CV wrestling has worldwide appeal
Chartiers Valley boasts an international flavor on the wrestling mats this winter.
“We have kids from somewhere around nine or 10 different cultures and countries on our team,” said CV coach William Evans. “It is pretty wild. We are like an English Premier League Soccer Team, very multicultural.
“The kids really embrace diversity,” he added. “It’s great.”
Two of the newcomers are expected to make an immediate impact on the line-up. Tilek Sadyrbekov and Maksim Rybalko are both freshmen that Evans says have looked good in the preseason.
“We are looking forward to seeing them compete this year,” he said. “They both have exciting styles, and are capable of scoring big points for us.”
Last year, the Colts had two big point winners in Dylan Evans and Brody Joling. Both are now wrestling in college, at Pitt and Davidson, respectively. Evans posted a school-record 139 wins and had 59 career pins while capturing two PIAA titles. Joling compiled a 109-48 record with 52 pins and 10 major decisions during his four-year scholastic career.
So, this year, CV will rely on the freshmen as well as veterans such as sophomore Michael Lawrence (22-14), senior Tyler Glover (22-9), junior Logan Connolly (20-14), junior Howard Clellan and sophomore Morgan Silberman.
Additional the Colts will rely upon Sam Burgunder, Colton Standard, Adel Ali, Tyler Delgrande, Shar Khan, Jacob Potanko, Danish Hussain, Jaxson Shimko, Ryan Raja, Jonathan Garside, Tyler Tulowitzki, Tamerlan Kapitonov, Liam Gallocher, Shirin Musaev, Oleksandr Horyn, Travis Schoonover, Michael Medina, Nicholas Pruchnitzky and Russian Karimov.
“We have a nice amount of depth throughout the lineup, and a great team culture but we are inexperienced and a little thin in the lower weights,” Evans said. “The kids we have are working hard and coming along well. It’s just going to take some time for them to develop.
“Having a bunch of guys that just love to wrestle makes this fun,” Evans added. “They’re doing it every day. They work hard, wrestle hard, and have been improving a ton. Now we just need to see their willingness to compete and to embrace some tough battles together.”
After opening the season with a 2-3 showing in the Dry Tech Duals and competing in the Doug Conroy Memorial Duals at Ringgold this past weekend, the Colts open section action at home against South Fayette on Dec. 20. Mat time is 7 p.m. CV rings in the new year with a trip to Trinity for a 7 p.m. showdown on Jan. 3.
“Trinity looks pretty good this year,” Evans said.
“As far as our goals are concerned, we just want to go out there and wrestle hard and develop. Enjoy what we are doing, and focus on getting better for February and March.”
That is when the individual competition commences with sectional, regional and state tournament action. The sectionals will be held Feb. 24 at South Fayette. The southwest regional is set for March 1-2 at Canon-McMillan and the PIAA 3A championships will once again be held at the Giant Center in Hershey from March 7-9.
The wait is critical to a successful journey for the grapplers, says Evans.
“Throughout my years of coaching I’ve learned to be a lot more patient,” he said. “Everything doesn’t have to come right away. So my advice to my wrestlers is to just believe in the process and be disciplined to keep doing what we are doing every day.”