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The Mo-Town Grapplers were out in force at the Kutztown TNT camp this week. We had 14 wrestlers at the 4 day team competition who competed over matches against some top kids from NY, NJ, and PA.

One of four middle schoolers taking the MVP honors for the week was Chris "Charles in Charge" Forte who wrestled well competing in 12 matches against middle school kids and several high schoolers. Kurt "The Komplainer" Ferdenzi and Kyle "Mommas Boy" Allison also picked up some extra matches wrestling well against several high school wrestlers.

Derek "What Time is It?" Campbell, Davin "The Hairbrush" Tranfield, and Aaron "My Eyes are too Big for My Stomach" Flitcroft moved up from the elementary division and wrestled well against the older and sometimes heavier, middle school wrestlers.

Our middle schoolers Tyrell "Shug" (Sugar)" Lansing, Tramer "Holiday Inn" Howell, Frank "Cheese Grater" Crippen, Erin "Condo" Tranfield, Darren "The Ice Man" Prado, Nelson "Order Out" Hernandez, and Matt "Quiet Man" Williams all wrestled against some great competition.

Dylan "I Got Hair" Allison rounded out the group, wrestling with the elementary group because we could not find any 50 pound high school kids to put him up against.

Receiving other awards at camp was Kurt and Kyle who won the messy room award - we didn't see the floor until they checked out at 11:00 am on Sun. The smelly room award went to Darren, Tyrell, and Nelson - the Chinese food that was ordered on Thurs. was found in the room at clean-up on Sun.

Our kids learned a lot with 10 hours of instruction over the four day camp. Everyone had a great time including roommates Coach Frank and Coach Vin who had to suffer though hot rooms, plastic mattresses that squeaked every-time you moved, trying to motivate sleepy, sore kids to wrestle, and knocks on our door to solve problems during the middle of the night.

A special thanks to Chris Marshall for coaching our kids and finding extra matches for many of our 8th graders.

Editor's Note: This information was sent via email from Paul Rabinowitz.

Darren with wrestling Hall of Famer Wade Schalles. Wade is Chris Marshall's adopted dad. Wade instructs and critiques the coaches at the Grundy camp. He does not instruct the kids directly. Wade's son Jake took second at the Florida States (OT loss) wrestling for Oviedo HS. He will be a senior this year and was also at the camp.

Last month I received a call from Chris Marshall asking me if Darren would be interested in joining him, his brother Jake and his father, Wade Schalles and 50 high school wrestlers at an exclusive one week wrestling camp in Grundy, Virginia. My reaction was where???

Chris answered, Grundy, Virginia...as if I should know what that meant. So for the past month I have been doing my homework in an attempt to understand (and to explain to my wife) where we are sending our son for a week and why Chris would say that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that he himself had the privilege of experiencing for the 4 years that he was a high school student in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Click to read the entire email...>>

Congratulations to the combined Mo-Town Grapplers Club & Iron Horse (Iron Grapplers Team) who exceeded expectations yesterday at the Premier Club Duals Tournament in Saddlebrook!

Click to enlarge picture.

The Mo-Town Grapplers Club joined forces with the Iron Horse team to create a solid lineup from top to bottom. The Iron Grapplers won three of five duals on the day, beating Rhino (46-6), Long Branch (47-9) and Advantage (51-9). In our fourth dual of the day The Extreme Wrestling Team, made up of state place winners mostly from Pascak Hills, beat us 48-18. In the final dual match of the day we lost a close match to a very tough Premier Team (30-12).

The 3-2 record sealed a third place win for The Iron Grapplers, and all of our wrestlers received medals.

This was a very tough tournament and allowed our wrestlers to go head on against some of the best year round wrestlers in the state of New Jersey. Although there were a few losses, each match gave our wrestlers an opportunity to try new things and to re-enforce their technique. We are all very proud of them.

A huge thanks to Vin Forte and Bill Botro (Iron Horse), who put in a long day coaching our kids. Thanks to Carla Campbell who made sure that all of our kids had rides.

Congratulations to Robbinsville Tournament Finishers

Congratulations to the Grapplers who attended the Robbinsville Middle School & High School Tournament. All our wrestlers who attended this tournament placed.

Darren Dungee - 2nd place - he wrestled very well in his 1st HS tourney
Kurt Ferdenzi - 3rd place - he wrestled very well against some tough middle schoolers
Chris Forte - 1st place - dominated his bracket

Congratulations also to the former Grapplers who wrestled in the HS division
Aaron Velasquez took 3rd
Casey Flynn took 2nd
Chris Lloyd took 2nd

Congratulations to the Long Valley Wolf Pack Tournament participants

Guy Bock, Derek Campbell, Drew Chilson, Kurt Ferdenzi, Aaron Flitcroft, Chris Forte, Brayan Hernandez, Davin Tranfield, and Erin Tranfield.

Parsippany PAL
1st Place - Darren Rabinowitz, Xavier Rivera
2nd Place - Derek Campbell, Chris Forte
3rd Place - Darren Dungee
4th Place - Chase Champi
Other Participants - Aaron Flitcroft and Chris Novarro

Greco Roman and Freestyle Wrestling

The 2007 NJ Freestyle & Greco Roman wrestling season kicked off with a Greco Roman clinic (Sat) and FR/GR tournament (Sun) at Brick Memorial HS. Both Darren Rabinowitz and Aaron V competed in both styles in the Cadet Division (born 1991 & 1992).

Darren shown here wrestling Greco Roman vs. New Jersey State Qualifier, David Standridge. Darren took third in the Greco Roman Division.

Aaron pinning his opponent from Hunterdon Central. Aaron went on to take first in the Freestyle Division.

Darren Rabinowitz showed that he learned a lot in a short time in Greco by winning his first match. In his next two matches he got a "welcome" into the world of high school wrestling as he went up against NJ state HS qualifier David Standridge and Fargo Greco All-American Taylor Walsh. Although he did not win these matches, Darren had a very good day and placed 3rd in both Greco & Freestyle. This tourney was a great opportunity for kids still in middle school to test their skills against some of the best HS freshman & sophomores in the NJ. The weights were all Madison system and with Darren wrestling at 120 in Greco and 126 in Freestyle- he had his work cut out. Congrats to Darren for stepping to the challenge and holding his own. Darren wrestled six matches on the day.

Former Grappler, Aaron Velasquez wrestled 144 in both Greco and Freestyle. Aaron gave up a few points in his opening match then turned it on winning the opening period and later pinning his opponent. He gained a measure of "revenge" as this was the kid that beat him 4-2 two weeks ago in the Cadet state finals. Aaron took 2nd in Greco losing to a very good Blair kid in the final. In Freestyle he lost the 1st period in his first bout 4-1. In the 2nd period he hit a nice arm drag which caught his opponent by surprise. Aaron turned him for the fall. This was another good win as he beat a kid from Hunterdon Central who beat him twice last year - once in the kid’s state qualifiers and again in the NJ state consolation semis. Aaron then pinned his final opponent to win his weight in Freestyle. Aaron wrestled 5 matches on the day.