GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland wrestling team got off to a strong start this season but Head Coach Regan Johnson knows it’ll be a long road to the Pepsi Arena.

The Dutchmen won their first dual meet of the season last Wednesday, but the Guilderland wrestlers will have until March to see if they will be heading to downtown Albany for the state wrestling meet.
"It’s a long season," Johnson said at practice last Friday. "To compare it to a marathon would be appropriate. Some teams feel like they have to go out and sprint. We kind of take a different approach.
"Our goal is even if they don’t place very high, we want to get the younger guys to the civic center," he said of the Glens Falls Civic Center where the Section II State Qualifier meet is held in March. "We want to get them on the floor in front of the crowd, and, the following year, they’ve had already been there and not as intimidated."

Johnson is happy to get the 51-21 win over Mohonasen last week to start the season but is more impressed with the way his athletes competed.

"We’re talented"

The grappling Dutchmen got wins from the usual suspects — Matt Cubillos, Ian DeSol, and Kyle Hussey. All had successful seasons last year and are the key returnees for Guilderland. Each of the three won his first match of the season by pin.

But sophomore Tyler Quilia got a big upset win over Mohon’s Sean Magrum in the 215-pound weight class. Quilia won by a 3-2 score.
"It’s a good win for him," Johnson said. "Last year, he was in the varsity line-up once or twice. It’s his first match of the season and it was against a senior who placed in the section, last year. He did a nice job and I’m happy with that."

The Dutch will have a full line-up this year, though some of the smaller weights will be filled by underclassmen.
"We have a lot of young guys that we don’t want to throw to the wolves," Johnson said. "At the start of practices, we had 15 freshmen. We still have 15 freshmen, and that is unusual. So far they’ve been great and, if they stick with it, two or three years from now they’ll be solid. The great thing is that they are spread out; they’re not all at the same weight."

The Guilderland team will also have some experienced grapplers in the line-up.
"We’re talented," Johnson said. "We have some guys that have been around for a long time. Ian’s been here for five years, Kyle has wrestled for four years, Josh Sawyer has been on the varsity for four years, and Matt Cubillos seems like he’s been here forever and he is only a sophomore."

Hussey, last year, was the Class A champion in the 275-pound weight class. He finished third at the Section II meet but did not make it to states.
"He finished third in the section after basically missing the whole season," Johnson said. "Matt was second in the section, Ian was third, and Josh was fifth. Those are four guys we can count on."

"Two other coaches"

DeSol and Hussey are the captains of the team and provide an extra set of eyes on the mat.
"They are real good," Johnson said. "It’s like having two other coaches out there."

Johnson said that the two captains are looked up to.
"They are good for the young kids to learn from for a couple of reasons," Johnson said. "Number one: The kids have been there before. And number two, the kids are successful and it shows that hard work pays off. It shows that you have to go hard every night and that, if you stick it out here for four years, you can get what you want."

Freshmen Eugene Sellie and Evan Spenzario are two underclassmen for whom Johnson sees a good future. Sellie wrestled at 103 pounds last year and moves up to 119 this year. Spenzario fills the 152-pound slot.

Guilderland will also have ninth-graders in the 96-pound, 103-pound, and 112-pound positions.
"They are all freshmen," Johnson said. "But they all have guys behind them, pushing them."

Johnson understands, though, that the young wrestlers will need time before they will have varsity success.
"Any time you put freshmen in the line-up," the coach said, "they are going to take some beatings. But, in the end, it can’t take away the experience it’s going to give them.
"Ian is a good example of that," Johnson added. "He wrestled his eighth-grade year and he won maybe five matches. He lost a lot, but he stuck around, and now things are going his way."

Tough council

Again this year, Johnson expects the Suburban Council to be tough. He sees Shenendehowa, Burnt Hills, Saratoga, Niskayuna, and Columbia as having really good teams.
"It’s the usual suspects," Johnson said. "But you never know how the dual-meet season will go. Kids either get sick or injured. But with us, at the end of the season, the kids we have on the mat are ready to wrestle."

The Dutchmen always seem to be stronger at the end of the season, and that is the way Johnson likes it.
"We beat five or six teams in sectionals or the Section II tourney that beat us during the season," he said.

Last year, Guilderland had just one wrestler, John D’Ambrosio, qualify for the state meet; he placed sixth after having won the Section II tournament in the 189-pound weight class. Two Guilderland wrestlers went to the state meet two years ago when it was held at the Pepsi Arena.

There are a few Guilderland wrestlers who will have a shot this season at the meet, which will be held again at the Pepsi Arena in March — by then, it will be known as the Times Union Center.

In the past, only the winners in each weight class advanced to the state meet. That is changing this year.
"Up until this year," Johnson said, "there have been four byes in each weight class. What they are doing this year is adding a wild-card like system and filling those byes. It’s a possibility that Section II can send two kids in a weight class to the states to wrestle for a state championship."

It will also increase the chances for Guilderland athletes to go to the state competition.
"Hopefully, we can get a couple of guys to the Times Union Center," Johnson said. "One thing that I’ve learned from coaching, is that with high-school kids you have to prepare for anything. It’s such a long season".
"We’ve had seven or eight guys finish second in the section," Johnson added. "Runner ups will now have a real good chance at going to the state tourney. We had some guys a couple of years ago that would’ve gone."