Plymouth Whitemarsh starts in style, finishes first at Chuck Springer Memorial Duals
NORRISTOWN — The season was but a few hours old, and already pointer fingers were extended upwards.
Members of the Plymouth Whitemarsh wrestling team, all huddled around and signaling No. 1, enjoyed a championship start to their season, traveling to rival Norristown Saturday morning and coming away with the inaugural Chuck Springer Memorial Duals Title.
“This is a great tournament, a bunch of great wrestlers here,” said senior Justin Bainbridge, a standout for the Colonials who has 55 career wins coming into this season. “We’re excited about the win today but we gotta keep our heads straight and keep working.”
The Colonials bested a strong field that included host Norristown along with Lower Merion, Lower Moreland, Martin Luther King, Overbrook, Pottsgrove and Reading.
The event is named after Norristown wrestling’s longtime assistant coach Charles Springer Jr., who died in May, 2020. Springer coached local youth, middle school and high school wrestling teams. He founded the Norristown Police Athletic League youth wrestling club and served as the Area XI Chairman for Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling.
He also coached the Norristown Area Bandits 65-pound football team.
A tremendous morning of wrestling came to a spirited close with PW taking on Norristown.
“I think everyone wrestled hard. Our seniors did what they needed to do. That last match especially, we had guys contributing big pins that weren’t expected to do so,” said PW coach Dan Madonna. “We moved some guys around in the lineup and they really came up big for us.”
Added Madonna: “We have a great mix of freshmen through seniors.”
Omar Charabi (148), Ricky Mattioni (160), Deaglan Budd (172), Bainbridge (189), Michael Sudell (215) and Donald Kunf (285) all came through with pins for the Colonials in the title-clinching match over the Eagles.
“I felt great. I wrestled a bunch of tough kids today, a bunch of kids that really gave it their all on the mat,” said Bainbridge. “I’m proud of my teammates and I’m proud of myself. We gotta get back in the room and keep working.”
Bainbridge is coming off a 23-9 season and wants to take it further.
“I want to make it to regionals and make it to states, definitely see if I can get a hundred (career wins),” he said. “That might be kind of hard because of the COVID year (of 2021). I have a bunch of goals for myself and it’s stuff I’m working towards.”
The Colonials have created the right atmosphere to do so, and it showed again Saturday.
Said Madonna: “Our room is really competitive. All the kids work hard. From Day One, they’ve been doing whatever they can do to be better. That’s all you can ask for.
“This is a good way for us to start out.”
The Colonials head to the Colley Classic at West Chester East next Saturday, hoping again to finish atop the field.
“Last year we took third and we’re trying to do a little bit better this year,” said Madonna.
Doug Cawley (127), Nikosh Marston (133) and Jaden Rodriguez (139) all looked strong for the Eagles, finishing their day with pins against the Colonials.
Norristown heads to Daniel Boone Wednesday while Lower Moreland heads to Upper Dublin that same evening.
