A DYNASTY AT BURRELL
Burrell wrestling isn’t just good, it’s one of the best in WPIAL history
It’s no secret Western Pennsylvania serves as one of the premier hotbeds in the country for producing top-notch amateur wrestlers.
Year after year, a handful of former WPIAL wrestlers go on to become NCAA All-Americans and national champions in college. So, if one can point to Western Pa. as the unofficial “mecca” of amateur wrestling in the United States, where exactly would one look to find the heart of amateur wrestling in the area?
Simple — head about 18 miles north from Downtown Pittsburgh, not far off of Route 28, to the city of Lower Burrell in Westmoreland County. Once there, make your way to Burrell High School and have a look at the Wall of Fame in the school’s wrestling room. The numbers speak for themselves:
• 13 consecutive WPIAL Class 2A team titles
• 17 consecutive section titles
• 124 consecutive section wins
• 152-1 in section competition since the turn of the century
• 2008 PIAA Class 2A dual meet champions
• 2011 PIAA Class 2A individual team champions
• Dozens of WPIAL champions and state placewinners
Four different coaches have spearheaded the program during the course of the Buccaneers’ 13year title streak, while hundreds of wrestlers have come and gone. Throughout all the change and uncertainty, though, one thing has remained the same — Burrell standing tall at the end of the season as the WPIAL’s unquestioned top dog in Class 2A.
“To be successful, it takes hard work,” said Bucs coach Josh Shields, a 2006 Burrell grad and former PIAA runner-up. “These kids see that year after year. The kids who have success are the kids who work the hardest.
“We always say, ‘You have to earn the right to win.’”
Shields, 32, is someone who has experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows on the wrestling mat firsthand. As a senior, he lost the last match of his high school career in the state finals in overtime. So when one of his wrestlers suffers a heartbreaking defeat at the regional or state tournament, he knows how to help them through it from his own personal experience.
“[Losing that last match] definitely was the best thing in my career that happened to me,” Shields said. “I don’t know if I would have had the same success I would have had if I would have accomplished my goals.”
As soon as he walked off the mat in the state finals, Shields recalls telling Burrell’s coach at the time, Chris Como, that he was going to be a national champion in college. He only wrestled three years at Mercyhurst before a shoulder injury cut his career short, but sure enough, he captured a Division II national championship as a sophomore and finished his career as a three-time All-American.
After finishing his career on the mat, Shields returned home to Burrell and joined Bud Sines’ staff as an assistant for one year before taking over as the Bucs’ head coach prior to the 2013-14 season. At the time, he was only 25 years old and the team was already in the midst of its current run of dominance, with seven consecutive WPIAL team titles and counting.
When Shields took over, he told the Post-Gazette he was looking forward to the pressure that came with the job. Now seven years in with a chance to claim a 14th consecutive WPIAL team title Saturday, it’s safe to say that pressure has brought out the best in him as a coach.
Looking back at where it all started, though, it’s clear the foundation for the Bucs’ unprecedented run of success was laid in 1997 when the team won its first WPIAL team title under coach Shawn DesLauriers.
Como then took over for DesLauriers in 1998, and Burrell was still dealing with a lack of numbers compared to other teams, causing the Bucs to forfeit multiple matches per meet. Still, as wrestlers on the team started to experience individual success on the WPIAL and state level, more and more kids in the community began wrestling at the youth level in hopes of one day making it big on the high school team.
“You see the success of these kids, and parents want kids to be a part of that program,” Shields said. “It definitely took years, a decade-plus, but now we have the numbers and have everything in place as far as the solid coaching and the support from the administration and the school.”
After leading the program from 1998-2009 and capturing five WPIAL team titles along the way — including the first four in a row of the current 13-year streak —
Como unexpectedly stepped down to focus on his job as a software designer and spend more time with his family.
He knew he would be leaving the program in good hands, but even he couldn’t have foreseen the program soaring to the heights it’s reaching now.
“It’s really quite an amazing feat, and a lot of credit’s got to go out to everybody involved in the program, obviously,” Como said. “I guess we got the template figured out and we just kind of continued to follow the same process through and through every year.
“And I guess until some of these other teams catch on in District 7, we’re going to continue to reap the benefits of that winning formula.”
Como still makes time to volunteer at Burrell as an assistant coach, and he’s on the sidelines for 60% to 70% of the team’s matches. He believes that winning formula comes from the way the team trains year-round and applies that training to every match, no matter the opponent.
“The kind of practices we have, they’re college-level wrestling practices,” Como said. “These kids are pushed hard in the practice room. There’s a lot of blood sweat and tears, but at the same time, they’re ready for that tough competition.”
This year’s team isn’t loaded with former state placewinners or nationally ranked competitors, but it is filled with solid wrestlers who’ve been part of the program from a young age and have been ingrained with the culture of winning.
That being said, there are several wrestlers on the team who could make a deep run at the WPIAL and PIAA tournaments, including a few who already have.
Ian Oswalt, a 132-pound junior, and A.J. Corrado, a 152pound junior, have both ended their freshman and sophomore years on the podium after placing in the top eight at states. Oswalt placed fourth as a freshman and fifth as a sophomore, while Corrado placed seventh his first year and fifth last year.
Corrado didn’t grow up in Burrell, but he moved into the district from Riverview prior to his eighth-grade year, mainly because of the standard set by DesLauriers, Como, Shields and others.
“I actually moved here in middle school because I wanted to be part of a culture where wrestling is so important to the whole district and the whole area,” Corrado said.
Oswalt said the team’s brotherhood is one-of-a-kind, and it’s that bond between the teammates that helps push each other to succeed when the stakes are highest.
“Seeing them in your corner, it motivates you a little bit more and just brings something out of you, having those guys always on your side,” Oswalt said. “It means something more for you, winning the match, not just for you but for your team.”