Norristown Loses to Owen J. Roberts at District AAA Championship

The Eagles will be still be heading to state.

The Norristown Area High School Eagles will still be heading to state, despite a loss to the Owen J. Roberts Wildcats in District 1 wrestling Saturday night. The Wildcats used a balanced line-up to defeat the Eagles 35-29 in the district AAA championship at host Upper Dublin High School. With the victory, the Wildcats earned a bye in the first round of the state tournament, which they qualified for Friday night with a 47-10 victory over Marple Newtown High in the district semi-finals. With most of their wrestlers sporting bleached blonde hair, a post-season tradition, OJR jumped out to an early lead and held on to defeat the talented Eagles. "It's awesome, and it's the result of a lot of hard work," said Owen J. Roberts head coach Steve …

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Norristown Wrestling Team Heading to State

The Eagles defeated Council Rock North and Spring-Ford High to advance to the championship round.

The Norristown Area High School wrestling team will be taking a trip to the state tournament after advancing to the championship round of the District 1 AAA wrestling tournament Friday with a pair of wins. The Eagles advanced in the quarterfinals of the competition after defeating Council Rock North 37-31. Norristown then defeated Spring-Ford High in the semi-finals with a score of 41-31. The Eagles will take on undefeated Owen J. Roberts for the championship Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. at Upper Dublin High School. Owen J. Roberts received a forfeit from Council Rock South in the opening round before defeating Marple Newtown 47-10. Check back with Norristown Patch for more results.

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N-town Wrestling Has a Plan

The secret to the Eagles success – the Plan.

The core group of veterans on the Norristown Area High School wrestling team has been together for many years. They have gotten to be quite close, whether they liked it or not. Most of these guys have been going to battle with each other since they were potty trained. A few, like Mikey Springer, were still wearing diapers. There was a 4-year-old named Brett Harner; he was the veteran leader because he had a year’s experience. Throw in the likes of Jesse Prante, Shane Springer, Larry Gordon, Brandon Parker, Tyler Letrinko, Casey Kent, and a host of others and there was the making of a lot of mayhem and great wrestling.  Zack Fuentes and Mikey Springer weren’t exactly friends back then. Zack wanted to be with the big boys, but wasn’t tall …

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Norristown Wrestlers Stay Perfect at Home

Senior Night activities were the highlight of the evening.

Wednesday, Jan. 10, was a special night for the nine seniors on Norristown Area High School's Wrestling Team. Parents got flowers, there was a picture cake, there were reporters, there were lots of cameras and a few balloons too. A couple of guys even had cheering sections and some signs.  Most importantly though, was that tonight would be these seniors' last chance to walk on the water. The big blue mat known as "The Ocean" is an absolute beast to set up and put away and the seniors proved that they would be just as beastly. After the celebratory festivities at the beginning of the match, it was time to get down to business with Upper Moreland. The Vikings came into town looking to get a claim to the Suburban One American Title, but …

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Norristown Wrestlers Capture Seven Gold at Blue Mountain

Fuentes records 100th victory; Springer records 150th victory and 112th fall.

The Eagles traveled up to Blue Mountain High School on Saturday. Jan. 07, and wrestled five matches in about five hours. In the end, they brought home seven gold medals. During the fast paced event, junior Zack Fuentes (113) recorded his 100th career victory – a milestone most wrestlers hope to achieve by the end of their high school careers. A short time later, senior Shane Springer (170) recorded his 150th career victory. It was by fall – the 112th of his career. The PIAA State Record for falls is 127 held by Matt Yocco. Taking home gold medals for the Eagles were Zack Fuentes (113), Mike Springer (138), Brett Harner (160), Shane Springer (170), Tyler Letrinko (182), Larry Gordon (195) and Jesse “The Body” Prante (220).  All were 5-0 on …

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Norristown PAL Wrestling Enters 8th Year

The names have changed but the goal is the same.

Eight short years ago the Greater Norristown PAL wrestling team started out. They didn't have mats; they had to borrow them. They didn't have any singlets or t-shirts; they wore leftover LaCross t-shirts and shorts until their singlets finally arrived. What they did have was a handful of kids with guts and determination. That handful of kids from the original team are now helping to power their varsity teams. Some are in college. Marcus Robbins is at Clarion. Dan Gallagher is at Penn. Jim Gallagher is at Albright. Tyree Gardner is at Kutztown. A few current seniors are looking to join their peers soon. Just as some things have changed, some things have stayed the same. The Springer brothers have been replaced by the Avellino brothers. …

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Norristown Pins = Norristown Wins!

Wrestlers use falls as favorite route to victory.

Norristown Area High School has the biggest high school mat in the state and perhaps the country. A 60 ft wide circle has a lot of room to run, but not much room to hide. For the past 10 years or so it has been affectionately known as "The Ocean.”  The 2012 Edition of the Eagles is like a group of assassins, always looking for the pin and they usually get what they want. Mix the skills with the vast open area of the “Ocean” and it spells disastrous outcomes for visiting teams.  Plymouth-Whitemarsh visited a couple of weeks ago and found the water in the “Ocean” quite rough. Norristown recorded 6 pins and 3 forfeits on the way to a 54-21 victory. It actually took longer to put the mat away than to wrestle the match. Recording wins were: …

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'Win Win' is Winning!

Cast, writing and direction – there are no losers in this one.

Tom McCarthy's Win Win is like three movies in one, all of them very good. Well-written, directed and acted, Win Win adds up to a very of-the-moment story of real people struggling with real problems. It's both heart-warming and legitimately funny. The protagonist is a lawyer, and there are several scenes involving high school wrestling, but Win Win isn't really a lawyer movie or a sports movie. The pitch sounds a lot like The Blind Side—stable nuclear family takes in a high school kid from a troubled background who has surprising athletic talent—except the Michael Oher figure is much whiter and skinnier, and the movie ends far away from the NFL Draft.     McCarthy, a character actor who was on The Wire and has appeared in small parts in …

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Norristown Leaves Hershey with Three Medals

PW takes the state championship and Methacton is a finalist at the PIAA State Wrestling Championships in Hershey.

Some that come to compete at Hershey take what they can get, and are happy with that. Plymouth Whitemarsh’s John Michael Studenmeyer took what he wanted—a PIAA AAA State Championship. They say to be "The Man," you gotta beat "The Man." Well, in this case, it was more like “I AM The Man because I said so!” There were no ghosts to chase, no rivals to overcome, no past losses to avenge, just a PIAA gold medal, and the desire to go and take it. And take it Studenmeyer did, with fury. He treated his opponents like they stole something, and when the dust cleared, there was no doubt about who “The Man” was. He mopped up the 171-pound weight like he was Mr. Clean. The PW senior is one of the hardest working wrestlers that I have come across, and …

Norristown Wrestling – 'It's In the Water'

Norrsitown wrestlers win Regional and District 1 Title.

A couple of weeks ago when the Norristown Wrestling Team made it to the PIAA State Duals, I joked to the local wrestling fans, “It's in the water!” Here we are, four weeks later, and Norristown, of all contenders, wins the PIAA Southeast Regional and District 1 Team Titles. Now, people are believing in that water. What makes this title more extraordinary is that Norristown has trained several wrestlers for second-place finisher LaSalle as well. The Norristown Eagles have four native sons, and LaSalle has three Norristown boys all going to states. Several other local wrestlers can attribute at least some of their success to training in Norristown. How does one room produce all that talent? It's in the water, right? Actually, it's in the …

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Brett Wells

11:16 am on Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Coach Springer~All of us at GNPAL are very proud of what these boys have accomplished!   more ›