This Could be Medina's Year

By Ken Lipshez | Sports Correspondent at February 3, 2012 | 11:30 am | Print

As Geovanni Medina confronts the stiff challenges that becoming a championship-caliber scholastic wrestler pose, the New Britain High junior casts the impression that he?ll use those same attributes as he steers the course of his life.

Medina, who competes in the 126-pound weight class for coach Charles Ferguson?s Hurricanes, had little difficulty keeping his 2011-12 record unblemished through 20 bouts with a second-period pin at Conard Jan. 25. His goals are set high and why not after what he accomplished in his sophomore year.

Medina, competing at 112, went 31-7, took first place at the CCC West tournament and finished third in the Class LL tournament to qualify for the State Open. Hard work and dedication have built a r?sum? that will place him among the top wrestlers in NBHS history.

Medina was in seventh grade when he participated in New Britain?s youth program. When the lack of volunteer coaches hastened the program?s demise, he went elsewhere. He enrolled with the Newington Black Hawks program at the urging of his father Frank and began to appreciate the sport. He went even further to ramp up his offseason commitment.

?I went to Northeast Elite [in Enfield] because some Newington wrestlers wrestled there,? Geovanni said. ?It was real good. It helps the young wrestlers.?

Geovanni?s father Frank, his mother and younger brother were at Conard to support him. Frank wrestled briefly at Bulkeley, wished he had put more into it and vowed to get Geovanni involved. He?s helped initiate the improvement of other NB youngsters by bringing them to Enfield.

?[Geovanni?s] always practicing and I?m glad he?s got a lot of kids that follow him from the football program,? Frank Medina said. ?We have a lot of football players wrestling and it?s a young squad so I see a lot of good things coming out of this program.?

Geovanni went 23-7 as a freshman. He lost his first state tournament bout, opened the consolation round with a pin but suffered a 4-3 loss in an elimination match. He was determined to improve.

?I didn?t so well my freshman year so I wanted to focus more on wrestling,? said Medina, who gave up baseball to hone his wrestling skills. ?I wrestled the whole summer, I lifted, I went to all the tournaments and that?s how I got better. I started to love it.?

With love came dedication. With dedication came hard work. With hard work and an ever-growing will to win, his sophomore results project him among the state?s elite 112-pounders.

Seeded third in ?LL,? Medina dispensed of second-seeded Johnny D?Elia in a 9-4 semifinal bout before losing to Glastonbury?s Tyler Keane 11-3 in the finale. At the Open, he advanced through the early rounds by a 15-0 technical fall and a pin, but dropped a 7-5 semifinal decision in overtime to Andrew Chase of Bristol Eastern before taking third with a major decision.

?He slipped the headlock,? Geovanni said. ?That still gets to me.?

Medina qualified for the New Englands ? a difficult proposition for a sophomore ? but lost a pair of decisions.

Conard coach Chris Glowacki has seen enough of Medina to believe that this is his year.

?He?s gonna win the LL?s,? he said. ?He looks very, very good.?

Geovanni yearns to see NBHS improve its standing and reputation as a team and he has certainly done his part.

?I like winning,? he said. ?When I went to Newington and Enfield and got better, it made me like the sport better. Now I want to contribute to team wins.?

Those around him ? Raphael Gonzalez (106), Aaron Sanchez (132), Edward Cruz (138), Bryce Buinickas (145), Malik Webb (152)and Dylan Krivickas (160) ? have all improved, but the Hurricanes continue to struggle in the CCC West, a division that includes two state-ranked teams in Farmington (7th) and Southington (9th).

The Hurricanes continue to be plagued by forfeits ? weight classes where they don?t have competitors ? and each one costs them six points when they face teams with the full complement of wrestlers.

?We get freshmen who never played the sport the before and they get discouraged because they lose,? Geovanni said. ?If you have a feeder program [like Southington and Newington] that sends youth wrestlers straight into high school, they?re good at the sport and want to stick with it through their high school career.?

The elder Medina praised Ferguson?s part in Geovanni?s development and put out a call to New Britain wrestlers of the past.

?If we get alumni to come back and help [Ferguson] out, we would be devastating,? he said. ?He needs help. The guys who were great back in the day need to come back and help the program out because he?s an awesome coach. [Geovanni] listens to his coach and that?s why he?s improved.?

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The Sports Journal

Source: http://nbcityjournal.com/archives/3937

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