Jan 8, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

Name: Jackson Angelo

School: Frazier

Class: Junior

Sport: Wrestling

Angelo’s week: Despite placing fifth at the state tournament in Class 2A last season, the junior Commodore entered this year seeking his first tournament victory of his high school career.

Angelo, who pinned his way to the 172-pound championship last Friday and Saturday in the TriCADA tournament, won his first tournament on Dec. 21 in the NursePro Plus at University High School in Morgantown, W.Va., before winning the Southmoreland Holiday Classic the next week.

“It was a little frustrating not winning a tournament my first two years of high school,” Angelo said. “There are bigger tournaments out there, and I look at those as getting practice for the postseason. It was a good opportunity to wrestle the toughest competition, and it is really paying off.”

Frazier competed at the Powerade tournament in Angelo’s freshman and sophomore seasons, and the Ironman last year, which helped prepare him for solid competition but also made winning a tournament a daunting task.

The Commodores didn’t compete at TriCADA in Angelo’s first two years in high school, and he also had to wrestle some tough opponents in the section, WPIAL and regional tournaments.

New faces: Frazier has a new head coach this season in Tyler Kenney, who was with the junior high program. Kenney, a Connellsville graduate, is assisted by another Falcon wrestler in Josh Maruniak. The duo have been welcomed with open arms by those in the Commodore wrestling community.

“I like Tyler a lot,” Angelo said. “He was my coach in junior high for a year. I can definitely hear what he says when I’m on the mat. You really have to listen to your coaches because they can see tendencies that you may not when you are wrestling.”

Kenney and Maruniak are not afraid to work with their wrestlers, especially when an extra body is needed if there are odd numbers in the wrestling room.

An epiphany: Angelo started wrestling when he was in kindergarten, and he didn’t start out with a bang, but his parents were very supportive, and he had a moment around the time he entered seventh grade when he knew it was time to work.

“I was pinned a lot when I was a kid, but my dad would get me an ice cream cone or take me to GameStop after every match,” Angelo said. “My dad didn’t wrestle, but he went to Frazier and Pitt, and at Pitt, he lived across the hall from some of the wrestlers at Pitt in the dorms. He became friends with all these great wrestlers, so I grew up knowing those guys.

“Around the time I was getting into seventh grade, I had an ‘Oh, crap!’ moment and realized I needed to start really dedicating myself to this sport if I want to go anywhere in it.”

Angelo is the godson of Jon Banko, and Pat Santoro coached Angelo when he was young.

In addition to his high school practices, Angelo trains at Rob Waller’s All-American Club, which gives him the opportunity to work with multiple practice partners.

“Robbie Waller does a lot of coaching at the All-American Club, and he really knows his stuff,” Angelo said. “They have a lot of WPIAL guys that train there, especially from Westmoreland County. A couple of guys are from Berlin and Somerset Counties. A lot of my partners at All-American are in different weight classes and divisions.”

Angelo wants to wrestle at the collegiate level and he is a fan of freestyle.

“The only sport I do is wrestling,” Angelo said. “I love freestyle, and I wouldn’t mind if they made it the national style, but folkstyle is great, too. I haven’t heard too many people say they don’t like the three-point takedown or four-point near-fall scoring.”