Powerade: nurturing the female inclusion
Each year, the numbers have been going up for the annual Powerade Wrestling Tournament, held between the holidays at Canon-McMillan High School.
It has taken the smooth operating hand of tournament director Frank Vulcano, who also serves as athletic director at Canon-McMillan, to keep it that way.
His latest objective is to increase the number of female participants from last year’s number of about 50.
“We still have about a week to go,” said Vulcano in a telephone interview Saturday. “It’s an open tournament, not a team-invite tournament.”
The female wrestlers compete Wednesday, the day before the boys varsity session begins (8 a.m. start). Finals time for the boys varsity is 4 p.m. Friday.
“It’s hard to say right now how many will enter,” said Vulcano. “Last year, we had about 50. I’d like to see that number get to 150 this year. I think that’s a realistic number.”
Female wrestling teams have been on the rise. Canon-McMillan and North Allegheny began their programs last year and Trinity began one this year.
The magic number for PIAA recognition as a competitive sport is 100 across the state. With the inclusion of Trinity, the number of active programs is 87.
On the boys varsity side, Vulcano said some familiar names are back.
“You gotta go with the perennial powers like Wyoming Seminary and Malvern Prep,” Vulcano said. “The St. Joseph team from New Jersey has a strong lineup. I think those are the three favorites at this point.”
Locally, Vulcano doesn’t believe you need to go far to find the talented teams.
“Canon-McMillan has five really good kids,” Vulcano said. “West Allegheny has some good kids. I think the WPIAL in general will hold its own this year.”
Waynesburg has two potential favorites in two-time PIAA champion Mac Church (132) and returning state champion Rocco Welsh (172). Church finished runner-up and Welsh and Joe Simon (120) each took third last season. Church has moved up to 145, Welsh to 189 and Simon to 127.
The Raiders come into this tournament losers of two of its last three dual meets, to Connellsville and Butler, knocking them from their No. 1 ranking. Simon missed both losses and Church was out against Butler. Both losses were by less than 10 points.
Vulcano said he expects wrestlers representing 67 schools will compete.
Returning state champion Dylan Evans and fourth-place finisher in Hershey Brady Jolling make Chartiers Valley a threat.
Canon-McMillan has strength in numbers in Tanner Mizenko, Brandon Dami, Andrew Binni, Matthew Furman and Gabriel Stafford as possible medalists.
Peters Township regional runnerup and state qualifier Darius McMillon, whose brother Donovan was a PIAA runnerup two years ago, is someone to keep an eye on.
Blake Reihner, Bodie Morgan and Ty Banco make Trinity a top-20 team.
Wyoming Seminary is the defending champion, beating second-place Malvern Prep by 91 points.