Montville Broncos Wrestling Has Undefeated Season

By Robert M. Sontz

The Montville Broncos Youth Varsity Team had one of the best seasons in Montville history going undefeated for all of their dual matches.

The Varsity team started the season winning the Montville Duals Pool B Championship going 6-0. The Bronco’s then went into their regular season wrestling in the Tri-County youth wrestling league, one of the toughest leagues in New Jersey and posted a 15-0 record winning the American South Division.

The Bronco’s next wrestled rival Roxbury in the Championship match where the Bronco’s pulled off an exciting 40-33 victory to win the Tri-County American League Championship. One week later, the Bronco’s won the Tri-County League Championship individual/team tournament sending 6 Bronco’s to the finals, walking away with 2 champions (Ibragim Soliev and Alex Garcia) and 16 out of 17 Bronco’s placing top 6 in their respective weight class within the tournament. The Broncos were also honored with the Tri-County Coaches of the Year Award.

In addition to having a great team season, the Bronco’s were able to qualify 13 kids from the program for the New Jersey Youth Wrestling State Tournament. This is quite an accomplishment as only 24 elite wrestlers in each weight class throughout the state get the opportunity to go to Trenton and battle it out to be in the Top 8 and stand on the podium. The Bronco’s walked away with 5 place winners including 2 state champions (Zach Merlino and Connor Martin).

The 2014/2015 wrestling season was led by Bruce Weil (Director of Wrestling/Varsity Coach), Billy Templeton (Varsity Head Coach) and Ken Kurzer (Varsity Assistant Coach). Coach Weil and Coach Templeton were very pleased with this group of young wrestlers.

“These boys did something special this year,” they stated. “Each kid came to practice, worked hard and really gave it their all for the TEAM.”

Coach Weil stated this was truly a team effort and the future of Montville wrestling looks promising as the Varsity team had kids varying in ages from 6 to 14 years old.

The Bronco’s junior varsity team also had an outstanding season going 10-1 and sharing the honors of being co-champions in the North Jersey Silver wrestling league.

The Montville Broncos have over 70 wrestlers in the program and field two teams (Youth Varsity and JV team). First and second year wrestlers wrestle in the Novice league where they learn the basics of wrestling and get to compete against wrestlers of the same skill level.

We are proud in recognizing this year’s Montville Bronco’s Youth Varsity Team: