When Dan Ortega was entering his freshman year at North Bergen High School, he envisioned himself as becoming the next in line of great Bruin running backs. Ortega was a standout in the North Bergen Pop Warner football program and just naturally thought he would progress to where he was carrying the pigskin for the Bruins on the gridiron.
“I really wanted to play football here,” Ortega said.
But Ortega was just a tad undersized, weighing less than 115 pounds.
And then playing freshman football, Ortega suffered a concussion.
“That pretty much did it,” Ortega said. “I had a few friends who were on the wrestling team and they told me that I should try out. It seemed like it was the right thing to do.”
Football’s loss became wrestling’s instant gain.
Veteran North Bergen wrestling coach and athletic director Jerry Maietta knew that Ortega had the makings of being a good wrestler.
“He was a good athlete and a tough kid,” Maietta said. “I saw the potential there. He just wasn’t suited to play football because of his size. ”
Never having wrestled at all prior to his freshman year, Ortega quickly learned his new sport.
“I had the double-leg takedown and the head lock,” Ortega said of his moves. “That was pretty much it. I liked doing the head lock, but I had to learn everything else. I got better in practice.”
It didn’t hurt having a workout partner like Anthony Giraldo.
Hudson County’s lone two-time state champion in history, Giraldo, now a fixture in the Rutgers University lineup, took Ortega under his wing.
“He was my practice partner,” Ortega said of Giraldo, who is headed to the NCAA Tournament with the Scarlet Knights. “He’s definitely one of the main reasons why I got better. I got a lot of good practice with him. He made me work harder.”
Probably because Giraldo was kicking Ortega’s tail every day in the Bruins’ wrestling room.
“He beat me up every day,” Ortega said. “But I really never complained. I tried to take it to him every day, but I never did. He’s a real nice kid.”
As a freshman, the fledgling grappler took his lumps from Giraldo and used the time as a learning experience.
One weekend during Ortega’s freshman campaign, the Bruins were without a true 113-pounder, so the extremely green Ortega was given the shot to wrestle with the varsity.
“I was up for the challenge,” Ortega said.
“The first month, he was learning moves and picking up stuff,” Maietta said. “He had to fill in with the varsity, so he got his shot.”
Against Somerville, the team match came down to Ortega’s match at 113. Sure enough, Ortega won.
“He won the dual meet for the team,” Maietta said. “It was impressive.”
It was the only varsity action Ortega received all season.
As a sophomore, Ortega came back to the 113-pound weight, ready to make his mark.
“He picked up a lot of moves quickly,” Maietta said. “He was a tough kid who was willing to learn and work hard to get better. He realized that he had potential in the sport and came every day, ready to work. He earned hjs spot in the lineup as a sophomore, day in and day out.”
Ortega eventually finished second in the NJSIAA District 16 tournament and third at Region 4, earning a trip to Atlantic City and the state championships.
“That’s what did it for me,” Ortega said. “It gave me a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence. Once I did that, I wanted to make sure I eventually made some noise at the states.”
Ortega then went to Gold’s Gym in Teterboro to train three times a week with former state and collegiate national champion Pete Gonzalez. He was no longer going to be a neophyte in wrestling. He had the determination of a champion.
“I just wanted to get better,” Ortega said. “I learned a lot from Anthony, but I needed more. So I trained with Pete Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, every week. There were a lot of other good wrestlers in that room with me, so that’s what really helped me get better.”
As a junior, again at 113 pounds, Ortega was again second in the districts and this time was the Region 4 runner-up. He also won two matches in Atlantic City, just missing out on climbing onto the podium to collect a medal.
So when the 2015-2016 season kicked off last December, Ortega was primed for his best campaign to date.
“I was a senior and I knew this was my last chance,” Ortega said. “I knew what I had to do.”
However, midway through the season in January, disaster struck _ ironically once again against Somerville.
“I had to move him up that match to 126 [pounds] and he was losing late,” Maietta said. “But he made a move to get a reversal and won the match. However, I knew something wasn’t right. He hurt his shoulder to the point where he couldn’t raise his arm. My heart stopped. I thought he seriously hurt it.”
“I knew it wasn’t over for me,” Ortega said. “I had to do what I had to do to get better.”
Ortega received treatment and went to a physical therapist to work on the injured shoulder. What appeared to be a serious injury kept Ortega out of the lineup for only a week.
“It wasn’t an easy thing,” Maietta said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen. The doctors worked with Danny. He went for rehab and worked with the therapist. But we didn’t know how strong that shoulder was going to be and we didn’t want to injure it further.”
Once Ortega returned, there was going to be no stopping him. Ortega won the District 16 gold medal again at 113 pounds and the Region 4 gold, winning both tournaments without even a glitch. He defeated Anthony Petrillo of Livingston, 8-5, to capture the gold medal in the regions.
Ortega then moved on to the state championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City last weekend, determined to at the very least get on the podium and earn a medal.’
Ortega won his first two matches in Atlantic City, defeating Hunter Graf of Hunterdon Central, 7-3, and defeating Carmen Ferrante of Bergen Catholic, 6-3, in the second round.
In defeating Ferrante, Ortega avenged a loss that he suffered at the hands of Ferrante in the finals of the George Jockish Bergen County championships last December.
In the semifinals, Ortega lost to Patrick Glory of Delbarton by an 8-0 score, but Glory is certainly no slouch, having finished second in the state in each of the last two seasons.
“After I lost, I knew I still had my chance,” Ortega said. “I had to bounce back.”
Ortega defeated Lucas Revano of Camden Catholic, 7-1, to advance to the finals of the consolation bracket, but fell to Jonathan Tropea of St. Joseph of Montvale, 8-1, to earn fourth place overall at 113 pounds.
The kid who only joined wrestling as a freshman because he got hurt playing football ended his career as the fourth place finisher in the entire state.
Ortega is perhaps the least likely of all North Bergen wrestlers to ever earn a medal at the state championships because of his late start in the sport. Bobby Dabal won three medals at the states. Luis Gonzalez and Eric McMullen both finished second in the state a few years back. And of course, there’s the exploits of Giraldo and his two state championships.
But all of those aforementioned wrestlers got a background in the sport before high school. Ortega was your prototypical late bloomer, so it makes Ortega’s achievements even more impressive.
For his fourth place finish at the state championships, Ortega has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week for the past week.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” Maietta said. “Early in the year, I would have thought that he had a shot. We had high expectations for him, but after he got hurt, I really didn’t know. It’s really nice for him. It’s special. He did a great job. I think it’s proof that you can be successful in the sport if you put in the time and work hard enough. No one outside of us expected this. He wasn’t ranked anywhere. We knew what he was capable of, but the injury raised some question marks.”
Not anymore. Ortega’s place in North Bergen wrestling history has definitely been secured.
“I feel like it’s a good accomplishment,” Ortega said. “Anthony told me when I was a freshman that I should be on the podium [to receive a state medal], so I almost feel like it was something I was supposed to do. Every single day, I’d ask Anthony, ‘Do you think I could be a state qualifier?’ I ended up doing it and got a medal. Other people didn’t expect it, but I know what I expected.”
An excellent student in the classroom, Ortega will more than likely continue his wrestling career at The College of New Jersey, which has an excellent wrestling program.
“Maybe I’ll be almost satisfied when I get there,” Ortega said. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.