EXTON >> If ever there was an opportunity for Brian Carter to find some inspiration as a young coach on an inexperienced team, Wednesday was the day.
Carter is in his fourth year as coach at Devon Prep, a program that was started in 2020. It’s been a slow-moving process, trying to build and add on and on Wednesday the Tide headed to Exton to face Church Farm and a coach, Art Smith, who knows a little something about starting at square one.
“Art and other coaches in similar situations have told me each year to just take what I can get and try to build from it,” Carter said. “It takes years to build up experience but it’s about making the best of what you’re given.”
Against Church Farm, Devon had just seven healthy wrestlers and six got matches. If Smith typically gets wrestlers with little to no experience, at least he has a full lineup of them, and that led to a 54-24 win by the Griffins.
But at programs like these, team success isn’t always determined on the scoreboard.
“Getting better each match is the goal,” Carter said. “Learning something new each practice ad trying to build on it and use it in matches. Losses help us learn what you’re doing wrong and work on making sure you’re not settling on where your ceiling is.”
Carter is a 2009 graduate of Downingtown East, where he wrestled, and in his first year guiding the Tide, there was exactly one kid on the roster. Now there are 12.
Andrew Buzbee (107 pounds), Nick D’Alessandro (133) and Shane Dugan (152) earned falls for the Tide, Wednesday.
Church Farm picked up pins by James O’Brien (160), Jackson Diver (189) and Devon Bower-Prophet (215).
Of the 21 Griffins who’ve wrestled a varsity match this season, 17 are either freshmen or sophomores. Some, like Diver, never intended to wrestle, but after being cut from the basketball team, decided to give it a go.
After going 5-10 in his first year on the mat, Diver has already reached that win total this season and found some throwback inspiration before taking on Devon’s Grant Napoletano.
“I saw a video of a Mike Tyson interview and he was saying he was going to rip his opponent’s heart out and he was going to be the greatest champion ever,” Diver said. “So that was my mindset going out there.”
Church Farm’s peak hit in the late 2010s, when multiple Griffins qualified for the Class 2A PIAA Championships and Emmanuel Lawal reached the state finals weeks before COVID-19 shut down the world in 2020. The Griffins didn’t wrestle the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic, cutting off any momentum the program had.
Starting over is nothing new for Smith, who’s spent the majority of his career teaching athletes the sport of wrestling from the ground, up.
“For me, it’s about seeing the guys who wrestled last year improve this year,” Smith said. “My coaching depends on who we have. When we had more high-level kids it was more intense, but we have kids we’re trying to teach how to win and it’s a slower process.”
Church Farm 54, Devon Prep 24
107- Buzbee (DP) pinned Nembhard, 1:19 (0-6)
114- Albert (DP) won by forfeit (0-12)
121- Phipps (CF) won by forfeit (6-12)
127- Lu (CF) won by forfeit (12-12)
133- D’Alessandro (DP) pinned Naoshram, 1:58 (12-18)
139- Morgan (CF) won by forfeit (18-18)
145- Rana (CF) won by forfeit (24-18)
152- Dugan (DP) pinned Nzekio, :43 (24-24)
160- O’Brien (CF) pinned Gionfriddo, :34 (30-24)
172- Tate-Roberts (CF) won by forfeit (36-24)
189- Diver (CF) pinned Napoletano, 1:23 (42-24)
215- Bower-Prophet (CF) pinned DeGeorge, 5:38 (48-24)
285- Bland (CF) won by forfeit (54-24)
