The Friends of Section 9 held its annual end of the year awards banquet on Sunday night at Kuhl’s Highland House in Middletown. The top 4 D1 and top 2 D2 wrestlers in each weight class were recognized for their outstanding 2015-2016 wrestling season. There were also several “special” awards given out. A complete list of all the award winners is available by clicking on the below link. Some of the winners included:
Troy Bouzakis Senior Wrestler of the Year – AJ Aeberli (MV)
Frank Tschan Team of the Year – Monroe Woodbury
FS9 Coach of the Year – Jason Lichtenstein (Middletown)
Mark Faller Coach of the Year – Kevin Gallagher (MV)
FS9 Person of the Year – Josh Conklin
Comeback Wrestler of the Year – Oscar Lainez (Middletown)
FS9 Most Courageous Wrestler – Kevin Morgans (ELS)
D’Aliso Scholarship – Gus Formato (Wallkill)
2016 Friends of Section 9 Banquet Award Winners
2015-2016 Season Highlights
2 NYS Champions
Ryan Ferro (Warwick) at 152
AJ Aeberli (Minisink Valley) at 160
Other NYS Placewinners
Ryan Ellefsen (Goshen) 2nd at 220
Joe Humphrey (Middletown) 3rd at 285
Kendall Elfstrum (Monroe Woodbury) 4th at 182
Charlie Johnson (Warwick) 5th at 138
Noah Curreri (Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West) 5th at 152
Nick McShea (Monroe Woodbury) 5th at 220
Evan Barczak (Monroe Woodbury) 6th at 145
Liam Heslin (Chester) 6th at 160
Mike Fekishazy (Wallkill) 6th at 170
Theo Chazkel (New Paltz) 6th at 182
Team Accolades – Rankings According to NYSSWA
#2 D1 Monroe Woodbury
#7 D1 Minisink Valley
#22 D1 Wallkill
#28 D2 New Paltz
HM: Chester, Red Hook, Newburgh, Warwick, Onteora, E/L/SW
Coaching Honors – Awarded at 2016 NYS Tournament
Kevin Gallagher (MV) – NWCA Coach of the Year 2014-2015
Scott Hendershot (MV) – NWCA Assistant Coach of the Year 2014-2015
Let’s Keep The Train Rolling!
As a section we have made some incredible strides over the past few seasons….Let’s not stop! The progress that we have made did not happen by luck! Whether it’s in wrestling or in real life, hours and hours of hard work, sacrifice, and commitment will pay dividends. Am I suggesting wrestling 24/7 for 12 months? Absolutely not! Wrestling is a tough sport mentally and physically. Allow yourself time to heal…Play another sport…Get a summer job! However, that said, our goal as a section is to improve. The only way that we improve as a section is by you improving as an individual. Let’s be aware of some of the off-season training opportunities and tournaments that are open to us.
Post Season Tournaments – NHSCA Nationals in VA Beach and FloNationals in PA are awesome, but they are not for everyone. Let’s be honest, not every wrestler is skilled enough to enter these events. We have had NYS champs go 0-2 at Flo. Let’s get out there and find a few events that will allow us the opportunity to improve. NYWAY States were this past weekend… MAWAs are coming up…there are events out there, we just need to get out there and find them.
Friends of Section 9 Wrestling Club – Now in it’s 2nd season, the FS9 Wrestling Club is a great local option to improve your skills. The tougher we make this room, the better S9 Wrestling will become – it’s just that simple. If you are still worried about practicing with kids during the summer that you may be competing against during the season, well you just don’t get it – pardon my frankness.
2016 FS9 Wrestling Club Registration Form
Freestyle and Greco – Some of us need to step out of our comfort zone and embrace the international styles. Trust me, spending a few months in the summer focusing of the the Olympic styles will make you a better folkstyle wrestler! Polls are taken every year at the NCAA’s asking the competitors about the tournaments they entered while in high school. Year in and year out, the tournament that the highest percentage of them attended ….Fargo, by a landslide! Can they all be wrong?
Congrats to all Sec9 Coaches & Wrestlers for a tremendous Season !
I’m sure you’ll provide updates on this site, but do you have an idea of when the “Friends of sec9 club” workouts will start, and where they might be this year ?
Thanks again for all you do
Registration form now on site…thanks for the kind words…Mike
Hi Mike-
Thanks for your efforts to further Section 9 wrestling. Regarding your FS / GR post, Section 9 will be hosting the state FS /GR tournament at the Dome in Milton the weekend of May 13.
The Dark Corner wrestling club in Kingston has resumed practice at Kingston HS on Mon, Wed, and Fri evenings. Coach Brown is an accomplished Greco Roman wrestler at the international level. We have held productive practices over the last 2 weeks with 15-20 wrestlers attending focusing on FS and GR techniques. We had 7 athletes attend Mohawk Valley Festival this past weekend. All who attended placed in both styles.
We would like to invite Section 9 wrestlers to join us. Participants must be a USAW member. A copy of card and completed registration and waiver form is required. A one-time $25 donation is requested. Please let me know if you would be able to post information and the registration form. This is a great opportunity for wrestlers in the northern part of the Section as well as all interested in learning the international styles and improving their folkstyle. Please e-mail and we can discuss offline.
Thanks
Coach Brown is an amazing coach, learning freestyle aND Greco-Roman gave my son a huge advantage in his high school and college wrestling
Congratulations to our Section 9 wrestlers and coaches, and all of our wrestling community for their ongoing support and success- including you, Mike! This site is a great place to get information and to stay connected in the “off season!” For many parents, you’ve also proved to be a valuable resource in giving details of upcoming tournaments and clinics. Keep up the good work and see you soon at the next off season tourney!
Hey Mike and the rest of the gang who contributes to this site,
I’m a senior and have been Highland High School’s sports journalist for the past three years (hhswall.com if you want proof, just published an article on Castellanos earning a section title if you look) and I must say, I have used this blog as a reference these past 3 years.
You guys deliver useful info to make some predictions as to how Highland wrestlers will fare in sections and states and I can’t thank you guys enough for that. With graduation impending, I hope this site never goes away because it’s a great resource for high school wrestling fans. Keep up the great work! You guys deserve more recognition than you get!
Great stuff! Thank you very much for the kind words! Mike