Life is about relationships, and NO sport embodies this human bond greater than the sport of wrestling. It’s about the bonds between a parent and son, coach and athlete, teammates and competitors, and competitors and fans.

Every individual that steps foot on the wrestling mat battles two opponents: the opponent the fans see and the opponent only the wrestler sees – THEMSELF. It’s the voice in your mind that tells you, you’re too tired to go on; it hurts too much to continue to fight; it fills you with self-doubt and makes you tentative in your attack.

It’s a fear of many varsity wrestlers who love to play football in the fall yet are passionate about their wrestling career: do you risk injury and ruin your winter wrestling season by playing football in the fall? It’s an even more tortuous decision going into your senior year with many wrestling goals yet to be achieved and the dream of a state championship still burning fiercely in your heart.

Section VIII individual championship results and team scores.

If you are a Long Island wrestling fan, then you’ve no doubt heard of Paul Liguori, and if it seems like he has been around forever, it’s because he has.

I recall Paul wrestling as a youth and being in awe of how accomplished he was against other wrestlers of his own age. It seems like every time, there has been a wrestling event, Paul has been part of it. Wrestling has opened a lot of doors allowing him to make friends and bonds that will last a lifetime, traveling, competing, and enjoying the success.

It’s a large responsibility for an eighth grade varsity wrestler, but Nick Hall is no ordinary wrestler — even for a prodigy. In the last match of a hotly contested dual meet against Brentwood, Section XI’s perennial powerhouse, where Longwood held the lead only once, it was up to Nick Hall to deliver a victory for his team.

The 160lbs final wasn’t supposed to end this way, but Rocky Point’s Billy Coggins had other plans. Entering into the tournament as the eighth seed in the 160lbs weight class, Billy Coggins won each round – as it can only happen – one match at time. Never looking beyond his current opponent, Billy knocked off three opponents seeded ahead of him to win the Eastern States Classic 2009.

He may not break your top 5 list or even your top 10 list of Section VIII wrestlers, but I have a feeling that it wouldn’t trouble this General. He’s too busy preparing for his next opponent and doing what Generals do: they make their statement on the mat.

I think once you coach wrestling it becomes a part of who you are. As much as it is draining physically, emotionally, and mentally, it is what we do. I do not know how long I will be able to coach, but I am sure I do not know what to do with myself if I wasn’t a wrestling coach.

I started wrestling in 7th grade at Brentwood North Junior High School. I wrestled three years in junior high, and then went on to wrestle for Joe Campo. Coach Campo was a major influence on my coaching career. However it was not until I started coaching did I realize how important Coach Campo was to me. He taught us many things but most of all, he showed us how to be men.

In a popular 2007 movie [The Bucket List] the character Carter Chambers said you measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you. If this is true, then Brentwood Head Wrestling Coach, Ralph Napolitano is a giant, both on and off of the mat.

The John Glenn wrestling team has been ripping through the competition this season like a tornado ripping through a neighborhood. They’ve racked up an impressive 281 points while giving up 83 points in 6 Dual meets this season alone.

At the Bethpage Tournament, they tore through the competition entering into the finals with 18 finalists and crowning 10 champions.

The wrestler of the week needs no introduction but we must give him some well due accolades. John Greisheimer has been wrestling since 4th grade and he appears ready for greatness…

When you think of Wantagh, the first wrestler that comes to most people’s mind is Paul Liguori, but greatness often comes in pairs, and in Wantagh’s case, greatness came in 3′s with the trio of Paul Liguori, Paul Greishiemer, and Steve Bonanno: a kind of Three Musketeers, if you would.

LHW: What are your expectations for next season? Will you win another county tournament title again? Will you be the top Dual meet team in Nassau County Again?

LHW: It’s been rumored that you will be retiring from wrestling shortly to spend more time with your kids. Is there any truth to this?

The most import thing is to get the kids to believe in the goal; to desire that goal; to make it their passion. As soon as the season was over, I began talking with the wrestlers and started to get them excited about the goal of working towards and winning another Nassau County Championship.

I decided to start by interviewing Howie Greenblatt, the Head Coach of MacArthur High School for the past 24 years. During this time at the head of Nassau County’s current wrestling dynasty, Greenblatt has remained so modest and focused on the objective at hand that hardly have we heard a word about the man or his team first concept outside of the occasional rumor and/or idol forum chatter. For this reason, as well as the fact that the Generals are coming off of their 7th County title, I perceived Howie to an ideal subject to profile.

This is final part of the three part series of Lighthouse Wrestling’s interview Neil Alton a former Long Beach wrestler for Paul Gillespie and father of Dylan and Andrew Alton, two of the top High School wrestlers in the country.

Lighthouse Wrestling wanted to interview Neil Alton in order to find out how a former wrestler from Long Island could develop his two children into two of the best wrestlers in the country. This is the second part of three part questions with Mr. Alton.

Lighthouse Wrestling wanted to interview Neil Alton in order to find out how a former wrestler from Long Island could develop his two children into two of the best wrestlers in the country. Was it the coaching, genes, the water they are drinking in Pennsylvania? …