Photo Credit: Andrew Pellegrino

The Drexel wrestling team finally got the opportunity to wrestle in front of their home crowd at the Daskalakis Athletic Center Jan. 19, but dropped a 22-18 decision to Binghamton University. The Dragons were without their star 197-pounder, Brandon Palik, who was sidelined with a rib injury.

It did not take long for the mat men to get the crowd into the match. After freshman Tanner Shoap was defeated at 125 pounds, another freshman, Kevin Devoy, took the mat at 133 pounds. Devoy pinned his opponent in the first round to put the Dragons out in front early on and get the crowd riled up.

“I wasn’t really going for the pin, I was going for points,” Devoy explained after the match. “The second time I turned him, I actually saw that I was pretty close and he was really lackadaisical about getting off of his back. I went for it with under 20 seconds left and saw he was flat again. My coaches got into it saying, ‘He’s flat, he’s flat,’ so I just held him there and I got it.”

“It was huge,” Matt Azevedo, head coach, said. “We knew we needed bonus points, so for him to go out there and get six against a kid that he should get six against was great. It got the crowd going. It’s always good to get those pins.”

Earlier in the season, Devoy had wrestled in the lighter weight class, but after struggling to make weight and battling lethargy when he did, Azevedo made the decision to move his talented freshman up to his current spot at 133 pounds. Devoy has benefited greatly from the move thus far.

“I feel better out there,” Devoy said about the switch. “I can go out there and actually wrestle. I’m not tired. I’m not waiting around to conserve my energy. I’m out there doing as much as I can.”

Devoy was also excited to finally get a chance to wrestle at home, where he had a considerable cheering section in attendance. After the match, the Burlington, N.J., native made a quick line to his friends and family to share in the moment.

The Dragons also picked up a win from Noel Blanco at 149 pounds. The junior from El Monte, Calif., is quietly putting together a solid season for Azevedo’s club. In Drexel’s previous event, the prestigious Southern Scuffle, Blanco was one of only two Dragons to advance to day two of competition.

“He did a great job,” Azevedo said of his energetic junior. “The thing he’s doing right now is he’s getting the wins.”

Facing a deficit heading into the second half of the match, Drexel needed to find a spark. They found just that, beginning with the 165-pound weight class. Jason Fugiel earned the decision, and then Kevin Matyas earned one as well at 174 pounds. Alex DeCiantis finished off the Dragons’ third match win in a row with an exciting takedown in extra time to come away with the two-point victory.

The Blue and Gold headed into the 197-pound match with an 18-11 lead. It was Coleman DeLude who drew the assignment to fill the void left by the injured Palik. Not only did he have big shoes to fill for his own team, but he was going up against a Binghamton wrestler in Cody Reed who was coming off of a win over a ranked opponent. DeLude dropped the match in a technical fall, which put Binghamton right back in the match, down only 18-16 with one weight class to go.

After the match, Azevedo acknowledged that DeLude was in a tough situation, taking such a tough match on short notice after Bryan Sternlieb, Palik’s original replacement, was ruled unable to go with a skin infection.

“I’ve got to give credit to him for going out there and wrestling,” Azevedo said. “He didn’t know he was wrestling until last night. He’s actually a 174-pounder who we bumped up, and he went out there and did the best he could.”

The Dragons’ day ended when heavyweight Joe Giorgio was pinned, giving Binghamton six points and the 22-18 win. Palik’s absence loomed large over the team. If he had been healthy enough to wrestle, then he more than likely would have won his match, which would have given Drexel an insurmountable lead and a team win on the day.

“Without him, it hurts,” Devoy said. “We look upon all of our other teammates to get bonus [points] when we can. We have got to win the close matches. That’s a six-point swing if we do that.”

“We knew if we didn’t have a larger lead heading into those two matches, it was going to be tough to win the dual meet,” Azevedo said of the 197 and heavyweight weight classes. “With Palik in there, we win the dual. He’s not in there and that’s the difference. But we still should have won the match. We lost a couple of matches that we shouldn’t have.”

With the loss, the Dragons have dropped to 0-2 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association. They will have two conference matches coming up in the next week as they travel to Hofstra University Jan. 24 and return to the DAC Jan. 26 to take on the United States Military Academy.

Brandon Palik, a 197-pounder, has been a leader on the mats during his time at Drexel. Now in his fifth season, the redshirt senior serves as a mentor for many of the young and talented freshman Dragons.

Brandon Palik is the kind of wrestler that every coach wants to have. He’s the kind of wrestler who embraces a challenge and is always trying to get better. When it’s not his turn to be in the spotlight on the mat, he’s helping the other guys improve.

The redshirt senior had his share of college pickings when coming out of Saucon Valley High School as a successful wrestler. Lehigh University, which is located right in his hometown of Bethlehem, Pa., The Ohio State University, the University of Virginia and Bucknell University all wanted him.

Former Drexel wrestling head coach Jack Childs reached out to Palik, too. Palik was sitting on the beach in Ocean City, Md., when he received the call. Something specific about Childs’ recruiting pitch stuck out to him: Drexel was the full package both academically and athletically.

Academically, Drexel gave Palik the opportunity to pursue a degree in business, an area that has long been an interest.

“Drexel’s a great school and everything I had heard about the co-op [program] was incredible,” Palik said. “I’m really into business, and I’m really into getting a job and making money. My first job was at 14, so I knew what I needed to get stuff for myself. I knew I needed to work hard to make money.”

Athletically, Drexel offered Palik something unique as well, something that the other schools could not: a blank portrait ripe for painting. Palik had the opportunity to help shape the direction of the Drexel wrestling program.

“I had the mindset that if I wanted to do something [in wrestling], I could do it anywhere. I didn’t need go to Ohio State or Penn State or Oklahoma State or Iowa State or any of those schools,” Palik said. “I knew if I wanted to do something bad enough, I knew I could do it here at Drexel. To me, that’s more challenging and gives me more satisfaction to do something big here at Drexel where we’re not known for wrestling.”

He continued, “I [thought] if I could do something and make a name for myself here at Drexel that would really put us on the map, it would help us attract even more recruits. I really just wanted to do something different. I knew if I wanted to be a national champion or an All-American, I could do it anywhere.”

Childs, the coach who had recruited Palik to University City, stepped down in 2011, and Matt Azevedo stepped in. It was an instant change in culture, a shock almost. But Palik thinks that Azevedo’s infusion of knowledge, passion and savvy was just what the program needed to take a leap forward.

“Coach Azevedo has really been upping the recruiting,” Palik said of his current head coach. “He’s doing more with social media and the marketing of Drexel wrestling as a brand. He’s really trying to transform it into something better than it’s ever been, and we’re on that path, and we’re doing it.”

Just as Palik recognizes Azevedo’s impact on the program, Azevedo sees what Palik has done as well. When Azevedo is asked about Palik, his eyes instantly light up. He knows that Palik is not only the top wrestler talent-wise on the team; he’s a capable leader as well.

“He’s a back-to-back NCAA qualifier and he’s ranked anywhere from 11th to 12th right now,” Azevedo said prior to the start of the season. “We’re expecting big things from him this season.”

Palik is thriving on the mat and living up to his coach’s lofty expectations. He’s ranked in the top 20 in the country in the 197-pound weight class. His record stands at 11-5, but a majority of his losses have been to nationally-ranked opponents.

He also embraces his position on the team as the senior leader. This year’s edition of Drexel wrestling features a slew of freshmen in the starting lineup, some of who are still learning the kind of maturity wrestling at the Division I level demands.

It has been well documented that some of the guys have struggled not just to make weight, but to cut weight responsibly. Palik, the seasoned veteran, has been there every step of the way for the guys to offer his insight and experiences to make it all easier.

“I lead by example. They see what I do, and they take that and run with it,” Palik said. “Sometimes I will get vocal with them to do this or that. They’re young, but they still know what they’re doing. They’re the most talented class that I’ve ever seen here at Drexel.”

He voiced similar concerns as his coach as he continued, “They just have to stay focused. Coming to Philadelphia, [there are] a lot of distractions in a city like this. The thing they can’t do is stray off the path. They can’t stray off the path because they came here for a reason and that’s for wrestling as well as to get an education.”

Although much of the team is taking this season to get acclimated to collegiate wrestling, Palik has his sights set high. He wants to win the conference — the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association — and he wants to be an All-American.

Right now, though, Palik is battling an injury to his ribs. It’s the same injury that caused him to take a medical forfeit in his final match of the Southern Scuffle against an opponent from Cornell University. He said it may be a blessing in disguise of sorts, giving him time to rest and come back stronger to reach his goals when the pain subsides.

“I’m off of the mat for a little bit, but it’s all right. Breaks are sometimes good,” Palik admitted. “Every year I’ve had an injury around this time, and every year I came back like a ball on fire and really turned it up a level. Your body gets a little rest, you’re hungrier to get out on the mat and you’re fresh.”

Palik won’t be back in time for Drexel’s first home match of the season Jan. 19 against Binghamton University at 2 p.m. in the DAC. Azevedo and the rest of the team hope Palik will be ready to go soon, because the Dragons need their senior leader back on the mat.

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Drexel has had weigh-in problems as of late, problems to which head coach Matt Azevedo is hoping to find answers.

The Southern Scuffle is perhaps the most important tournament of the year for the Drexel University wrestling team, outside of the NCAA championships. A national tournament, the annual Scuffle gives the Dragons the opportunity to gauge where they stand in the country’s collegiate wrestling landscape.

This year, redshirt senior Brandon Palik continued to be the cream of the Drexel crop. The Bethlehem, Pa., native placed eighth overall at the Jan. 1-2 Scuffle, winning three of his first four matches before dropping his last two. The last loss came via medical forfeit in Palik’s fourth match of day two.

For his effort, he was named the male Colonial Marble and Granite Athlete of the Week by Drexel Athletics.

Also finding success at the Scuffle was junior Noel Blanco. The El Monet, Calif., native advanced to day two of competition before dropping a hard-fought 2-1 decision to Christian Barber of The University of North Carolina.

Aside from Palik and Blanco, however, consistency and success seemed to evade the rest of the Dragons over the weekend. The Scuffle may serve as a great indicator of where a team stands among their competition, but how can a team truly know where they stand if they are not wrestling to the best of their ability?

Head coach Matt Azevedo explained that some of the issues holding his mat men back from performing optimally are not talent-related and certainly not effort-related.

“Our team does compete hard,” Azevedo said. “I don’t think we have problem with our guys with the effort. Our effort is strong.”

Instead, the team’s struggles result from their youth. The Dragons are particularly young in the lighter weight classes, starting freshmen at the three or four smallest weight classes in a given match.

The young wrestlers do not lack the talent, though. What they have lacked to date is the maturity and discipline to wrestle at the Division I level. It’s a mental battle. The frustrating part is that Azevedo knows they are close, and that if they can take that final step, the team will improve as a whole.

“When you don’t have everything else in your life and your training plan in order, it affects you negatively. When you step out onto the mat you’re distracted, you’re not ready to go,” Azevedo continued. “Whereas if you have everything in order, you’re planning ahead and everything is set out when you’re ready to compete. There is no stress, there are no distractions, and there is no chaos. Everything is in order and you can focus on what you have to do.”

The issue of making weight is not unfamiliar to Azevedo. Just about every team in the country deals with the issue in one way or another. However, Azevedo has not seen the issue so widespread to the point that he has called it an “epidemic.”

“This is Division I wrestling; you can’t miss weight,” Azevedo said. “It’s completely unacceptable. I don’t know what it would be equivalent to in another sport, but it’s basically like showing up to a game and declaring yourself ineligible intentionally.”

Azevedo continued, “I’ve coached many guys who have struggled with their weight. Even the teams I’ve coached at Drexel, [but] this has never happened. At Cornell [University], we had a couple of guys who struggled. They missed weight here or there, but it was the exception—never the norm.”

When there is such an obvious disconnect between the coach’s word and the athletes’ actions, a coach typically turns to the team leaders to hold team members accountable. This is a strategy that coaches employ no matter the sport.

Drexel’s leaders are not vocal leaders, though. They lead by example instead. But nobody is following, and Azevedo needs his leaders to find their voice. He needs his young guys to be held accountable and understand that what they can control the most should not be what lets the team down. He needs his team to become a team.

“We don’t have any vocal leaders,” Azevedo said. “We have guys who lead by example, but nobody is stepping up to be the vocal leader — to be the guy who says, ‘This is who we are and this is what we want to be.’ Nobody is holding anybody accountable. Really it’s only the coaches holding guys accountable, and right now, that doesn’t seem to be enough.”

He added, “I think [it would be good] if we had older guys who were stepping up and saying, ‘Hey, you need to cut that out. That’s not how we do things around here. This is the expectation and you need to beat it.’ There’s just none of that going on.”

The Dragons will have a week off before they host their first home match of the season against Binghamton University Jan. 19. With friends and families flocking to the DAC to see Drexel’s finest in action, Azevedo and the rest of the Dragons can only hope that it will serve as the motivation they need to grow.

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Junior 149-pounder Shane Fenningham matches up against Max Mayfield of Iowa State University last season at the DAC. Fenningham won in a 5-3 decision.

Which Thanksgiving dinner staple is your favorite? Are you more of a main course or a dessert kind of person? Either way, it doesn’t matter, because Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks, spending time with family, and reveling in gluttony.

Nobody said that the last part was made for wrestlers, though. When the Drexel wrestling team traveled to Madison Square Garden for the Grapple at the Garden Dec. 1 to cap off the holiday, a couple of the wrestlers weighed in overweight. The Dragons fell to Princeton University in a dual that they believe they should have won, but they redeemed themselves with a win over George Mason University.

The consequences for the team, in this case, were not all bad. With some usual starters out,  players who don’t usually have the opportunity to wrestle got their chance. Freshman Tanner Shoap was one of them.

“Tanner was actually going up to an open tournament in Lock Haven,” head coach Matt Azevedo said. “We called him up the night before and told him we needed him in New York because we needed him to wrestle.”

Shoap stepped in nicely at 125 pounds for freshman Kevin Devoy (who was one of the mat men who missed weight), winning both of his matches.

Although freshman David Pearce was able to make his weight at 133 pounds, something just doesn’t sit right with Azevedo.

“I think Devoy and Pearce need to move up,” Azevedo said. “They’re just too big. They can’t make the weight class and perform.”

Ideally, with Devoy moving up to 133 pounds, Shoap would stay in the 125-pound spot. Then, Pearce’s move from 133 to 141 would put him in the same class as another freshman, Matt Cimato.

Cimato has been able to make weight at 141, but Azevedo doesn’t feel like he’s getting the freshman’s best effort. He thinks that a bump up to 149 may be in order so that Cimato can wrestle at full strength.

“Cimato is kind of showing that he can’t make weight and perform at the highest level,” Azevedo said. “He’s at the right weight class; he just needs to do it right.”

Azevedo continued, “We just hope that this is going to make a difference and give some guys some energy, some excitement, and be stronger. They’re just so weak from cutting weight and being so heavy so close to the weigh-in.”

With the first three weight classes almost certainly moving up, Cimato moves to a clash with Noel Blanco for the starting spot at 149 pounds. Blanco was able to pick up two wins at 149. Since dropping his first three matches at the Eastern Michigan Open, Blanco has won three straight for the Dragons and has been strong lately.

The two could have a wrestle-off to determine who gets the starting spot, but that would leave the team in a bind because decisions are better made in competition than in practice. Because ultimately, the matches are what really matter.

Blanco could also potentially move up to 157 pounds, but Austin Sommer — who picked up two more victories over the weekend — has a firm grasp on the starting job there.

The situation is not ideal, but it is part of the ups and downs of coaching a young team. Discipline is a key to winning, especially when the near-weekly challenge of making weight is thrown into the mix. It’s a message that Azevedo can preach over and over again, but if his guys don’t listen, then he is forced to make changes.

“[The young guys] don’t quite grasp the importance of it,” Azevedo said. “They know it’s important and they know they have to do it right, but they’re just somewhat irresponsible. That’s how I look at it. They’re living in the now. They’re not looking to the future.”

Azevedo continued, “I want them to be disciplined and make these weight classes and compete well because I know they can. But if they’re not going to do it, I can’t just sit here and say, ‘Next time you’re going to do it.’ Why keep going down this road if I think they can be just as successful at the weight class above?”

Still, there are positives. Through it all, Brandon Palik remains the rock on the team. The senior won his two matches at the Garden, moving to a dominating 7-2 individual record on the season.

Also, there are the positives that come out of all the movement and intrasquad competition. When guys are always feeling the pressure of having a teammate sneak up and take a spot in the starting rotation, it keeps everyone working harder and more focused.

The Dragons will be better when the dust settles. They’re young and they’re talented, and they will see where they stand after the Indiana Duals Dec. 7-8.

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Nothing changes the momentum in wrestling quite like a pin. Worth six points on the scoreboard, a pin can reignite the fire under a team and alter the course of an entire dual meet. David Pearce’s pin Nov. 16 against Kagan Squire of Ohio University at the Eastern Michigan Open helped the Dragons get out to a 9-0 advantage that eventually grew to 12-0.

In the scorebook, a pin is worth six points, with no added bonus for style. If there was one pin that deserved an added bonus, though, it was Pearce’s.

When the opponent came to engage Pearce with his head down, he didn’t even think about it. He just did it. He jumped over his lunging opponent, took his back, and promptly pinned him. The move is known in the wrestling ranks as a “flying squirrel.” Six points for the Dragons.

“The move has been done before. It was started by a kid named Ellis Coleman, who did it at the World [Junior Championships], and it was just awesome,” the redshirt freshman explained. “You don’t practice a move like that. It’s just something you kind of do.”

At the time of the move, Pearce was losing the match. He was running out of time and knew he had to try something drastic. That’s when it just, well, happened. It wasn’t planned. It just came out of nowhere.

The flying squirrel is a move that, when done successfully, looks like every wrestler should just do it in every match. It looks so easy, so graceful. Pearce has tried the move before but with slightly less luck than the most recent attempt.

“It doesn’t work all the time,” Pearce laughed. “I tried it once last year, and I didn’t even get over the kid. It’s definitely not something you want to do 100 percent of the time.”

The team posted a video of the move on YouTube. If you haven’t seen it, then you are missing out. The team is pushing to get the move on the Top 10 segment of ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” and it got over 50,000 views online in its first five days.

The push to make the video go viral to get it in the hands of people who can further increase its popularity comes back to head coach Matt Azevedo’s philosophy on social media. It’s not just important; it’s essential.

At the college level, social media philosophies among coaches fall on a wide spectrum. Some ban the tool altogether, fearing that the athletes will inevitably misuse it and cause an unnecessary media firestorm. Others embrace social media as a way to spread their word and their brand to otherwise unreached places.

The latter resembles Azevedo’s thoughts. He sees its value in national exposure, branding and recruiting. He also sees the value in its immediacy and its ability to bypass traditional media outlets that do not traditionally cover wrestling.

“We have to find our own outlets to get our information and our brand out to the public. Social media is the best way; you can reach anybody through social media,” Azevedo said. “My philosophy is that I want our program to be a household name, so I am constantly on there branding our program, promoting our program, and trying to put Drexel Wrestling on the map.”

Azevedo is not the only person working toward his goal of making Drexel Wrestling a household name. He has his entire team working together on it.

“We’ve gotten our student-athletes to buy into it. Our assistant coaches love it,” Azevedo said. “I think they see that we can get a lot of attention or coverage or people excited about our program when we do these things.”

“Coach really pushes our Twitter and our Facebook,” Pearce said. “He’s all over it all the time. He’s really trying to get us to push anything we are doing at the time. He’ll tell us at practice, ‘Hey, go post this, go share this. Let’s make this go big.’”

The heavy focus on social media was born out of necessity above all. Wrestling does not get the coverage that basketball gets. Wrestling teams need to be creative to get their word out, something that heavily covered sports often don’t understand.

This was all realized early on. When Azevedo was the assistant coach at Cornell University and California Polytechnic State University, he realized what social media can do for a program. He stayed with what worked and brought the approach with him to Drexel.

“I saw how powerful it was and how many people you could reach and thought it was awesome,” Azevedo said. Now I’ve brought that over here and made my own tweaks to it and done my own things.”

Azevedo’s social media formula has garnered its own bit of attention as well. For his efforts, the National Wrestling Coaches Association named him Social Media Coach of the Year in the summer of 2013.

Just like a pin can change the momentum of a dual meet, social media can change the momentum of an entire program. With his entire team behind him, Azevedo looks to make Drexel Wrestling a household name. Getting Pearce’s flying squirrel pin on ESPN would be a major step in the right direction.

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Senior 197-pounder Brandon Palik claimed three victories in four bouts in the Eastern Michigan Open Nov. 16 in Ypsilanti, Mich. Palik defeated opponents from Ohio University, Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University before falling to Nick McDiarmid of Michigan State University in the fourth match of the day.

The Drexel wrestling team knew it would be a tough weekend in Michigan. The team’s bus broke down Nov 15, causing a three-and-a-half-hour delay in an already nine-hour ride and perhaps serving as a sign of things to come.

Arriving late at night with many of the guys still needing to work out to cut weight threw off the team’s schedule, not just for the night but also for their competition Nov. 16. The Dragons fell in all four of their duals at the Eastern Michigan Open against Ohio University, Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Michigan State University.

Maybe the real sign of what was to come came even earlier in the week, when redshirt junior Jamie Callender found out that his wrestling career was over due to concussions. The heavyweight was slated to find redemption this season after battling injuries throughout his career at Drexel.

“I was very disappointed the doctor shut me down,” Callender said. “I have been training hard since I broke my leg last season and was really hoping to put together a full season to make a run at nationals. I gave it my best go, but finishing my wrestling career just wasn’t in the cards I was dealt.”

He has had a history with concussions since he was a sophomore in high school, leaving him more susceptible each time. One moment he was seeing a doctor for lingering headaches, and the next moment he was told he could no longer compete in the sport to which he has dedicated much of his life.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what my plans are,” Callender said of his future. “I may get into coaching at my high school, Council Rock North, but I’m not sure. Wrestling has been a huge part of my life, and I don’t see myself just walking away from it.”

Callender continued, “I want to thank my coaches and teammates for all they have done. Drexel Wrestling has been a huge part of my college life, and I wish I could still compete for my coaches and teammates.”

The news caught everyone off guard, and Callender’s absence from the team’s lineup was immediately felt.

“With Jamie not being in the heavyweight spot, we knew that winning any of the four duals this weekend would be tough,” head coach Matt Azevedo said. “Our guys would have had to wrestle extra well to have a chance to win. Against Ohio, we were tied going into the final match. If we had him there, maybe we win that one.”

Redshirt freshman Joseph Giorgio stepped in as Callender’s replacement and struggled against some of the country’s top heavyweight mat men. Azevedo was encouraged by Giorgio’s relentless, hardworking attitude in his first matches for the Blue and Gold.

“He has a big job ahead of him, [but] he’s going to work hard,” the coach said about the switch to Giorgio at heavyweight. “The one thing that I know I’ll get from Joe is 100 percent effort. He’s going to go hard, and he’s going to fight like hell. Really, that’s all we can ask from our guys.”

Giorgio joins five other freshmen already plugged into the Dragons lineup, giving Azevedo six guys with very little experience at the collegiate level. The long-term prospects of getting these younger guys experience early on is exciting, but the main goal is not to build for the future.

“They are already competing at a high level,” Azevedo said of his freshmen. “I think by the end of the year, several of these guys could be ranked in the country and have a shot at making it to the NCAA Tournament.”

Azevedo continued, “The fact that they are getting this experience and wrestling this type of schedule as freshmen, it’s going to do nothing but make them better. Our future is bright, but we want to win right now, and we’re going to win right now.”

If there was one Dragon to step up this weekend in Callender’s absence, it was Brandon Palik. Ask Azevedo about Palik, and his eyes immediately light up. He has spoken very highly of Palik since before the season even began, and the redshirt senior has not disappointed. Heading into the Eastern Michigan Open, Palik was 3-0. Over the weekend, he improved his record to 6-1. He won his first three, including two against nationally ranked opponents, before dropping his final match. It was a match that Azevedo thought Palik should have won.

“He was wrestling like an animal out there, and I think he went out there in his last match of the day against the Michigan State kid and underestimated him a little bit,” Azevedo said about Palik’s performance. “The kid had a good game plan, kept it close, and kept Brandon from scoring to beat him on riding time. Brandon became his own worst enemy for a moment.”

The key for the Dragons moving forward will be to take the experience at the Eastern Michigan Open and learn some valuable lessons. Azevedo purposefully frontloaded his team’s schedule to see what kind of will and determination they had from the onset. He gave his wrestlers a chance to learn about themselves. Now, as the schedule’s difficulty lightens up a bit, it is time for the Dragons to hit their stride and grapple with confidence, especially when conference matches begin.

Drexel has a two-week break before competing in the Grapple at the Garden against Princeton University and Georgetown University Dec. 1 at Madison Square Garden.

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Sophomore 133-pounder Clayton Lutzlow faces off against Iowa State University’s John Meeks Jan. 13 at the DAC. Lutzlow fell to Meeks by a score of 15-5 in last season’s match.

Matt Azevedo felt like he was finally back home. Drexel’s head wrestling coach spent the latter half of his collegiate career wrestling for Iowa State University, and having the opportunity to return to his old stomping grounds and reconnect was a dream come true.

“It was great to go back to Ames, Iowa, and compete against my alma mater,” Azevedo said. “I saw some old teammates and friends. I just wish we could have gotten the win!”

While in Iowa Nov. 7, the Dragons dropped a close decision to Grand View University, falling by a 22-20 score in their opener. Their struggles continued later that day as the team lost another tight battle, this time to No. 16 Iowa State by a 24-16 score.

Even after losing twice, Azevedo was still encouraged with what he had seen out of his team. He knew that their time in Iowa would be tough, especially coming off a long offseason, but they showed grit and determination against one of the best teams in the country.

“Our guys competed very well this week,” Azevedo said. “I’m happy with where we are at this early in the season. We were one win away from beating Iowa State.”

The Dragons did not hang their heads after their time in Iowa. They had to travel straight to South Dakota for a matchup Nov. 9 with South Dakota State University.

The Jackrabbits proved to be easier to put away than the previous two opponents. Drexel was able to jump out to a quick advantage and never looked back, downing South Dakota State handily by a score of 26-10.

Jumping right back into the competitive wrestling season with a long and grueling road trip would be difficult for any team in the country. This particular road trip was able to open the Dragons’ eyes to what their strengths will be moving forward.

“Our team is very good from the top position,” Azevedo said. “We racked up a lot of riding time, several near-falls and three pins.”

Having three duals in a span of three days to start the season can also teach teams what they need to improve going forward. For the Dragons, finishing out their matches will be key. Azevedo admitted that their effort was not as good as he would have liked in the third period of their matches. Going forward, that will have to change if the team wants to be competitive with the country’s best.

Although the Dragons as a team dropped two of the three duals on the trip, wrestling is an intensely individual sport, and there were a few guys who had standout performances.

The freshman 125-pounder Kevin Devoy Jr. proved why Azevedo called him one of the guys to watch out for on the national scene this season. In his first trio of duals as a college wrestler, Devoy recorded three victories and dropped only one point. Two of his victories came by technical fall, and Azevedo is excited to see what Devoy can do going forward.

“His potential is very high,” Azevedo said of his freshman phenom out of Burlington, N.J. “He is a feared competitor, and he is strong in every position. He’s as tough as they come.”

Redshirt freshman 133-pounder David Pearce also recorded three wins on the road trip, recording one technical fall and one of the Dragons’ three pins over the weekend. It took Pearce only one minute and 46 seconds to record his pin against his Grand View opponent.

Austin Sommer, a 157-pound senior, and redshirt junior heavyweight Jamie Callender were the other two Drexel mat men to record a win by fall. Sommer’s pin came at the 6:52 mark against Grand View, while Callender’s came at the 5:29 mark against Iowa State. Azevedo spoke highly of Callender prior to the season as a guy to watch coming off a couple injury-ridden seasons.

Matt Cimato, a 141-pound redshirt freshman from Yardley, Pa., and Brandon Palik, a redshirt senior 197-pounder, both grappled their way to two wins each. Both had high expectations coming into the season, and both are living up to them so far.

The Dragons will need to bring their best game with them Nov. 16 when they travel to Michigan for the Eastern Michigan Open. They will square off against a ranked opponent in No. 24 Central Michigan University. The other three teams — Eastern Michigan University, Ohio University and Michigan State University — will be no easy tasks either.

Coming through with a victory this weekend will be tough, but Azevedo and his guys won’t back down. He doesn’t just feel like the Dragons have a chance to win; he knows it.

“All four teams we compete against next week will be tough,” Azevedo said. “We will have to wrestle very well [to] win those duals.”

He continued confidently, “I expect our team to get after it. We want to go 4-0, but more importantly, we want our guys to be aggressive and score points. If they do that, the winning will take care of itself.”

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Senior 174-pounder Kevin Matyas tries to escape the clutch of Iowa State University’s Mikey England Jan. 13 at the DAC. The Dragons began their fall season Nov. 7 with matches against the Cyclones and Grand View University.

The leaves are turning and the days are becoming more brisk. Winter is coming, and at Drexel that means students are growing tired of listening to big-time football schools talk about their darn football teams!

James “Bruiser” Flint’s men’s basketball team receives much of the athletics hype in University City, but it may be time to refocus all that excitement because the wrestling team is poised for a big year.

The Dragons head into the 2013-14 season with a talented mix of youth and experience, headed by third-year head coach Matt Azevedo. Azevedo is a picturesque embodiment of Drexel’s current squad of mat men with his youthful energy and experience from spending nearly his entire life in the sport.

He has spent enough time in gyms and on the wrestling mat to know a promising team when he sees one, and Azevedo knows that his wrestlers have a chance to do something special this year.

“There are some guys that we are really looking at to make a splash this year and get some national attention,” he said. “We have four guys who we think can definitely be nationally ranked and contend to be some of the top guys in the country.”

Azevedo is turning to seniors like 197-pound Brandon Palik and heavyweight Jamie Callender to lead the way through the grueling season. Callender is someone from whom Azevedo specifically wants to see a lot.

“We are really hoping to see if our heavyweight Jamie Callender will make it through the season this year. He has been hurt the last three seasons and has not really made it past November,” Azevedo said. “We think that he can really do some good things because he was undefeated last year before he broke his ankle and was out for the year.”

It is not only the older and more experienced guys whom Azevedo is turning to for victories, though. He is also looking to the young guys like redshirt freshman Kevin Devoy at 125 pounds and Matt Cimato, a 149-pounder.

“[Devoy] potentially has the ability to be the best wrestler on our team as a redshirt freshman,” Azevedo said of his lightweight. “He is really, really looking tough.”

The reliance on the freshmen and sophomores does not worry Azevedo one bit. Many of the guys on the team have been redshirted, so they had an extra year to assimilate to the college game. That year of added experience can prove invaluable in the long run.

Although Drexel has a few athletes at the top of their game and in the national conversation, Azevedo is confident in the ability of the next tier of guys to perform and help the team be competitive.

“We have some other guys who I think have the ability too,” Azevedo said. “They have to prove it still. They all have to prove it still. We have had some guys who have really wrestled well over the past year, though.”

The Dragons will face a tough test in their first matches of the year in Iowa. While out in the Midwest, Drexel will take on Grand View University Nov. 7, which is a match that Azevedo said the Dragons should be able to take.

Their stiffest test will come later that afternoon when they take on Iowa State University, one of the top wrestling programs in the country. Drexel will have to bring its A-game in order to compete with the Cyclones, but there is a quiet confidence floating around the locker room that the Dragons will be able to hang in there.

“My expectation is to see our guys wrestle hard and get after it,” Azevedo said. “Iowa State is going to be a very tough opponent. I think we are going to be able to see our team against different levels of competition, and I think we will fare very well if we go out and wrestle the way that we are capable of.”

If anybody knows what it takes to beat out the vaunted Iowa State wrestling program, it is Azevedo, who was a Cyclone for his final two years of college competition. It was a program that helped him develop into a decorated United States wrestler after his college days.

When the Dragons travel to Iowa for their matches, it will be a homecoming of sorts for Azevedo as he steps back into his old stomping grounds. The homecoming will be short-lived, though, as the Dragons have a quick turnaround, heading west to South Dakota for a Nov. 9 showdown with South Dakota State University.

The seasons are changing, and there is promise in the air of the DAC. Azevedo is confident that when the mat is laid down and Drexel’s wrestlers are grappling for a spot in the national conversation, they will have the potential to come away victorious. This season has a chance to be a special one for the Dragons.

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[media-credit name=”Josh Einbinder-Schatz” align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Midfielder Nathan page fights for possession during Drexel’s 1-1 draw against Hofstra University Oct. 30. The senior leads the Dragons with five goals this season.

When senior night rolls around each year, the lights seem to shine a little brighter, the stage seems a little bigger, and the stakes seem a little higher. Of course, any Colonial Athletic Association match in late October or early November is important when a spot in the conference tournament is on the line. As for the members of the Drexel men’s soccer team, their sights are set on the top spot in the conference standings.

On Senior Night Oct. 30, Drexel played Hofstra University to a 1-1 draw at Vidas Field to stay at the top of the CAA and clinch a spot in the conference tournament. The University of Delaware’s win over The College of William & Mary helped the Dragons to secure a spot in the final six.

After the draw, Drexel is now atop the standings at 3-1-2, one point ahead of Northeastern University, which sits at 3-1-1. The Dragons play their last game of the regular season Nov. 4 at the College of Charleston, which is currently 1-3-1 in conference play.

Against Hofstra, the Dragons came out of the gates flat. The offense could not create any momentum, and the defense allowed a goal to Elliott Firth on a corner kick assisted by Chris Griebsch late in the first half, which gave the Pride a 1-0 advantage. Whether it was the pressure of staying on top of the conference or the emotions of Senior Night, nobody can say for sure. However, head coach Doug Hess said that he believed it may have been a combination of both.

“It was sloppy. There was a lot of emotions — you have nine guys that are graduating,” Hess said about the team’s first half. “It is four years coming to an end, and you add the emotion of that with the need to win because they don’t want to end playing on this field just yet. When you put a lot of emotion into something, technique struggles, and it becomes more stressful than enjoyable.”

Senior midfielder Ken Tribbett also said that the emotions might have gotten the best of them in the first half.

“It was possibly our last game here for the seniors at Vidas,” Tribbett said. “We just wanted to give it everything we had.”

For the second half of play, it was like a switch had been flipped. The Dragons got back to playing the brand of soccer that they knew how to play. They settled their nerves. Even still, Drexel could not find a way to put the ball in the back of the net.

“We had about 15 minutes left to go,” Hess said. “We were having a little questioning of ourselves.”

Drexel was able to keep the energy up and move the ball around. When they were awarded a corner kick late in the half, the Dragons jumped on the opportunity. They had questioned themselves, but they found the answer with a goal from senior Tal Bublil off of a set piece from the corner. The equalizing goal was assisted by Tribbett and junior Connor Goldsmith.

Hess said that he was proud of his team’s ability to keep fighting late into the half and not hang their heads. “We pushed to the end,” he said. “We put a goal in late, which is good and shows good character in the team. From that point, you could see the belief really established.”

The Dragons were able to get one more chance with a shot on goal before the end of regulation, but the game went to overtime, still tied at 1-1 after the failed opportunity.

“Clearly it was a tale of two halves,” Hess said. “We were a better team in the second half, but we were not a great team.”

Heading into overtime, the Dragons were able to mount an attack in the Hofstra zone. Ultimately, they came up empty-handed after the 10 minutes of extra time. After a scoreless second overtime, the game ended in a draw.

A win against Hofstra would have put Drexel in the driver’s seat for the top spot, but the one point earned in the draw will help to keep them in the conversation. The Dragons anxiously await the result of Northeastern’s Nov. 2 match against the College of Charleston. An upset by Charleston would keep Drexel’s name at the top of the conference going into the final week of play.

Depending on their finish in the conference, it is possible that the Dragons could play another home game at Vidas before it is all said and done. The opportunity to play in front of the home crowd again would mean a lot to the senior class. After all, they have been a part of a major cultural change in the program’s four years under Hess.

“It starts with the friendships,” Tribbett said after the game. “We have so many great guys on this team. Our friendships last a lifetime here. Basically, you are with them the whole time, you play on the field, you’re going to play better. You are going to be able to change a university, and we have.”

Last season, the Dragons earned their first NCAA Tournament berth in 40 years with an at-large bid. This season, they are in a position to get another bid as CAA champions. They are also in a position to continue changing the sports culture at Drexel University, thanks in large part to the group of nine graduating men’s soccer seniors who were honored Wednesday night.

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