King, Bell families headed east to Hershey
Wrestling is indeed a family affair at Connellsville, and one result has been a trip across the state to Hershey. The King and Bell families have a good family wrestling relationship going, along with their blood relationship, and now both families are going to have a double reason to spend the weekend in Hershey.
And you can bet that Jarrod King won’t be left behind.
When all the competition had ended this past weekend in the WPIAL finals at Norwin High School, Connellsville had gained three places in the lineups that will be competing for state honor this week in Chocolate Town, USA, and two of those places are “All in the Family.”
The Falcons will be represented in Hershey by King, a junior who won his second championship, freshman Ashton Primus (second at 119 pounds), and sophomore Steve Bell (third, 112).
This is King’s third trip to the states, while the other two will be making their debuts.
What makes it all the more interesting is that King and Bell are cousins, King being the son of former Falcon wrestler and current assistant coach Mark (Monk) King, and Bell the son of the senior King’s sister, Leeanne King Bell. They are the son and daughter of the late Lester and Jean King.
Jarrod King (40-3) earned his trip by winning the 152-pound title with a 6-5 decision over Shaler’s Taylor Letters. Primus lost in the 119-pound finals to Plum’s Sean Clair, 6-2, while Bell qualified the hard way. He lost in the semifinals to Thomas Jefferson’s Mike Goslicky, dropping him to the consolations where he finished third and earned a state berth with a 9-8 win over Hampton’s Brian Pogel.
When King and Bell are on the mats, unless they are going at the same time, the hardest rooter for one will be the other. Their rivalry is all on paper. Nobody roots harder than they do for each other.
Bell said, “Jarrod and I don’t have a real rivalry going, but we do push each other to do better. His Dad, my Uncle Mark, set a good example for me in wrestling along with Jarrod’s brother Matt (now wrestling at Edinboro).”
Bell allowed that “one of the goals I set for myself at the start of the season was to reach Hershey, and while I have done it, I had some tough opponents at Norwin. I know about some of the eastern wrestlers because I met them at Lehigh and in the Beast of the East Tournaments, but I don’t know anything about my first opponent.”
Which will be South-Central district champion Ryan Williams (39-6) of Cumberland Valley. They are paired in the lower half of the bracket, and the winner between them will then meet either Southeastern runner-up Brad Canterbury (34-6) of Wissahickon, or Scott Bilich (31-9, third in the Northwest) from Huntingdon.
Jarrod King, now in his 14th year of wrestling, recalled, “I started when I was about three or four years old. My dad was coaching the Junior Olympics, and when he and Matt would leave for their workouts or matches, I put up such a fuss about being left behind that they finally started to take me with them.”
And they have been glad ever since.
Jarrod King added, “My dad and brother have helped me. Dad has coached me since I was three, and his voice is the only one I hear when I’m on the mat. We watch tapes of my matches together, and that’s as far as it goes. He doesn’t holler over a mistake I might make.”
Two-time WPIAL champion Jarrod King returns to Hershey where he finished second a year ago at 135 pounds.
He noted, “Steve and I push each other, we run together, we train together, we travel to summer matches together, and we watch each other wrestle to see how we can help each other. There is no rivalry per se among us, but we do have a lot of fun in a family meeting basis. Actually, Steve is more like a brother than a cousin and we try to help each other.”
King’s first opponent will be Nate Cain (36-8, third in the Southeast), from Downingtown, and that winner will meet the survivor between Jonathon Wentz (28-9, Northwest runner-up) from Erie Cathedral Prep, and Northeastern runner-up Billy Haydt (35-6) of Northampton.
Haydt won’t be a stranger to Jarrod King, who noted, “I met him in a summer tournament at Northampton in an Eastern National event, and I won a decision on my way to the division championship. He finished fifth or sixth. But he’s the only name I recognize. The big thing is to go out and wrestle like you know how, get that first match out of the way, and go from there.”
Coach Tommy Dolde added, “We have three wrestlers going to Hershey and they are three good ones. They wrestled very intensely at Norwin and stayed focused on what they had to do. If they got down a point or two, they didn’t let it bother them, they didn’t get out of their game plan, they just concentrated on what they had to do, stepped it up a notch, and came through with wins. And they kept their intensity all three days.”
As for Hershey, Dolde said, “Jarrod hasn’t said anything specific about going, but I know he wants a PIAA title and he will be working for it. Bell missed by one match of going last year, and Primus is a freshman, making his first trip east. We have three good representatives.”
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Other first-round pairings for local wrestlers include:
103 pounds – John Bittinger, Albert Gallatin (29-6, third in WPIAL) paired with Northeast champion Seth Clasulli (39-1), of Easton; Chris Neidermeier, Waynesburg (33-7, WPIAL second) vs. Ryan Bosso (33-2, South-Central runner-up), from Penn Manor.
112 pounds – Scott Coleman, Waynesburg (36-1), three-time WPIAL champion, vs. Eric Albright (31-2), third in South-Central, from West York.
119 pounds – Primus (37-5), WPIAL runner-up, vs. Reinaldo Merced (34-1, second Northeast), from Freedom.
130 pounds – Mark Throckmorton, Waynesburg (18-6, WPIAL third) vs. Chris Ramos (24-3), South-Central runner-up, from Governor Mifflin.
160 pounds – John Ptak, Albert Gallatin (28-6, second in WPIAL) vs. Dan Goetter (27-9, Southeast runner-up) from Pennridge.
Competition starts Thursday morning and continues through the crowning of 14 champions Saturday night.