Hello again wrestling fans. No, I'm not back to covering the sport full-time, but I do intend to keep this blog in a modified form. There won't be daily or weekly posts as had been the normal. Hopefully, I will be able to check in from time to time. This season is the first in some 20-plus years that my live wrestling viewing has been limited to as little as a few hours.
That said, I have been keeping tabs on the local action as the 2016-17 season is quickly heating up.
Those last few hours of seeing some wrestling took place two weekends ago when I brought my 3-year old son to Everett's Bloody Run Duals. Of course, it was nice to shake hands (high fives in my son's case) and chat with some people I hadn't seen since I left the Bedford Gazette one month ago today.
Here's some local wrestling things that have caught my eye.
* Stars Shining: A number of veteran wrestlers are off to strong starts, among them Chestnut Ridge's three returning state medalists, Everett's trio of state qualifiers, and Northern Bedford's Zach Clark. Ridge's studs include 145-pounder Justin McCoy, who is currently ranked first in Class AA by Mark Dugan of Off the Mat. Despite the fact that McCoy collected his second state medal last season, I got the sense that he left the Giant Center in March with a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. The junior has been really good so far this winter, with a big win over two-time state finalist David Pipa at King of the Mountain. He placed second there and also won a medal at the Powerade.
* New Names Making Names: My last Bedford match for the newspaper in December was highlighted by Riley Steinbuch's overtime win over Penn Cambria's Chase Proudfit, who was a state qualifier last season. Steinbuch has continued to impress with a 15-2 record to date at 126. That includes another victory against a PIAA qualifier in Westmont's Derrick Christie. Steinbuch is definitely someone worth watching going forward.
Others worth a look are Northern Bedford's Ian Sherlock and Chestnut Ridge's Caleb Holderbaum. Also, Bedford's Kaden Cassidy is doing very well at Bishop McCort and Dugan currently has the freshman ranked second in the state at 106 pounds.
