When Bobby Dabal was a youngster, he always wanted to tag along with his older brother, George, to wrestling practice at North Bergen High School.
“George was always teaching me the moves and stuff,” Bobby Dabal said. “I knew that I wanted to wrestle when I got older.”
So when Bobby was 8, he joined the North Bergen Recreation wrestling program. He also weighed about 50 pounds at the time. Not exactly someone who would inflict fear.
But Bobby had success almost instantly. The Guttenberg native placed fifth in the New Jersey state championships during his first competitive year of wrestling at the 50-pound weight class. He was well on his way.
His father, Joe, who was born in Lebanon and was a wrestler in his native land, started to take Bobby to wrestling tournaments throughout New Jersey, where Bobby experienced his fair share of success.
“I took him to Pascack Hills, Pascack Valley, South Plainfield, Glen Gardner, Voorhees,” said Joe Dabal, who is the father of 11 children, ages 23 through 2. “I love wrestling and I was so happy that Bobby picked it up. It is a good sport.”
Now 13 years old, Bobby Dabal has also progressed so much as a wrestler that he has joined some of the most prestigious wrestling clubs in northern New Jersey. He also wrestles with a group out of Elmwood Park and trains twice a week at the Ron Jones Wrestling School in Butler. That takes a lot of dedication for a sixth grader at Guttenberg’s Anna L. Klein School.
“He just loves wrestling,” says his mother, Donna Dabal. “He can’t get enough of it.”
As the wrestling season wound down recently, Bobby Dabal was ready to compete in the most competitive tournaments around. He placed fifth in the recent New Jersey state championships at his current weight of 70 pounds, but that placing didn’t deter Dabal from entering district and regional tournaments in Pennsylvania last month.
At the Eastern National district tournament, Dabal finished first to qualify for the regionals. At the regional tournament, Dabal placed second, which enabled him to qualify for the Eastern National Middle Atlantic national championships at Salisbury, Md. earlier this month.
Because he was a second place finisher at the regionals, it meant that Dabal had a tougher road to haul, if he hoped to win the national title.
“It meant I had to wrestle an extra match,” Bobby Dabal said. “I didn’t know how well I would do.”
When Dabal arrived in Maryland with his family, he realized he was in a totally different world. The tournament featured 1,000 competitors from all over the country.
“There were 14 mats on the floor,” Joe Dabal explained. “I never saw anything like it.”
“I felt confident I could do well there,” Bobby Dabal said. “I just figured I had to work a little harder because of the extra match.”
Dabal was undaunted at the nationals, winning his first match via pin. He took a 10-7 decision in his second match, then advanced to the finals with a 5-3 decision.
Awaiting Dabal in the finals was Nick Bedelyan, the Maryland state champion and the three-time defending national champion.
“We knew that this was the best competition Bobby ever faced,” Donna Dabal said. “We were just hoping he would do his best.”
Sure enough, Dabal saved his best for last, capturing a 13-9 decision over the three-time national champion. There was a new 70-pound wrestling king.
“I didn’t know that he was the champ three times until after the match was over,” Dabal said. “When I found that out, I was pretty impressed.”
“We were all going crazy,” Donna Dabal said. “The whole family was there.”
That’s right – all 13 members of the Dabal family.
“We were all so very proud,” Donna said.
So were the people of Klein School, who honored their national champion with an announcement at school. “It was nice that the teachers and the kids were all congratulating me,” Bobby Dabal said.
But in Dabal’s eyes, there was another solid benefit in winning a national wrestling title.
“Now, the kids are scared of me in gym class, especially the eighth graders on my basketball team,” Dabal said. “They’re afraid that I might wrestle them and beat them.”
Spoken like a true 70-pound champ.
Although Dabal knows he has a bright future in wrestling, hopefully going on to break some of his older brother’s marks at North Bergen High School, he really doesn’t think there’s much pressure in being a national champ.
“I just wrestle for the fun,” Dabal said. “I don’t worry about all the other stuff. Wrestling is my life. I just want to keep going, hopefully to go on to college and wrestle.”
It appears as if Bobby Dabal already has his long-term goals in order. For now, there’s no rest for the weary, as he will spend the summer months competing in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling tournaments.
“It’s in his blood,” his mother proclaimed. “There’s no stopping him now.”