Thursday, October 1, 2026
The wrestling season is underway, and the Uniondale wrestling program is aggressive to get to the mat. For coach Tim Godoy, the season has been going on for quite some time, carrying lessons from the summer and fall.
“Preseason’s really been about not only just training for wrestling but mentally training as well,” Godoy said. “Having them believe that they can be successful on the next level, and realize that there’s going to be some setbacks this year but those setbacks are going to make us stronger as we move forward.”
Godoy is referring to the fact he has a mostly young team, with mostly freshman and sophomores starting in their respective weight classes.
With that in mind, he said that expectations are going to be determined on a weekly basis for the Knights.
“A lot of new faces, all looking to prove themselves,” he said.
Contrary to the fresher athletes on the roster, one returner that sticks out to Godoy is his 101-pounder, junior Tarzhay Tamar. “He was small for the weight last year, he’s kinda grown into the 100-pound weight class, so I think he has a great opportunity to do well this year,” Godoy said.
Uniondale has three new captains, senior Jaden Lewis-White, who steps on the mat at 285. Godoy highlighted his natural leadership skills amongst his teammates, which went together with his recently successful football season. There’s also juniors Joshua Pierre-Paul and Brian Batista. Godoy said that Pierre-Paul is currently ranked in the county, so he’s expecting great results from him. As for Batista, Godoy said that he made huge strides in the offseason, leaving his improvement to the imagination of friends and opponents.
These mentioned players, plus senior Pierre Wellington, are some of the folks that have pleasantly surprised Godoy so far into the season. “He’s somebody who no one’s really talking about yet but hopefully by midseason, he’ll have a couple of big wins and we’ll be discussing him later in the season,” Godoy noted.
While these five guys are have been pushing themselves to their maximum, their spots in the starting lineups are not set in stone just yet. Godoy says that with a team of over 50, they’re holding internal wrestle-offs weekly to gauge how much everyone improves and if someone has progressed so much so that they can confidently start when dual meets come around.
“Barring injury, wrestle offs will determine who is going to start,” he said.
The new addition to Uniondale, is that their girls wrestling program has taken off at break-neck speed and participation.
“Our athletic director and our superintendent were super supportive this year, we’ve been trying to get the girl’s program off the ground,” Godoy said. “In years past we’ve had two or three girls come out, and this year we’ve had over 30 come out, so the future of girsl wrestling is bright and it’s growing.”
