The Pittston Area wrestling lineup will have many new faces this season, including some who get just one shot at the sport.
The Patriots potentially could fill more than half the starting lineup with seniors, but three of them could be participating in the sport for the first time.
Coach James Woodall said he will help those wrestlers try to learn the sport fast.
“You have to go about it a little different,” Woodall said. “They don’t have time to learn all the nuances.
“They just have to go out there with what they need to know to be as successful as they can be in that one season.”
Jason DeBoard, who went 25-9 last year when no other teammates won more than 15 times, is back to lead the way at 160 where he wrestled every bout of his 2015-16 season. DeBoard finished fifth at the weight in the District 2 Class 3A tournament.
“He’s one of the more tactical wrestlers on the team,” Woodall said.
While Woodall is teaching the sport to newcomers, he also has DeBoard and Hunter Booth, along with junior Ryan Lombardo, who have all been wrestling since elementary school, through junior high up to the varsity.
Booth and Lombardo are the only other returnees who posted winning records last season while the team was going 2-5 in Division 1 of the Wyoming Valley Conference and 3-13 overall, then finishing 13th of 14 in District 2 Class 3A.
Booth, who was 10-8, is at 170.
Lombardo, who went 7-5, may have to start the season at 126, but is expected to end up at 120 pounds.
Senior Josh McGilvary is back at 145 pounds after going 9-9 last season.
Junior Brandon Lopez and Nate Lombardo and senior John Martinez are the other returning starters.
Lopez (106) and Martinez (152) each won six times in nearly full-time duty last season.
Lombardo used a timely pin to take sixth in the district at 195, the weight he is back at this season.
Woodall hopes for a breakthrough from Lopez at the lightest weight.
“He just started in ninth grade,” Woodall said. “He’s got a little experience now. He’s a really tough, hard-working kid.
“I can see him doing something this year. He has a lot of potential.”
Junior Avonni Tooley, who picked up the sport last year and saw some part-time action, is at 113.
The Patriots may go without a 120-pounder until Lombardo is ready.
Once Lombardo makes it down, Joe Fisher, one of the first-year seniors, should be at 126.
Preston Olecki, a senior who saw some part-time duty in his first season a year ago, and junior Brandon Mickiewicz, who has some limited previous experience in the sport, are the possibilities at 132.
Tony DeMark is back for his senior year. DeMark, who started two years ago and wrestled some matches early last season, is at 138.
Seniors McGilvary, Martinez, DeBoard and Booth make 145 through 170 the team’s most experienced – and its strongest – stretch of the lineup.
Sophomore Josh Bryk, who has wrestled some while in junior high, is at 182.
Lombardo, at 195, is the team’s most experienced upperweight.
Nick Lynch, one of the first-year seniors, is at 220 while another, Holden Prescott, is working with junior Ethan Williams to see who will fill the 285-pound division.
