CLAYTON, New York (WWNY) – A big weekend of wrestling takes place this weekend in Clayton with the Thousand Islands Duals on tap.
The 21st edition of the Thousand Islands Duals kicked off Friday at the Cerow Recreation Park Arena.
60 teams in total are participating in the 3 day tournament with 20 in the junior and middle school divisions and 40 in the high school division, which is broken up into 3 brackets: elite, club and high school.
”We actually, in our high school division, we have 5 teams that made it to day 3 in the NHCSA National Duals this past spring in Virginia. The level of competition is obviously continuing to grow,” said organizer Chad Snow.
Teams from New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Maine are on hand, along with individual wrestlers from other states around the country.
Having such a prestigious event with elite competition is something tournament organizer Rickey Martin says is a benefit for local wrestlers.
”It benefits local wrestlers by bringing people in from other areas. They get to see that skill, they get to see the competition at other levels, at the higher level, the national level. It benefits them throughout their high school career if they don’t wrestle out of the area throughout the off season or if they don’t wrestle and get out of the area to be able to seek that competition. This is a great way for them to seek that competition locally,” said Martin.
Snow and Martin have taken over the reigns of the tournament from Pat Conners, who started the event 2 decades ago.
Both men say the transition has been a smooth one and look forward to many more years of hosting the event in Clayton.
”Coach Conners, thankfully, and a couple of his guys have stuck around to give us a hand. We’re very grateful for that, and their support is really what’s gonna help us get through,” said Snow.
Wrestling continues through Sunday afternoon.
It’s August, which means we’re just a few weeks away from the official start of the 2023 fall high school sports season, with practices getting underway.
We begin our 2023 high school football previews by taking a look at a team that came up one win short of a state championship in 2022: the General Brown Lions.
Coach Doug Black’s team made it to the final week of the 2022 high school football season, losing 29-14 to James I. O’Neill in the State Class C Championship game at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.
The Lions finished with an 11-2 overall record, 5-1 in Class C-2 play, but General Brown was hit hard by graduation and the 2023 version of the Lions will look much different than last year’s team.
”Yeah, definitely want to kind of ride that momentum, but with us, we’re gonna be replacing a lot of those key players for us are gone. So, it’s now trying to find those younger kids to plug in and see if they can fill those big shoes,” said Black.
On the offensive side of the ball, General Brown graduated three 1,000 yard rushers in Sheamus Devine, Gabe Malcolm and Kaleb Natali, but return quarterback Aiden McManaman, who threw for 815 yards and rushed for 577 yards last season.
McManaman knows he’ll have to step up his game this season in order for the Lions to be successful.
”Yeah, it’s gonna be tough losing all those really good running backs. I know I have a lot of pressure on me, and hopefully I can take their spot and do what they did,” said McManaman.
Heading into the start of fall practice, a number of starting spots will be up for grabs, and in order for the Lions to repeat their success from last season, the team will have to be strong on the offensive and defensive lines.
”Probably our run game should be okay, wing backs are okay, not bad. QB [quarterback] is gonna be good. Just hoping that we can get some linemen back and look good,” said Bennett Eichhorn.
While the Lions will be looking to develop chemistry when fall practice begins, Black says there’s another key ingredient the team will be in search of in order for them to have the same success they had last season.
”It think it’s gonna be- leadership’s gonna be the key. We graduated 5 All-State Players and they were great players, but they were also great leaders. That’s a big void for us, so try to find those key players that can lead the other kids is gonna be big for us,” said Black.
Despite a lot of unknowns, the Lions will have a shot at defending their Section 3 Class C title this season.
Speaking of high school football, 1812 Sports and Entertainment will be holding their first ever 1812 Gridiron Shootout Sunday at Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor.
Six teams will be taking part in the 7 on 7 Tourney, which will feature teams from Beaver River, General Brown, South Jeff, Watertown, Gouverneur and Penn Yan.
Action gets underway at 9 a.m. with the championship game set for Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
We’ll have more on the 7 on 7 tournament Sunday.
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