Coaches go to mat for wrestling team

For years, the strength of state high school wrestling has come from teams within the Merrimack Valley Conference. State and New England champions are the rule rather than the exception and more than likely hail from Lowell, Central Catholic, Methuen, Billerica, and Dracut, to name just a few.

Andover High School has been noticeably absent. With more than 1,600 students, Andover is the largest school in the region without a wrestling team.

All that's about to change, though, within the next few years. Andover will introduce the sport, first with a junior varsity program this winter, and possibly the year after that, too. It's more than likely that in three years, Andover will field its first varsity wrestling team.

Andover athletic director Brian McNally and the School Committee have given the team their approval with a caveat -- that the program be funded for the first two years by the Friends of Andover Wrestling.

That shouldn't be a problem for fund-raisers like Mike and Sharon Olivieri and Andrea Zaimes, who have been working to help Andover for the past few years while it competed on a club level. In one night last year, they raised $22,000 with a live and silent auction. Mike Olivieri expects it will cost $10,000 to $12,000 to fund a JV team annually, and $15,000 a year once the varsity is in place. Olivieri, who wrestled in high school on Long Island and then at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, said bringing a wrestling team to Andover has been a passion of his for many years.

"The interesting thing is that many of the fathers of the kids that will wrestle wrestled themselves in places like Lowell and Chelmsford before moving to Andover," Olivieri said. "It's had a big impact on their lives. They see the sport has a lot to do with discipline and good sportsmanship, and can be for smaller wrestlers as well as bigger ones."

One of the biggest boosters has been Bill Fahey, Andover's director of youth services, who helped run interference for the Friends of Andover Wrestling. He first set up a youth program -- which was huge to gauge the degree of interest, and eventually presented arguments to McNally and, along with Zaimes, to the School Committee.

They assured the committee that Title IX was not a factor because the program was open to girls and girls have already wrestled on other varsity teams.

A club team was also established at the high school, under the direction of former Needham wrestler Sobhan Namvar.

Close to 40 participated and the team rang up an 8-2 record against junior varsity teams throughout the area.

Fahey was so impressed with Namvar that he hired him as a full-time assistant in youth services with an emphasis on the wrestling program. Olivieri hopes that Namvar will coach the junior varsity team.

"He's done a fine job with the program and hopefully he'll be considered," said Olivieri. "Of course, now that this sport will be part of the athletic program, that decision will eventually be made by the athletic director."

Driving forces in local golf world

The Champions Tour Bank of America Championship at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord will hold its annual Golf Marathon Sept. 12 at Stow Acres Country Club. Proceeds benefit the players' personal nonprofit charities. The field is limited to the first 40 golfers with a minimum $1,500 in pledges. Prizes will be awarded to top fund-raisers. Contact Mike Young at 978-266-1666 or mikeyoung@bankofamericachampionship.com. . . . Space is still available for the 17th annual David J. Boutin Memorial Golf Tournament Sept. 24 at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua. The tournament is hosted by the UMass-Lowell baseball team and honors the memory of Boutin, a former player who died of cancer. Proceeds benefit UMass-Lowell scholar-athletes and Lowell elementary schools. For more information, visit the UMass website at goriverhawks.com. . . . Garrett Arnold of Concord was very much in contention heading into the final round of the America Junior Golf Association Fidelity Investments Junior Classic at Tedesco Country Club in Marblehead. Arnold, after rounds of 76 and 69, trailed eventual champion Thomas McCarthy of Tolland, Conn., by three strokes, but fired a 79 in the final round to finish at 224 and tie for eighth place. Jim Pleat of Nashua was a model of consistency, with three straight 74s to finish in sixth place with a 222. Another area finisher was Evan Harmeling of North Reading (81-77-68-226).

Odds 'n' ends

Nhut Chau of Lawrence, the all-time leader in assists at Rivier College and a two-time North East Collegiate Volleyball Association All-Star, has been named assistant men's volleyball coach at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Chau, 25, played for four years at Rivier and finished with 4,990 assists; he ranked second in games played (426) and digs (833). Rivier was nationally ranked in each of his four seasons. . . . The UMass-Lowell field hockey team continues to be a feeder system for college and high school coaching ranks. The latest to join the fold is Josselyn Mroz, who was named an assistant coach at Bryant. Mroz played for the River Hawks from 2002 to 2005. Other former players now coaching include Joanna DaLuze (2003-05), an assistant at UMass; Mary Ruggles (1998-01), head coach at Nashua South High; Nikki (LeBlanc) Green (1998-01), junior varsity coach at Nashua South; Jen (Brown) Quinn (1991-94), assistant coach at Walpole; and Abby Dennehy (2001-04), junior varsity coach at Timberlane. . . . Junior Gillian Mundry of Methuen was among four UMass-Lowell student-athletes named to the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division 2 All-Academic Team. Mundry, a business marketing major, highlighted the 2007 outdoor season by earning All-New England honors in the long jump and as a member of the 4 x 100 meter relay team. Others named were junior Joey DeWitt of Ellsworth, Maine; senior Nicole Plante of North Adams; and sophomore Ruben Sanca of Boston.

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