Feb 15, 2005 By Commentaryby Jim Kriek 6 min read

It took Moses 40 years to reach the Promised Land. Dolde and Dolde beat him by three. When Connellsville walked off the mats in Hershey last Saturday with a 34-25 win over Easton, it marked the first time in the history of the Falcon wrestling program that the state championship trophy had come home to the local Aerie.

In fact, it marked the first time since the Class AAA team competition began that any team west of the Susquehanna had won the championship.

Prior to last weekend, the Class AAA diadem had been worn strictly by eastern teams with Easton winning the last four in a row. Bald Eagle Area was the first winner, Northampton beat Connellsville, 30-19, in the 2000 finals, and then Easton started its four-year run, climaxed last year with a 39-18 win over Connellsville.

This time around, the Falcons made sure there would be no ‘One for the Thumb’ climax, although for a time it looked as if Easton might take home a fifth consecutive flag. The Falcons trailed 25-15 with five bouts to go, and a pin or major decision in any one of the remaining five would almost assure the Red Rovers the win.

It was at this point that the Falcon grit kicked in. Action had started by luck of the draw at 160 pounds, and the remaining bouts were from 130 through 152. Steve Bell was trailing Josh Oliver 4-3 with 10 seconds to go, when he twirled out of a possible pin, reversed Oliver, and pinned him with one second left on the clock, pulling CAHS within four, 25-21. Ashtin Primus (135) followed with a major decision to tie the count, Zach Snyder trailed 3-2 with seven seconds to go when he reversed Alex Krim and got back points for a 7-3 win, and now the Falcons had the lead, 28-25.

Josh Martin (145) and Buddy Sines (152) followed with decisions, and for the first time in the history of the state tournament, Connellsville was crowned champion. The Promised Land had been reached, after two other forays came up short.

Tommy Dolde, who took over the program two years ago from his dad, Tom Sr., called the great experience “humbling.”

“There is so much to be won, so many people working to win it,” the younger Dolde said. “And when you are finally the state champion you realize just how much work went into that win, how much was done by those who went ahead of you trying to win the same honors, and how hard this group tried to win. It can all be very humbling.”

Dolde added “the school held an assembly Monday morning to recognize the team, and they all took it very humbly. There has been no gloating, nothing out of the ordinary by the wrestlers. Just the thrill of knowing that hard work can lead to success.”

But the road to the Promised Land wasn’t easy at the start.

When CAHS added wrestling in 1967, the first two years were zero, zilch, nada. No wins, and some of the losses were, ummm, well, lopsided to use a more generous term. Gary Barnette, who was then assistant football coach under the late Stan McLaughlin, was the first coach, and when Gary decided to move back to his native West Virginia, the coaching spot went to Tom Dolde.

There were a few rocks in Dolde’s way to start. There were some WPIAL teams that didn’t want to schedule the Falcons because their program was so new and in their minds, so bad, that the feeling was “see ya’ later.”

But then came a cold winter’s night in February, 1969. The Falcons were scheduled at Derry, and the weather was anything but conducive to a trip that long. But still the thought was there, suppose this is the night they snap that zero run. My daughter, Barbara (now a nurse at Jeannette District Hospital) was still in school and she said “c’mon, I’ll go with you.”

Ben Ansell, now retired as a prison guard, got the Falcons winging. He was the lightest wrestler in the lineup at 88 pounds (one of his legs weighs that much now!), and he opened the card with a big first period pin, which was worth six back then (all others were five). Derry won four of the next six, then Jake Hillen (138), Howard Chaney (145), Horvath (154), and Randy Rose (165) ran off decisions for CAHS, and that was enough to wrap up the 27-25 win – the first ever for CAHS on the mats.

Ironically, the first win scored by the Falcon JV’s in actual competition was also over Derry, 17-6.

From that opening win, the Falcons proceeded to play ‘double or nothing’ – getting two wins the next year, four the next, and from then on it has been nothing but success.

The first section championship was earned in 1976, and CAHS loved that success so much they repeated every year through 1988. After a one-year hiatus, the Falcons went back on top in 1990-91-92. Mount Pleasant halted the run in 1993, after which CAHS returned to the top and has been there ever since – from 1994 through the present season, a run of 12 years, with a string of 100-plus successive section wins.

Along the way, the school can count 28 section championships in the last 30 years, six WPIAL championships (1992-94, 2000-01-04-05) – and finally the biggest honor of them all, the 2005 state Class Class AAA championship. The first WPIAL team ever to attain that honor!!

There is also a regiment of individual section, WPIAL, and state champions.

This year’s team record of 28 wins includes a run to the WPIAL title of 66-6 over Butler, 45-21 over Trinity, 27-25 over Waynesburg Central, and the clincher, 33-22, over Kiski Area.

Moving on to Hershey, the Falcons disposed of Council Rock, 39-18, Nazareth, 35-19, and the “Big One,” a 34-25 win over Easton.

Earlier this year the Falcons reached another milestone when they recorded the school’s 500th all-time wrestling win with a 31-25 victory over Canon-McMillan. En route to that total, Tom Dolde Sr. set an all-time WPIAL coaching record of 448 wins (448-137-6), and Tom Jr. has continued that success.

And both Doldes will be quick to tell you that a good staff of coaches in the lower grades has helped with that success.

All of the junior high and varsity assistant coaches wrestled for one of them, and as Tommy added, “They know our system, they know what we expect of them.”

The road to the Promised Land was rocky to start, a bit smoother in recent years, but at all times long and successful. And this time, Moses was allowed to enter.