This is part one in a two part wrap-up series. Here, we take a look back at the season that was. In part two, we’ll take a look ahead at what’s to come for F&M wrestling. Keep an eye out for part two later this week.
Perhaps it wasn’t what they had expected or hoped for. Maybe it wasn’t the smoothest ride. It could have been that the team stumbled out of the gate and that it took a little longer than everyone wanted for F&M wrestling to hit its stride during the 2011-2012 season. In reality, it was probably a little bit of everything. But just because it wasn’t what the team was hoping for back in October doesn’t mean it was a disappointment or a failure. On the contrary, the 2011-2012 wrestling campaign gave the team hope and the expectation that next year will be even better.
In short, F&M wrestling accomplished almost everything it set out to accomplish. They just took a few detours along the way.
“I think our start of the season was not very good,” said assistant coach Matt Greenberg. “We did not perform the way we had hoped and it took us a little while to do so. That being said, we also had a lot of young guys in the lineup and it was going to take them a little time to find their way and kind of compensate for the jump from high school to college.”
“As the season progressed, we kind of had a mixed bag,” Greenberg continued. “We had Rick Durso, Matthew Fullowan, and Colin Ely lock down the lineup in the sense that we knew we were going to get three wins every match we wrestled, which is a big step up from where we have been in the past. Getting them to where they needed to be was a huge plus and their success I think elevated the guys around them. Nobody wanted to be the guy who didn’t perform well in that particular dual meet. Towards the end of the season, the guys stepped up and we got those three wins against teams that a year ago, we weren’t beating.”
For sophomore Andrew Murano, who will be an important cog in the lineup next season as the Diplomats look to make strides once again, the improvement from his first season here to this one has been quite noticeable. In his eyes, the program is on the rise and will be competing at an even higher level in seven months when it comes time to hit the mats once again.
“I think the program is on the rise. We have a lot of young guys and our lone national qualifier was a freshman this year, so it’s a sign of a lot of good things to come,” Murano said. “It’s just looking good. Everything is starting to click. [Head coach Mike] Rogers has only been here two years and everything is already starting to come together. I am definitely excited to be a part of this.”
Rogers, the architect leading the rebuilding process, has seen the signs of progress that Murano mentioned. It’s a process, and while some tough times accompany every good moment along the way, the man charged with turning a once floundering program around is encouraged by what he saw on the mat this season.
“From the beginning of the season to now, I think our team has made significant progress,” senior Matthew Fullowan said. “We started off slow and turned it on towards the end of the season. We also had a very young team and needed a lot of freshmen to step up into the starting lineup and they all impressed me. At the end of the season, we were able to place four people at EIWAs and sent one person to nationals, so the future of the program looks promising.”
For Greenberg, the clear low point of the season was the team’s trip to the Navy Classic back in November. Despite entering the tournament with high expectations and with the anticipation of walking away from Annapolis having proved to the world they had made strides in the past year, the Diplomats failed reach those self-imposed goals and left wondering how they would turn the season around.
Fortunately, the team found its spark rather quickly, and the team bounced off its low point instead of staying at rock bottom as many teams starting so many freshmen would.
“I think the Mat-Town tournament, where Durso took third and Fullowan and Ely were in the finals [was the turning point],” Greenberg said. “I think that was our coming out party. What we were doing was working. For Rogers and I, it was a relief because up until that point we were wondering if we were working them too hard, were we not teaching them enough technique; we weren’t sure what we were doing wrong. That was the turning point.”
Following the Mat-Town Invitational, it took awhile for F&M to snag its first dual meet victory, but for anyone watching the Dips closely, the improvement was obvious. Matches were closer, there was more intensity, and there was a sense that the Dips were no longer the stepping-stone for everyone else in the conference.
When that first win did come against Sacred Heart on February 4, however, it was a sweet feeling for the team. There was little Sacred Heart could do against the Diplomats, and the victory turned into a stepping stone of their own. The Dips closed out the season by stomping out Gettysburg and routing Millersville for the second consecutive season to keep the Rupp Cup in Lancaster.
It all culminated in a strong showing at EIWAs, where F&M placed four wrestlers, something the program has not done in recent memory. Durso’s trip to St. Louis to compete in nationals was another highlight for the program. This is the second consecutive year F&M has sent someone to compete in nationals, something else the Diplomats have not been able to lay claim to in quite a few years.
“I think having representation [at nationals] is huge for your program. There were a lot of teams who didn’t get anybody out there,” Rogers said. “Just being in the arena in some of the big guys is great. That’s what’s great about wrestling, you can take one guy or you can take ten guys and you’re all still on the same level going in.”
F&M may have taken a roundabout way of getting to where it was originally hoping to be. Along the way, it’s safe to say the Dips failed in some places they expected to succeed, succeeded at times when they expected to fail, and at the end of the day, are a lot more mature and have a far better understanding what must be accomplished if they want to one day compete with the elite wrestling programs.
For F&M, even though it ended the season on a high note, now is not the time to relax and reflect. The time to get to work is now, as that is the only way they will reach the heights that will certainly be expected of the Diplomats next season.
“In a nutshell, was the season perfect? No. Were we happy with our results? No. Did we come out of it with excitement for next year? Absolutely,” Greenberg said. “We’re never satisfied. If we were, it would be time to retire.”
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