Detore Sees Bright Future in What Is a Young but Talented Westhampton Beach Wrestling Team

The COVID-19 pandemic affected all high school sports — but none, possibly, more than wrestling.

Although the sport proved it was one of the safest sports during the pandemic due to how meticulous it is about cleanliness — and Westhampton Beach wrestlers were at the forefront of that when the sport returned for a truncated season in early 2021 — parents and student-athletes seemed to be hesitant to jump right back into the sport in the wake of it all. And since wrestling doesn’t have a huge travel league aspect to it like baseball, basketball and soccer, at least not on the East End, it’s up to the local school districts to provide kid wrestling programs that have been largely shut down until this year.

“We’re seeing a clear distinction early this season who has been committed to the sport through the pandemic and who hasn’t,” Westhampton Beach head coach Pete DeTore said. “There are some kids who took years off, most of which were at the middle school when you’re really learning what the sport is all about, how it’s scored and all of that. And with just absolutely no kid wrestling to speak of, we have a lot of work to do of catching a lot these new wrestlers up.

“But it’s not just our wrestlers, it’s everyone really,” he added. “I think we’re young, but I also think we have some of the hardest working and most respectful kids out there. Our future is looking great. We’re strong right now in the heavier weights, the lower weights look good for the next couple of years.”

In addition to graduating a talented senior class — five of the six Hurricane wrestlers that reached counties last season included seniors Luke Citarelli, Randy Cabrera, Connor Gormley, Aidan McKeon, the team’s lone league champion last season in Dom Jurgel, and Mike Hempfling — and the Westhampton Beach wrestling program is, for the first time in quite some time, rebuilding. But that’s not to say the ’Canes won’t be competitive — even during some of their leanest years in the past, they have been able to surprise some teams and steal some wins here and there.

And this past Saturday, at the 44th annual Sprig Gardner Tournament in East Hampton, Westhampton Beach proved it can be competitive by placing fourth out of the seven teams. Senior Sal Fracapane, the only returning wrestler from last season who competed at counties, won the 172-pound weight class. Joe Carasiti, a sophomore up from junior varsity, also won his weight class (152 pounds) at the Sprig Gardner, showing just how bright a future the ’Canes have in general.

Westhampton Beach had a handful of placewinners, including second-place finishes by Juliet Barnabee (118) and Bobby Stabile (132), third-place finishes by Finn McIntyre (118), Ryan Baynon (126) and Nate Brandi (132), a fourth-place finish by Lukas Rahbari (138) and fifth-place finishes by Jack Otto (102), Dylan Specht (145), George Ostensen (152), Bruno Maffei (160) and Thomas Machin (285).

“It was actually a really good tournament. Many of our wrestlers had between four to five matches on the day, which is awesome for us as a young team,” DeTore said. “A lot of our new wrestlers need those kind of matches early in the season. After being in the wrestling room together for the first few weeks, it’s good to get them a different look out there. At most tournaments, you have two losses and you’re off the mat right away for the rest of the day. We had one freshman on Saturday who looked completely different from start of the day to the end of the day, which again, is great to see because that might normally take a few tournaments to get to that point, so the tournament provided that for our wrestlers, to gain that mat time which is really hard to get this time of year.”

Just about everyone that placed at the Sprig Gardner Tournament is expecting to be key wrestlers for the ’Canes this season. Fracapane, Stabile, Brandi, McIntyre, Baynon, all got some good varsity experience last season. Barnabee, who is the first girl on the varsity team since Sara Bonilla over 10 years ago, DeTore said, is returning from a back injury that kept her out of the sport for a prolonged period of time, but is looking like she will be battling for a starting spot at 118 with McIntyre.

One thing that DeTore would like to do is spread some of his top wrestlers out if he could. Like Barnabee and McIntyre at 118, DeTore also has both Stabile and Brandi at 132, and a few other similar situations throughout the lineup that he hopes will work themselves out as the season moves along.

Westhampton Beach will compete this season in a highly competitive League V that includes Comsewogue, Eastport-South Manor, East Islip, Hauppauge, Half Hollow Hills West and Rocky Point. East Islip was the top-ranked dual-meet team in the county as of the latest rankings on November 29, and Hauppauge and Rocky Point tend to be one of the strongest teams in the county year in and year out.

But DeTore and his coaching staff that also includes Andrew Petroulias and Connor Miller, among others, will continue to work with their young group and continue the same mantra the program has used in the past.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and that’s going to be key for most of these wrestlers,” DeTore said. “I think the future is really bright, and I’m really excited what the future holds for them.”