Hearing the term “scholastic wrestling” doesn’t traditionally conjure up the thought of a barely-100-pound sixth-grader sporting a uniform, but people might think twice before messing with 12-year-old Andrew Powell. The Selbyville Middle School athlete earned the state title in the junior 105-pound weight class last Sunday, March 2, at the State Championship held at Sussex Tech in Georgetown.
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Selbyville MIddle School’s Andrew Powell won the state champion title in the sub-105-pound weight class in competition at Sussex Tech High School.
The pint-size athlete put a 7-0 hurting on his first opponent before coming up victorious against the New Castle County champion, 4-2, in overtime. Powell stayed determined, facing his third and final rival, the Kent County Division champion. After a shaky start that put him down 4-5, Powell surged back, winning 9-7 after resorting to a maneuver known as the Peterson Roll, a move he had attempted over and over again in matches and practice.
Selbyville Middle School language arts teacher Joe Bellistri doubles as the wrestling coach for the middle school team and had noticed Powell’s steadfast determination.
“He’s 5-4 on the season,” Bellistri said, “which is impressive for a sixth-grader. He’s wrestling kids older than him. It really takes tenacity to get in there and do what he does.”
Bellistri, who wrestled at Saverna Park High in Maryland and later at the University of Maryland, knows what it takes to triumph in matches.
“Wrestling is one of those sports that you can manage to love and hate it at the same time,” he said. “You’re not out there catching touchdown passes or hitting homeruns. It’s intense. You have guys slamming you into the mat, and you have to manage your weight. There’s a lot to it.”
Wrestling, as he mentioned, brings on a whole different mindset than other athletic challenges.
“It’s an individualized sport,” he stated. “It can be nerve-racking to go out there and not depend on anyone but yourself. I give [Powell] a lot of credit, because when he steps out on the mat, one-on-one, he takes responsibility for whatever happens to occur. There’s no escaping it.
“It takes a lot of guts for someone at his age to do that. It helps to build a lot of character. Whether or not you’re successful on the mat, you’re successful as an individual for doing what you do. And here he is, doing his best. That’s all you have to do to be successful,” he said.
Bellistri had noticed Powell’s favor for his winning move.
“He got into a habit of using the Peterson roll,” he said, “which is a maneuver where you sit out then attack. He’d telegraph it a lot, and I’d tell him, ‘You can’t let the other guy know that you’re coming with it.’ He was able to use it to his advantage, though, and he did it well.”
Victories, as Bellistri noted, can be that much more rewarding in a sport like wrestling.
“You get more gratification in wrestling out of a win or an entire season than you do with any other sport,” he said. “It’s definitely a challenge against yourself, more than it is anything else. It forces you to work hard, and as long as you do, the results are there.”