Sheldon Thomas, 1991 national champion, instructs young wrestlers
The whistles stopped blowing back in February as the official end came to the high school wrestling season, but Thursday nights in Dover have seen many Delaware high school wrestlers back on the mat preparing for summer wrestling events. The Delaware Wrestling Alliance, a support and booster organization for Delaware wrestling, has been sponsoring summer wrestling programs for the past 10 years.
The DWA sponsored a June 16 clinic with Sheldon Thomas, one of Delaware’s most successful wrestlers. Thomas was a four-time state champion and was twice named the state’s most outstanding wrestler while attending St. Mark’s High School. In 1991, he captured the NCAA Division I 118-pound national championship and was a three-time All-American at Clarion University. Thomas was recently inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame and is a member of the Delaware Wrestling Hall of Fame.
On Thursday night Thomas put on an hour-and-a-half freestyle clinic for a group of 70 wrestlers representing schools such as state champion Caesar Rodney and Caravel as well as less well-known programs like Woodbridge and St. Thomas More.
“You have a great opportunity here and a lot of great people that have put together a summer wrestling program for you; take advantage of it and seize the valuable things you can learn from here,” Thomas told the group after a session of live wrestling, which included Thomas going one-on-one with a few athletes.
The Blue Hen Corporate Center (formerly the Blue Hen Mall) has been the headquarters for Team Delaware practices since early May. On other days earlier in the week, wrestlers practice closer to home with sites located at Milford, Cape Henlopen, Middletown and St. George’s Technical High School.
Team Delaware is preparing to send teams off to competition in June and July. Friday, June 25, 16 Delaware high school underclassmen will depart from Philadelphia International Airport bound for Orlando, Fla., for the AAU National Dual Championship, better known as the Disney Duals. In late July, the DWA will send two teams to New Orleans, La., for the AAU National Freestyle Dual Championships. This team will include graduated seniors as well as underclassmen.
Team Delaware practices at a location central to Delaware was the dream of DWA Executive Director Donna Sylvestri-Fercondo, a longtime supporter of wrestling at Salesianum. Sylvestri-Fercondo purchased the two wrestling mats from Delaware State University when the program folded over a year ago. Those two mats have been put to use at the Team Delaware headquarters in Dover.
“It is a place for our wrestlers here in Delaware to meet and practice as a team once a week. I think it has worked out well,” Sylvestri-Fercondo said.
Several coaches from around the state have contributed to the Team Delaware practices as well as some former wrestlers now among the collegiate ranks. Matt Cathell, a three-time state champion from Caesar Rodney, just finished his collegiate career at Kent State and was a two-time NCAA qualifier. Cathell has been a regular at practices on the mat, mixing it up with the current crop of high school wrestlers.
“They go hard; I like it,” Cathell said. “There are a bunch of kids here that are hungry and are willing to sacrifice part of their summer to wrestling.”
Disney Duals Team Delaware Roster: 103 Tyler Carney, Smyrna; 112 Tony Scarfo, Caesar Rodney; 119 Willie Davis, Woodbridge and David Summerfield, Caravel; 125 Matt Kibblehouse, Salesianum; 130 Trey Mitchell, Caesar Rodney; 135 Alvontae Drummond, Milford; 140 Nick Gatinella, Caravel; 145 Jeff Klabe, Sussex Tech; 152 Patrick Davis, Woodbridge; 160 Ryan Wolfe, Caravel and James Shreve, William Penn; 171 Nick Mancini, Salesianum; 189 Darreaus McCrea, Milford; 215 Colton Barr, Milford; 285 Thomas Ott, Cape Henlopen.
For more information on summer wrestling, go to www.dwawrestling.org.
