Looking Ahead: 2011-2012 Season Wrap-Up

This is part two in a two part wrap-up series. Here, we take a look ahead at the future of the program. Part one focused on the season that was.

The 2011-2012 season wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Nothing went quite as planned and many of the season’s most exciting parts were completely unexpected. In retrospect, this is part of what made the season so memorable; nobody knew what to expect on any given night.

Moving forward, it’s fair to expect the unexpected. With a whole cast of new wrestlers coming into the fold and the wrestlers already on the roster poised to make noticeable strides next season, about the only thing that is fair to expect from next season will be that next year’s team will be even better than the one that preceded it.

“The future of this program looks great,” senior Matt Fullowan said. “We had a young team and many of them stepped up for us this year. With another recruiting class coming in, it’s only going to get better. Coach [Mike] Rogers and coach [Matt] Greenberg are both coaches that will keep working hard to get this program to where it needs to be.”

While the emergence of this year’s freshman class was remarkable, producing consistent contributors such as Rick Durso, Robert Ruiz, and David Hershberger, the coaching staff believes next year's incoming class has the raw ability to at least match, and hopefully exceed, the production the program received from this year’s freshmen.

Going forward, few things will be as important as bringing in solid recruiting classes on a yearly basis. After their first full class together, both Rogers and Greenberg are excited about what the upcoming class can bring to the table.

“We have ten kids coming in,” Greenberg said. “It’s a good mix and we really added depth to our lineup. We’re really excited. We have a bunch of state place winners in the mix. Hopefully even a state champ. It’s a mix of guys from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, so we really don’t have to go too far to find the talent that we need.”

“The guys we have coming in, they’re just as talented and maybe even a little bit more than the guys we brought in before them,” Rogers said. “That’s the stuff that counts. Each year you want to bring in a more competitive recruiting class. The guys coming in are going to be hungry; they’re not going to concede anything and they’re going to challenge our guys for spots."

“That’s what you want; competition brings out the best in everybody,” Rogers added. “I think every one of the guys we have coming in next year realizes that and understands that. We have a team concept that the best guy gets to compete … everything’s on the table.”

While bringing in a talented freshman class is critical to the long-term health of a program, oftentimes some of the best performers emerge from the group already on board. In the process of taking the next step, both Rogers and Greenberg will be expecting a lot out of the current freshman class—including those who didn’t see much action on the mat this season.

“We had such a talented first-year class,” Rogers said. “I think next year, with all the young guys we had in the lineup, they’ll bring that experience back and they’ll have a more dedicated summer. They understand what this level is like now. I think all these freshmen are really talented.”

Greenberg is also excited to see what guys like Adam Schroeder and Isaiah Cromwell, freshmen who didn’t wrestle all that much over the course of the season, contribute now that they’ll have a full summer to train at the division one level.

“We put very high expectation on each of our guys,” Greenberg said. “We’re never happy when [one of them] isn’t performing. All of them like winning and they don’t like losing. They expect it of themselves. We want them to expect to win, to qualify for nationals, and we want them to expect to be All-Americans and that’s what we’re going to put on them.”

While the Diplomats are certainly bringing in a lot of young talent and will be leaning on some of their younger members to have significant impacts next season, they will be losing a class of four strong seniors. Next year will be light on upperclassmen, as Eric Norgard will be the lone senior and the junior class will be composed of Andrew Murano and Colin Lahiff.

Despite the low numbers of upperclassmen returning next year, Murano is excited and believes the team will make significant strides regardless.

“Eric is a good kid, a good wrestler,” Murano said. “He’ll do really good job of setting the bar. The depth we’ll lose because of the seniors who graduate this year will hurt us, but we have a lot of good freshmen filling in for them. Coach [Rogers] recruited a lot guys in the upper weight class to come in and fill in for the seniors who are graduating.”

“In terms of only having one senior and two juniors, I don’t think it’s going to affect us as much as everyone thinks it will,” Murano added.

Going forward, there will be big shoes to fill. Colin Ely, Matt Fullowan, Matt Latessa, and David Pucci all were consistent leaders in the locker room. They all contributed to the team in their own unique ways, and the coaches came to expect a lot from them as the season progressed.

That being said, there is no shortage of potential leaders on the roster. Norgard and Murano both matured as wrestlers this year and the team will look to Richard Durso, fresh off his trip to nationals, to continue to evolve and develop as a leader.

In short, while there will be some noticeable turnover on the roster and the Dips will be looking to replace a fair amount of talent come November, there are a number of potential leaders and talented wrestlers waiting to assume the leadership role.

Much like this season, the 2012-2013 campaign will likely be exciting, unpredictable, and filled with surprises. If this past year proved anything, it’s that what is expected won’t likely happen. But that’s why everyone comes back every year: for the unexpected. If this year is any indication, what is unexpected will be the most common thing of all.

Through it all though, F&M wrestling will likely take another step towards reaching its goal.

“I think both individually and as a team we achieved our goals [this year],” Durso said. “But with that always comes room for improvement. With coach Rogers we are really building a great program and the future is looking bright.”

The future may be unclear and a little murky at times, but it is certainly promising. Although F&M is trying to claw back from the proverbial wrestling cellar, it’s making progress. Perhaps the only thing that shouldn’t come as a surprise next season will be if the Dips continue to improve.

All the pieces are there; now it’s time for the Dips to put it all together.

Looking Back: 2011-2012 Season Wrap Up

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.”

Beyond the Mat - Adam Schroeder

Not everybody knows what he or she wants to do right away. Sometimes, they need a little encouragement.

“I started wrestling actually by accident,” F&M wrestler Adam Schroeder said. “My mom decided to sign me up for it as a winter sport and I kind of had a knack for it even when I was little. I just stuck with it.”

Schroeder, a freshman this season, believes he eventually became hooked on wrestling because of his parents’ willingness to let him figure out what he enjoyed by himself. They always encouraged him and gave him all the resources necessary to succeed, but they always let Schroeder find his own way.

“Once we saw that wrestling was my thing, my dad started taking me to other places to wrestle and to meet people. But they never really forced me to do anything, which is good,” Schroeder said. “A lot of kids get burnt out and they just end up hating the sport. They influenced me a lot with hard work and stuff like that, but they never forced me to do anything.”

Like everyone else on F&M’s roster, Schroeder is pleased with his decision to pursue wrestling. It has taught him about hard work and dedication; two of the positive traits just about everyone mentioned.

“Wrestling has taught me a lot about … hard work and dedication,” Schroeder said. “A lot of the things a father tries to teach you wrestling just reinforces. I would definitely be different if I hadn’t wrestled. It’s helped with discipline, working hard, and just getting through things.”

For Schroeder, once he began wrestling, it was difficult for him not to do it all the time. The sport came naturally to him; it was hard for Schroeder to stop wrestling when the sport came to him so easily and he enjoyed it so much.

That being said, it wasn’t easy. Despite his success in middle school, Schroeder’s transition to high school wrestling was difficult. It couldn’t have been too challenging, however, as he always knew he wanted to pursue wrestling at the next level.

“Middle school was a lot of wrestling. I wrestled 100 matches a year from sixth until eighth grade,” Schroeder said. “I won a nationals championship in fifth grade. High school was a little different; it was a lot harder to adjust. It was more difficult. Wrestling was something that I just picked up easier [than other sports].”

“I knew I wanted to wrestle in college and I knew this was a great place.”

Despite some of F&M’s more recent struggles, Schroeder was never deterred. Like many of the other freshman wrestlers on the squad, he was enticed by the opportunity to start something new. For this year’s freshmen, F&M wrestling is like a clean slate; it is the first recruiting class head coach Mike Rogers brought together himself and there are countless opportunities for this class to leave its mark.

“I always…I kind of like the idea of starting something new,” Schroeder said. “[Assistant coach Matt] Greenberg said something that really sold me, ‘You’ll be coming in [to F&M] with eight new best friends.’ That’s something that appealed to me because I was never really that close with my high school teammates.”

“I didn’t really care about the history because both Greenberg and Rogers were All-Americans and I believed in them,” Schroeder added.

There was little hesitation in Schroeder’s voice when asked whether or not, so far, Greenberg’s words have rung true. Thus far, Schroeder does truly believe he has forged eight new friendships that will stick with him long after he graduates from F&M.

“I do,” Schroeder said when asked about whether or not he believes he has made those eight new best friends. “I had a roommate I was close with at the beginning of the year. But I asked to change my roommate and moved in with Rob Ruiz. [I like] every single one of them. They’re the kids I hang out with probably 95 percent of the time. They really are my best friends here.”

It’s a good thing this freshman class has become so close; there is a lot riding on its shoulders. Although Schroeder certainly recognizes and understands that, he also is cognizant of the fact that no one of them can lead the turnaround. It will have to be a collective effort with contributions not only from this class, but from future classes and those already on the roster as well.

In other words, this is no one-man job.

“One person can’t turn around an entire program,” Schroeder said. “If we all do our jobs and do what we expect each other to do, it might not happen this year or next year, but we all know we have a job to do and if we do that we’ll turn it around. It’s not really a personal thing because it’s too much for one person to turn it around.”

Although Schroeder didn’t see much time on the mat as a freshman, he has taken a lot away from this year. Just by observing and by listening to his fellow wrestlers and the coaching staff, Schroeder has picked up on different tips and techniques that will help him get his sophomore campaign off on the right track.

“I didn’t have a good record, but I learned a lot,” Schroeder said of this year’s performance. “It set me up for a great next three years. I learned a lot about wrestling. The fact that I didn’t have a great year will lead to three more good years. Sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward.”

Off the mat, Schroeder has pursued business and economics as potential majors. With Columbia law school as the ultimate goal, Schroeder claims his academic inspiration comes from his family.

“I have a couple relatives who are partners in two law firms, so it’s something I’ve always been interested in,” Schroeder said. “I’ve taken a couple classes and it hasn’t turned me off; in fact, it’s made me more interested. That’s just what I’ve wanted to do for awhile.”

Going forward, F&M’s coaching staff believes Schroeder will be a crucial cog in the future development of the program. Schroeder doesn’t believe it’s one person’s job to reconstruct the F&M wrestling program; but that’s OK. This year’s freshman class has proven to be a strong one and next year’s incoming class should only contribute to the revitalization of the program.

However, it’s clear that Schroeder will have every chance to leave his mark. He may not have seen much time this season, but there’s a lot to look forward to in the very near future.

Durso, Dips Excited by Nationals Trip

As he first set foot in Mayser Gymnasium, Richard Durso ’15 had a funny feeling he would end up where he did. Over spring break, Durso was the sole Diplomat to represent F&M at nationals in St. Louis. Although he didn’t place, Durso believes his time at nationals amounted to the best wrestling experience he has had in his 14 years.

“[Nationals] was the best experience I’ve had by far,” Durso said. “It was nationally televised and it was all over the Internet and over 100,000 people attended over the course of the weekend.”

“My goal at the beginning of the year was to make it to nationals,” Durso added. “I didn’t win any matches, but it put everything in perspective so I can come back next year and earn a top eight spot hopefully.”

Durso, a 141-pounder, made his nationals debut against Ohio State’s Hunter Stieber, the fifth-seeded wrestler in the weight class. After falling to Stieber 4-2, Durso squared off against North Carolina’s Evan Henderson 5-1 in the consolation bracket.

Even though Durso didn’t come away with a victory, assistant coach Matt Greenberg feels Durso grew a lot as a wrestler just by watching the best wrestlers in the country. Most importantly, Greenberg believes their trip to nationals helped humanize the event, proving every wrestler there can be beat.

“Watching some of the later rounds, [Durso] was so into it,” Greenberg said. “It was disappointing to be there and not be wrestling in the later rounds. Nationals is this thing that you hear about, but until you get out there you don’t realize everyone there has two arms, two legs and can be beat. You can actually get out there, grab it, and make it happen. It’s not something that’s unrealistic.”

“[Nationals] made me really excited for next year and has made me really want to train hard [to get ready],” Durso said. “I realized I can place and I’m not just wrestling to hang in there and I can become an All-American.”

For Greenberg, Durso’s winless appearance at nationals didn’t damper the experience. To him, it was still important and it was still a worthwhile experience.

“I think overall it was a positive experience, even though we would have liked him to get a couple wins,” Greenberg said. “I think that he got a chance to wrestle against the best wresters in the country. We came away with a guy who believes he should All-American.

To become an All-American, Durso recognizes he needs to get better in several areas. Both he and Greenberg have narrowed down areas to focus on and are excited to get to work now that they have an entire offseason to work together. Perhaps most importantly, Durso and the coaching staff want to make sure he gets his weight up so he can compete on a level field in the 141-pound weight class.

“He needs to get bigger,” Greenberg said. “He came in and he was legitimately a 133-pounder. He needs to become a legitimate 141-pounder. We want him to be scoring a lot more points on top. The way he ended his season, he’ll start at the same point. Inheriting the role as team leader will help keep him going.”

That leadership role will be important moving forward. Both Durso and Greenberg believe his unique experience at nationals, one that no other member of the team has had, puts him in a strong position to lead. Going forward, the team will be expecting Durso to fill some of the leadership void that will be left when Matt Fullowan ’12, Colin Ely ’12, Matt Latessa ’12, and David Pucci ’12 graduate in May.

“As far as [head coach Mike Rogers] and myself are concerned, we believe he should be an All-American,” Greenberg said. “We explained to him that we expect him to be a leader; he’s not a freshman anymore. He’s going to have to step up and be the rock of our program. With Rick, he wants it, he needs it, and he’s going to do it. He was not happy [losing].”

“I’m still the young one on the team,” Durso said. “But yeah, I can definitely step into a leadership role and show the guys a couple things that helped me get to nationals.”

Having a representative in St. Louis to compete in nationals was a nice exclamation point for the team. After starting a little slow with some disappointing performances, the Dips finished strong, placing four at the EIWA conference championships and winning the Rupp Cup by dominating Millersville University for the second straight season.

“We had four guys place at Easterns,” Greenberg said. “I’m not sure that’s happened before.”

For Greenberg, the last part of the season has been bitter sweet: despite the success, the end of the season has meant seeing the program’s four seniors wrestle in their final matches. There’s a lot to look forward to, however, as these seniors have lain the groundwork for what should be a bright future for F&M wrestling. Combined with a recruiting class that should turn some heads, that future may be closer than many think.

“I think all of our seniors have made us proud,” Greenberg said. “We have a lot of guys in that locker room who are exciting. I think everyone is ready to go [next year]. We have one of the best recruiting classes in the program’s history. It’s an exciting time.”

Durso’s success this season has helped generate a newfound interest in the wrestling program this season. It will be wrestlers like Durso who continue to strengthen and grow the program.

It’s been awhile since the team felt like it was an important member of the campus community, and even though the season didn’t necessarily go exactly as planned, Greenberg believes the team made huge strides in generating interest amongst the students, faculty, and alumni.

“We want to send a huge thank you out to the students,” Greenberg said. “It’s been awhile since we filled [Mayser] on a nightly basis. Our more exciting matches and our raffles at every match really boosted interest. It was the first time in awhile that we really felt like we belonged. We’re really excited to be doing it again next year.”