| Beast of the East Tournament |  | | | For the first time since 2001, Hill attended The Beast of the East tournament! Hill braved blizzard conditions to attend what some consider the toughest high school tournament in the country. A generous gift from the Bissell ’33 Wrestling Endowment made this tournament fiscally possible and the wrestling accomplishments of three of our wrestlers made competing a physical reality.
Wrestlers who compete at Beast of the East regularly progress onto wrestling in college and often place in the NCAA tournament, including Hill alumni Zach Doll ’00 and David Hoffman ’01. We actually saw Dave and his fiancé at this event while he was recruiting for Bucknell University.
This year, Colin Saunders '12 (135), Karl Wiszumerski ’11 (140), and Jay Knighton ’10 (285) attended the event. Karl wrestled very well on his feet dominating competition from that position, but could not control the ground game; he was eliminated after the third round. Colin showed a fierce tenacity and outlasted each of his opponents conditioning. Unfortunately, he was not able to defend his fourth round opponent’s outside shot and lost a minor decision 6-2 ending his tournament.
Jay Knighton had the best tournament. He wrestled admirably, considering he did not have any competition prior to this event in order to warm up. Jay showed his rust, losing his second round match due to a lack of conditioning. However, he bounced back winning three straight matches. Jay matched up with the heavyweight from the defending AAAA State Champions Central Dauphin in his next match. Jay took his opponent down in the first period with an excellent high crotch. He then earned an escape in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. In the third period Jay controlled the tie ups and the tempo, but was caught with a lateral drop late in the match. It was disappointing to lose a match that would have propelled Jay towards a placement. However, he learned a great deal from the tournament is we are confident that he can compete with anyone he wrestles for the remainder of the year.
Based on the team’s results, the tournament director has invited back the team in 2010 and has offered to allow a greater number of competitors. | |
|
|
| | The Frank S. Bissell ’33 Wrestling Endowment. | | | | On February 6, 2010, Sweeney Gymnasium will officially be dedicated as new, additional space used for The Hill’s wrestling program thanks to the generosity and leadership of Walter C. Price, Jr. ’66 through his establishment of The Frank S. Bissell ’33 Wrestling Endowment. The Bissell Wrestling Endowment honors legendary wrestling coach Frank S. Bissell, a member of The Hill School’s class of 1933; the endowment provided the School with the necessary capital funds to renovate Sweeney Gymnasium as an appropriate venue for multi-school home matches and wrestling tournaments.
Read more about this wonderful opportunity for Hill wrestling!
| |
|
| Coach Hutchinson pins Singapore wrestling program | | | | Imagine being asked to introduce an ancient sport that is contested worldwide to a country of roughly three million people. Tom Hutchinson, Hill instructor of physics and assistant wrestling coach, took on this challenge last summer when he played a key role in bringing the sport of wrestling to Singapore.
Despite having a long history of martial arts, surprisingly, Singapore never had an established wrestling program. The push to create a program came after Singapore was named the host country for the world’s first Junior Olympic Games (YOG) which will take place during the summer of 2010. Because host countries in international competition are given automatic qualifiers in each sport, it became extremely important for Singapore to be sure to have a competitive representative in every event.
Tom Hutchinson along with Sergei Beloglazov, six-time world and two-time Olympic champion, and Pete Schuyler, former wrestling coach at Lehigh University, worked together to design a three-level coaching and training program for wrestling in Singapore, similar in design to the progression of belts sequence a martial arts participant experiences.
Beloglazov, who is considered by many to be the best technical wrestler in the world, served as head coach, and was assisted by Hutchinson and Schuyler in designing a program that incorporated aspects of several training systems including American, Russian, Canadian, and Iranian
The Wrestling Federation of Singapore officially opened its newly renovated headquarters in the early summer. Thanks to the efforts of these three men, wrestlers and newly trained coaches were prepared and eligible to teach wrestling in both the Singapore schools and martial arts clubs.
“I’d like to see a wrestler advance out of the preliminary rounds at the YOG next summer,” says Hutchinson. “Singapore is not accustomed to significant athletics success, so having someone advance in a high caliber athletics competition in such a new sport would likely attract strong attention to the sport.”
Hutchinson hopes one day Singapore will win the Southeast Asian Games in wrestling and ultimately would like to see the country produce a World or Olympic champion in the next 10 years. | | Read More |
|
|