On Tuesday, Nov. 18, the CESJDS wrestling team faced the Maryland Secondary School for the Deaf in its first match of the season. JDS lost the home game 44-31, but with only five practices so far this season and with a majority of wrestlers being freshmen, the team hopes to improve throughout the season.
Freshman Ryan Bogdansky, who started wrestling a week and a half ago, won his match 7-1. In the first two minutes, he scored two takedowns, obtaining a score advantage. Bogdansky said he was in a winning position several times, but didn’t know how to complete the pins. Eventually, he used a pin that senior and team co-captain Theo Rothenberg had taught him two days prior.
“Ryan’s match was, I think, the best example of what we can do with what we have,” Rothenberg said. “If everyone can learn as fast as Ryan did, I think we can do as well as he did.”
Some of the other players on the team include freshman Eli Hatwell, who wasn’t able to wrestle Tuesday, and sophomore Emmanuel Sarantos, freshman Asher Caplan, and 8th-grade student Isaac Silver, who all ultimately lost their games after getting pinned. A pin is when both shoulders or the entire spine is on the mat, and whoever gets pinned automatically loses the round.
Junior and team co-captain Jacob Sheib, who won his match 19-8, continuing his 5-0 winning streak against the Maryland Secondary School for the Deaf, said the JDS’s main areas for improvement were technical skills. Rothenberg said sprawling and stamina needed to be worked on, and Sheib said getting back up after being taken down was a weakness of the team.
Head Coach Chuck Woolery said JDS wrestlers needed to continue learning about defense, specifically following his instructions to place their hands on their stomachs to roll out if they get half-nelsoned. A half-nelson is a type of grapple where one person holds their opponent from behind, using their arms to encircle the opponent’s neck and arm.
“We’re just a young team,” Woolery said. “Most of our guys don’t know how to really guard against takedowns. They don’t have much experience. One guy only has three practices; he wrestled a guy who’s had a dozen practices.”
Woolery said the newer wrestlers haven’t practiced enough to internalize the correct moves and do them automatically. They still have to pause to remember what to do, but once they’ve gained more experience, they’ll be able to act faster and achieve more wins.
Bogdansky, Rothenberg and Sheib all said that the performance in this match is a sign that the team could do well later in the season.
“It was the first match for many of our wrestlers, and we showed a lot of promise,” Sheib said. “Scoring 33 team points is a great accomplishment that we should not be ashamed of.”
Sheib believes that the freshmen who joined the team could lead the team to winning the Henry Wittenberg Yeshiva Invitational Wrestling Tournament at the end of the season. In their first time competing in the competition last year, JDS wrestlers won second and third place in the tournament.
“Our freshmen have a real shot at doing some great things this year and in the rest of their high school career,” Rothenberg said.
