By TERRY NAU
Sports editor
CUMBERLAND – Fresh off a team championship performance at the Cumberland Invitational on Saturday, Steve Gordon’s latest Clippers squad heads into a difficult week that features back-to-back matches against South Kingstown and La Salle.
“This could be our toughest week of the (dual-meet) season,” Gordon said on Sunday morning. “South Kingstown is unbeaten and has a very solid team. They have a returning state champion at 160 pounds in Connor Nelson. They also have a very good heavyweight and 215-pounder.”
Cumberland could be overmatched at those three positions. Clippers heavyweight Jerry Dellanoy underwent an MRI on his swollen elbow and missed Saturday’s tournament. Gordon took a look at the elbow and admitted, “Jerry won’t wrestle until he tells me he is ready.”
Cumberland will probably keep veteran Derek Paul at 189 points. The versatile senior wrestled up a weight during Saturday’s tournament and finished third at 215 pounds. But 189 is his true weight class.
At 160, Cumberland will send the very promising young talent – Cameron Glad – up against Nelson.
“Cam had a good tournament for us,” Gordon said. “He lost in the finals to a very good kid (Kyle Morgan of Exeter/West Greenwich).”
The Clippers can be a dominant team from 103 through 119 pounds. Shai and Shoneil Lariviere remain unbeaten inside the state. Shoneil ruled the 112 weight class on Saturday while Shai got beat 8-1 in the 103 finals by East Longmeadow’s Chad Roberts. That loss figures to put the energetic sophomore in a nasty mood for the next few weeks.
At 119 pounds, Cumberland’s Jaron Parent seems to get better every week. He won his weight class on Saturday, beating Mount Pleasant’s Adam Rodriguez by a convincing 15-0 margin in the finals.
Taylor Dougan continued his strong season with a runner-up finish at 152 pounds.
The Clippers got a third-place finish from Jake Cardoza at 125 and from Chris Smith at 135. Glad took second at 160 and Adam Krajanowski came in third at 171. Throw in Derek Paul’s third-place finish at 215 along with Eric Nowinski’s fourth at 145 and it’s easy to see why Gordon cites balance as the key to his team’s success this season.
“There’s a lot of balance on this team,” he said before turning the conversation to Thursday’s home match against Tim Clouse’s La Salle Rams.
“La Salle has seven very good weight classes,” Gordon said, “and they have seven weights that are not so good. They beat (defending state champion) Cranston West last week. I was very impressed with the way they wrestled in our tournament, finishing in third place in the team race. We’ve got our work cut out for us against them.”
Speaking of work, there was plenty of that commodity going on during Saturday’s tournament, which featured 252 matches over a nine-hour period from 10 in the morning until 7 in the evening.
“Our Cumberland Wrestling Parents Club did a terrific job,” Gordon said. “Mary Smith and Dina Smith – who are not related – organized everything. Our concession stand looked more like a restaurant. That’s how good the food was. That’s huge for us. And we then had a lot of students helping us, including our junior varsity wrestlers.”
Gordon, now 67 years old, has developed a lot of friendships over the years. People tend to stay connected to the veteran coach over the years, as is evidenced by the group of volunteer coaches who can be seen behind the team bench during matches.
“Ricky Conlan has been with me since he wrestled on our Middle School team,” Gordon said. “That was around 38 years ago. Thad Potzreba has been with us just about as long. He’s another former Cumberland wrestler. Fred Smith’s son Chris is on our team this year. His wife Mary is one of our best organizers. We’ve also got Scott Carlsten, a state trooper and four-time All-America wrestler at Rhode Island College who comes to our practices and helps out. His son Max is on our squad.
“Mike Breen is another guy who comes to our practices as a volunteer coach,” Gordon added. “Mike is a former Connecticut state champion. And we have Matt Travers, a former East Providence wrestler who lives in Cumberland now.”
Perhaps the key component in Gordon’s program is his assistant coach, Jerred Dean.
“Jerred is very steady,” Gordon said. “He’s a very responsible person and the kids love him. When I start getting aggravated, the kids go to him because I can be a little cranky at times. Jerred is much more low-key than I am. I’ve told Jerred that it’s his team whenever he wants to take over but right now he has two young children and this arrangement seems to work out best for both of us.”
The arrangement has brought a few dividends in recent years. Cumberland won the state team title in 2005 and has captured two of the first four dual-meet state championships. The Clippers have crowned several state champions and are in line for more when the state tourney rolls around at the end of February.
Until then, the Clippers will focus on their goals every day in practice, taking advice from a variety of coaches, both the full-time and volunteer variety.
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MAT NOTES: Burrillville finished ninth in the team race on Saturday with 38 points … Ponagsanset’s Colby Clarke finished second at 125 pounds … Lincoln High’s Scott Leech had a great tournament, reaching the finals before losing to Weymouth’s Dan Murphy.