On February 17, 2016

Rutland High School wrestlers to compete at state meets

Courtesy of Kim Peters

RHS ninth grader Casey Coughlin wins a match.

By Kim Peters

Rutland High School freshman wrestlers, Mark Napolitano, Jr., Casey Coughlin and Hunter Cameron, will participate in the JV State Tournament at Spaulding High School this upcoming Saturday, Feb. 20. Dakota Peters, also a freshman but wrestling on the Varsity level, will have to wait until the following weekend to wrestle at Varsity States which is at Mill River High School. 

Head Coach Matt Tuscano is excited to take the JV boys to states and believes they will place well. “All three boys have had constant improvement this year wrestling in over 25 matches each,” he said. “They have bought into the training program and have realized that the harder they work, the better the results will be.”

Tuscano is specifically impressed with Hunter and Casey who had never wrestled before this season. “The first time a wrestler steps on the mat for their very first match I know the anxiety they feel, and for these two wrestlers there was lots of nerves! Luckily a month into the season both boys, Hunter (weight class 145) and Casey (weight class 138) were able to control their nerves and both placed second in the JV Mt. Abe invitational.”

The sport of wrestling is not like other team sports, it is just the athlete and their opponent on a mat. The win will be decided by each individual, not a teammate or even a coach. As an athlete you cannot blame others for your loss, the wrestler is solely responsible for the outcome.  Rutland only has four wrestlers, which makes practices a challenge at times due to wrestling partners.

Late in the season, Ethan Woodberry, a seventh grader saw an article on Dakota Peters, who had recently won the Otter Valley tournament. He was inspired by the Rutland club team and has been coming to practices since. Coach Matt Tuscano is interested in starting a youth program and/or a middle school program, so that others like Woodberry can begin wrestling sooner and be a feeder program to the high school team.

Head Coach Matt Tuscano has been involved in the sport of wrestling for over 20 years and was a state champion, himself, at Fair Haven. He continued his wrestling career for University of Southern Maine for four years. Tuscano puts in over 12 hours of coaching a week, not including the 10-hour wrestling meets on the weekend. His dedication and passion for the sport of wrestling and his wrestlers is apparent when he is coaching on the sideline.

Do you want to submit feedback to the editor?

Send Us An Email!

Related Posts

Weather impacts Killington mid-week skiing

May 8, 2025
Killington Resort planned on keeping its lifts running during the week until May 11 (then weekends only), but rain and warm temps over the last several days have taken a serious toll on its snowpack. Therefore, Killington Resort will be closed Thursday, May 8, and Friday, May 9, to preserve what they have left and…

How Killington became The Beast: Part 9

May 7, 2025
Snow, summer, and snowshed: 1960 saw fast progress How Killington became The Beast: Part 9 By Karen D. Lorentz Editor’s Note: This is the ninth segment of an 11-part series on the factors that enabled Killington to become The Beast of the East. Quotations are from author interviews in the 1980s for the book “Killington,…

Burke Mountain Resort is sold for $11.5 million

May 7, 2025
By Habib Sabet/VTDigger A federal judge has signed off on the sale of Burke Mountain Resort for $11.5 million, releasing the Northeast Kingdom ski mountain from nearly a decade of federal receivership.  Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued the order in U.S. District Court in Miami formally approving the sale of Burke Mountain to Bear Den Partners LLC, a…

How Killington became The Beast: Part 8

April 30, 2025
By Karen D. Lorentz Editors’ Note: This is part of a series on the factors that enabled Killington to become the Beast of the East. Quotations are from author interviews conducted in the 1980s for the book Killington, A Story of Mountains and Men. Recapping this series, we have seen how Pres Smith, inspired by…