I (Spencer Stelmach) the new head coach for Lexington wrestling team. As many of you know John Grier, he worked as Gym teacher assistant, security for last 4 years, and was a head coach for wrestling team over 20 years! It a sad news that John got laid-off from his job because of New York State's budget 4201 schools. It was very hard on the boys and me.
Afterward they (wrestlers) did improve their wrestling skills.
Here's our updates since December
12-12-11 Lexington lost to Long Island Lutheran 18-65
132 Christian Maldonado fall @ 3:17
152 Johnavelle Gabriel fall @ 4:23
12-14-11 Lexington lost to Dalton 12-57
113 Steven Ciprian fall @ 4:16
1-5-12 Lexington won over American School for the Deaf 42-12
138 Christian Maldonado fall @ 2:42
147 Delvi Dela Cruz fall @ 1:10
HWT Noel Carino fall @ 3:30
Lexington won over Martin DePorres 48-0
132 Christian Maldonado fall @ 2:46
147 Delvi Dela Cruz fall @ 1:59
HWT Noel Carino fall @ 0:25 sec.
1-13-12 Lexington won over Trinity 36-30
147 Delvi Dela Cruz fall @ 2:29
154 Johnavelle Gabriel fall @ 1:29
162 Angelo Deleon Fernandez fall @ 1:45
Lexington won over Baruch High School 48-6
120 Felix Mercedes fall @ 3:16
1-19-12 Lexington lost to High School Application Communicate 18-35
147 Delvi Dela Cruz fall @ 3:05
HWT Taher Chowdhury fall @ 3:59
1-31-12 Lexington lost to Martin Luther 24-43
147 Delvi Dela Cruz fall @ 1:01
154 Johnavelle Gabriel fall @ 1:26
HWT Taher Chowdhury fall @ 3:21
There are two more matches which will be on February 7th and 9th. State tournament will be on February 11th.
Coach Spencer Stelmach
By Chris Kaftan
It came down to the final bout of the match. Model Secondary School for the Deaf had been leading the entire match, but slowly California School for the Deaf at Fremont cut the deficit. Now Fremont was in the lead 38-33. Whoever won the 138-weight class would win the team championships for their school.
In the red, white and blue singlet was Model’s Diego Trejo. In orange and black was Fremont’s Enrico Harmount. Both were experienced wrestlers and knew the fine arts of grappling. At the end of an intense bout that saw both wrestlers try to outwit the other, it took several costly errors from Harmount that gave Trejo the victory, and Model jumped back into the lead, winning the team championships of the 8th Annual Willigan Wrestling Tournament, 39-38.
Model had the clear advantage in the middle and heavy weight classes as they jumped to a 21-3 lead, while Fremont capitalized with their lightweight classes and was able to cut the deficit to one point at the 126-weight class.
Both Fremont and Model had won their respective pools in round robin play, with Model winning 55-18 against Texas School for the Deaf and 57-12 against Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. Fremont won 58-18 against Maryland School for the Deaf and 71-12 against Indiana School for the Deaf. With both seeded #1, it was up to the other four schools to wrestle for a chance to wrestle against Fremont and Model.
Both schools ended up facing opponents they intimately knew – Fremont was paired with Texas in the semifinals while Model got their cross-state rivals Maryland in the other semifinal. Fremont defeated Texas 58-21 and Model defeated Maryland 45-24. Texas and Maryland would face each other in the third-place match.
In the third-place match, Texas took advantage of their expertise in the middleweights and jumped to a 24-9 lead before Maryland slowly crept back with their heavy weights and Maryland had cut the deficit to three by the time they had reached the 106-weight class. With Maryland’s Lance Brewer’s pin of Texas’ Adan Nunez in the 126-weight class, Maryland had finally captured the lead 39-36 and like Fremont and Model had done later in the night, it was up to the final bout to determine who would get third place. Darrius Doe of Maryland pinned Vitaliy Dovgalyuk of Texas to win the match 45-36 for Maryland.
In the consolation match, Indiana defeated Florida, 36-24.
By Chris Kaftan
When Marty Willigan was a little boy, all he wanted to do was to follow his older brother. He idolized his brother and wanted to wrestle just like his brother. Willigan also had a childhood mastoid disease, and to stay away from hospitals and doctors, he kept himself busy on the wrestling mat.
Because of his dedication and passion for wrestling, Willigan became a long-time coach of wrestling at Gallaudet University, starting what is considered the current family of coaches at schools of the deaf across the United States. The National Deaf Prep Duals Wrestling Tournament will be renamed the Willigan Wrestling Tournament.
When Willigan, who grew up in Long Island, NY, tried out for football in high school, he found that he was too light and not big enough to continue so Willigan joined the J.V. wrestling team during his freshman and sophomore years. During his junior year, Willigan was selected as team captain and placed second in his county in New York. In his senior year of high school, Willigan placed third in the state championships and that brought him a scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University.
During his first two years at EKU, he had 32 matches with 31 pins. Wanting to move closer home, Willigan transferred to Hofstra University and under Coach Robert Getchel’s tutelage, Willigan learned more technical skills and gained more experience wrestling at the NCAA Division-I level. 
Willigan placed fourth at the NCAA Championships in 1968, and second in 1969, losing to the legendary Dan Gable in the finals. The loss was Willigan’s only one that season after 44 wins.
“My experience wrestling against Dan Gable was a challenge because I had to wrestle against six other opponents beforehand to reach the slot to wrestle against him,” said Willigan. “I felt very lucky to have met Dan Gable, a great wrestler with so much dedication and heart for our sport.”
After graduating from Hofstra in 1969, Willigan was selected as a member of the USA Deaf Wrestling Team at the World Games for the Deaf in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and again in 1973 in Malmo, Sweden, and won a gold medal each time. 
Willigan started coaching in 1970 at Gallaudet University. “Former coaches Tom Clayton, Ray Parks and Dick Hoke left the Gallaudet University wrestling program in great shape and with a good reputation in the wrestling community especially [NCAA] Division III,” explained Willigan.
Willigan also coached the American wrestling teams in the 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1993 World Games for the Deaf. During the 1989 Games, he coached the Canadian wrestling team. “Don McCarthy (a graduate of Gallaudet University) on behalf of the Canadian Association of the Deaf asked me to coach and assist with Canadian Wrestling Team,” said Willigan.
“It was a challenging experience for me to coach against the United States, especially my very own wrestlers such as Jeff White, Todd Silvestri and few others.” 
Willigan also served as head coach of the Model Secondary School for the Deaf from 1980 to 1985.
Willigan worked at Gallaudet University for 34 years and in 2000 was inducted into the NCAA Division III Hall of Fame for his coaching contributions. Willigan is also a member of the USA Deaf Sports Federation Hall of Fame.
During his career as coach, Willigan produced four NCAA All-Americans and the 1989-1990 Gallaudet wrestling team placed 11th at the NCAA Division III championships.
Speaking of the honor of having the tournament named after him, Willigan said he is very honored of having it named after him. “This privilege is mine and I hope that with my great experience coaching my athletes and that the athletes will find their own experiences as rewarding as mine was.”
All photos courtesy of the Willigan Family.
Concordia University wrestling is pleased to announce the signing of Mitch Thompson of Rigby, Idaho.
Thompson had an outstanding prep career placing three times in the Idaho State Wrestling Championships. As a freshman Thompson placed 6th, 3rd as a sophomore, and 3rd as a junior. His senior season was cut short due to a staph infection that kept him from defending his No. 1 ranking in the state tournament. Thompson finished his career with an incredible 132-15 record. Read full story.
Florida Wrestling (end of the season)
Texas Wrestling
TSD brought 10 boys to the TAPPS state tournament this past weekend in Houston. Five of our boys placed 5th, 103- Derrick Gamble, 119- Omar Valdovinos, 140- Roberto Hernandez, 189- Joshua Eziashi and 215- Joshua Moore. They wrestled their hearts out and we are proud of every one of them!
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