Hampton Bays Wrestling Is Battling Through an Excessively Competitive League VII

Prior to the season, there was a discussion among Suffolk County Division II wrestling coaches about how the leagues would be determined.

The two options were based on population, or school enrollment, numbers, which is typically how it’s done, or by power ranking. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was wrestling, leagues were determined by power rankings to determine place within the league for scheduling purposes, and it seemed to go in the Hampton Bays wrestling team’s favor, being that it would wrestle programs closer to its size.

With his program rebuilding, Hampton Bays head coach Mike Lloyd raised his concerns to fellow coaches in the division on how putting the leagues back together based on enrollment would hurt his team’s ability to rebuild, but those concerns fell on deaf ears. The coaches voted to return to the traditional method of using enrollment numbers and thus the Baymen compete in a stacked League VII this season along with Bayport-Blue Point, Elwood-John Glenn, Mount Sinai and Shoreham-Wading River, all teams that perennially not only compete at the county level but the state level as well.

That has led to the lesser experienced Baymen this season going through some growing pains as the season moves along.

“While having a stacked league schedule isn’t optimal, we’ve used the opportunity to mix in some other nonleague competition and tournaments that are a better fit competition-wise,” Lloyd said.

The Cory Hubbard Duals at Westhampton Beach on Saturday were far from easy, hosting some of the top teams in the county, such as Patchogue-Medford, Bellport, Miller Place and Sayville, teams that placed first through fourth, respectively, at this year’s tournament. East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton and Newfield also competed along with the Baymen, who eventually finished eighth.

“We knew going into the tournament that it was going to be tough, but we’ve continued to motivate the team to take every match as a learning opportunity,” Lloyd said. “Despite the losses we had several individual matches where our team showed improvement and situations where a decision or pin really could have gone either way.”

The Baymen will host their final League VII dual meet of the season this Thursday, January 12, against Bayport at 4:30 p.m. and then will compete in a tournament at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip on Saturday. Then comes the aforementioned “better fit” matches Lloyd had referred to, nonleagues against Comsewogue, West Islip and Riverhead on January 17, 19 and 25, respectively, before finishing off the regular season in a tournament at Port Jefferson on January 28.