- A Walpole wrestler moves in for an attack.
The Walpole wrestling team had an unfortunate result from the Massachusetts All-State tournament last Friday and Saturday, February 24-25. With junior Captain Caleb Cofsky and freshman Nicholas Glover losing their first two bouts and out of the tournament, Walpole’s All-State title dreams were riding on senior Marvin Jean Simon.
Lightweights junior Captain Caleb Cofsky and freshman Nicholas Glover didn’t have as good a tournament as they hoped for; however, they were still able to wrestle strong throughout the day. Glover wrestled first against Agawam opponent, Brennen Liebel, losing the bout 10-0. Next, he went on to the second round in the consolation brackets. He would struggle against an outstanding wrestler from Belmont, Roni Baghdady. The match ended as Glover was pinned to the mat in the second period. The freshman’s outstanding season would end there—disappointed at All-States.
Caleb Cofsky began his tournament by wrestling against James Hamilto of Lincoln-Sudbury High School. Cofsky and Hamilto fought back and forth throughout the bout, but Hamilto would emerge victorious in the third period of the match, pinning Cofsky. Consequently, the bout would end the junior Captain’s season; nevertheless, he was only a junior and Cofsky will be back next season—hungry to succeed. When asked about his outlook on the next season Cofsky said, “I can’t wait for next year; I know it’s going to be great”.
Marvin Jean Simon would pin his first opponent, Connor Pease, of Boston Latin in the first period with twelve seconds remaining in the period. By defeating Pease, Jean Simon would move on to the second round and face third ranked junior Lou Ferrer of Chelmsford. Jean Simon faced him earlier in the regular season but lost the bout 2-1 on accidental locking hands, costing him one point, which ultimately decided the result of the bout. When asked about how he felt about wrestling this tough opponent Jean Simon said, “I wrestled him before and almost won, so I wasn’t too worried about it, I said a quick prayer and went out there and just did my thing”. This time around, Jean Simon would fight hard; however, unfortunately lost the match 4-1—going all three periods with the outstanding junior. After the emotionally crushing loss, Jean Simon continued into the consolation brackets.
The senior was put up against Dan McGurl of Winchester. Jean Simon came out fighting, wanting redemption. He would win the bout with a score of 3-1 going all three periods. This led him into the consolation quarter-finals and with this next win, he could move on to the New England tournament, thus continuing his senior season. Jean Simon would face senior Kevin Painten of Xaverian Brothers High School. He would inopportunely lose the bout scoring only one point. The score of the senior’s final match was 3-1. Kevin Painten would go on to take 4th place, losing to Lou Ferrer.
Head Coach Devin Pacelli said, “Realistically I thought at All-States Caleb and Glover would have gotten one, maybe two wins, that’s the best tournament there is.” in relation to the way his lightweights wrestled. Pacelli was confident in his junior Captain but knew with the competition, it was going to be tough for Cofsky. He was impressed with Glover’s season as a whole exclaiming, “That’s the best season I’ve ever seen by a freshman, on a team that I’ve coached.” Pacelli expected Jean Simon to maybe do better than originally expected on the day of the tournament due to the Division III heavyweight state champion from Pembroke dropping out of the tournament due to a skin disease that was contagious. As far as states went, Pacelli said,” I knew those three would defiantly place”. Pacelli has a positive outlook on next season and hopes for the young wrestlers on the team to progress in the offseason.
