MONTVALE, N.J.—Congratulations to the Pascack Hills wrestling team, which enjoyed a banner year amid this Covid-rocked season. Hills won the Bergen County Small School Team of the Year award for the second time in the past six seasons and signed off on an enviable 11–2 record.
Pascack Hills head coach (and English teacher) Dave Bucco locked down Bergen County Coach of the Year as he notched his 200th career coaching victory with a 61–6 win over Glen Rock on April 15.
And senior Alex Kostantas capped the season with a 4th-place finish in the state of New Jersey, securing the school’s highest individual placer in 34 years.
According to Bucco, wrapping his 13th season, this senior group had plenty to overcome this year and they crushed it.
“They didn’t have their usual off-season and we weren’t allowed fans and we never knew when a potential shutdown was coming, but the team stayed focused and we wrestled our best at the end of the year,” Bucco told Pascack Press on May 12.
The newly named Broncos started their season with wins against Mahwah, Hackensack, and Bloomfield. The next week the team beat Dumont but lost to Big School Team of the Year River Dell and Group V Shore conference power Toms River North.
Then, like so many teams this year, they were forced to quarantine for two weeks over Covid-19.
Upon their return, the Broncos went 7–0 with an average margin of victory of 43 points.
Four Broncos were selected to the newly adopted Super Region: Max Martinez (120), Pat Cahill (126), Matias Murillo (145), and Kostantas (195).
Martinez placed 6th in the Super Region, which is the equivalent to winning matches at the State tournament; Kostantas, a Super Region finalist, then moved on to the state tourney, where despite being the 13 seed in his weight he reached the semi-finals before wrestling back and earning a 4th place.
The Broncos also cleaned up with All-League and All-County selections. Sophomore Hunter Morton (160) went undefeated, 13–0, and collected 1st Team All-League and Honorable Mention All-County honors.
Martinez and Kostantas were also both 1st Team All-League for the third time in their careers. Martinez was 3rd Team All-County for the second consecutive year. Kostantas was 2nd Team All-County for the second consecutive year as well.
Kostantas also became the 13th wrestler in Pascack Hills wrestling history to secure 100 wins as he finished his career with 101, while Martinez finished with 98. Both win totals would have landed higher if not for the abbreviated season.
Second-Team All-League and Honorable Mention All-County selections were Cahill, Murillo, David West (170), Tyler Duffy (182) and Alejandro Camarena (220). Seniors Peter Torre (132) was Honorable Mention All-League. Nick Ardizone (285) was Honorable Mention All-League and All-County.
In all, 10 of 14 starters earned awards, showing the tough, balanced lineup coming out of the small school in Montvale.
Bucco said, “It would have been easy to have lost sight of our individual and team goals during a season like this. There were a lot of distractions and a lot of things out of our control, but this group worked their tails off. We had the philosophy that every practice or match might have been our last and we weren’t going to have any regrets about the way we worked and how much we cared.”
He shouted out to his assistant coaches, Jim Freeman and Kevin Moran, and his volunteer coaches: Mike Worthington, Trent Freeman and Brian Schneider.
He also expressed gratitude to his seniors and their families for their dedication over the past four seasons.
“This group went 71–19 over their four years and had helped win a Big North league title last year before winning County Small School Team of the Year this year. It’s the first time in 31 years of this tradition-rich program that we were able to have two consecutive championship seasons,” he said.
Rounding out the starting lineup were sophomores Matt Daniels (106), Athan Stamis (113) and Christian Funke (145). Juniors Sharbel Nicolas (132/138), Michael Frangos (132/138) and Ryan Baudisch (152) also were varsity starters for the second consecutive year.
The Broncos also finished in the top eight for all public schools in both the Record North Jersey wrestling rankings and in the NJ.com Big North rankings.
Although the team is graduating a stellar senior class, Bucco says he’s confident that the team will be at a championship level again next season.
He called out a tough schedule lined up between two elite tournaments to start the year at Delaware Valley and the Sam Cali Invitational.
“We are competing, like usual, against all the bigger premiere public schools in our area plus schools out of the area like Ocean, Kittatinny, Roxbury and Montville,” he said.
He added, “We also finally were able to get our match against Emerson/Park Ridge and we were most likely the smallest school selected for the Big North Duals, which is between all of the best public schools in the Big North conference.”
— Staff-revised submission by Pascack Hills head coach Dave Bucco