By ROBERT LINNEHAN
For the first time in the Marlton Middle School’s wrestling history, the young athletes captured the school’s first ever South Jersey Middle School Wrestling League Championship.
Marlton Middle School wrestlers defeated Delran Middle School 45–44 to capture its first title. The South Jersey Middle School Wrestling League consists of 22 teams in the league.
Coach Josh Zagorski said it capped off a dominant three year run by the squads eighth grade wrestlers, who compiled a team record of 34–6 over the three years. Overall the team had about 37wrestlers this season, he said, down from an average of about 50 from years past. The district went to a pay-to-play initiative this year, he said, which brought the numbers down.
The eighth grader Mustangs only experienced one home loss throughout the three years as well, Zagorski said, suffering its only defeat on Dec. 16, 2008.
“We had a really great team mentality and effort this season. Sometimes it can be tough in wrestling because it’s such an individualized sport,” Zagorski said. “The 2010–11 wrestling team exemplified their intrinsic drive to accomplish a once in a lifetime team goal while demonstrating hard work, integrity, and first-class sportsmanship. Congratulations to all wrestlers, coaches, managers, supportive staff, and parents.”
The teamwork and team dedication was no more evident than several of the individual wrestlers passed up individual tournaments to rest up for the team playoffs, Zagorski said. The individual tournaments are a big deal for any wrestler at any age, he said, but several of the athletes decided to skip the competitions to heal some nagging injuries to make sure they were 100 percent for the team playoffs.
“They didn’t participate in individual tournaments. We didn’t have one champion in the individual tournament because they wanted to save themselves for the team playoffs,” he said. “We were able to capture the team title instead.”
The Marlton Middle School and DeMasi Middle School wrestling teams are good feeder programs for the Cherokee High School wrestling program, Zagorski said. Both middle school teams try to prepare the young athletes for their high school wrestling careers if they continue to participate.
The Cherokee High School wrestling team has been experiencing a resurgence as well, turning in a sterling 20–4 overall record this season.
