Back on the mats: Fans flock to Brownsville for first home wrestling match in almost two decades
BROWNSVILLE – The parking lot was filling up quickly at Brownsville Area High School on Wednesday as people flocked to the gymnasium for a look at something that hadn’t been seen there for almost two decades.
Wrestling was finally making its return into the Falcons’ varsity programs.
While there were only four scheduled varsity matches against Neighborhood Academy, the event was enhanced by middle school and elementary matchups against Laurel Highlands, another school trying to revive its wrestling program.
Clearly by the enthusiastic turnout, fans in the area are solidly behind Brownsville stepping back onto the wrestling mat.
“It’s a great night for the Brownsville Area School District,” said Falcons wrestling head coach Martin Vojacek Jr. who spearheaded the movement to bring varsity wrestling back to Brownsville.
“It took a lot of work to get this set up but as the gymnasium started filling up, to say it put a smile on my face is a major understatement. Southwestern Pennsylvania is a wrestling hotbed and it’s good to be part of it again.”
The event began with a middle school match against Laurel Highlands. Following the varsity matches, the Brownsville Youth Wrestling Club also went up against Laurel Highlands.
In between, the Falcons lined up junior Josh Franks, freshman Ricky Pontious, sophomore Lexi Lewandowsky and senior Dylan Brachna to go up against Neighborhood Academy in varsity competition, although Brachna wound up being awarded a forfeit victory. There were no weight designations for the matches.
In the first match the Bulldogs’ Jordan Johnson won by fall against a feisty Franks in the first period.
Pontious got a rousing response from the crowd when he recorded a pin of Carlton Curry with 21 seconds remaining in the first period of the second match.
Lewandowsky, the lone female wrestler for Brownsville, fought hard and escaped a near fall twice before Adam Bulluck finally did record a pin with 58 seconds left in the second period.
Vojacek lauded the effort of his inexperienced squad which also has suffered a few injuries and other setbacks.
“We have six varsity wrestlers,” Vojacek said. “We had another that helped us immensely, an experienced kid, Dylan Cable, was on the roster from Altoona, but unfortunately he had to transfer back home right at the start of the season. He was a very seasoned wrestler and it was good for the kids to be around someone like that.
“We have two that are injured right now. Devin Drake is a freshman, a first-year wrestler, who unfortunately injured his ankle yesterday in practice. And Dominic Muzzi, another freshman, is having a wrist issue right now.
“Of those that wrestled, Josh Franks is a junior first-year kid whose father wrestled here many years ago. He had a tough matchup.
“We’re very lucky to have Ricky Pontious. The day of our hydration test and our weigh-ins I turned around and this kid is there and says ‘Coach, I want to wrestle. I’ve been wrestling in Ohio for five years.’ He picked up his first win tonight. He was very, very excited. He needed that.
“Lexi is a sophomore who’s very tough but also just inexperienced. And she’s a female wrestling against men. You have places like Connellsville, Canon-Mac, Southmoreland who have female wrestling programs and that’s the new thing in the state, it was just recently sanctioned, which is good. Hopefully, somewhere down the road that’s something else we can talk about. But what you saw today is what I and everybody have seen from Lexi every match she’s had this year. She gives it her all.”
Brachna is the lone senior on the squad.
“I wish he was only a freshman for wrestling purposes,” Vojacek said. “He’s a great kid.”
Vojacek admitted he wasn’t sure what kind of crowd the event would draw.
“I was hoping for a decent turnout, but this … ” Vojacek said, spreading out his hands while smiling. “The school needed this today. You can see the atmosphere here is unbelievable, especially when one of our kids gets a win. It feels very good.
“We feel we’re on the right track. Being a new program, we’ve bumped into a lot of roadblocks but the administration, the athletic department, the school board, they’re open and willing to talk to me at any time for resolutions, which is nice.”
Brachna was happy to be part of the celebration of wrestling that the night was.
“It feels wonderful,” Brachna said. “I’ve been trying to push to get wrestling back here since my seventh grade year. This was my last shot to do it and I couldn’t be more thankful for this opportunity.
“We’re improving every single day on and off the mat. I feel this program can go a long way.”
Vojacek commended his coaching staff of assistant head coach Todd Frisher and assistant coaches Tyler Girvin, Tyler Fisher and Jackson Gwyer.
“Todd Fisher is just unbelievable with the kids, very knowledgeable,” Vojacek said. “He had a distinguished wrestling career at Beth-Center. It was hard to get him and hard to get coaches in general but it is a blessing that he’s here, and he brings Jackson Gwyer and his brother Tyler Fisher with him, and they both also wrestled at Beth-Center. They’re very good with the kids. They understand it’s a new program.
“Tyler Girvin comes to us from Frazier. He was one of Frazier’s first wrestlers when they started their program several years ago. They started out with three kids and he was one of them. So he relates that experience to them. He tells them look at Frazier now, we could someday be like that.
“Honestly I’m so appreciative and lucky to have these coaches on staff.”
Another coach who was present was John Armel, the longtime coach of the Falcons’ last wrestling team.
“It’s really fun to watch this,” Armel said. “It’s awesome to come back here and see this. My hat’s off to these guys, Martin Vojacek and company. They did a great job putting it back together, the presentation to the board and getting it back up and running.
“I coached here for over 20 years. I miss it. We had a solid program here at one time. I’m hoping it takes off here again.”
Vojacek has a positive outlook of the new program.
“What we’re starting to see is our inexperience, that’s the only issue,” Vojacek said. “Obviously as a first-year program we’re working on that every day in practice. The kids are in shape and buying into the program and, as you can see, they’re all fighting very hard out there. We expect them to go out on the mat and not only do their best but we don’t want them to stop. That’s where we are right now, and the skill and technique will come.
“One of the problems we have with our freshmen is, traditionally, in other programs, these kids would be on JV teams wrestling seventh, eighth and ninth graders. But in order to have a varsity team they have to wrestle at that level and they’re getting tough draws against much more experienced wrestlers.
“We’ve wrestled at Jefferson-Morgan, Mount Pleasant, down in Pittsburgh against Carrick, and they all have experienced wrestlers and they’re going up against seniors who’ve wrestled all their lives.”
The next wave of Brownsville varsity wrestlers looms.
“Our junior varsity team is all seventh graders,” Vojacek said. “There’s seven of them (Wyatt Petrus, Adam Vojaek, Anthony Dulaney, Chase Beck, Kody Gates, Dre’von Taylor Jr. and Garren Broadwater) and they’re a good group of kids.
“Adam is my son. He was one of the main drivers for me to get this program going. He was always telling me, ‘Dad, I really want to wrestle.’ Finally I just took the bull by the horns and we got it going. It was a team effort.”
Vojacek was pleased to have Laurel Highlands participate.
“We matched up very well,” Vojacek said. “They looked good and I wish them nothing but the best, just like any other program around here. Wrestling is one of those sports where we all root for each other.”
Jimmy Harris, the assistant coach of the LH middle school program under James Wilkins and the head coach of the LH youth program, would like to see the Mustangs be in a similar situation as the Falcons a year from now.
“We plan on coming back with a varsity team next year,” said Harris, who is a 2002 Laurel Highlands graduate and former Mustang wrestler. “James is a heck of a guy. There’s not too many like him. People were asking me if it’s time to start a wrestling program and I said, ‘I don’t know, maybe not yet.’ But James got a hold of me and turned that ‘Not yet,’ into ‘We’re starting this year.’
“Our elementary team is a first-year program and is doing well. We started off with 30 kids and we have about 42 now. It’s been very successful. Tonight was very exciting with all the fans here.It was nice to let the youth experience what we got to experience at a high school level.”
Harris, like Vojacek, has a son, Jimmy Harris III, who loves wrestling.
“He’s 4-years old. He practices it and we just have fun,” Harris said. “I love the sport, it’s the one sport I fell in love with out of all of them.”
The Brownsville area seems to be falling in love with the sport again as well.