Northampton’s Condomitti got it done his way
As a kid, he grew tired of sport until he took control of his diet and preparation
By Tom Housenick
Seventh grader Jagger Condomitti and his father, Dennis, went over the plan for a busy stretch of wrestling.
The younger Condomitti was champion of the 41-person field at 102 pounds at the District 11 junior high tournament. He was among five wrestlers the following weekend at the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling tournament qualifier at Nazareth, with the top three moving on to states.
Condomitti did not make it. After that, he wrote a three-page letter to his father admitting that he lost on purpose.
“He said he was tired of making weight and didn’t want to wrestle anymore,” Dennis Condomitti recalled.
“He said he was done and wanted to become a chef.”
What Jagger Condomitti really wanted, however, was control. He wanted to dictate how much he practiced and where, how much he competed and where, what weight he competed at and what he ate.
So a deal was struck. Dad backed off and gave his son a chance to show the maturity needed to pull off his plan.
Nearly five years later, Condomitti is a PIAA champion with 141 career victories, a scholarship to Nebraska and a leg up on his chef ’s career. He’s made his own meals and properly managed his weight for years.
And the four-time District 11 and Northeast Regional medalist is The Morning Call’s All-Area Class 3A Wrestler of the Year.
Like the evolving sports relationship between father and son, the state
gold medal did not come easily for Condomitti.
After winning his quarterfinal and semifinal by a combined four points, the Konkrete Kid trailed Spring-Ford’s Jack McGill by two points in the closing seconds of the third period. Condomitti slipped out of a front headlock and executed an inside trip for the tying takedown near the edge of the mat with four seconds left.
The senior then won it late in sudden victory.
The path to PIAA glory and a place among Northampton’s elite wrestlers was bumpy, one that nearly was derailed before it got back on the track.
Condomitti’s mother, Erika, was a softball and field hockey standout at Boonton High in New Jersey. She later played both sports at Moravian. His father wrestled for the late coaching legend Ray Nunamaker at Nazareth.
“Terrible is a stretch,” Dennis Condomitti said. “I was a guy who was athletic in the hallway.”
Jagger Condomitti played basketball, football and baseball before giving wrestling a shot. He was a youth novice in Moore Township until age 7.
“We started going to open rooms,” Condomitti recalled. “We went to Whitehall and I wrestled Sammy Hanley, who is our neighbor. He beat me so bad every single day. He was the best in the room.
“MAWA was the big tournament then. [Hanley] won it. I never even qualified.”
It was early in Jagger and brother Dagen’s wrestling careers when Dennis Condomitti was asked to coach.
As the years went by and the other sports took a back seat to wrestling, father found more practice rooms, more tournaments. And he expected full commitment from his sons.
The Condomitti basement was a popular workout spot. Northampton two-time state champion Jeff Ecklof trained groups there. Even unbeaten four-time PIAA champion Chance Marsteller gave several clinics there.
It also was the site for poor behavior — by fathers and sons. It was where things began to spiral.
“This was a dungeon,” Dennis Condomitti said. “There was lots of yelling. Every guy was a knucklehead. They were 8-, 9-, 10-year-olds, and we were going crazy over every point.”
That path continued until Jagger, as a middle schooler, was asked in July to commit to the Virginia Challenge holiday tournament in December at a certain weight.
Circumstances made that difficult and the results were predictable. A year after going 9-1 at that level, Condomitti went 1-9.
It led up to the intentional losses and the three-page letter in seventh grade.
Agreeing to honor the upcoming tournament commitments, Condomitti won a high school-level event at Penn State, though it was the same week as the District 11 varsity tournament in the Lehigh Valley.
Two weeks later, he sat with his father in the stands at the PIAA Wrestling Championships. He was craving chicken fingers, french fries and Dippin’ dots.
What he said to his dad next was telling.
“I said, ‘Next year when we come here, I’m getting the chicken fingers and fries,’ ” Condomitti recalled. “I was committing to another year without realizing what I said. I was so focused on chicken fingers and fries and Dippin’ dots.”
How that year and beyond was going to play out hinged on two summer events heading into Condomitti’s eighth-grade year.
Northampton attended a team camp at Lycoming College. Condomitti left there weighing 137.8 pounds. He needed to weigh in 17 days later at Fargo’s national freestyle event at 120 — a weight he chose.
The first 10 pounds came off easily; the rest did not. He needed an intense tournament-day workout with former Blair Academy standout Ryan Miller and a run in a plastic suit in North Dakota summer heat to leave the scale at 119.8 pounds.
“I was so happy I could eat,” Condomitti said, “but I could only eat half of a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich.”
Predictably, Condomitti went 0-2 and four days later on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland, he put all 18 pounds back on.
From that point on, Condomitti was a responsible teenager. He found a diet plan and weight descent that worked for him. He cooked three meals a day for himself and developed a hydration plan.
He found the right teachers who worked for him, including current Parkland coach Jon Trenge. He also opened a critical door when he won a state freestyle event. It allowed him to be RTC-eligible and afforded opportunities to work with, among others, Jeff Buxton, Chris Ayers and Brad Dillon.
And his father’s love for him was stronger than Dennis’ desire for his son to be the best, so Dennis was willing to back off and be proud of how Jagger handled it all.
“We did everything too much,” Dennis said. “You can’t get to this point without a jerk pushing you, but I could have done it differently.”
The elder Condomitti spent the last few years helping the fathers of younger Northampton wrestlers avoid making similar mistakes.
Jagger Condomitti will spend next year at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with fellow Nebraska commit Lenny Pinto of Stroudsburg, before heading to Lincoln.
During that period, there may be time once again for chicken fingers, fries and Dippin’ dots as a reward for diligence and dedication.
Morning Call reporter Tom Housenick can be reached at 610-820-6651 or at thousenick@mcall.com