Aug 17, 2016 3 min read

Charleroi High school’s wrestling program is going on hiatus, with the hope of returning in the future.

Charleroi School District is pursuing a co-op agreement with neighboring Bentworth for its varsity wrestling program.

“It’s real tough to lose the varsity program,” said Charleroi athletic director Bill Wiltz. “We’ve had some really good wrestlers come through here. Without those kids having a team, per se, to wrestle in dual meets made it tough. That’s why we’re making the move.”

Charleroi’s wrestling program struggled over the past few seasons with low numbers. The Cougars did not wrestle a WPIAL schedule last season, competing only in tournaments. Bentworth wrestles in Section 2-A with Beth-Center, McGuffey, Jefferson-Morgan, Mapletown and West Greene. Jefferson-Morgan has a co-op agreement with Carmichaels.

“I submitted my paperwork to Bentworth and it’s my understanding that (Bentworth athletic director George Linck) submitted it to the WPIAL,” said Wiltz. “Now we’re just waiting for the PIAA board of control to approve it.”

Wiltz said the intention of the district is to revive the varsity program once the numbers increase. He said the school is using South Fayette as an example. Years ago, South Fayette entered a co-op agreement with Chartiers Valley and its varsity wrestlers competed there while the school worked to increase the numbers in the middle school and youth leagues. Today, South Fayette has one of the strongest programs in the WPIAL.

“They only had a few wrestlers back in the day, but now they have built their program way back up,” Wiltz said. “That’s what we hope to do.”

Last season, the Cougars had five varsity wrestlers, but two graduated. So, three returning wrestlers and any incoming freshmen will compete at Bentworth. Charleroi will be responsible for the transportation to the school and Bentworth will be responsible for the transportation to the events.

“Our coaches will coach them,” said Linck. “I know our coaches are going to go over and do a recruiting day there before the season starts to build some interest.”

Last season, Charleroi was coached by Nick Golden, a physical education teacher in the district. Golden has agreed to help recruit younger wrestlers to try to build the middle school program. That program did not have any participants last season.

The middle school program will compete in tournaments against teams in the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association.

“That’s the route the Tri-CADA is going because everyone at the middle school level is struggling with numbers,” Wiltz said. “We’ll have weekly tournaments or tri-meets so that everyone competes.”

Charleroi has one state champion, Cody Wiercioch, who won the 152-pound title as a freshman in 2010. The Cougars have had eight WPIAL or Southwest Region champions and four wrestlers reach 100 or more career victories: Nick Gavazzi, Josh Kwasny, Aaron Toth and Dave Grillo.