The Whitman-Hanson Regional High wrestling team is expecting to be “highly competitive” this season.
There is a lot of optimism surrounding the Whitman-Hanson Regional High wrestling team this winter.
Why, you ask?
“I believe we can fill all 14 weight classes before we get to January,” said sixth-year head coach Gary Rabinovitz.
That has been problem that has hindered the Panthers’ ability to add to the win column in the past.
“By doing this with a majority of quality wrestlers the results will be very positive,” Rabinovitz said.
W-H returns just five wrestlers from last spring’s season, in which they went 6-7. Senior captains Pat Collett and Rocco Ruffini are two of them.
Collett is in his second year as a captain and his fourth as a starter. He will compete at 145 pounds.
“Pat brings a great deal of passion to our program and realizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Rabinovitz said.
Ruffini wrestles in the 220-pound weight class.
“Rocco has really grown as a leader over the past three years and we are looking not only at his vocal leadership but also his technical abilities,” Rabinovitz said.
Senior Joe Boss (113 pounds) and juniors Maddox Colclough (285) and Aidan Guiliani (132) are also back. Junior Braden Kain is also reruns at 138 pounds after taking last spring off for baseball.
“All four of these wrestlers wrestle hard every day and believe in their abilities,” Rabinovitz said.
The Panthers also have three newcomers with five to six years of wrestling experience in freshman twins Charlie (106) and Cooper Lussier (152) and sophomore Austin Gamber (126). Gamber came to W-H from North Carolina.
“I expect that our upperclassmen will help these young men to mold the future of Whitman-Hanson wrestling,” Rabinovitz said. “I truly believe that we have the chemistry to be highly competitive this season and going forward.”
W-H, which opened its season with a clean sweep over Durfeee (64-12), Cambridge Rindge & Latin (44-30) and Sandwich (45-12), is back on the mat Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Sandwich Early Bird tournament.
“We need to wrestle smart and learn both from our success and failures,” Rabinovitz said. “It is going to be a very exciting season, I can guarantee that.”