The RED And BLACK: Latest News And Announcements #2

With the season practically upon us I have decided to take a look at a couple of different team schedules. With that I have found some very interesting things in which I will be addressing in this article. So, without further ado let’s get right into it!

First and foremost, I will address that there is not a lot of competition for the Varsity wrestlers. I looked at 2 different wrestling team schedules and one schedule had 8 events while the other had 13 with Varsity and Junior Varsity events combined altogether. Due to the shortened season, it seems like there will be multiple events a week. It makes me wonder for those wrestlers cutting weight if these events will interfere with their weight cut. Before COVID most events took place on weekends (with the exceptions of some duals that took place during the week) giving wrestlers ample amount of time to drop the weight, but with multiple events a week it may result in many wrestlers bouncing around in weight classes due to the lack of time to drop the weight. But only time will tell if this will be a legitimate issue/concern or not.

Now there is some unfortunate news in regards to CHSAA Wrestling. Buffalo teams will not be competing in the 2021 season. Teams such St. Joe’s Collegiate, St. Mary’s, and St. Francis (just to name a few teams) will be affected by this and it is seriously unfortunate as all three teams have had multiple CHSAA State Champs, finalists, as well as placers in both the Catholic State and New York State Tournament. We are hoping that this gets overruled and Buffalo schools will be able to compete this season as COVID numbers are going down.

Let the Duals begin! Remember all of the exciting matchups and duals that took place last year? Rival Teams such as St. Anthony’s and Chaminade? Let’s not forget that amazing Monsignor Farrell and St. Anthony’s Dual that came down to the last bout. Well we can add more amazing duals into the 2021 season as the CHSAA State Dual Tournament is confirmed for the season. Now although Buffalo teams will not be competing in the duals we can at least see Long Island and NYC Catholic schools face off. I for one am very excited to see these duals and see some amazing matchups. More importantly it gives Kellenberg Firebirds a chance to repeat as CHSAA State Dual Champs.

And lastly, and probably the most exciting news. There will be a “CHSAA” Tournament! Now note that it is not technically a CHSAA State Tournament, but it is very close enough to be called one. Due to the fact that Buffalo teams will not be competing the tournament cannot be called the CHSAA State Wrestling Tournament. But it is still a sectional tournament just made up of NYC and Long Island Catholic Schools. It is a bit confusing as to what the tournament is considered as, but it can be narrowed down to our Annual Catholic State Tournament.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting season. Between the multiple events a week to CHSAA State Duals to the CHSAA Sectional Tournament at the end of the season, this season is looking to be a promising one. These are just some of the things to look forward to as we get closer to competition. Unfortunately Buffalo will not be included and I am hoping that they get that overruled so that they can compete. But between Long Island and NYC we are bound to see some very interesting matchups between the two leagues. The first competition for J.V starts on May 1st and Varsity starts on May 5th. Let the season begin!

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The RED And BLACK: 2021 NYS Journeymen Championships in Recap/Review

The 2021 NYS Journeymen Championships featured a lot of great matches across all weight classes with an even more entertaining set of finals matches. The CHSAA sent a total of 9 guys to the tournament who all competed great and to the best of their ability. Although they didn’t get the result that they had desired these tough athletes are looking to have a standout season. Below is a recap of how our athletes did over the weekend, afterwards I’ll provide an analysis/review of the weekend.

Day 1:

We had a couple of guys who dropped their first bouts of the tournament. Brendan Martin 113lbs (Kellenberg) dropped his first match of the tournament in the first round. Liam Edwards 145lbs (St. Francis) who dropped his match in the round of 32 as well as Sean Degl 138lbs (Iona Prep), Michael Sanfilippo 138lbs (Chaminade), Trevor Sheehan 152lbs (St. Mary’s) and Shane Meenaghan 113lbs (Chaminade). Michael Adams 99lbs (Monsignor Farrell), Frankie Theroux 145lbs (St. Anthony’s), Christian Schifano 152lbs (Chaminade) and Jack Geyer (Xavier), all won their first bouts in their respective weight classes. Frankie Theroux lost in the round of 16 in a very close match to Ascend’s Eric Shindel 2-1 as well as Christian Schifano who lost to Superior Wrestling Academy’s Kaleb Burgess by fall in 2:27 and Jack Geyer who lost to Jack Forte of WT Clarke via 10-0 major decision. Mike Adams beat Michael Giugliano of Miller Place 6-0 to punch his ticket to the semifinals.

In consolation rounds the CHSAA Brendan Martin lost to Joseph Clem from Wantagh by fall in 2:00. Shane Meenaghan bounced back from his loss to beat Clayton O’Connor of Journeymen by a 5-1 decision. Shane got himself rolling with another victory over Rian Kirker of Red Hook by a 6-3 score. Shane ran into a roadblock against Michael Giugliano of Miller Place losing the match via pin in 1:33. Both Sanfilippo and Degl dropped their consolation bouts by pin in the first period. Liam Edwards got a win back in his first consolation bout against Kaiden Laluna of Journeymen by a 1-0 decision. Edwards lost his following match to Vandavian Way of Gouverneur by a close 3-1 score. Trevor Sheehan also got a win back by picking up a fall against Robert Flaherty of Razor via pin in just 1:04. Sheehan then lost in the consi of 16 #2 against Ryan Caudill of Avon by a 9-2 decision. Jack Geyer landed himself in the consi round of 16 #2 against Holt Reed of Phoenix where he was upended by a 9-2 score. Christian Schifano went on to pick up a 10-6 decision against Andrew Maslyn of South Shore before dropping his following bout to Holt Reed as well by 8-0 major decision.

Day 2:

Mike Adams started off his day on a rough note after a 14-3 loss in the semifinals against Tyler Ferrara of Chenango Forks. Adams then lost in the consi-semifinals to Gavin Ciarfella of Royhart 8-3 landing him in the 5th place match. Adams wrestled a familiar opponent in Michael Giugliano of Miller Place. Adams made sure that the results didn’t change beating his opponent via 8-0 major decision ending his tournament with a 5th place finish.

All Athlete’s results can be found below:

Brendan Martin- 0-2

Michael Adams- 3-2

Shane Meenaghan- 2-2

Sean Degl- 0-2

Michael Sanfilippo- 0-2

Frankie Theroux- 2-2

Liam Edwards- 0-2

Jack Geyer- 1-2

Christian Schifano- 2-2

Trevor Sheehan- 1-2

Review:

All in all, the guys looked great out there this past weekend. Christian Schifano looked really good in his opening bout as well as Jack Geyer. A couple of guys suffered heartbreaking losses and ran into some roadblocks in some opponents. Frankie Theroux really impressed this weekend losing a close match in the round of 16 but managed to wrestle back tough and nab a win in the consolation rounds. Shane Meenaghan had a nice set of wins in the consolation rounds and I would’ve loved to see what would’ve happened if Shane and Adams wrestled this past weekend. Speaking of, Adams had a heck of a weekend making the semifinals. He had a tough loss against the returning D-1 NYS runner up Tyler Ferrara but managed to come back with a top 5 finish just like last year. We almost got a glimpse of a couple of CHSAA vs CHSAA matches this weekend between Mike Adams and Shane Meenaghan, and Christian Schifano and Trevor Sheehan but this just adds anticipation and excitement to the bouts for this upcoming season. With Jack Geyer competing at 152lbs this past weekend I would love to see him wrestle Schifano and Sheehan at some point this season as that match would be very entertaining. These wrestlers have great momentum heading into the season on April 17th and will be looking to keep it rolling as this tournament provided a nice warm up and edge to get the mat rust off.

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The RED and BLACK Wrestling: Latest News/Announcements #1

There a bit of interesting things that have happened over the course of the last couple of weeks within the CHSAA. In this article addressing the latest news and announcements I will be talking about a new partnership between Monsignor Farrell and a Live Streaming Service, what Ideas I have related to that partnership, and the wrestlers that will be competing at the Journeymen Tournament on April 2nd.

Starting off with the latest news, on February 15th Monsignor Farrell announced that they are partnering with LocalLive which is an online live streaming service. This is what the President of Monsignor Farrell Lou Tobacco had to say on his instagram page regarding the news, “Monsignor Farrell High School is excited to announce that we are the first school on Staten Island to partner with LocalLive, an internet live streaming service. A dedicated Monsignor Farrell HD video channel will host our games and special events that take place I our Gym or Stadium, keeping our parents, siblings, grandparents, alumni and community close.” So, this is very interesting news in regards to how sporting events can be handled. In my interview with Christian Schifano we had talked about the huge crowd the CHSAA State Tournament draws every year, and how as of right now that the tournament is not happening. But we had talked about the possibility of maybe being able to host it if there was a way to get the parents and other spectators to watch it without the filled gym crowd. This new partnership between the streaming service and Monsignor Farrell makes that idea very possible. Monsignor Farrell played host to the Catholic State Tournament in 2018 and this new partnership gives the athletes their well earned Catholic State Tournament and preventing a large gathering at the event being able to Live Stream the tournament in it’s entirety.

The next set of news is about the upcoming Journeymen Tournament taking place on April 2nd. Here is a list of all CHSAA wrestlers who will be competing that weekend.

Austin Zimmerman- 99lbs (St. Joe’s Collegiate) 6th Grade

Michael Adams- 113lbs (Monsignor Farrell) 11th Grade

Shane Meenaghan- 120lbs (Chaminade) 10th Grade

Michael Sanfilippo- 138lbs (Chaminade) 12th Grade

Frankie Theroux- 145lbs (St. Anthony’s) 11th Grade

Christian Schifano- 152lbs (Chaminade) 12th Grade

Trevor Sheehan- 152lbs (St. Mary’s) 11th Grade

Ronnie Jones- 182lbs (St. Joe’s Collegiate) 12th Grade

The CHSAA is sending a great group of wrestlers to this tournament and I can realistically see these athletes place. Starting off with Austin Zimmerman of St. Joe’s Collegiate, Zimmerman being the youngest of the group heading to this tournament. It will be very interesting to see how one of their middle school wrestlers will stack up against high school competition. We have seen many outstanding middle school wrestlers dominate on a high school level so it will be very interesting to see the damage Zimmerman will do on April 2nd.

Michael Adams had a standout year last year placing 6th at the Prestigious Eastern States Classic, winning his first Catholic State Crown, and capping his season off with a 5th Place finish at the NYS Tournament. Mike was a hammer last year and was one of Farrell’s studs last year. Mike challenged many of his opponents last year beating eventual 3rd in the state Mike Manta of Happauge, and even suffered an overtime loss to eventual state runner up Joseph Manfreddi of Herricks. So, Mike is no stranger to challenging the best in the state.

Shane Meenaghan is someone to keep an eye out for this year. Meenaghan was the first Freshman Catholic State Champ from Chaminade in 20 years! What makes this accomplishment all the more impressive was he went on to finish 7th in the State just a couple weeks later. Meenaghan always learns from his losses which makes him a dangerous opponent. After losing to Ryan Napadano of St. Anthony’s in the league finals 7-6, Meenaghan entered the tournament the #3 seed and rallied back in the Catholic State Semifinals to beat Napadano 5-2. He then went on to shock the gym in the finals pinning #1 seed Devon Diaco, sticking him with a cradle after forcing him to lose his balance while riding legs, Diaco dropped right in front of Meenghan for him to lock up the cradle and get the pin. He then avenged a loss at the state tournament against Sal Esposito of Tottenville. Meenaghan had lost to Esposito at the Eastern States Classic but they would again meet at the State Tournament where Meenaghan would emerge with the win with a 1-0 score! Meenaghan will be wrestling 120lbs and will be fun to watch him compete at the weight on April 2nd.

Mike Sanfilippo was a 3x CHSAA State Runner Up. He finished 2nd both in 2018 and 2019. But for those who don’t know his opponents he had lost to in both finals went on to win the NYS Tournament just 2 weeks later, which just goes to show the caliber of wrestling Sanfilippo can compete on. He won the crown in 2020 against Matt Ash of St. Mary’s with a 4-2 score. The recent NYU Commit is wrestling at 138lbs on April 2nd and Sanfilippo is looking to do some damage that weekend. Sanfilippo’s strength and gas tank will make him a threat to those at his weight. Frankie Theroux of St. Anthony’s is another wrestler to look out for. Theroux who finished 5th at 120lbs last year at the Catholic State Tournament will be trying to secure some wins at the Journeymen Tournament.

Christian Schifano will be competing at 152lbs at the Journeymen Tournament. Schifano wrestled at 138lbs last year and finished runner up losing to Stephen Crisci in that insane finals match that had the whole gym invested into the match. Schifano announced what weight class he was going to be wrestling in the interview I did with him and I can’t wait to see how well he competes at this weight. Trevor Sheehan of St. Mary’s wrestled at 126lbs for St. Mary’s placed 3rd at the 2019 CHSAA State Championships the same weight Schifano placed 6th at. Sheehan transferred to Lancaster where he placed 3rd place in the Section 6 sectional Championships. He will be transferring back to St. Mary’s and representing them at 152lbs at the Journeymen Tournament. I am excited to see if this match happens on April 2nd and hopefully give us a preview of the amazing set of matches we can potentially see as the season goes on.

Ronnie Jones will be competing at 182lbs, the same weight class we he competed at at last year’s CHSAA State Championships. In both 2019 and 2020 Ronnie Jones finished runner up at the CHSAA State Championships at 145lbs in 2019 and then 182lbs in 2020. Ronnie Jones size and speed help create interesting and fun matches just as we saw in his 2020 finals match with James Watterson. Although he didn’t end up victorious he showed us to never doubt him nor keep his name out of a CHSAA Title picture. Ronnie Jones will be a wrestler to keep an eye out for on April 2nd to upset a couple of guys and even medal and take home Gold that weekend.

And those are your recent news and announcements within the CHSAA.

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