*Next Meeting:  Tuesday, Dec 6th, 2011 @ 7:30pm in the Mall Area of VHS
(Future meetings:  12/6)

Please join us as we make plans for the upcoming Wrestling season which includes football concession stand duties, team clothing, program promotions, and fundraising.  Parent participation is essential to enhance our wrestling program!  Future meetings will be held at VHS on the first Tuesday of each month @ 7:30 pm in the Mall Area.  All are encouraged  to attend and contribute.  Get involved in your son's athletic experience.

Click below for more information on the  Voorhees Wrestling Booster Club

Booster Blog

Week of January 17th-22nd  Well this week's action started off with a tough, tough loss by the Varsity team to county rival, North Hunterdon. Although closely contested, the team fell just short of the much desired victory. The JV team was able to continue their winning ways however, and pulled out a close victory of 28-24. Great effort guys!   Varsity went back to their winning ways as they strolled on into East Brunswick HS on Saturday and swept a quad match versus host East Brunswick, Piscataway and Bridgewater-Raritan.  Each dual was won by no less than 22 points. Very dominant performance to say the least. My favorite moment of the trip to East Brunswick was the unselfish performance by Tim Zehnbauer during a JV match .  He was asked to wrestle a special needs student from East Brunswick and being the type of person that he is, Tim let the young man not only score on him, but ultimately win the match, giving up only his second loss of the season. The smile on the young man's face was priceless and brought a tear to my eye.  Way to go Tim! That's a true team player.

Week of January 24th-29th  Well this week has been a bust so far as Ol' Man Winter reared his ugly head once again. Our matches against North Plainfield and Belvidere have been cancelled due to our weekly snow storm. Oh the challenges of living in the North.  Hopefully we'll be able to get them rescheduled before the season ends. Keep your fingers crossed that the snow stays away for our quad match at Warren Hills on Saturday. Keep you posted!  Soooo...To fill you in on Saturday's results, all I can say is Wow, Wow and Wow! Talk about nail biters. The Vikes pulled out 3 Victories and it took the WHOLE team to do it. From the coaches doing a great job on the match up's to the wrestler's digging deep to pull out the victories. Just a great TEAM effort! First up was St. Joseph's and what a tough team that was. The score was tied at the end 28-28 and Voorhees won the match based on the criteria of most matches won, 8-6. Although this was definitely a team effort, one of the key matches was brand new wrestler Josh Hausler pulling out a victory at 135. The guts and determination of this young wrestler is fantastic. He is not afraid to go out there and fight to the bitter end. He never gives up, just goes out there on the mat and does what he is told to do. Great Job Josh!  Our next match was against another tough opponent in Roselle Park, who's record was 13-3 coming into our match. Again, another great team effort and another one point victory, 31-30. You guys have to stop with the close ones. You're going to give us fans ulcers! Bonus points came in handy with this match. Roselle Park had the edge in pins, 3-2, but we had 2 technical falls which made the difference. We split the matches 7-7 so if the final score had been a tie and had to come down to criteria, Roselle Park would have won based on number of pins.  Great job by Steven Baker, Thomas Beishke, Tyler Yarnell & Jordan Juliano for holding there own against very tough opponents and giving Roselle Park only 3 point decisions in their respective matches.  Not giving up bonus points was huge in this match.  Our last match of the day was against host Warren Hills and wasn't quite as close as the previous two matches, with Voorhees winning 42-19. The Vikes gave their fans a break from the tension by showing their dominance during this match, which we appreciated. Just some great all around wrestling by the whole team. Special mention goes to Nick Ruggiero for getting his much deserved 1st Varsity Victory! After facing two tough, undefeated opponents in the previous matches, he still had the strength and determination to pull out a win over a tough Warren Hills wrestler. All the hard work and conditioning has finally paid off for him. Great job Nick!  Congratulations to the entire team and coaching staff on a job VERY well done!  To steal a  phrase from my softball team, "I LOVE OUR TEAM!".  The Vikings are now 16-3 and are looking ahead to another tough week of wrestling as we face Somerville and Hunterdon Central, as well as another tough quad on Saturday 2/5 against some regional opponents. Good Luck Vikes!

Week of January 31st-Feb 5th  On Monday, our JV team had an outstanding showing against Somerville. Although they lost 36-33, the meet came right down to the wire with lots of great individual efforts.  Great job by Dylan Raposo grinding out a 5-4 victory and Charlie Shea, battling back and forth and finally coming away with a pin. Cody Ihling, Emilio Guevara, Nick Ruggiero and Jesse Ryder all had pins as well. Kudos to Michael Muscatello who just wanted to wrestle. He was willing to wrestle up 2 weight classes just to get a match and although he wasn't quite able to pull out the victory, he put up a great effort. I must say the future of our Varsity Vikings looks very promising.  Speaking of the Varsity team, they continued their winning ways as they defeated a tough Somerville team 39-30. Another great TEAM effort. Although we won nine of the fourteen matches, the score was very close as Somerville scored pins in all five of their victories. However, we returned the favor by scoring 4 pins of our own to offset their bonus points. Great job to Ronnie, Tyler, Jadaen and of course Zack (who only knows how to win by pinning). Keep racking up those pledges to go along with the pins guys, so we can provide a big check to the Hunterdon County Special Olympics, this years recipient of our Pinning 4 a Purpose cause. Although the entire team had a great meet against Somerville, my personal favorite (and hopefully many of the fans, although I might be a tiny bit biased on this one) was Chris Davis' sudden death overtime victory against a very tough Somerville opponent (Thanks for the birthday present, Chris). Although the two were very closely matched, I truly believe the conditioning our coaches have put the team through this year played a big part in this victory. Chris looked like he could go another 6 minutes. He was very patient throughout the match and finally got the right moment to get the winning takedown. It was a hard fought battle. Great job to Chris and the entire team! Another exciting night for us fans to say the least. As I've said before "I LOVE OUR TEAM!" 

Next up: Hunterdon Central on Thursday 2/3. The way these guys are wrestling, with tremendous confidence and guts, I'm thinking the Red Devils are going to have their hands full. Good Luck Vikes!

Soooooo, we met up against another county rival, Hunterdon Central, and once again fell just short of a victory, losing 32-23. Such a hard fought battle. Our guys left everything they had out on the mat but some clever match ups by Central coaches paid off and they came away the winner. Voorhees had the lead at various times in the match and I know we had the Red Devils shaking in their boots. I'm sure they were thinking: "why won't these pesky Vikings go away". 'Cause we battle to the very end, that's why! Although 3 of our 4 team losses are to our Hunterdon County rivals, we lost each of those matches by 10 points or less. On a different day, the outcomes could have been in our favor.  On the bright side, our JV team continued their winnings ways as they defeated the Central JV team 39-21. Outstanding effort by the young team and once again showing what the future of Voorhees wrestling is all about. By the way,  "I LOVE OUR TEAM!"

Saturday 2/5 - Vikings Return To Their Winning Ways! You can knock us down, but you can't keep us down! Voorhees jumped right back up and pulled out 3 impressive wins against Region 5 opponents. The day started with a tough battle against Sayreville which the Vikes pulled out by winning the final 2 bouts, final score 43-30. Steven Baker joined the Hammer Head Club by sticking his 10th pin of the season and sealing the deal in this victory. Next up was Old Bridge, another closely contested match with Voorhees pulling out our 2nd victory of the day, winning by a score of 38-28.  Great all around effort by the entire team. Our 3rd and final match of the day was against Perth Amboy and was a rather decisive victory, winning 46-19. Although the score doesn't really indicate it, there were actually some hard fought battles in this match. Some of our boys really gutted out some victories in this one. Special mention goes to Jadaen Bernstein for an outstanding showing of composure against a rather aggressive, unsportsmanlike opponent. Jadean kept his cool when things got heated at times and pulled out a 15-3 major decision. Great job Jadean. You made the Vikings fans proud! So we ended the week on high note and brought our record to an outstanding 20-4! For a little bit of trivia, this is the first time since 1988 that Voorhees has had a 20 win season! And we are not done yet. Go Vikes!  Have I ever mentioned that "I LOVE OUR TEAM!"

JV Tournament @ Somerville - What a great day for the Junior Varsity team. The following summary is from a father that attended the tournament and had a great way of recapping the entire day. Thanks for the input Mike. We can certainly tell your enthusiasm for this young team and the future of Voorhees wrestling: 

The boys as a whole wrestled amazing. They all represented Voorhees wrestling so well. The boys (young men) showed maximum effort, determination and a will to win. This is a symbol of the training and teaching of the great JV Coaches. Special thanks should be given to Coach Kurtz, Coach Yarnell, Coach Van Doren, Brian Erdek and Vinnie Peoni, . The boys love them and  appreciate all of their efforts throughout this season.

As for the wrestling, many great matches were had by all of the boys. Examples: Nick Sarnelli (9th grader) getting his first pin ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (in his last match of the season). Mike Muscatello (9th grader) winning his wrestleback match with a reversal with 5 seconds left in the match. Taz Salvetti (9th grader) winning his first match of the day in quadruple overtime! These are just a few of the great matches we watched. Voorhees put (4) wrestlers in the finals. Cody Ihling (9th grader) finished 1st with (3) pins. Max Lamport (11th grader, 1st year wrestler) finished 1st with (3) pins. David Becton (9th grader) finished 2nd. Conner Heft (9th grader) finished 2nd with (3) pins. Nick Ruggeiro (10th grader) finished 3rd.

Voorhees had (20) wrestlers in this event and everyone of them should have their heads held high as they all performed great. They are the future of Voorhees wrestling. The other Hunterdon County teams had better watch out as they are going to have to face them again in the future. I also think it’s about time that someone also acknowledge the hard work and efforts of all of the parents, families and friends who have worked so hard to support this team. I, for one, think this is an amazing group of people. Thank you all so much!!!

Next up: Monday 2/7, Sectionals @ Somerville, 7:00 pm. Come root the team on to another victory!

Week of Feb 7th-Feb 12th VIKINGS ROCK!!!! If you didn't make it out to see the first round of sectionals at Somerville, you missed one heck of a match. The Pioneers of Somerville tried to mix up their line up to defeat the ever improving Vikings, but to no avail! Voorhees put on a more dominant performance than the week before and knocked the socks off of Somerville with a convincing 43-26 victory. Steven Baker got us started with a 5-0 victory and then Nick Bonavito kicked it up a notch with an exciting back and forth match that culminated with a pin for Nick! That was a huge victory for the Vikings and we never looked back. We followed Nick's pin with 2 more pins by Jadaen and Zack and a major by Brian. Tyler gets a forfeit for 6 more points and Christian battled once again to a 1-0 victory. Thomas Beishke learned from last week when he faced a top wrestler at 119 pounds and this time was able to avoid the pin. He dug deep and fought so hard for 6 minutes that the Somerville kid was only able to walk away with a 4 point major decision. Way to save bonus points Thomas! Chris Davis was able to secure the team victory with an 8-3 decision against one of Somerville's best wrestlers at 125 pounds After that victory, even with 3 bouts remaining, mathematically Somerville couldn't beat us. Ronnie put the finishing touches on the night with one of his patented pins. In case you didn't know this: "I LOVE OUR TEAM!"

Next up: Wed 2/9 - Sectional Semi-Finals at Del Val High School - Come make some noise for the Vikes! WE CAN BEAT THIS TEAM!

Update:  Well, once again we fell short of a victory against our Hunterdon County Rival, Del Val, losing 45-22. Although the score appears as if it was a blow out it really wasn't. Four matches were won by Del Val by one point. If those 4 matches had gone in our favor and we had received the 12 team points, Voorhees would have won the match. Great battling by our boys! You made us very proud! No matter what, "I LOVE OUR TEAM".    Next up: Friday 2/11, Final Home Match vs North Plainfield.                                       

Fri 2/11/11 - Voorhees vs. North Plainfield - Final dual meet of the season, final home match of the year and final home match EVER for our seniors who were honored tonight in a nice ceremony prior to the varsity match. Congratulations to our graduating seniors: Nick & Caitlyn Pellicane, Nick Bonavito, Zack Bohn, Brian Guevara and Christopher Davis. You will be greatly missed. Good luck with your higher education!  Now, as for the match, once again the Vikes rebound from a loss to provide us fans with a dominant performance over North Plainfield. Final score 55-9. Just a great all-around effort by the entire team!  So ends our fabulous dual meet season with an outstanding record of 22-5. Our 22 victories ties an all time record for wins. The last time the Vikes had 22 wins was the 1986-87 season when they went 22-0 and went on to win the state championship. A huge congratulations to first year head coach Eric Hall and his coaching staff on such a successful season. What a great turn-a-round from seasons past. I can only imagine what you are going to accomplish in the not so distant future. I foresee some state championships coming our way!  Oh yeah, last but not least, I LOVE OUR TEAM!!!!!

Good Luck to all the wrestlers as we enter into the individual portion of the post season. The  District  Championships start this Friday, 2/18 at Hunterdon Central. Come support our Vikes!

Week of Feb 14th-Feb 19thFirst off, Happy Birthday to Coach Hall who celebrated a birthday this week. He got a nice little present when he was named "Coach of the Year" for District 17. Coach Hall has turned that around to call it "Coaching Staff of the Year" and they all definitely deserve the honor. What a great job they have done turning this team around in just one year. I mean to match the total number of wins EVER for Voorhees Wrestling is just amazing. Congrats to ALL the coaches!

Now to the wrestling. After working all week preparing for the District 17 Championships which started Friday night, the Vikings were ready to face the challenge. And boy they did not disappoint! We advanced seven wrestlers to day 2 and although not everyone made it to the semi-finals, there was still some great wrestling by our guys. Josh Hausler won his first round and although he succumbed in the next round to the #1 seed and eventual winner, how many kids can say, "I started wrestling 3 months ago and already have a District win". Not many I assure you. Congrats to Josh for a great season. We can't wait to see you next year! Thomas Beishke was another one with a great match. He had the #2 seed a little nervous as he got within one point of pulling out a victory. Very exciting match. Great job this year Thomas!  Walter lost a tough battle against a Hunterdon Central opponent by a score of 3-4. Walter had a great season with a final record of 20-9. Christian had a rematch of an opponent from Princeton that beat him earlier in the season and unfortunately came out on the short end of the stick once again with the exact same score, 1-3. A tough, tough battle against a District place winner from last year. Christian had a fantastic freshman season finishing with a 21-11  record. Jordan Juliano faced the #1 seed in the tournament and although he was unable to pull off the upset, he gained lots of valuable experience just by being in the tournament. Jordan being another brand new wrestler like Josh, with only 3 months of experience, shows a lot of promise for the future. Congrats on your first wrestling season ever! Keep up the great work. Nick Ruggiero had a great match against the #1 seed and even had the guy on his back for a second. Even though in the end, that match didn't go his way, he too gained valuable varsity experience that will carry over to next season where I see big things happening for Nick. Chet Stivers faced a tough opponent in the #2 seed from Hopewell Valley and although things didn't go his way this time, I see great things ahead for Chet during his senior campaign. He improved so much from last year to this year and although he wasn't really a true heavyweight, he did a fine job in the position considering he very often gave up as much as 40 pounds to his opponent.

Now for the winners on day one of the Districts: Tyler, Chris, Ronnie, Steven, Jadaen, Zack and Brian all advanced to the semi-finals on Saturday. On Saturday, we had 5 of the 7 wrestlers make it into to finals with 4 eventual champions and one second place. In the semi-finals, Tyler faced #1 seed, senior wrestler from Del Val, Cody Barbiche.  To be continued........Sorry ran out of time.