MIDDLETOWN — Every athlete goes through a slump sooner or later. It’s the nature of sports. You’re going to have your good days and bad days.
Brendon Stocku’s slide began just before the New Year, at the Buckskin Classic at Conestoga Valley High School.
After opening the season with 12 straight wins, the two-time All-Delco wrestler from Penncrest dropped his next five bouts, three at the Buckskin Classic and two at the SoCo Scuffle Duals at Southern Columbia High.
“I had a little mental breakdown and made some bad decisions,” Stocku said.
Stocku didn’t sulk or feel sorry for himself. Instead, the senior and all-time wins leader in Penncrest history (117) got back on track the old-fashioned way: Through hard work.
“He had to get a little more refocused on where he was at that time of the year,” first-year coach Joe Gartland said. “He was cutting some weight and he wasn’t on the right track to maintain that weight. And he ran into a couple of really tough kids at Southern Columbia. He faced regional qualifiers (Luke Sainat of Gettysburg and Tate Nichter from Chambersburg) …
“He just didn’t look like himself at that tournament, but he grinds every day and that’s what he did. He works super hard and I think he’s going to have a pretty good postseason.”
That postseason quest begins Saturday when Stocku (22-5) goes for his third straight title at the Central League championships at Ridley High School (9 a.m. start). Stocku won the 132-pound title as a sophomore and the 138-pound crown last season. He’s the No. 1 seed at 145 this year.
He brings a 10-match winning streak into the tournament, which includes eight wins by fall, five in the first period and three in the first minute.
“I just relied on my work ethic,” said Stocku, who has been accepted at Lock Haven University and hopes to walk on to the wrestling team. “I started to put more time in and that made me more confident.”
That’s a trait he most likely gets from his dad and his grandfather. His dad, Mike Stocku, was an All-Delco wrestler at Ridley High School. His late grandfather is legendary Ridley coach Carl Schnellenbach, the all-time winningest coach in Pennsylvania history.
Stocku played baseball and football went he was younger, but dropped baseball after Little League and stopped football after breaking a hand. From that point, wrestling has had his undivided attention, which isn’t a surprise. The sport is in his blood.
“We’re a wrestling family,” Stocku said. “When I was younger, my dad pretty much taught me everything.”
He also learned a few lessons from his grandfather, too.
“We used to go to some of his high school practices and they were tough,” Stocku said. “That taught us how to work hard.”
Stocku, of course, was referring to he and his older brother, Ryan, who was the school record holder to wins in a career at 108 before Brendon broke that mark with a 43-second pin of Pen Argyl’s Aleksander Kessler at the SoCo Scuffle Jan. 5. That was the first of eight straight matches he won by fall.
“The thing that makes him such a good wrestler is that he’s physical and really strong for his weight class,” Gartland said. “He has great technique on his feet. And his dad’s heavy into his training and that helps him, too.”
And now he is focused on the postseason. Stocku would love to win a third straight league title, but his ultimate goal is to reach the state tournament for the first time in his career, particularly given how last season ended.
Though Stocku won the the District 1 Class 3A Central championship at 138 pounds last season with a 9-6 decision over Antonio Petrucelli of Owen J. Roberts, he suffered a second degree tear of the medial collateral ligament in his knee. That injury brought his junior season to a close.
“It was disappointing, but that’s part of the sport,” Stocku said.
The Central League tournament is a little different this year in that it is not a qualifier for districts as in the past. District 1 has gone from a three-tournament to a four-tournament format for districts with the top four place-winners advancing to the Southeast Regional tournament. Now districts are an open tournament as seeding is based on a point system.
Qualifier or not, though, count on Stocku to go out and give it his best. That’s just how he’s wired and why he likes the sport so much.
“There’s just something about winning a wrestling match,” Stocku said. “You go out there and it’s one-on-one. It’s completely different than any other sport.”
