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DALLAS — Six Pennsylvania state champions, four National Prep champions, numerous state medalists and several state qualifiers all in the same wrestling room.
Sounds like something that’s too good to be true.
But it’s not. This powerful group all met on Wednesday at Dallas High School’s wrestling room and are all on the same team.
Local wrestling enthusiast and heralded coach Jack Davis, who has mentored hundreds of wrestlers from high school up to the Division I collegiate level, has put together this stunning team that will head to Orlando, Fla. on Friday to participate in the Middle Atlantic Wrestling Association (MAWA) AAU Scholastic Disney Duals in Orlando at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex which begins on Sunday.
“This is a stud group, man. This is a good group. I’m enjoying this one. I’m like a kid in a candy store with this one,” said Davis, who is in his second year of coaching this team.
Last year, the developmental team, which doesn’t have any state medalists, won the tournament. In 2014, the All-Star Division, consisting of only state place-winners, finished fourth in the elite tournament.
The studs are countless and highlighted by six state champions and four national prep champions. Among the PIAA Champions competing on the All-Star team are Southern Columbia’s Kent Lane, Mifflinburg’s Cole Walter and state runner-up from Stroudsburg Jake Jakobsen.
“If somebody’s gonna beat us, they’re gonna have some good kids,” Davis said.
Not to be discounted by any means, National Prep Champions from Wyoming Seminary Chris Weiler and Mike Rogers, who recently wrestled in the Junior Pan American Games, are making the trip to Disney World for the prestigious event as Davis has built the team by going to state and national events in hopes of bringing home a national title.
“Rogers and Weiler, we’re really happy to have some of the Sem kids join our program,” Davis said. “They have a lot of experience that’s why they’re at Seminary, they want to step it up a notch.”
There aren’t just prolific wrestlers from other parts of the state on the team. Some of the top grapplers from the Wyoming Valley Conference are participating as well. Hazleton Area’s state qualifiers Jimmy Hoffman and Derek Spachman and Lake-Lehman’s state qualifier RJ Driscoll join the developmental team. Dallas’ Xavier Barber, who won two matches at the Class 3A Northeast Regional and Wyoming Seminary’s Aaron Kliamovich are other locals on the team.
Driscoll was on the developmental team last year and returns for another shot at glory. When he went to Disney last year, it was the first time he had ever been to the area, and the experience there helped him improve his skills and qualify for the Class 2A PIAA Championships for the first time in his career as a sophomore.
“It woke me up a little bit with the tougher competition, the better competition,” Driscoll said. “There was a lot of good competition, good teammates on the team too.”
Davis was assistant at Lake-Lehman for a few years before this past season and was instrumental is recruiting Driscoll for the team. Now, Driscoll is anxiously awaiting for a return trip to Disney and looking to get even better, especially being on the same team and in the same room with many high-profile wrestlers.
“It’s amazing. The competition we have is probably the best in the country,” Driscoll said. “It’s great.”
While many of the wrestlers working out at Dallas High School this week have selected colleges to continue their careers, many have not yet. An added bonus for those who haven’t made their decisions was the presence of Division I college coaches watching the five sessions looking for the next good fit for their teams. Coaches from Pittsburgh, Maryland, Lehigh, Princeton, Buffalo, Columbia, North Carolina State, Central Michigan and Bloomsburg have been in and out of the practices.
“When you’re getting down now to kids being recruited, they’re watching a kid warm up. They’re watching a kid how he takes a loss, how he reacts on the bench. How he wrestles, if he’s down by four, how did he do,” said Davis, who is former coach at Division I Clarion. “They’re all little things, because right now the cost of going to school is so much that if a kid is going to get $100,000 of athletic aid, these coaches want to make sure they got every T crossed and I dotted. That’s important.”