It’s no secret that the current head wrestling coaches are former Hopatcong Wrestling teammates in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s. Coach Ryan Smircich of Bloomfield and Coach Jim Berringer of Hackettstown, make it a priority to wrestle each other to keep that special friendship that they have built in their time as teammates to now building their respective programs to a being compassionate about wrestling . They also show their competitive side as well as both coaches want to get a win, but only comes out on top. In this case, Coach Smircich and his Bloomfield Bengals team got the upper hand on Hackettstown Tigers on the night as the team walked away with a 47-25 victory. This is Bloomfield’s 20th win on the season. Coach Smircich has a lot of respect for Coach Berringer and their relationship they have for each other and every dual match they have ever faced has never disappointed the fans.
“Jimmy [Berringer] and I were teammates back in [Hopatcong High School] together. This was the first time that we have ever won [in Hackettstown],” Coach Smircich said about his team’s win. “We’ve lost two straight here and Jimmy [Berringer] has come to use and has lost three straight. So, it’s always been the home team who wins. It’s the first team that anybody who hasn’t been the home team that’s won.”
A bit of a surprise on the scoreboard for some with how wide of a margin of a win for Bloomfield, but Coach Smircich believes that the best way to get the best competition is when you travel to Western New Jersey (Specifically the HWS area).
“It’s been great coming out here…..these are things that our wrestlers need to see with a little bit of West Jersey attitude, kids who have been wrestling a little longer so we are happy to keep these relationships open and to get us out of Essex county a little bit,” Smircich said of the Bengals traveling for outside competition.
The night’s match started at 190 lbs in the favor of a Bloomfield win. Alejandro Valencia, earned a bonus point victory 15-4 over Zach Calhoun of Hackettstown. Bloomfield then earned a pin at 215lbs and Hackettstown elected to forfeit at 285 lbs to this year’s Essex County Tournament Champion, Gabriel McCulloch. Due to the 30 match restrictions before the state sectionals, the Tigers needed to sit out their Heavyweight Sophomore, Samir Mrad. After a forfeit win for Hackettstown at 106 lbs, the Tigers’ Hammers were waiting on the other side as 113lber Joe Rowinski and 120 lber Bryan Dougherty each earned a tech fall and a pin respectively, which gave Hackettstown its first and only lead on the night 17-16. The dual match ended up being tied at one point at 22 a piece after exchanging a pin from Bloomfield at 126 lber Aidan Matias and a tech fall from 132 lber Giovanni Gutierrez. The match was clinched at 157 lbs for Bloomfield as Malik Nelson knew that he just needed any sort of win. Nelson got a tough 9-0 major decision win over the Tigers’ Ryan Cheref.
With Nelson’s clinching win for his Bengals team, he was chosen as the Performance Trophies and Medals Hammer of the Match. He was unavailable at the time for comment on his team and his individual performance on the night. However, Coach Smircich credited the team’s success for staying together as a team, managing the team to have set professional and mature standards, and to limit the amount of mental mistakes in matches.
“This is the time of year where things start coming together,” Coach Smircich said. “I send out one [reminder] for everyone to have a singlet, be on weight and be in our gym in the bleachers. Everybody’s weight is down, the small mental mistakes are disappearing and the kids are going to be a little more focused. Here comes the fun of the postseason.”
With the way that the Bloomfield Bengals wrestled tonight as individuals, I think there’s a high chance that there will be numerous qualifiers for the Region 3 tournament in about several weeks and possibly getting at least one or another of them qualifying to the state tournament in Atlantic City next month. Coach Smircich has done so much to turn the program around and the wrestlers the team has seem to wrestle hard for him and the staff onboard.
What’s Up Next For These Two Teams?:
Bloomfield improves their season record to 20-7 and will be having a home match as they face another HWS team on Thursday night (02/07) against Delaware Valley (if weather holds up). In addition, they will take the weekend to rest up for Monday night (02/10) as they travel to Passaic County Technical Institute for their North 1 Group 5 Quarterfinal matchup with Morristown. As for Hackettstown, their record drops to 12-9 and they will get themselves back in the wrestling room for their senior night action on Friday night (02/07) against Wallkill Valley and they too will take the weekend to rest up before getting back to action for Monday (02/10) as they will travel to Caldwell High School for their North 2 Group 2 matchup vs Parsippany Hills.
