Shamrocks'
goal: Win
state title
BY CHARLES ROTHWELL
Nov. 27, 2009,
11:15 p.m.
Mitch Hancock is starting his fourth season as the Novi-Detroit
Catholic Central head wrestling coach. A former DCC wrestler himself,
Hancock was Division 1 state champion and an All-American at 160 pounds.
He went on to have stellar career at Central Michigan
University, attaining All-America status at 171 pounds in 2005. His
coaching staff remains the same as in the past few years with Bob
Moreau (three years), Russ Hancock (three), Mike Carrier (three), Kevin
Griffin (two) and Nieko Ianni (three) as assistants. Marc Nemeth
returns for his fourth year as head student manager/CEO.
The Shamrocks had a 15-5 dual-meet record last year. They were
Observerland champions, Catholic League champions, Team District and
Regional champions, and were seeded fourth at the MHSAA Team State
Championship tournament.
CC graduated only one of the 14 wrestlers entered into the
individual districts last year. Trevor O'Connor had a 39-9 record and
finished seventh in the state at 152 pounds.
Interest in becoming a wrestler for Catholic Central appears to
be at an all-time high, with nearly 100 kids making alpha weigh-in. All
the key non-seniors from last year's squad have chosen to return. These
include captains Doug Eldridge (fourth in the state, Observerland
runner-up), and Mike Kinville (seventh in the state, Observerland
champion) and Alec Mooradian (state champion, Observerland champion),
Justin Melick (sixth in the state, Observerland champion), and Charlie
Joseph (state qualifier, Observerland champion).
Also joining the team this year are highly accomplished freshmen
James Demember and Ken Bade. With such a high level of participation,
the Shamrocks will field two varsity squads. Below is a look at who may
fill out those squads:
103 - TJ Fagan
(soph.)/James Demember (fresh.);
112 - Ken Bade (fresh.)/Zach Colone (fresh.);
119 - Todd Melick (soph.)/Matt Thompson (sr.);
125 - Alec Mooradian (soph.)/Riley Hanson (fresh.);
130 - Nick Mason (soph.)/Mike Perales (sr.);
135 - Charlie Joseph (sr.)/Mike Babicz (fresh.);
140 - Justin Melick (jr.)/Alex Kas-Marogi (jr.);
145 - Doug Eldridge (sr.)/Andrew Foley (sr.);
152 - Gerid Gee (sr.)/Steve Kraska (sr.);
160 - Brandon Bennett (soph.)/Addison Kelly (sr.);
171 - Andrew Erickson (jr.)/Andrew Morton (sr.);
189 - Mike Trealout (jr.)/Robert Coe (fresh.)
215 - Mike Kinville (sr.); and
285 - Andrew Johnson (sr.)/ David Knuth (sr.)/Mike Popiela (soph.).
The Catholic Central team goal for this season is simple and
straight forward: win the state championship.
