Americas Cup to Benefit Cal State Fullerton Wrestling

Bakersfield, CA – This morning the Committee for the Preservation of California Collegiate Wrestling, and there subsidiary, the State of California Wrestling Alliance (SCWAY) a NUWAY affiliate announced the first annual NUWAY Americas Cup on June 4th and 5th 2010. The event is an exchange between top wrestlers from California, Michigan, New Jersey, and Nevada. The premise of the event is to showcase the talents of some of the top wrestlers in the country while promoting an exchange of cultural, geographical, and personal experiences. The event will benefit the participants, the wrestling community, and collegiate wrestling.

The 2010 NUWAY Americas Cup will be hosted by California this year with the winning team receiving the Americas Cup and the right to defend it in their state the following year. The host state will provide regional teams and multiple venues to showcase not only its wrestling diversity but to provide multiple geographical experiences for the participants. This years events will be held respectively at Cal State Fullerton and perennial California wrestling power Clovis High School. The June 4th event at Cal State Fullerton will benefit the Cal State Fullerton wrestling team, while the ticket proceeds from the event at Clovis will benefit future wrestling exchanges. Both events will be streamed live nationally at www.savecaliforniawrestling.com for the price of admission which is $10.00.

At the June 4th event in Fullerton, CA regional teams from San Diego and the Southern California area will compete in a tandem dual format against state teams from Michigan, New Jersey, and Nevada. The honorary coach for San Diego will be Byron Campbell who is the current head coach at San Diego’s only collegiate wrestling program, Palomar Junior College. The San Diego team will also be coached by Poway High Schools John Meyers, a long time assistant to legendary coach Wayne Branstetter, former California State Champion and La Costa Canyon high school coach Dwayne Buth, and Preston Picus a former Columbia University wrestler who currently is the coach at Rancho Buena Vista high school . Ryan Halsey a co-founder of the Committee for the Preservation of California Collegiate Wrestling and San Diego county native stated, “we are proud that the top programs in San Diego have taken the lead on ensuring the participation of not only their section but also the best kids in San Diego in this years event.” State champion Bryan Grubbs, state finalist and Reno TOC champion Victor Lopez from Poway are just two of the many talented participants representing San Diego.

The Southern California area team will be led by long time Cerritos College coach Donny Garriot. Donny was the former head coach at North Torrance High School for nearly two decades before he moved up to the college ranks. Donny was also a collegiate wrestler at Chico before the program was discontinued. The Southern California team will not be short on talent on the mat either led by two time state champion, and flo nationals champion Morgan Mcintosh. The junior Mcintosh who is one of the best wrestlers in the country will be joined by teammate Tank Knowles state champion in his own right as well as super 32 champion Chris Mecate, state champion Frank Martinez, sophomore sensation Joey “Iceman” Davis, youth phenom Zahid Valencia and a host of other talented wrestlers from the area.

The June 4th event at Cal State Fullerton promises to be action packed. Ernest Ciaccio who is a regional director for NUWAY stated, “this exchange is the first in a series of events that will enable us to protect, preserve and advance our sport at every level. Dan Hicks has done a great job in developing a model to self fund his program under the threat of discontinuation. This is our way of doing what we can to help him financially while getting some of the top kids in the country on his campus, and fans in his gym. College administrators need to know that wrestling is important in California and we hope events like this one will make that clear.”

The June 5th event at Clovis High school will showcase the talent from California’s central valley. The central valley is known by many around the country as the Mecca of California wrestling. Programs like Clovis, Lemoore, and Bakersfield have put out countless NCAA champions, All Americans, World Champions, and Olympic medalists. The regional team from the central valley will showcase two time state champion Alex Cisneros and his Selma teammates Nick Pena, Justin Lozano, and Nathan Zarate. The returning state champion Bakersfield High Drillers will have a host of participants including NHSCA freshman national champ Coleman Hammond, NHSCA All American Timmy Box, and NHSCA Junior Finalist Ian Nickell. Clovis High will have three state placers participating led by State finalist and Arizona state bound Tommy Burriel. Lemoore coach Marcio Botehlo a former NCAA All American from Fresno State knows exactly what this event means to the central valley and summed it up by saying “we lost Fresno state, and now Cal State Bakersfield is facing elimination; this is our opportunity to show the country that wrestling in the central valley is in need of a collegiate program.” Lemoore will be represented by state champion Nick Sierra, state placer Dillon Rocha, Heavyweight Steven Woods and the ever exciting diaper dandy Issiah Martinez.

Adam Tirapelle a 3x NCAA All American and National Champion stated “central valley wrestling has a proud tradition at the youth and high school levels and we are excited to have a chance to showcase our talents while competing against high level wrestlers from tradition rich states such as New jersey and Michigan.” The honorary coach of the central valley squad will be Paul Keysaw a former NCAA champion who wrestled at Cal State Bakersfield. Keysaw, a native from Pennsylvania is the current coach at Fresno City College and is the winningest coach since 1972 at the California Community College level. Paul explained the importance of the event exclaiming “ this is an opportunity for the California wrestling community to unite and make a commitment to improving wrestling in our state. To do this we have to support all levels of wrestling with an emphasis on advancing our state both on the mat and in the public eye. I along with many others am committed to making this happen in California, I will always fight for wrestling.”

The event would not be possible if it were not for Dave Dean the president of NUWAY. “Dave has been a huge friend of California wrestling over the last six months. Both he and NUWAY co-founder Roger Chandler have worked with the State of California Wrestling Alliance for the Youth to create a grass roots state organization that will benefit all levels of folkstyle wrestling in California. Dave, Roger and Danny Mullan who is the state director for JWAY, which is the New Jersey NUWAY affiliate have all contributed their staff, financial resources, and media relationships to help make this event possible. The NUWAY model is all about building bridges, and neighbor helping neighbor and this is a perfect example of the model working at its finest!” exclaimed Ciaccio. Dean who has been quoted as saying “ were in a fight to save wrestling if I love wrestling which I do then I am accountable. That is why for the last ten years I have been committed to developing an organization that will affect change for the betterment of wrestling as a whole and look to provide a solution to stop the discontinuation of collegiate programs.”

Tony Greathouse a former Michigan State Wrestler, and NCAA qualifier will be coaching the MYWA team from Michigan . “Tony has dedicated countless hours to serving wrestling in Michigan and around the country and has worked hard to bring together a group of kids from Michigan that want to help save California College wrestling. Times are hard in Michigan, and people are hurting as a result of the economy and to think that kids want to help others at a time like this is a commitment to great personal sacrifice and truly a neighbor helping neighbor story,” said Dean. Michigan will be lead by Freddie Rodriguez two time state champion the top wrestler in the country at 103 pounds as well as Devin Pommerenke, Ryan Watts, and John Rizgallah all whom will be wrestling at the division one level next year in college. The team from Michigan boasts 11 state finalists and over 40 career state medals, as well as various national tournament placing. “Michigan has become much tougher as a result of the NUWAY movement there in the last decade and we are going to see some of the fruits of that effort during the Americas Cup,” stated Keysaw.

“Danny Mullen from Long Branch New Jersey can be found on any weekend throughout the year hosting youth tournaments, housing wrestlers, or making long trips across the northeast in his van packed with wrestlers. Danny is known for being the protector of the less fortunate and a giver!” exclaimed Ciaccio. The JWAY team from New Jersey on paper is favorite to take the cup home boasting nationally ranked wrestlers in nearly ten weight classes. Led by Long Branch wrestlers Nick Visicaro and Scotty Festejo both New Jersey State Champs, the New Jersey squad consist of #2 nationally ranked New Jersey state champ Anthony Ashnault , State Finalists Kyle Casaletto, Doug Cornell and the ever tough BJ Young. “We couldn’t be happier to have New Jersey as a participant here this year. New Jersey like California operates under a single class state system in high school wrestling and I know how tough they are as a state but its time the nation took notice,” said Halsey.

Rounding out the teams will be the silver state. “Nevada wrestling has been on the rise in the last decade. This year they have kids like the Alex and Napoleon Anciete, Colby Garrison, Joey Lavallie, Curtis Lampert, Bo Bettinson and Steven Hernandez whom have all proved that they can compete on the national level,” said Ciaccio. Nevada is still in the process of finalizing there lineup “but you can bet that Coaches Lampert, Edmunds, and Newman with the help of others will bring a solid squad”, said Halsey. While many might not be familiar with the geography of Nevada it boasts two major cities Las Vegas and Reno and they are seven hours apart. The coordination that is happening is really what the NUWAY movement is about developing strong relationships amongst men of goodwill to better the wrestling experience for kids,” said Dean.

The organizers would like to thank the administrations at Clovis high school and Cal State Fullerton for allowing us to use their facilities for this historic event, Titan Wrestling Club, Mr. Poindexter and family, TRAIN2WIN sports and Cliff Keen for helping with uniforms, the California Grappler staff for promotion, The Michigan Grappler staff, The California Wrestler forum staff members Michael Wright and Bill Grant, Tom Bunge at Matguard, Jim Jennings at Waterbucket Media as well as Ken Smith and Southwest Traders for their generous contributions. We would also like to thank all the coaches, parents, participants and fans in advance for their support.

Full lineups can be found at http://californiagrappler.com/

Written by SCWAY Staff Writer Celine Hays