Mar 14, 2022 3 min read

When they look back on it, this just might be the best coaching job done at Waynesburg in the past three seasons.

They handled so many problems, including losing their head coach over the summer and one of their best wrestlers to an automobile accident.

When you size up this team, there was little, if any places this team came up short.

The chance to repeat as PIAA Team Tournament champion was probably gone the minute Cole Homet’s car ran off the road on a trip to the midwest and struck a tree. His arm was badly mangled but his determination to wrestle again made for a good example in the room.

It would’ve been hard for wrestlers to complain about anything when Homet, a state runner-up last year, was drilling his backside off with only one good hand.

New head coach Kyle Szewczyk took the job under difficult circumstances and drew every ounce of energy this team could offer. The Raiders had third-place talent and that’s where they finished at the state individual and state team tournaments.

Two wrestlers – Mac Church at 132 and Rocco Welsh at 172 – were as different as baloney and whipped cream. Szewczyk got them both to the championship round, where they both earned gold medals. That Welsh didn’t get the Outstanding Wrestler award was a travesty. That’s how dominant he was in this tournament: three technical falls and a pin.

Welsh, who broke a streak of two second-place finishes in Hershey, threw Dom D’Agostino of Interboro around like a rag doll before taking a 24-8 technical fall.

Church was more the high strung type, hyper critical of his wrestling. But Szewczyk calmed him down enough for a 3-1 win over Matt Repos of Central Dauphin that wasn’t as close might appear.

“We were all nervous at the beginning,” said Waynesburg assistant coach Scott Rhodes, who came up from the junior high ranks to add a bit of tart to the Raiders’ style.

“We battled through it and things turned out pretty good. We got the kids on the right track and they battled day in and day out. And that’s all you can do.”

Take a look at Welsh. He was far and away the best wrestler at 172 pounds, a major improvement over last year’s finish at 152. Church maybe won by a low score but he was in control of his match the whole way in the 132 finals. Zander Phatorus was sixth at 126, Colten Stoneking was fifth at 138 and Noah Tustin was seventh at heavyweight.

The latter placement probably had a lot to do with volunteer assistant coach Jim Howard.

“That’s what it is all about,” said Rhodes. “The team we brought here was probably the sixth best team here and we finished third. That’s not too bad.”

When you think about the fact that all this was accomplished in a program that could have wrestled in Class AA this season because enrollment figures put the Raiders there and you have to be impressed.

“We don’t want to change anything because these guys do it on their own,” said Rhodes. “We were eating breakfast the other day and someone asked me when the kids will get back at it. I said, ‘Monday.’ These kids do it on their own and we just guide them.”

Assistant sports editor Joe Tuscano can be reached at jtuscano@observer-reporter.com