Family time in Hershey for Hogans, Smiths

HERSHEY >> The municipality prides itself — in addition to being “The Sweetest Place on Earth” — as a family-friendly tourist location.

This week, two particular families will be looking to make “Hershey memories” … but not necessarily at the chocolate factory or the company’s souvenir store.

Wrestling will be the primary focus for Daniel Boone’s Hogan Family and Spring-Ford’s Smith tandem. They will lead a 16-man area contingent to the PIAA Championships being staged this weekend at the Giant Center.

Father/head coach James, eldest son J.T. and younger son Tucker make up the Blazers’ Hogan clan, matched by the Rams’ “Smith Brothers” Quinn and Gus Smith.

Medals, not so much chocolate bars or other candies, will be the primary souvenirs they look to bring home and add to the others they earned the past couple weekends. The experience of performing in the cavernous expanses of the Giant Center can also be a draw in itself.

“The lights, the people yelling,” Quinn Smith recalled from his last visit to the Giant Center during the 2019-20 PIAA Class AAA Duals. “It’s so much bigger on the side.”

J.T. Hogan was a qualifier for the individual tournament his sophomore year, going 1-2 at 145. He came up short last, ending the season fourth at 138 in the South Central AAA Regional.

Tucker Hogan came up short of Hershey as a freshman, going out at the West AAA Super Regional. But he and J.T. are both far from novices in the Hershey experience.

“We went there all the time to watch the tournaments,” he said.

The Hogans got their start in the sport with the Blazer Mat and Malvern Wrestling Clubs. J.T. led the way, and James served as coach — a role he continued through his sons’ involvement in middle and high school.

J.T. and Tucker Hogan had plenty of encouragement on both sides of their family. In addition to James and his brother Mark — he has a son, Talen, who’s currently in the wrestling program at Pennridge — two maternal uncles (Mike and Max Shingara) were stars at Line Mountain in the late 1990s. Mike was a three-time champion in four medal finishes at states from 1994 to 1997, and Max a three-time state medalist in the Class of 1999 whose highest placement was second his junior season.

“Our entire Thanksgiving Day would be a clinic,” Tucker Hogan recalled.

Their mother, Misty, also plays a key role in their wrestling activities, monitoring their nutrition and keeping the home front on an even keel.
“I have to be Dad when I get home,” James Hogan said. “I have to check it at the door. She gets mad if I don’t.”

The Smiths followed a similar route in their mat participation. They got started in the Spring-Ford Youth Club, then went through middle school wrestling to their current level.

“I stuck with it,” Quinn said, “and Gus jumped on it.”

Younger brother, however, reported he “didn’t like it at first.”

Their father, Daniel Smith, wrestled four years at Norristown prior to his 1993 graduation, qualifying for the South East AAA Regional his senior year. As might be expected, Dad takes considerable interest in his sons’ development in the sport.

“He’s hard, but not ‘hard’ hard,” Quinn noted. “He’ll tell us how we can be better, and we’ll go somewhere to work on things that can be fixed.”

Quinn has proven an effective mentor to Gus in his first high-school season, in which he’s compiled a 34-9 record to date and emerged a District 1-AAA North champion at 106.

Another bit of wisdom Quinn has imparted to Gus is to not get overawed by the Giant Center’s atmosphere and lose focus on the task at hand.

“It can be overwhelming,” Gus admitted. “Your mind goes astray, and the pressure can get to you. Try not to think about it.”

Quinn Smith’s junior season has been marked by his 44-5 record going into states, and reaching the 90-win mark for his scholastic career. Like Gus (34-9), he is a District 1-AAA North champion (126) and placed third at the South East AAA regional.

From his vantage point, Quinn doesn’t see Gus’ performance this winter as being a surprise.

“Not at all,” he said, “once he started beating kids from District 1 that were ranked, and getting closer to (tournament) place matches.”

Tim Seislove, who’s had numerous brother acts during his near quarter-century coaching the Spring-Ford program, sees the Smiths being right up there with the best ones.

“Their work ethic is outstanding,” he said. “They come into the room ready to work. Both are involved with cross country, which keeps them in shape.
“You don’t see them being openly competitive with each other, but they are.”

On the Hogan side, Tucker’s dominating (40-1) sophomore year has been highlighted by gold medals at two of three regular-season tourneys, a championship in the BCIAA competition, and 172-pound titles at District 3-AAA Section 3 and South Central AAA Regional.

He attributes a measure of his success to tough competition early in the season. In Boone’s season-opening appearance at the Tom Best Memorial Top Hat Tournament hosted by Williamsport, Tucker had bouts with Montoursville’s Isaac Cory and Saucon Valley’s Jacob Jones, which he won in respective decisions 6-2 and 5-4. Both were qualifiers for the state AA competition last year, Jones a fourth-place medalist at 172.

On the other hand, J.T. Hogan (30-2) had a later start to the 2021-22 season. He missed the first five weeks with an injury to his medial cruciate ligament, his first action the Blazers’ Dec. 22 Berks League dual with neighboring rival Exeter.

“I was in the room,” he said, “but I couldn’t get in a stance. I rode bike and worked on my upper body.”

A highlight of J.T.’s season was reaching the 100-win mark in Boone’s Feb. 2 dual with Boyertown. He stands at 112 wins for his scholastic career as the program’s fifth triple-digit winner.

For Jim Hogan, the weekend at states with his sons shapes up as particularly memorable.

“I’m fortunate to see my boys compete at Hershey,” he said. “It’s a coach’s and father’s dream. Being a state medalist is something to be proud of.”

By the Numbers

• Boone’s Hershey contingent (three) is its largest in the 2000s. The Hogan brothers will be joined by sophomore teammate Dean Houser, who qualified as South Central’s third seed at 106.

• The area’s demographic by class is headed by seniors and sophomores, with five apiece. There are four juniors, and two freshmen.

• The list of previous state qualifiers from the area, along with J.T. Hogan, includes Boyertown’s Chance Babb, Perkiomen Valley’s Kelly Kakos, Spring-Ford’s Dominic Ortlip and Pope John Paul II’s Alan Alexander. Babb, who placed eight at 138 in 2021, is making his third state trip, Kakos was an eighth-place medalist at 132 in 2021, Ortlip is a two-time qualifier each of the past two seasons and Alexander was sixth at 152 in the AA portion of the tournament.

• Spring-Ford has the area’s biggest contingent of state qualifiers with four. The Smith brothers are joined by Ortlip, a senior wrestling at 120, and Cole Smith, a South East AAA Regional silver medalist at 112.

NOTES >> Thursday’s tournament kickoff will be by Class AA, which has preliminaries and first-round bouts going off at 9 a.m. and first-round consolations at 1:15 p.m. Class AAA will follow with its prelims and first round at 4 p.m., first-round consis next at 8:15 p.m.