Nighthawk Wrestling Coach Pleased With Progress

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s wrestling team features a mix of established varsity standouts and young, up-and-coming grapplers. So far, Coach Dan McIlrath says, so good. The Nighthawks, collectively, may not be pinning the competition on a regular basis — but they are getting strong performances from those experienced team members as well as signs of growth and development from the freshmen and sophomores, McIlrath notes.

“Right now, we’re doing really well,” the coach said prior to Monday’s practice.

The Nighthawks started off a bit behind the eight ball since several of the team members compete on the football team and didn’t get onto the wrestling mats until well into the preseason because of the football team’s extension of the season deep into the state playoffs.

“Are they a little behind right now? Yeah. But give me another week or two and they’ll be right on where they need to be, so I’m really happy with that,” the NHS coach said.

Newtown had a busy week with a 60-20 win over New Fairfield on January 4, and a daylong tournament in Trumbull on January 7. The Nighthawks lost to all four opponents in the tourney, but battled Amity of Woodbridge to the wire in a two-point loss, and got some great individual efforts.

“They’re really learning the moves, learning the technique — and that’s the big concern during the season. I’m not one of those coaches who are very concerned about team records. Right now, we’re just kind of building and building so that when we get to the end of the season we can actually perform, we can actually compete when we go to SWCs, double Ls, and states,” McIlrath said of the South-West Conference championships, Class LL state championship meet, and State Open.

“The top four returning seniors, Pat Zingaro, Nick Crudo, Cory Fisher, and Mac Morlock, have all been doing phenomenal — wrestling to the best of their ability right now,” McIlrath said.

Zingaro, Crudo, Fisher, and Morlock wrestle in the 145, 120, 170, and 285 weight divisions, respectively, and all have piled up wins in the early going.

The newcomers include Matt Gonzalez at 126, James Leuci at 138, Ed Lajoie at 152, and Forest Speed at 160. All bring good basic skills from the Newtown Youth Wrestling program, and have gotten off to fast starts because of their previous experience, McIlrath said.

“They’re coming in and they’re making a statement,” the coach said. McIlrath added that they are giving up a lot of strength and power, and a little bit of experience, but that they are handling facing seasoned varsity grapplers very well.

The Nighthawks were scheduled to face Brookfield at home on Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press), and will participate in the Greater Hartford Open on Friday, January 13. The Nighthawks won’t return home until the last week of the month. After visiting Weston on January 18 and competing in the New Milford Tournament on January 21, the Hawks will host Bethel at 6 pm on January 25.