Im on a roll right now so lets crank out another piece. Time to meet our coaches and starters:
The Head Honcho, Coach Kevin Dresser
Kevin Dresser is a former 1986 national Champion from Iowa. He was so good that he has a move named after him, the Dresser dump. After his time at Iowa Dresser fortuitously ended up at Grundy HS in SWVA. He built grundy into a national HS power before moving to christiansburg to do the same. Many of our best wrestlers come from Cburg thanks to Kevin Dresser.
The Right Hand Man, Tony Robie
Tony Robie is a bit like Kevin Dresser's version of Bud Foster. Previously a head coach at Binghamton University, Robie moved down the food chain to coach at Tech. During his wrestling days he wrestled for Edinboro, a PA powerhouse, and later took Bronze at a US open. In my humble opinion he is the draw that stirs the drink for recruiting PA kids. Bald Man power!
A Living Tech Legend, Dave Hoffman
Hoffman is a living Gap between the old Era of VT wrestling and the modern successes. He holds or is second for a lot of tech records, and was our 5th ever All-american. Hoffmans the glue that bind the program and adds the local family flavor to the staff.
"Wild Bill" Mike Zadick
Zadick is the newest addition to the staff. Zadick is a former 2008 olympian and adds a world class element to our staff. He's a true Montana wild man and adds a fierce beard to match.
The Team
125, Joey Dance
Joey Dance has been a high profile guy for a long time. He wrestled in the FILA Juniors World Team Trials, a sort of world cup for wrestling. Dance gained fame for a beautiful moved called a superduck, which he hit with frightening frequency throughout HS. I have affectionately nicknamed him the "Appalachian spider money", which i hope will stick. Dance is both a moustache afficianado and an avowed cat person:
133, Dennis Gustafson
Dennis is the type of kid that makes a program. A good but not great VA kid coming out of HS, gustafson has worked his rear off to become a very good wrestler for the hokies, fighting through a bunch of injuries along the way. His greatest contribution thus far was a 2014 ACC tournament where he wrestled well above expectations, winning an individual title at 133 and clinching the ACC championship for the hokies. He has since grown some impressive flo and could compete with any ACC lax player. In his first tournament back he hit tilt after tilt, looking very comfortable racking up victories.
141, Solomon Chishko
Chishko on the other hand has gone down the other path, shaving his head in an attempt to become as aerodynamic as possible. A quiet guy, Solomon is being a major team player this year and is cutting to 141 so we dont have a gaping hole in the lineup. Along the way he's added some pretty impressive scalps in a weight class thats totally up for grabs. Chishko has a beautiful double leg attack and a mean ankle pick as well. And his PA HS experience means he rides very well for a young wrestler.
149, Sal Mastriani
Sal's our wrestling equivalent of a fullback. A relative newcomer to wrestling, as he was a very good linebacker in NJ through HS, Sal wins a lot of his matches on a combination of guts and effort. He's made a ton of progress technically, but when the chips are down, you know he's coming forward relentlessly with his high crotch leg attach. When he is on top he has a super painful and effective move called a Bow and Arrow. He basically takes his opponents ankle and tries to touch it to the back of his head, then rolls him over to try to pin him. Good stuff.
157, Nick Brascetta
Nick is our crafty old man. He's been there done that in almost every situation. And unfortunately he comes a year after devin, otherwise he might be best known as Tech first ever 3x All american. Brascetta has this awesome firemans carry attack that he makes look effortless. He also has a nasty habit of pretending to let his opponent escape only to pounce and pin them.
165, David McFadden
McFadden is jersey to the core and talks with an accent so thick youd swear he's from another country. The true freshmen wrestles on heart and hes the type of guy you dont bet against in the third period. His production this year has been better than expected and he's a large reason why the hokies have trophy hopes in march. Stylistically, he's a fantastic chain wrestler, moving from one attack and position to another seamlessly. He also passes legs very well for a big man, something he shares with epperly. If he ends up in a head to toe exchange, expect him to come out the back door and hook his opponents leg for the TD.
174, Zach Epperly
Another one of the quiet guys on the team, it seems every picture taken of him is best captioned with "MOM MADE PIZZA ROLLS!" Now i dont want to put extra pressure on him, but epperly has a chance to become VT's first 4x All American, a really significant achievement for our program. Offensively, he has the whole arsenal, and he really shines in the top position, with a variety of ride techniques to crush his opponents.
184, Zack Zavatsky
Nicknamed Stork for his lanky stature, Zavatsky like chishko is a highly recruited PA import, whos went through a real breakout phase in december, knocking off a lot of highly ranked wrestlers. His go to move has thus far been a sweet ankle pick. And he really shines when he rides opponents, showcasing a beautiful tilt that he can blow a match open with.
197, Jared Haught
In a single phrase, Jared Haught is a West Virginia Godzilla. Full stop. Country boy strong and chiseled out of marble Haught is slowly building into a stellar upperweight wrestler for tech. He has a beautiful high crotch attack (which he needs to use more often). Jared is also the wrestler i am totally irrational about, predicting hi to upset everyone before eventually winning the national championship. Its gonna happen, you heard it here first.
285, Ty Walz
In my opinion, the heart and soul of this team, Ty is just a chubby kid who likes to lift a lot of weight and eat a lot of eggs and chicken. We have convinced him to put on a singlet from time to time and its worked out pretty well. In all seriousness, Walz is that diamond in the rough. We knew he could be a good HWT, but no one in their right mind thought he could challenge for a National Championship in his junior year. And that not hyperbole, Walz is that good. He's improved worlds on the offensive side, adding both a low and snatch single to his stellar high crotch. He also has a great interview series where he explains why he's named ty:
184/197, Austin Gabel
Id be at fault if i didnt at least mention austin gabel. As tech improves, our line up gets more and more packed. Gabel suffered an injury and seems to have lost his spot to Zavatsky. Depth like Gabel is what drives a program from good to elite. He's split time between 174, 184 and 197 in his career. Gabel always looks like he's been in a car wreck after he wrestles. He's defensively very good and also chain wrestles well at 184.
Comments
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I came from Strasburg HS (up I-81 in VA), and watched a few matches there (SHS had several Group A titles down in Salem, back when VHSL was still A, AA, AAA). A guy a year or so ahead of me (who I mostly knew from track and football), DJ Hockman, went on to wrestle at JMU and I got to see a match or two (he was a big guy for sure - a lineman - not sure if HWT for wrestling, though) my freshman year. Definitely a sport that is fun to watch, but aggravating if you don't know the rules or how the scoring works.
Other than Track & Field, this was the only "Olympic" sport I had any exposure to. Its simplicity in just rolling out the mats and displaying pure physical strength with some mental prowess and skill thrown in. I'm glad that the schools I'm a fan of at both levels are able to have success in something like this.
Great post. I've been trying to watch the matches whenever possible (I wish ESPN3 aired more). Looks like the ACC dual championship and National Dual invite will come down to the NCSU match next weekend. Seems like everyone is starting to get healthy and I like our chances.
Also worth mentioning that the ACC Championships are at John Paul Jones Arena in Hooville this year. The ACC is having a banner season for wrestling (I think 5 of 6 teams are ranked) so it will be an exciting tournament. I am planning on heading there from RVA - hope to see lots of Hokies!
Tech will be live this weekend on ESPN3 against pitt. And the NCSU match will air free on their version of HokieXtra. Good chance you can see the hokies wrestle every weekend from here on out.
I guess I just don't understand the politics and selection criteria behind ESPN3 broadcasts. ESPN owns the rights to ACC sports so they can pick and chose what they want to air. How much does it cost to show a particular sport?
It is just strange to me that they have picked to air WVU and Pitt but not NCSU which will be a battle of top 10 teams for the ACC dual title and a trip to the National Duals tourney.
So this is a mess, but heres the best i can tell for wrestling:
So VT can and has broadcast every home match in some fashion (hokiesXtra or ESPN3). Tech has its hands tied on the archive rights. If the ACCDN doesnt either archive it themselves or let ESPN3 have the match we dont get to see it.
The away matches default to the home teams. So Pitt was able to get ESPN3 to pick up the match. NCSU was either not able to or not interested in having ESPN3 pick our match up.
Other non ACC schools control the rights to our away matches. Edinboro for example has signed a contract with FLOWrestling to cover all their home matches. So VT edinboro this weekend will be on FLOWrestling.
Its a crap situation, but the important thing is Kevin Dresser and VT are making every effort in their power.
jerseyhokie29 since you seem to know everything VT wrestling, I was wondering if you knew what happened or is happening with Andrew Dunn? He was a pretty highly rated HWT recruit out of eastern pa, he was supposed to be a freshman this year but I don't see him listed anywhere on the roster.
Dunn is greyshirting, a relatively new trend in wrestling. It takes a minute to explain, and im thinking i might do part of the series on it. But in short, he's at NRCC taking classes while working out unattached with the team through the Southeast RTC (the organization i banged the drum for at the beginning of the season). It allows him to preserve his 5 years for 4 eligibility so he never overlaps with Walz.
Super important for HWTs, especially the athletic ones like dunn who have to grow into their frame. He will be a rock for the program for the next 5 years i think.
Recently won the Purple Raider open:
Cool thanks for the info.
Fantastic post right here jerseyhokie, also:
That's a nickname I can get behind.
Jersey....regarding Dance, what is the name of his move like when he pinned the guy from No. Iowa? He appeared to be head to head on the mat, wrapped his arms around his opponents shoulders, and then he rolled both over...nasty. I have seen him pull that move a few times, but didn't know if it had a name.
I could be wrong (and probably am) but what your describing sounds like a Cement mixer.
We used to call that the Gator Roll, up in IL/WI. Super effective in breaking dudes down from the neutral.
Yeah so we had this debate last year when sal hit it. From the discussion i think we agreed that both moves use the headlock. The Cement mixer adds the opposite underhook to control, while the Gatot roll is for freestyle (where only back exposure matters). Not a huge difference and not worth arguing about.
One of the tough parts of learning wrestling is all the sport specific jargon. This is one of those examples.
Cant pull the video from Hokiesports right now, but the move is called a cement mixer (or gator roll, though theres a small technical difference). Dance has a front headlock and will roll towards the free side, while simultaneously threading his off arm into an underhook. He will then reverse and settle for the pin if his opponent is caught off guard, which he is. Its a high risk high reward maneuver, that dance only attempts when he has the MD wrapped up. For another example, Sal did this in his miracle comeback last year at NCAAs. In this case he already has the underhook, and uses that to turn Cimato. Dance rolled the other way since he didnt have an underhook. Prior to this move he was down 10-4, and changed the score to 10-9:
via GIPHY
That's it....I was particularly impressed with the warp speed that Joey executes his.
You can see it on the highlights video at Hokiesports.com.
http://www.hokiesports.com/videos/#!/videos/m-wrestl/Z4bjY4MDE6IwZboKSe8...
Thanks!