Bound Brook Wrestling

Bound Brook wrestling program on the rise

Bound Brook establishes place among state's top programs

Bound Brook has gone from being a steady contender in district and county tournaments to one that runs with the state’s elite.

Bound Brook is now ranked among Don Bosco Prep, Bergen Catholic and St. Peter Prep. The Crusaders are ranked No. 2 behind Bergen Catholic in the preseason New Jersey Wrestling Writers poll and not many who follow the sport closely have much argument with it. They finished last season as the poll’s No. 5 team.

The Crusaders figure to be even better.

“We could be top five-ranked nationally, and we could have 12 going to the states, that’s what we’re looking forward to,” said defending state champ Craig De La Cruz, who’ll be at 126 after last year’s 120-pound title.

Like Bergen Catholic, Bound Brook has benefitted from transfers. Not because of being a non-public school, but because of Gov. Chris Christie’s school of choice program.

While former Lenape Valley star Peter Lipari (seventh in the state at 120 last season), and East Brusnwick standout Jordan Pagano (Region V champ at 152 last year) have transferred to Bergen Catholic, Bound Brook has welcomed Region V champ Sean Glasgow, who transferred from East Brunswick along with his promising freshman brother Stephan. Others have come too.

Bound Brook, the two-time NJSIAA Group I, Somerset County and District 18 champion is not apologizing. The Glasgow family did actually move to Bound Brook, but that doesn’t change the opinion of the program’s dissenters, who now see the Crusaders as a New York Yankees type of operation.

That doesn’t have a speck of reaction in the Crusaders’ drill room where it is crowded with talented drill partners.

Almost-forgotten district champions such as senior Ronald Picado can drill with a number of talented teammates and visitors who may have won multiple state championships.

“I think we have improved, we have a lot of young and new guys who will make an immediate impact, but we will go as far as we want to go,” said Bound Brook coach Shaun Cleary. “Naturally our goal is to be the No. 1 team in the state. That was our goal last year, we fell a little short, but our expectation is that we will do it this year.

“The only people who will stop us is us.” he added.

Injuries last season may have cost the Crusaders losses to Bergen Catholic (39-18) and Don Bosco Prep (32-31 by criteria) in a span of a few days. The other loss was to Apple Valley (Mn.) 30-27 last December when the Crusaders went 5-1 at the Clash Tournament in Rochester (Mn.) where Bound Brook will return for Jan. 3-4.

“We have a good team this year, a good solid team from start to finish in our lineup,” said Ugalde.

The team will wrestle Delbarton, Bergen Catholic and Don Bosco. They will open the season with this weekend’s Neptune Tournament, then the Bethlehem Holiday Classic at Liberty High School (Pa.).

That’s something Bound Brook has never shied away from, long before the school of choice, the Crusaders wrestled Blair and Brick Memorial. In the match against Blair in the winter of 1999, the Crusaders were held to one takedown, then there was a 69-3 loss to Brick. The idea was to wrestle the best no matter where or what size the opponent.

Bound Brook will be spending its last season in the Skyland Conference Valley Division. Next year, the Crusaders will be in the upper division with Hunterdon Central, North Hunterdon and Phillipsburg.

“We have loaded up our schedule, so we can see through all the challenges, that’s the way it’s always been,” Cleary said.

Rob Murray-Stevens Institute of Technology

Graduated

2X NWCA Academic All Amercian and NCAA DIII Round of 12

Rob was a two-time District Champ at Bound Brook and a three time Region place-winner. Graduating third in his class at BBHS, he has taken his wrestling and academic talents to Stevens where he looks to start at 125 as a freshman.  Rob amassed a 124-37 record which at this time makes him the seventh winningest wrestler in the history of BBHS.

 2012-13 SEASON RECAP

The Bound Brook wrestling team didn’t have any starters graduate from their State Championship squad in 2012, so naturally anticipation was huge for the 2012-13 season. But with those huge expectations came a much tougher dual meet schedule as the Crusaders chose to forego the Bethlehem Classic for the Clash National Duals.  That experienced helped the Crusaders reach some lofty goals this season as they were the 4^th ranked team in the State of New Jersey and according to Intermat the 40^th ranked wrestling team in all of the United States… Not to shabby.

The Crusaders started their season at the Battle at the Beach in Delaware has been the tradition for the past eight years and they faced a new challenge as Delaware’s best wrestling team was in attendance and the Crusaders were missing two of their defending Champions as Ronald Picado and Jeison Arias could not compete. But there were no worries as Josh Ugalde won his second title in as many tries and Craig Delacruz won his first helping the Crusaders  and eleven of the other twelve Crusaders placed to lead the team to a comfortable fifty-one point victory over Smyrna High School.

After this victory, the team knew they had to get down to the real work at hand and after a pre-Christmas sweep of a quad at Montgomery High School the team boarded a  plane to Minnesota to compete in the Clash National Duals, or as the coaches termed it: “When the rest of the country finds out how tough Bound Brook is!”

Day One was cold in Rochester, Minnesota and the Crusaders first match was against Pierre High School from South Dakota and after a slow start where the team worked out some jitters; a big comeback pin by Ryan Doerr and  plus wins in the final five matches helped the Crusaders prevail 41-27. The next match woke up the entire arena as the Brook  wrestled National power Apple Valley, Minnesota. The Crusaders didn’t win, but they did go blow for blow with Valley and lost a exciting 30-27 match. Then in the final match of the day the team defeated Nationally ranked Kearney, Minnesota by a 38-21 to ensure a top 12 finish in the 36 team tournament.

But top twelve finish wasn’t going to be enough for the team as they returned a day two with a chip on their shoulder and it showed as they defeated three nationally ranked teams. First to fall was Smiley, Minnesota by a 42-28 score, then Blue Springs, Missouri by a 45-19 score and finally Pope, Georgia by a 42-18 score. Those results meant the Crusaders would end up Nationally ranked and they displayed that their strength was their ability to put fourteen quality wrestlers on the mat for every match.

After getting back their sea-legs the team started their New Year attending the Patriot Duals at North Warren High School and faced their foes from the 2012 Group I State Championship match Kittatinny. Neither team had lost too many wrestlers to graduation but that didn’t equal the close match everyone thought would occur as the Crusaders dominated the Cougars 49-9 to win the Patriot Duals title.

Exactly one week later the Crusaders defended their Somerset County Championship by winning the title by a 83 point margin. Despite missing Mike Johnson, eleven team members made finals appearances and Craig Delacruz, Jeison Arias, Emmanuel Soto, Josh Ugalde and Isaiah Soto all won individual titles. Thirteen of fourteen wrestlers placed in the top four of their weight class as the team came close to breaking the 1999 Bound Brook wrestling team’s county records.

Throw in some more dual meet victories and the team then had their biggest showdown of the season as they faced a tough dual meet test season against the 3^rd ranked Bergen Catholic wrestling team in a packed Bound Brook gym. Unfortunately, the Crusaders of BC proved to be better then the Crusaders of BB and defeated the Brook by a convincing 39-18 score. A truly disappointing night for the coaches in the team, as many felt we could've done so much better.

A week later that disappointment continued as the team, now missing two starters to injuries lost to Don Bosco by a 32-31 score.

But you need to have a short memory during a long season and the coaches and wrestlers put that disappointment behind them so they could focus on getting healthy and defending their Group I State Championship. That defense would begin in Crusader’s gym and they started with a resounding defeat of Burlington City by 69-4 score, then in the final defeated Roselle Park by a impressive 54-9 score.

Those victories earned the Crusaders a second consecutive trip to Toms River North’s cavernous gym and the opportunity to win their second Group I state title in school history. Last season the team was tested in earning their title and this year seemed no different as their first match was against Paulsboro, a team which won 28 Group State Championships. But the Brook took control of the match from the beginning and won by a 53-9 score. That match the Crusaders believed would place them against Kittatinny, but Hanover Park prevailed on the other side of the bracket creating a rematch of last year’s title match. Hanover Park put some losses on two of the Crusaders State place winners, but lost the war by a 49-12 score and the Crusaders won their second State Championship in convincing fashion, outscoring their Group I foes by a impressive 225-34 score.

Many would cry that the Crusaders should be moved to their own group, even other Choice schools to which we say: "Why not?". Even when we weren't one of the topped teams in the State we tried to challenge ourselves, so put us wherever you want! 

That second State team Championship meant it was time for the individual team members to pursue State Championships and a time to say Thanks to junior Ronald Picado who was a great asset for the team. Known to few was that Ronald wrestled the entire season with a blown knee and he ended his season before Districts to prepare for his needed surgery so that he could have a great senior year.

The rest of the individuals moved on to the District 18 tournament at Hillsborough High School and the team smashed the 1999 team’s District point record as every wrestler placed in the top four, including Ronald’s replacement Abe Saavedra who gave up 40 pounds in family tradition by drinking water to make 183 so he could wrestle 220 where he placed second. District Champs included Rob Murray, Craig Delacruz, Zach Vatalare, Nick Accetta, Josh Ugalde, Isaiah Soto and Mike Johnson. All those winners meant the Crusaders scored a whopping 275 points and their second consecutive district title. Thirteen wrestlers moved onto Region 5.

Next up was Region 5 where the Crusaders were again awarded the top team in the Region and then they went out and proved it as  they had twelve of their wrestlers place in the top six which was highlighted by the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament in Craig Delacuz who won the weight class from Heck. Craig’s weight class featured four State place winners and another Region Champ, but no worries as Craig showed what he was made of winning a bunch of tight matches. Joining him on the victory stand was Mike Johnson with his first Region Championship. Other wrestlers headed to A.C. were Runner-ups Josh Ugalde, Isaiah Soto and Aaron Saavedra, as well as third place finisher Emmanuel Soto.

Unfortunately, two vital cogs of our team Rob Murray and Zach Vatalare finished fourth and their seasons ended at Region 5. Combined with Tyler Awtry these three seniors were great leaders for our team and ensured when we had our chance at greatness that they would help the coaches lead the way. Seldom are a team’s three Captains all in the top ten of their graduating class and they certainly will always be know as the heart and soul of Bound Brook’s first two State Championship wrestling teams!

Six Crusaders went on the individual State Championships in Atlantic City and three of those wrestlers came home New Jersey State place winners as Mike Johnson placed fifth and Josh Ugalde  place sixth. But the story for the second week in a row was Craig Delacruz who placed in the State for his second time in two tries, but this time he was crowned New Jersey State Champion. Craig’s run was not without drama as his journey for his first State Title looked to be at a end Saturday in A.C. as he was down to Delbarton’s Christian Innarella by two points with seven seconds left. However, Innarella didn’t contest Craig’s granby on the re-start and then Craig snapped and spun for a takedown with no time left and a absolutely fabulous win which electrified the crowd.

But that wasn’t the Final, that would be the next day and his opponent would be the defending two time State Champion Brendan Calas. In a match which was more strategy then action Craig defeated Calas with a takedown in overtime. He ended a amazing run where he defeated a State fifth and third in the Regions and the State second, third and fourth at State. And what no one knew outside his family and wrestling team was that Craig did it with a shoulder which would need surgery after the season… Simply inspirational.

Craig’s effort was a cherry on top of a sensational season where the Crusaders not only crowned their nineteenth individual State Champion, won their second Group I State Championship and ended the season ranked in every National poll of the top 50 teams in the United State. And sure Intermat ranked us 40^th in the Nation, but we whopped the two teams ranked directly ahead of us (wtf?) and 34^th in Amateur Wrestling News again a team we whopped was in front us (wtf? Again). In New Jersey we finished ranked fourth in the State and a final record of 23-3.

Many have complained about the  Crusaders ascent to glory, but what they cannot deny is that the Crusaders have worked very hard to get where they are and those whiners also know that they will continue to work hard. You can complain, run, hide and cry but the fact is hard work will triumph.

         Truly a great season which only begs the question becomes, what can we do better next season? Stay tuned.

2012-2013 INVIDUAL FINAL SEASON STATISTICS

Weight            Wrestler            Grade                        Record                        Accomplishments