Rapport key to Mt. Lebanon wrestling success
Mt. Lebanon’s winners from the Eastern Area Wrestling Tournament: Ejiro Montoya, second at 114; Cole Gibbons and Zach Bramonth, first and fourth at 145; and Ben Lloyd, fifth at heavyweight.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Ejiro Montoya is one of Mt. Lebanon’s top returning wrestlers. The junior started the season on a positive note earning runner-up honors at the Eastern Area Tournament.
Empathy makes the Mt. Lebanon wrestling team better. Just ask Marc Allemang. Through 15 years of coaching, he has learned young athletes need support in different ways whether they are state champions or seniors out for the sport for the first time.
“Regardless of those scenarios, kids need to feel valued and supported and know that their coaches care about them,” Allemang said. “It’s less about match strategy and more about treating people with dignity and respect and that will benefit the team more than anything else.”
By the same token, the Blue Devils will be asked to do their part. According to Allemang, the goals and expectations for this season are to be “coachable kids” and “wrestle to compete” no matter who the opponent is.
“For some kids on the team they have lofty goals and for others they are still learning the techniques and about the sport in general,” Allemang said.
“Every kid can bring a positive attitude, every kid can be coachable, every kid can be a good teammate. Those are the things I am looking for from everyone.”
In Lebo’s first outing of the season, the Blue Devils responded with those intangibles and more. Four of them responded with victories that put them on the podium at the Eastern Area Tournament held Dec. 2-3 at Gateway.
Cole Gibbons captured first place in the 145-pound weight class. A freshman, he enters the season with high expectations after a very good junior high season. As an eighth grader last year, he placed seventh in the PJW Junior High State Championships and fifth in the Keystone State Championships.
A junior, Ejiro Montoya earned runner-up honors at 114 at the Eastern Area event.
Montoya, who competed in the USA Freestyle Championships in Fargo, N.D., this summer, is looking to improve upon last year’s 28-9 record. He wrestled deep into the WPIAL tournament in 2022.
“Ejiro has wrestled for many years and gained a lot of experience in the offseason,” Allemang said. “He understands the sport and has high expectations for himself.
Allemang added, “Ejiro has the ability to qualify for the PIAA tournament but certainly he will need to be prepared and healthy come March.”
Ben Lloyd also had a good showing in the opening tournament. The sophomore placed fifth in the heavyweight division.
A relative newcomer to the sport, Lloyd came on strong at the end of last season. He placed fourth in the section, “made some noise” in the WPIAL championships and finished the year at 10-23 overall. Lloyd, like Montoya, also gained experience competing in the national freestyle finals in North Dakota.
“Ben moves well for a big kid and his skill set gets better every time he wrestles,” said Allemang.
While Zach Bramonth was Lebo’s only other placewinner — fourth at 145 – at the Eastern Area meet, juniors Franco Busalacchi and Joe Gamble are expected to improve upon their 11-6 and 10-11 records from 2022.
Busalacchi has been in the Lebo wrestling program since elementary school. “He has goals to improve on last season and we expect he will be a solid contributor,” Allemang said.
Gamble was wrestling well for the Blue Devils before he incurred an injury. An elder wrestler, having been with the program for a long time, he will add strength to the middle part of Lebo’s lineup.
“Joe will need to be ready to step up again this year and be a leader in the room and a contributor in our lineup,” Allemang said.
Compared to previous seasons, the Blue Devils are a fairly young and inexperienced group but their competition has remained consistent even though the WPIAL reorganized.
While there are now six separate sections and no sub-divisions in Class AAA, the Blue Devils will battle familiar foes Bethel Park, Canon-McMillan, Peters Township and Upper St. Clair. Central Catholic and Ringgold have moved out of the section and Baldwin has been added. The Highlanders host Lebo at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 21 in the section opener.
“We are excited about the season,” Allemang said. “We have a lot of coachable kids that come to practice with a positive attitude and they work hard each day.”
Among those hard workers are: seniors Aiden Beinhauer and Conner Smalls; juniors Luke Dumm, Matt Eisaman, Grant Elder, Hamid Mohammadi, Clayton Smith and Joe Tipton; sophomores Furquan Amir, Yohan Bassil, Jayson Dang, Pedro Cabussu Farias, Peter Kail, Rizo Kutbidinov, Gannon Moore, Iusuf Shakirov and Cooper Wolling as well as freshmen Zachary Bannon and Ben Mares.