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Academy second at nationals

By Randy Lefko
Posted 6/22/17

KISSIMMEE - With a monster pin by Ryan Smenda, a two point takedown from heavyweight Jose Concepcion with less than a second left and three wrestlers with unbeaten records, North Florida Wrestling …

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Academy second at nationals


Posted

KISSIMMEE - With a monster pin by Ryan Smenda, a two point takedown from heavyweight Jose Concepcion with less than a second left and three wrestlers with unbeaten records, North Florida Wrestling Academy head coach P.J. Cobbert double-downed on his recent second in Class 3A finish with a second in the nation finish at the annual AAU Scholastic Duals high school wrestling national championships held last week at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports arena.

“I love everyone of these kids and some may not love me back because of how hard we have worked to just get here, but this is what it is all about,” said Cobbert after his NFWA squad finished second in the Community 1 (Big Schools) championship match 30-43 to Rhino Wrestling Club of Pennsylvania Friday afternoon. “Not one kid wrestled a bad match all week, even our B team that wrestled in the Community 2 (Small schools) championship silver final.”

After a near-disastrous first round win, the Academy wrestling team stormed through their preliminary matchups and a series of championship throwdowns before narrowly missing with late-scoring efforts to finish second overall among 41 teams. The Academy’s championship entry in the Community I division is a first for a Florida school. Also wrestling in Community I, Oakleaf’s Spartans finished fifth in Pool play and lost two matches in their championship silver bracket while, in Community II, the North Florida Wrestling Academy B team finished second in the championship silver bracket (16th place through 31st).

“We got this close (holding his thumb just near his forefinger). We just have to keep working,” said Cobbert. “But, today, right now, this is what it is all about.”

In 2016, the War Eagles of Fleming Island, also coached by Cobbert, finished fourth in pool play and seventh overall .

Led by unblemished records from just-graduated senior Jason Davis, the first state wrestling champion out of Fleming Island High School; the Class 3A 182 pound champion, third at 152 in 3A junior Paul Detwiler and fourth in 3A at 195 junior Ryan Smenda, the Academy lineup featured a scorecard of wins from top to bottom that fell short by a 30-43 championship score to the Rhino Wrestling club out of Reynolds High School in Pennsylvania in the final match. Davis, Detwiler and Smenda all finished at 11-0 with seven pins apiece.

“We knew if we wrestled like we should, we would be in the mix, maybe not the finals though. That was a bonus,” said Davis, who with Detwiler and Smenda got additional All-American gold status medals for their Herculian efforts to keep the Academy chasing the top trophy. “Coach Cobbert prepared us for battle and we got some lucky bounces and a couple of unlucky bounces to get the second place trophy. Not bad to be second in the state and now second in the nation to be the first in north Florida in both cases.”

In the Academy’s first pool matchup, against Oregon Clay Gold (OH), ironically a green and gold Golden Eagles team, Cobbert got his first glimpse of where the strength of the Academy was going to come from as Oregon Clay blasted three consecutive pins at 132, 138 and 145 to surge to a 22-16 lead with 106-pounder Briar Jackson losing a 14-5 major decision to start the match.

In 2014’s championship bracket, Oregon Clay Gold beat Fleming Island in round one after Fleming Island won the top seed in their pool play. Brownsburg Purple eventually beat Fleming Island in the consolation rounds to knock Fleming Island out of the medals.

With their backs against the wall and doubt creeping into the lineup, Detwiler came from behind in the last 30 seconds of his match to pull out an 11-9 win and reset the Academy lineup before Anthony Breeden, at 160 got pinned to push the score to 28-19.

“Drilling on the mat is the best you can do to be ready for this kind of competition,” said Detwiler. “I got taking down a couple times, but I always knew where I was on the mat. Coming back next year is about finding what you are good at, building it up and having confidence in your moves.”

From there, Lake Brantley High’s Nate Ferkovich, the 3A runnerup at 170 and an add-on wrestler to the Academy lineup, led a 21 point swing in front of wins from Brandon Dickman, a 2A third placer at 170 and also an add-on from Creekside High School, Davis, Smenda, with a pin, and Jose Concepcion at 285 for the 40-28 win.

“That one set the tone for who we were going to need to score points for us to continue,” said Cobbert. “A first round loss can deal a major blow mentally, but we fought back and got the win. From there, momentum swung our way.”

From there, the Academy stormed through the rest of the Pool lineup with crushing efficiency with wins over Venice (FL) 74-3, Rhino WC Blue (PA) 61-3, Buchholz (FL) 59-9, and Beech High (TN) 45-14 to stay unbeaten and set up to face also unbeaten Team Balboa of Indiana in their penultimate Pool match of the day and a top seed spot for championship bracket play.

“We got through the pool matches by wrestling our. style and not getting banged up,” said Cobbert. “In past years, we have had key injuries, lots of very tough matches and the kids were a little wore out near the end. We trained that much harder this year to prepare for just that moment (to face the other unbeaten team).”

Against Balboa, who had also rifled through the rest of the Pool lineup, the Academy got off to a fast start with a major win from Jackson at 106 and a win at 113 from Albie Snedaker, but Balboa came back with five wins in a row with one a 14-4 major at 126 over Jacob Sandoval.

“We knew their lower weights were tough and they proved to be,” said Cobbert. “Albie had a great tournament against some really tough kids. We know Paul is our hammer at 152 and our final three; Davis, Smenda, Concepcion, will not give up points, but we needed bonus points from them.”

Detwiler stopped the onslaught with a tough 7-2 win at 152, but Balboa kept the pressure with wins over Breeden and Dickman to set up the final four matches as the go-to matches for a shot at the title.

Ferkovich would battle to a 12-3 major win followed by Davis punching up an 11-1 win despite two-near falls that did not get mat slaps to put the pressure on Smenda and Concepcion to earn the win.

Down 18-23 heading to Smenda’s match, Cobbert got a devastating pin from Smenda in just 49 seconds to put the Academy up 24-23.

“Once you get past a certain weight, it becomes man on man,” said Smenda, who has tendered a football off from Wake Forest University to play linebacker. “The guy with the best technique eventually wins at this level.”

Smenda’s arena-erupting win made Concepcion’s match against Balboa strongman Brady Shepherd who had 17 pins in 19 wins in his senior year, a final mano-a-mano to see who goes to the gold bracket and who goes to the silver bracket.

Concepcion fell behind 1-0 to Shepherd before missing on two inside trips as Shepherd’s low-to-ground strength thwarted Concepcion’s attempt at a quick ending.

With a minute on the clock and Shepherd pushing Concepcion’s inside trip attempt out of bounds, the two behemoths, with the score tied at 2-2, seemed set to end the regulation time and go to overtime before Shepherd attempted a quick takedown move that Concepcion scored a two point takedown off of for the win and a final 27-23 score for the Academy, who owned the only unbeaten record in Pool play with just one final match. Fleming Island’s War Eagle club beat Team Balboa 45-27 in last year’s championship bracket in the consolation rounds before finishing seventh with a win over Naperville Phoenix.

The Academy finished off Perry Meridian Blue (IN) 62-12 to keep their record unbeaten into the championship bracket. Perry Meridian Blue was third in 2016.

In the championship bracket, the Academy rolled through their first two opponents; Charger Wrestling Club (FL) 71-0 and Naperville Phoenix (IL) 52-10 before needing a 35-25 win, led by pins from Detwiler and Smenda and a 12-2 major from Davis, over 2016 runnerup Brownsburg Purple (IN) to get into the championship match against Rhino WC Grey. Rhino WC Grey finished third in 2015.

Against Rhino, Jackson opened with a forfeit, Snedaker was pinned and Deandre Demus pinned to give the Academy a short-lived 12-6 lead before Rhino raked out four straight wins to put the score at 12-24 before Detwiler pinned in 58 seconds to give the match an 18-30 score. The finish had a familiar look with the final matches to be the yes or no matches for a first-ever title not only for the Academy, but for a Florida-based school.

At 170 and 182, Ferkovich and Dickman both lost by tech falls to add 10 points to Rhino’s score to put the match at 18-40 with Davis, Smenda and Concepcion able to only finish with a flurry and close the gap with no chance at a victory for the Academy.

Davis and Smenda both monstered to minute pins and 12 points with Concepcion losing a tough 3-2 match for Rhino’s final three points.

106 Briar Jackson 10-1, 3 Pins

113 Albie Snedaker 8-3, 5 Pins

120 Deandre Demus 9-2, 7 Pins

126 Jacob Sandoval 8-3, 3 Pins

132 Jaquan English 5-6, 1 Pin

138 Vince Hauser 3-8, 1 Pin

145 Trace Insalaco 6-5, 3 Pins

152 Paul Detwiler 11-0, 7 Pins

160 Anthony Breeden 5-6, 4 Pins

170 Brandon Dickman 8-3, 1 Pin

182 Nate Ferkovich 8-3, 1 Pin

195 Jason Davis 11-0, 7 Pins

220 Ryan Smenda 11-0, 7 Pins

285 Jose Concepcion 8-3, 2 Pins

Oakleaf finished with just one victory, a 38-23 win over Cypress Bay (FL) and was led by Ryan Rosano at 120 (7-2), Nartorian Lee of Orange Park High at 170 (8-1, 2 Pins) and Tyler DeHart of Orange Park High at 220 (5-3, 2 Pins).

The North Florida Wrestling Academy B team, who finished sixth in pool play with two match wins, rebounded with three wins in the championship silver bracket (13th-31st place) before losing in the finals match 45-22.

For Cobbert, the NFWA B team, led by Middleburg High 2017 graduate Robert “Stump” Barnard’s 10-1 record, was filled with junior high and incoming high schoolers who train with the A team throughout the weeks.

“They are the foundation for keeping the machine alive as guys graduate,” said Cobbert.

In Pool play, NFWA B beat MXW Black (IN) 37-36 in their first match and got a 57-18 win over BB Swat (FL) in the second match to raise some eyebrows in the Community 2 division as NFWA A was thrashing Community 1 opponents.

In the first match, MXW Black opened with five pins in the first eight matches to surge to a 30-13 early lead before NFWA B gots wins from Alonzo Davis and Jeffrey Henry and pins from Ian Kincaid and Bennet Corey to take a 31-30 lead. Barnard registered a pin for the win after NFWA B forfeited at 220.

Against BB Swat, Joseph Donato opened with a pin with Brady Dunlap getting pinned before NFWA B rattled off nine wins with five pins and a final pin from Barnard for their second win.

In the championship silver bracket, NFWA B got wins of 44-27 over Turtle Mountain (ND), 36-27 over Team Iowa White (IA) and 45-32 over Pasco Predators (FL) before falling to Skyline Sick Nasty (VA) 45-22.

In the championship silver final, NFWA B got a pin from Brady Dunlap at 113, with wins from Storm Mercado at 138, Bennett Corey at 195 and Barnard in overtime at 285.