The Branford wrestling team honored four seniors last week at a special Senior Night that was held before the Hornets match with the Foran Lions got underway.
The seniors were joined by their family and coaches for the celebratory moment. This was a special night and there was a good crowd in attendance to support the home team. The seniors were Bijaya Jaisi, Nick Temple, Cameron O’Neill and Alex Rasmus.
The varsity wrestlers just finished their season undefeated for the 6th straight year. They have now won 70 consecutive matches. With 21 returning next year to the varsity and so many in the program at Walsh Intermediate School waiting in the wings, the future looks good for Branford.
How H.S. Wrestling Team Began
Prior to the start of the match head coach Chris Bonagiuso introduced a couple of folks who helped organize the wrestling program back in 1992. Anthony Uzzo was a member of the Board of Education back then and his son Chris, who was only about 115 pounds as a sophomore, was looking for a sport to be involved in that was a good fit based on his size.
“He came to me and asked why there wasn’t a wrestling program at the school,” Anthony Uzzo said. “I looked into it and inquired with the school administration who told me to “see how many students were interested and how much it would cost”. His research indicated it would cost about $15,000 for a floor mat, equipment, singlets, referees, and a coach.
“I was surprised it was not that expensive relative to other sports,” Uzzo said, “They told us we had to raise funds ourselves to support a club program and if everything worked out they would upgrade it to a varsity sport in a couple of years. Parents sold candy bars & cookies and did what they had to in order to raise the money. The program started with a dozen kids and it became popular enough that they gave it varsity status in 1995.”
“We developed a relationship with the East Haven varsity team and practiced a lot with them back then,” said Chris. “It was good for both programs. They were very good to us during those formative years.” We even went to each other’s matches to support one another. Chris and Andy D’Amato were elected co-captains the first year it was a varsity sport.
And they were off and running.
Wrestling Team Soars
Branford competed in the SCC Championships on Saturday at Amity and came in fifth place with a score of 85.6 behind perennial power Xavier (233:2), Foran (120:4), Hand (114:4) and Guilford (89.5).
Dakota Carden was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the event in defeating three competitors from Fairfield Prep, Hand and Xavier by pinning all three of them. His longest bout only lasted 2:33. By virtue of his three wins he has now won 64 in a row.
The current wrestling team has about 25 members, and with a ‘feeder program’ at Walsh Intermediate School, more than 40 students attended Wednesday’s match.
In the match Wednesday against a very strong Foran team, Branford started out well winning four of the first six matches. Dalton Carden (138), (pictured, )Nick Temple (145), Cameron O’Neill (152) and Dakota Carden (182) all won their matches by pinning their opponents. It only took Dakota Carden 1:19 to pin Colby Stuart.
Branford’s other win was in the 113 class with Noah Pantani pinning William Mauro in just 1:40. The Hornets Stella Kelly, a freshman, held her own before falling to Elijah Moretti in the final match of the evening.
Foran ended up winning the match 44 – 30 and are now 20 – 4 on the season.
Coming up next for the Hornets is the Class M Championships on February 20 & 21 at Jonathan Law followed by the State Open Championships on February 27 & 28 at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.
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