Long Beach carries on rich tradition

Across the New York State high school wrestling circuit, few teams carry a pedigree that can match that of Long Beach.
With 17 state champions, the Marines are a perennial powerhouse each and every year and have alums scattered across the country in some of the nation’s best collegiate programs.
For each new crop coach Ray Adams undertakes, the responsibility of upholding that mantle can feel enormous.
“They feel the responsibility to carry the torch,” Adams said. “We have a wall of champions. They see that, and they want to be on that wall in some capacity.”
It seemed Adams’ current bunch was close to doing just that as they entered last week’s Nassau County dual meet team playoffs. But in a hard-fought defeat, Long Beach lost to rival Wantaugh, 32-22, last Saturday evening in the semifinals.

Despite falling short of the dual meet crown, there were still plenty of highlights from Long Beach’s 11-win regular-season campaign, mainly from sophomore Dunia Sibomana and eighth-grader Ethan Andreula. Both are defending county champs.
“All great teams always have one or two exceptional individuals ​​that lead the way,” Adams said. “They set the example.”
Sibomana is a force in the 108-pound weight class. He scored the pin over Wantaugh’s Cole Blaney at the 3:08 mark to close out the regular season as the top competitor in the class and is looking for a third straight county crown.
“He’s the total package,” Adams said. “ He’s very athletic. He’s strong, explosive and has good technique. All the big building blocks are there. We really get into the finer points, high-level stuff that you can’t do with other kids. I love that.”
Andreula was already the first seventh-grader in the history of Nassau County to win an individual Division I championship.
To follow up that performance, he set the bar in the 101-pound weight class and picked up the win in a major decision over Jonathan Catrone 9-1.
While Sibomana and Andreula have shown to be prodigies thus far, Long Beach has had others who’ve risen through the ranks in Brody Franklin, Greg Walpole and Greg Malone.
In his final year as a senior, Malone competes in the 170-pound weight class and is looking to capture a county title in two weeks.
“He’s a kid who started off in the youth program and just kept working hard and getting better,” Adams said. “Now, he’s one of the top guys in New York State.”
To help his wrestlers reach that level, Adams pits them against the best competition he can find. Up and down the Atlantic Coast, Long Beach’s reputation is well established.
“We seek out the toughest competition,” Adams said.” We want to be battle-tested, so by the time the end of the season comes, we’ve wrestled the toughest guys. We want to try to get our kids to be exposed. We want to see where our kids need to improve, and the best way to do that is to put them against the toughest competition possible.”
The Marines defeated Freeport and Hewlett in the dual meet playoffs on the way to the semifinals and will host one of Nassau’s six qualifying tournaments Feb. 3. The county tournament is Feb. 10-11 at Hofstra.