History of Shenendehowa Wrestling

40 Years of Excellence

If you are reading this letter, you are part of the Shenendehowa Wrestling community, either as a wrestler, a parent, a coach or just a fan of the wrestling team here at Shenendehowa.  The goal of this letter is to give you an overview of the history of our wrestling program.

THE BEGINNING, George Angley, 1968-1978:

Wrestling was started here at Shenendehowa back in 1968.  Several schools within the Section were already well established so we had to play a little catch-up.  George Angley was the Coach in the inaugural year and remained as the head coach for ten years, stepping down in 1978.

During his tenure, Coach Angley compiled a 78-49-4 record.  His successes came at the hands of the schools within the Suburban Council that we compete against today along with teams like Lansingburgh, Mechanicville, Amsterdam, Johnstown and Cambridge.

In 1974, we had our first Sectional Champion in Mark Nichols.  Mark competed at 177 pounds.  Mark went on to be our first State Finalist, placing second in the championships.  We had Sectional Champs in 1976 and 1977 in Bill Frost and Mark Prescott, respectively.  In 1978 we had our fourth Sectional Champ in Mark Davis.  Like Mark Nichols, Mark Davis went on to place second in the New York State Championships that year.

Dan D’Amboise, 1978-1988:

In the 1978-79 Season, Dan D’Amboise took over as the head coach after serving as a Junior Varsity Coach for a couple seasons.  As the Varsity Coach, Dan recorded an impressive 142-22-5 record.  Along the way, the team had an impressive impression within the league.  From 1980 through 1988, the Team won the Blue Division (the division we compete in within the Suburban Council) an unequaled eight times.  Additionally, we won the Class A Tournament (Tournament Qualifier for the Section II Championships) in 1985 and 1986.  In 1986 our Shenendehowa Plainsmen had 9 Class A Champions (out of 15 wrestlers), something that hasn’t been done before or since.   Dave Averill was the first Sectional Champion under Dan’s direction.  Dave competed at 105 pounds and finished fourth place at the NYState Championships in 1981.  In 1986 Shenendehowa had 4 Section II Champions in Steve Mitola, Gary Arzberger, Joel SanPedro and Bryan Radliff.  

The 1986, 87 and 88 teams were arguably one of the strongest groups to ever come out of Shenendehowa.  Dominating the Suburban Council with a six year undefeated streak, this group of wrestlers demonstrated the might of the program.  Main contributors to the success were Steve Mitola (2 x Sectional Champ, 5^th & 6^th Place NY State Championships), Mark Novenche, AJ Suits, Joel SanPedro (1986 Sectional Champion), Bryan Radliff (1986 Sectional Champion), Matt Joyce, Dave Wareing   (2 x Class A Champion, 1987 & 1988), Gary Arzberger (1986 Sectional Champion) Gary wrestled at Boston University after high school, Jim Neary, Dale Palmer, Aaron Frazier, Brent Reed & Keith Tilton, just to name a few.  Additionally, Dan’s teams produced 23 Class A Champions.

John Meys, 1988-1993:

The 1988-89 Season brought us a new Coach in John Meys.  John led the program from 1988 to 1994.  During that time, John compiled a 77-25-1 record.  Seniors that John inherited were Eric Alford, George Carta, Mike DiVirgilio, Jason O’Brien, Brent Reed, Ben Rotondi, and Dan Tinney. 

Under John’s direction, the team produced Nine Class A Champions and  five Sectional Champions, Aaron Frazier (1990 132 pound Sectional Champ), Troy Hiltz (1992 112 pound Sectional Champ, 5^th Place NY State Championships), Dave Fribourg (1992 167 Pound Sectional Champ), Dave Mitola (1993 91 Pound Sectional Champ, 5^th Place NY State Championships), & Matt Stein (1993 250 Pound Sectional Champion).  In addition to the 1993 Sectional title, Matt Stein went on to become SHENENDEHOWA’S 1^ST NEW YORK STATE CHAMPION.  After graduation, Matt went on to have a successful career at Division I Edinboro University where he was a Division I National Qualifier.  Presently Matt is the Varsity Coach at Suburban rival Colonie High School.

John’s teams were Blue Division Champions in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993.  They won the Class A Title in 1992.

Stan Harper, 1993-1998:

The 1993-94 team was met with a new coach in Stan Harper.  Stan ran the program from 1993 until 1998.  Along the way, Shenendehowa recorded an overall record of 43-15-2.   Between 1993 and 1998, Shenendehowa produced 9 Class A Champions and 7 Sectional Champions.   Winning Class A titles were Lee Pike, Greg Parker, Dave Mitola, Rob Blanchet, Chris Bielkiewicz, Kevin Paul & Josh Torres.  Winning Sectional Titles were Lee Pike (1994 250 pound Sectional Champ, 3^rd place NY State Championships), Greg Parker (See next paragraph), Dave Mitola (1993 91 pound Sectional Champ and 5^th place NY State Championships, 1995 98 pound Sectional Champ) & Josh Torres (1998 125 pound Sectional Champ). 

From 1994 through 1999 Shenendehowa was fortunate to have Gregory Parker within the program.  During his high school career, Greg broke every record within the program.  Greg was a 5x Class A Champion, a 5x Sectional Champion, a 3x State Finalist, and a New York State Champion (becoming Shen’s 2^nd State Champion).   Upon graduation, Greg was the winningest wrestler in Shen History.  After Graduation from High School, Greg went on to wrestle for Princeton and went on to be a two time All-American.  Additional, Greg was the 1^st wrestler out of Section II to be a Division I Wrestling Finalist.  Presently, Greg is training for the Olympic Team.

Rob Weeks, 1998-Present:

From the 1998-99 season until today Rob Weeks has been the Varsity Wrestling Coach.  Under Coach Weeks’ direction, the Plainsmen have recorded a 139-44 record.  The team has won the Blue Division Title in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 & 2008.  Additionally, the team has won the Class A tournament in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 & 2008.   Early contributors within Coach Weeks’ era were Kyle Bernard (Section 2 Runner-up), Brian Mincher, Jordan Boghosian, Chris Normile (Class A Champion), Brian Jutton (Section 2 Runner-up), Brian Byrd, Steve Murello,  Phil McGeough (Section 2 Champion, 4^th Place NY State Championships), Mike Prendergast and Tim Paige just to name a few.   

Our team is running on a four year winning streak within the Suburban Council and has been Suburban Council Champions every year since 2004.  In 2003-04, Shenendehowa completed their only undefeated season, finishing the year at 20-0.  Members of that team were Hunter Meys, John Corsetti, Andy Kenna, Keith Bernard (2x Sectional Champ, 5^th NY State Championship), Rory O’Connor, Dennis Landry, Kyle Kirschenbaum, Dan Quinn (3^rd in Section 2 Championships), Phil Dechene, Paul Byrd (3^rd in Section 2 Championships), Chris Dooling, Justin Drescher (2^nd in Section 2 Championships), Pat Gallagher (2^nd in Section 2 Championships), & Steve Cotroneo.  This team dominated the Suburban Council and Section during the season.  This could arguably be considered the best dual meet team Shenendehowa has ever produced.

In 2006 the Section went to a Dual Meet Championship Tournament.  In the three years this tournament has taken place, our Shenendehowa Plainsmen won the tournament in 2006 & 2008 and were runner-ups in 2007. 

In 2004 the Section Started keeping score @ the Section II State Qualifier Tournament.  In 2004 we were the team runner-ups.  Since then, we have won the Tournament each year (2005, 06, 07 & 08).

In the last two seasons, we have produced the strongest New York State Championship Teams in the State.  In the last two years, the team has won the New York State Championship (2007 & 2008).  No other team has ever won the State Title in back to back years.  Brothers Luke and TJ Popolizio (Both State Runner-ups in 2007) and Austin and Hunter Meys have been the leaders of this group.  Both sets of brothers have been on the State Team in both years where we have won the State Titles.   Both Hunter and Austin Meys have been Two Time New York State Champions.  Nick Kelley and Juliano Pabon also made the trip to the State Tournament in 2008.

It goes without saying that a big part of the successes we’ve had are related to our Assistant, Junior Varsity, Modified and Volunteer Coaches throughout the years.  Presently our Coaching Staff consists of Modified Coaches Ryan Fenton and James Ward, Junior Varsity Coach Chris Capezutti, Volunteer Junior Varsity Coach Dale Palmer (1988 Graduate), Assistant Coach John Meys and Varsity Assistant Frank Popolizio.  Frank has been with the program for several years and is the Founder and President of Journeymen Wrestling, a premier wrestling club in the area.  Other former Assistant Coaches within the program have included Ivars Vittenberg, Brian Eckblom, Dave Wareing, Gary Arzbergy and Steve Hart just to name a few.  Their contributions to the program have truly benefited the athletes on the team.

In conclusion, our team has compiled an overall record of 479-155-22.  During that time we have produced 76 Class A Champions, 42 Section II Champions, 28 New York State Place Finishers, 14 New York State Finalists & 6 New York State Champions.  We’ve been Blue Division Champions 17 times, Class A Champions 8 times and New York State Tournament Champions in back to back years (2007 & 2008). 

The 2008 team can arguably be considered the best team Shenendehowa Wrestling has ever produced.  They have dominated the Section both as a team and individually and they will be a hard group to replace.  Thankfully we have a tremendous amount of talented underclassmen working hard to fill those positions.  I look forward to being a part of the future of Shenendehowa Wrestling.