Adam Prudhomme
Editor
After a nearly two-decade gap between matches, the NDSS Golden Hawks wrestling team is back.
Led by coaches Sean Dunleavy, Summer Froats-Crowder and Jeff Brady, a group of student-athletes have been learning the ropes of free-style wrestling.
Reviving the program has been something of a decade-plus long goal of Dunleavy, who has run the high school’s female rugby program since 2007.
“It’s something I had a chance to do for a season or two when I was in high school and then when it was gone it was a fleeting experience, but it was always in the back of my head that it was something that I wish I did more with,” said Dunleavy. “As the rugby coach I know full well it’s a great transition sport for those athletes to have that confidence in contact and that outlet for that athletic aggression.”
Once a regular sport at NDSS, the wrestling program faded to obscurity over the years, the exact date of the most recent team not quite known though most agree around 20 years is accurate.
When all athletics were suspended due to the pandemic, Dunleavy saw it as a chance to bring wrestling back to Napanee.
“With COVID it allowed me the opportunity to get my coaching certification and just start to put some of the pieces in and discovered that we had the mats already and was able to access some phenomenal coaching resources and everything just fell into place,” Dunleavy added.
Brady brings with him years of experience having coach the Holy Cross Crusaders wrestling team.
NDSS wrestling coach Jeff Brady watches as students practice. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
With the full support of the NDSS athletic department, the Hawks’ wresting team was revived and about 18 student athletes signed up, making the commitment to train three times a week in the school’s weight room.
“It’s been a nice mix. There’s a couple of sort of upper years but most of them are Grade 9s and 10s, which is pretty neat,” Dunleavy said of the athletes on the team. “It’s been neat to see the different athletes that have been out. Some of them have other backgrounds. There are some football players, a couple of rugby players. Just a few that it’s just their thing they found and thought ‘hey I think that’s for me.’ I think it’s opened up some sport doors for folks that maybe haven’t done it before which has been kind of neat.”
For some it’s a chance to hone their skills for their more preferred summer or spring sport. For others it could be their main sport and perhaps open some doors for scholarships down the road.
As one might expect, the mere mention of a wrestling team invoked visions of World Wrestling Entertainment. In reality the high school wrestling program is the points style of wrestling seen in Olympic competitions. And yes, it’s all real.
Freestyle wrestling is like that seen in the Olympics. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
“The first couple of sessions we had a couple of people that we had to clarify what this was and what this wasn’t so there would be no Hulkamania or any opening cans of anything on people,” joked Dunleavy.
“The point is to dominate your opponent by either points scored or by pinning them to the ground,” explains Dunleavy. “There’s that sort of connection to the TV wrestling, but not in the same way. You score a point by successfully performing certain moves and throws and dominance over your opponent. One of the ways you can win is by a quick pin and it’s not a three second thing, it can be as fast as one second if the referee determines that you are being controlled. It’s almost like combat chess. You’re looking for opportunities to attack your opponent.”
In the KASSAA circuit, other participating schools include LCVI, Regi and Holy Cross. In the new year there’s plans to get together with neghbouring schools, and perhaps even taking some trips to the Belleville region, for meets in preparation for the EOSSAA championship. Just prior to the winter break the Hawks competed in their first meet, held in Trenton.
Dunleavy says the timing to revitalize the program couldn’t be any better as they find themselves on somewhat equal footing with some of the more established programs. Given that they too had to pause their program during the pandemic, most of their athletes will be on par with their experience level.
“As a first year program we don’t know really what to expect,” said Dunleavy. “Maybe there are some athletes here that get a chance to do well at EOSSAA and maybe go to OFSAA. I think that’s a realistic goal.”