Averill Park working together as a team to reach individual goals
TROY>> Averill Park Wrestling is banning together as a team to improve themselves and reach their individual goals this season.
“Every single guy in the room has learned a stance from an Averill Park Coach. That’s Averill Park pride,” said Averill Park Wrestler Sean Malenfant. “We are all in the room getting better together. The only way to improve from there is hard work and we really focus on that.”
Averill Park Head Coach Mike Malenfant is excited with what he is seeing this season out of his group that is a good mix of older, experi- enced wrestlers, and younger student athletes breaking into the sport of wrestling.
“We’re certainly working our way into the season, getting into shape and getting some experience,” said Coach Malenfant. “We have a mixed group. We have some experienced wrestlers and we have some newer wrestlers so we
are trying to blend those together to form a solid team hopefully.”
Leadership for Warrior’s Wrestling this year will be important to helping those young guns ready for the challenge of stepping their game up. Teamwork will help newcomers turn that corner from young, up and coming wrestler, to sectional participant.
“The younger guys are working through it, taking it one day at a time, and the older guys are helping them do that,” said Coach Malenfant. “It is encouraging to have a lot of first year guys.”
Of those returners, is last season’s Section 2 Champ Nik Koch and Andrew Lee, who placed fifth in Section 2 last season.
Sean Malenfant is also a significant returner. Malenfant placed third in Section 2 in his weight class.
“The push ups aren’t fun with the new kids,” joked Koch. “You can see the numbers in the room. We had a lot more numbers than we had last year.”
“I think we have a few more than usual, but I do get new guys every year,” said Coach Malenfant. “Most of our newer guys are freshman, their are some sophomores as well, but we welcome it. We want them to try it and like it and hopefully they catch on.”
For those important returners, each is looking to improve on those sectional outcomes last year. They want to rank higher, and they have put the work in to do so.
“I didn’t win the section and that was my goal. Now I have a purpose this season, something to look back onto, and it motivates me in practice,” said Sean Malenfant. “That goal is what I am always pushing to reach. I tasted some of the success and it just wasn’t there for me and that’s what i really want.”
“For me it was my first time placing at sectionals last season so it felt good to finally be able to be on that podium,” said Lee. “I really wanted to push myself this off season to get higher on that podium. I got a little bit of that taste and now I just want more of it.”
Koch, Lee, and Malenfant are all dif ferent weight classes spanning from heavy to light. The talent spread out over the spectrum of classes is a significant plus for a team that is trying to introduce several newcomers to the sport.
“They can spread that success in the room,” said Coach Malenfant. “It helps everyone set their goals to that as well.”
“We see di f f erent things from those different weight classes and you have to use your head as a smaller guy,” said Sean Malenfant on practicing within different weight classes. “It makes you tougher. Iron sharpens iron. We’re always after it. We get better together.”
What is so significant is the idea of team for Averill Park Wrestling. In or- der for Lee and Malenfant to reach their individual goals, they need to work with their team.
“They generally put their time in as a whole and as a team,” said Coach Malenfant. “We went to a wrestling camp in Pennsylvania this passed summer and 18 guys were there. It wasn’t like we had just three or four guys trying to improve, we had most of them trying to improve.”
The pride for Averill Park and Averill Park Wrestl i ng i s obvious. Whether it be the team wearing Averill Park wrestling shirts or alumni coming back to coach, the team is prideful of where they come from.
“It’s very important. It’s a big focus,” said Coach Malenfant on the team pride in the room. “All the coaches are graduates of Averill Park. We have pride in our school and we want our team to be successful and represent Averill Park.”
The team pride starts from the top, and the leaders on the mat feel the same as Coach Malenfant.
“It’s a team sport,” said Koch. “Being there to support Sean and Lee and be there for those guys.”
“I know guys have individual goals on the team and we are all pushing each other to get that, but we are looking to go as far as we can as a team,” added Sean Malenfant. “We want to wrestle tough. We are a bunch of farm boys. Wake up in the morning, feed the horses, do whatever, it’s a mindset and we have to put that all together in our favor.”