The 2018-19 season brought a new challenge for the Port Allegany wrestling team, as the Gators combined forces with their century-old rivals from Smethport. With the Hubbers’ numbers falling in recent years, a co-op agreement was reached between the two schools late last spring, following similar mergers in soccer, golf and cross country. So, beginning with Port’s club wrestling program over the summer break — a staff led by Gator coach Brad Greenman and including assistants from both towns — work began to meld the two rosters together.
Their resulting 19-3 record marked the most dual-meet wins by a Port team since 2005-06, when the Gators went 24-7 to sweep the District 9 dual and individual tournament championships, and included an unbeaten run to the Allegheny Mountain League title. With their only losses against Brookville (in the D-9 duals championship match) and close decisions to Class AAA schools West Scranton and Clearfield, this year’s combined squad took fourth place and qualified six wrestlers for regionals at the Class AA individual tourney, with Smethport sophomore Braedon Johnson advancing to states.
“I think as a whole, the co-op really worked because the kids wanted it to work. I think the kids wanted to have a successful season,” Greenman said. “The Port kids had that feeling the last couple years; we’ve had some success in the past. I think the Smethport kids having the small numbers and not really having a good dual-meet season really pushed them to be part of the team, and be excited about being part of the team. I think that really helped out that everybody was on the same page, everybody had the same goal of trying to win.”
That level of success didn’t go unnoticed by the Big 30 All-Star selection committee, which tabbed Greenman as its 2019 Coach of the Year when it met to discuss its postseason honors.
“You have two natural rivals, and now you have to integrate them. You’ve got to make that team mesh as a group,” longtime committee member Bill Stephen said. “You’ve got to get them all to work for the same common goal, not to have the old rivalries. For years, it was always Smethport and Port, whatever sport it was.
“He did a good job of integrating that way, and I also thought he did a good job of getting his kids ready. And his team did very well; they were AML champions. I think he’s done a good job of building a program.”
It’s the second award for Greenman, who also earned the nod in 2015. Now just shy of the 100-win mark with a 97-71 career record, the eighth-year coach joins four-time winner Terry Schwab (Smethport) and two-time recipients Mike DeBarbieri (Portville) and Ron Brunner (Pioneer) as multiple honorees.
“It’s nice to get that recognition of putting a team together and having a good team,” he said. “It is difficult to have a good team nowadays. Numbers are a big thing. We definitely had the numbers this year with 24 kids on the squad, and the other thing is having kids healthy the whole year to be able to complete the season. We were able to do both of those. I think it’s a testament to our program as a whole; the coaching staff and the kids too, coming together and wrestling well.”
Reese Vollmer, one of three Gators on this year’s All-Star team along with Johnson and fellow Port senior Issac Smoker, said, “B.J. is a really good coach with working with different kids and different styles, getting them to work out well against good kids in matches. I think that’s a big reason why we were pretty successful, individually and as a team.”
And with Vollmer, Smoker, and Smethport’s Alex Sanderson the only three seniors moving on from this year’s squad, Greenman sees good things ahead for the Gators.
“As the kids from Smethport get more accustomed to our coaching style, it’ll definitely help out, and I think we’ll start seeing more kids sign up on both sides because we’re having success. It makes me excited for the next couple years,” he said.
(Lori Chase, correspondent for the Port Allegany Reporter Argus, can be reached at portsports@verizon.net)
