Falcons carry wrestling tradition
Things don’t change when it comes to Connellsville’s wrestling team.
“We want to win the WPIAL championship every year,” Falcons coach Tom Dolde said. “We really don’t look at the other teams and worry about what they have. We just worry about ourselves. That is why we schedule such tough teams.”
Connellsville competes in Section 2-AAA, but puts itself into a meat grinder in non-section meets. The Falcons compete in the Battlefield Duals, the Beast of the East tournament, the Powerade tournament and have had talks about possibly competing in the Iron Man tournament.
“Our athletic director, Jim Lembo, knows we want to face the toughest competition and he does a great job of getting us entered in that type of competition,” Dolde said. “We know for us to be tough at the end of the season, we have to battle those strong squads early on.”
Dolde’s main assistant is Kyle Martin, who was an all-state wrestler for the Falcons in high school. Dolde’s other assistants are Marvin Snyder, Ron Wiltrout and Tom Dolde Sr. The elder Dolde started the program and the younger Dolde says he is just carrying on the tradition.
“We are hoping that this team carries on the tradition,” Dolde said. “It is no different that any other team that we’ve had. I am also looking forward to working with Kyle again. He is going to be an outstanding coach. He keeps getting better and better.”
This season marks the first significant changes in weights since 1988.
Dolde doesn’t have a problem with the changes.
“We can’t control what happens in terms of the rules,” Dolde said. “We could complain, but that isn’t going to do us any good.”
Connellsville features a solid team coming back with junior Ethan Kenny leading the way. Kenny was the Falcons’ lone state qualifier in 2011 and should be in contention for another trip to Hershey. Tanner Wiltrout and Jeremy Basinger will serve as captains.
Other returners are: Josh Friend, John Berardinelli, Nick Beneke, Brandon Umbel, Shawn Dewitt, Tyler Steele, Dylan Miller, AJ Cavalier, Dru Barr, Jake Dunston and Jeremy Uhrinek.
“We have a lot of freshmen as well,” Dolde said. “We are going to work hard the next two weeks and get ready for the season.”