Powerade Tournament offers big test for local wrestlers

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, December 25, 2018 | 10:56 PM

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Cam Connor walked into Canon-McMillan’s gymnasium three years ago this week as a wide-eyed freshman ready for his first crack at the one of the most prestigious high school wrestling tournaments in the country.

He will enter the same gym Friday with a sharper focus but the same belief in the strength of the tournament he’s competing in.

Burrell and Kiski Area are making their annual pilgrimage to the Powerade Christmas Tournament, which will take place Friday and Saturday at Canon-McMillan. As it always does, the tournament drew some of the top teams from the WPIAL, PIAA and across the country, paving the way for plenty of big-match opportunities.

“It’s a crazy atmosphere,” Connor said. “You’re surrounded by a ton of good guys, and you’re facing a hammer in every match at that tournament. Once you hit a certain point, you know every match is going to be tough, no matter what.”

Connor has a WPIAL title and PIAA medal under his belt but still is searching for his first podium trip at Powerade.

Powerade itself might stand as the top high school wrestling tournament in the state because of the quality and depth of the teams and wrestlers who compete, but tournaments in general provide a different sort of competition than weekly dual meets.

And there are plenty of tournaments around: the Eastern Area Invitational Wrestling Tournament, Ironman, King of the Mountain, Panther Holiday Classic and the Steve DeAugustino Holiday Classic, to name a handful. The Westmoreland County Coaches Association tournament will take place the first weekend in January. So there’s plenty of opportunities for wrestlers to test themselves against a wide variety of competition.

“These tournaments are no joke,” Burrell senior Austin Mele said. “Going to these tournaments, the big tournaments with the best competition around really prepares us for the postseason, and that’s huge. So going up to these tournaments, I get nervous. I want to perform my best just like any other event, but knowing I’ll be wrestling against the top wrestlers in the state and the country, it really boosts our confidence and gets us ready for the postseason.”

Compared to his first experience at a top-notch tournament, when he experienced a Dorothy-esque “not in middle school anymore” perspective, Mele now has bundles of experience at some of the best competitions: Powerade, King of the Mountain and the PIAA championships.

That experience provides him with a measure of calm, as he proved when he took third place earlier this month at King of the Mountain, his first medal there.

“You just have to prepare yourself, and I think we do a great job here at Burrell preparing ourselves for these big tournaments,” said sophomore Ian Oswalt, who medaled at every one of his tournaments last season, including a WPIAL title and fourth-place medals at the PIAA tournament and Powerade. “We go to all these big tournaments and tough tournaments. That’s all for the end result for states, so we have all that experience so we can wrestle hard and make it to states.”

Oswalt said one benefit of a tournament like Powerade is wrestling against an unfamiliar opponent, which gives an added preparation for later in the season. In addition to dozens of schools from the WPIAL and across Pennsylvania, Powerade also drew teams from Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.

“It’s just difficult to wrestle those types of kids, especially when you know they’re tough,” Oswalt said.

Tournaments also differ from dual meets because wrestlers have just two coaches in their corner instead of the full staff, and their teammates might be off wrestling their own matches instead of cheering them on.

“It’s more individual than a regular section match,” said Burrell’s Noah Linderman, coming off a sixth-place finish at King of the Mountain. “I like the section matches a little better, just because I have everybody behind me, and you get to see how everyone’s doing, one after the other.”

Dual meet or tournament, wrestlers want to prove their mettle either way. And if it’s a tournament like Powerade, against some of the best competition, so much the better.

“I know what it’s like now, and I’m just looking forward to getting on the mat, wrestling with some of the best guys in the country,” Connor said.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Burrell, Kiski School