The late Vince Ascolese, the legendary North Bergen football coach who died last December after a long battle with cancer, used to always profess to his gridiron warriors that they needed the “Heart of a Bruin” to get through the day.
Ascolese, one of the best pre-game motivational speakers to ever grace high school sports, would always throw in his “Heart of a Bruin” phrase, to where it almost became synonymous with his football teams.
Well, the North Bergen wrestling team showed last Friday night that they indeed had that heart of a Bruin, accomplishing something that had not been done in North Bergen in more than 20 years.
The Bruins defeated Clifton, 37-34, to capture the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group V state championship.
It marked the first time since 1993 that the Bruins won a state sectional wrestling title – and the first in head coach and athletic director Jerry Maietta’s outstanding career.
“It’s not about me,” Maietta said. “It’s about the kids. It’s been a long time coming, more than 20 years. These kids really wanted this. They waited for their turn to get a shot at winning it. They showed a lot of determination and the heart of a Bruin.”
What makes this state sectional championship even more remarkable is that no one thought it was possible when the season began.
After all, the Bruins graduated an overall two-time state champion in Anthony Giraldo and a host of other talented grapplers. It had the making of a rebuilding season more than anything else.
“We had to fill seven weight classes from last year’s varsity team,” Maietta said. “But we had a bunch of senior leaders who were here every day, working hard to get better and it paid off. We talked about them all doing their jobs. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”
Over the years, Maietta has had better rosters than the one he has this year. One year, Maietta had three kids who earned medals at the state championships in Atlantic City.
“It’s true,” Maietta said. “We had better teams on paper. I said that to the kids today. If you would have told me before the season that this team would win a sectional title, I would have said, ‘No way.’ But it goes back to the senior leadership. It’s all about them getting it done.”
The seniors certainly believed in themselves.
“I definitely thought we had a shot,” said senior 152-pounder Jeff Rivera. “I always tried to push the team towards this goal and we achieved it.”
Rivera was part of the team that lost to Hackensack in the state sectional title match two years ago.
“I’ve tried very hard to forget that day, but I can never forget it,” Rivera said. “I vowed that if we ever got back to that point again, we wouldn’t lose.”
For senior 220-pounder Justin Gomez, that loss to Hackensack was particularly emotional. You see, the local daily put Gomez’s picture on the back page of the paper with the words that the Bruins had lost.
“I laminated that article, framed it and put it on my wall so I could remember it,” Gomez said. “It was one of the toughest days of my life. I used that as motivation.”
Things didn’t exactly start out great for the Bruins last Friday, as they lost their first three matches to put themselves in a big hole, down 16-0.
“But after we lost the first three, we won the next eight matches,” Maietta said.
Junior Dan Ortega was the one who got the chance to seal the deal and he did, winning his match at 120 pounds and clinching the state title and kicking off the celebration.
“It’s a good feeling for some of the guys who have been here for four years, like Devin Garrido, Jeff Rivera, Justin Gomez,” Maietta said. “Those are guys who have been four-year varsity starters. We have some others who have been with us for three years. To get this done this year says a lot about these kids. We’ve had some quality teams in the past that didn’t win.”
But this group did. They believed. They were the ones who had the heart of a Bruin.
“I didn’t get a chance to hear Coach Ascolese say it, but I hear it from Maietta all the time,” Gomez said. “The heart of a Bruin, to wear the red and gold uniform and wear it with pride. It’s a great feeling. Honestly, I didn’t know from the beginning whether we could do this. But as the year went on and saw how my teammates rallied together and how they began to push each other, I started to believe.
Added Gomez, “I know that we had some doubters out there, but this senior class gave the team the mindset that we could do it. It became one of our main goals and we did it.”
“It’s a great feeling to go out this way,” Rivera said. “And it was great to win it for Coach [Maietta]. He never won before.”
The Bruins finished the dual meet season with a 20-3 record. They did travel to the Sun Bank Arena last Sunday for the overall Group V state championships and lost to Brick Memorial, the No. 2-ranked team in the state, ending the impossible dream.
“But of our three losses, we lost to Brick Memorial, St. Peter’s Prep and Cranford, three great programs,” Maietta said. “Those were three quality losses. We also went to a tournament and finished second ahead of a lot of good New Jersey teams, so these kids competed against some quality teams.”
The Bruins will now host the NJSIAA District 16 tournament this weekend. The wrestling season now becomes more focused on individual achievements instead of the team. So kids like Ortega, Garrido, Rivera, Gomez, 106-pound freshman Yousef Salem, 170-pound junior Leo Subiza, 182-pound senior Amaurys Corrales and 195-pound senior Alec Sierra will all shoot to move on to next week’s Region 2 championships.
But nothing will ever take away the excitement of last Friday night, when the Bruins accomplished the unthinkable.
“Nothing was going to hold us down this year,” Rivera said. “Nothing was going to stop us, not even ourselves. We were working at this for a very long time. We had to have it this year.”
Spoken like someone who has the heart of a Bruin.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.