectional champion in the first round on day 2 and beat him 10-2.  Unfortunately, he hurt his knee and had to injury defaulted to 6th place.  He has qualified for All-States but we are waiting to hear if he will be able to continue.  Gabe has had a tremendous season even though he has struggled with injuries.  He is state ranked on Masswrestling.com which is a great accomplishment considering he missed his entire season last year.  Congratulations Gabe!  I hope this is not the end though.

End-of-year obligations

1. All wrestlers must return equipment (head gear) and uniforms (singlet & warm-ups).  Please wash uniform first and then place in a plastic bag with your name on it.  Hand in to Coach Rotatori or Coach Fagen any time during the day after we get back from vacation.  

2.  Sports Awards Night is on Tuesday, March 15th at 7:00pm.  We will have our team breakout party before the general session.  The breakout party will be at 6:00 in the cafeteria.  All parents are invited and should attend.

SUNDAY, February 14th, 2016

FROM: COACH ROTATORI

Division I Central Sectionals

I am very proud and honored to be associated with such a devoted and dedicated group of people.  Hosting sectionals is not an easy task and can't be accomplished without cooperation from everybody.  A big thank you to our parent volunteers who once again supplied an awesome concession stand that many coaches and wrestlers were raving about.  Special thank you to Karen Doherty for organizing and spending many hours preparing to feed 400 people.  Thank you to our wrestlers who volunteered 11 hours of their time during vacation.  You all did an outstanding job throughout the day.  And finally, thank you to Coach Fagen for all of his hard work.  He is always doing things that I forget, we are a great team!  

Our seven wrestlers performed well and represented the program strongly.  We placed and qualified three wrestlers for Division I States.  Gabe Betancourt made it to he finals and had a close match with his opponent, he finished in 2nd.  Zach Doherty had to wrestle the same opponent twice which is always difficult.  He lost a close, one point match and placed 4th.  Malik Elmore-Coke put on a clinic in the consolation finals pinning his opponent after an impressive display of wrestling.  He is our Outstanding Wrestler of the day, congrats Malik !  The three of them will be wrestling on Friday and Saturday, February 19 & 20 at Brockton High School.  This is the Division I State tournament.  The top six place winners go to All-States.