Ferri routs Davisville in season finale

To say that the future of Johnston High School wrestling looks bright would be an understatement.

That fact surfaced in many forms Monday, as the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School wrestling Jaguars posted an impressive 64-29 victory over visiting Davisville of North Kingstown.

From the pre-match ceremony, which included the Ferri cheerleaders forming a human tunnel that greeted the Jaguars when they raced onto the school’s new mat amid lively music for their traditional warm-up, Head Coach Mario Nasisi’s matmen turned Eighth-Grade Night into a classic celebration.

“This has been a challenging season for Johnston wrestling,” Nasisi noted. “Especially since John Antonucci moved up to coach the high school and a lot of first year wrestlers.”

However, what the Jaguars accomplished – in the form of a credible 6-4-1 regular season record – and the fact that Johnston Youth Wrestling keeps on turning out promising high school prospects, there’s a lot of optimism on the town’s wrestling mat.

“Tonight’s win moved us into third place in our division,” Nasisi went on. “And tonight was about finishing strong both for the team and our eighth-graders. And finish strong is what our kids did; this was our best victory of the season.”

Nasisi then cited the “outstanding performances” of Givonni Monteiro, Logan Larangeira, Healy Gaunt, Andres Pineda, Alexander Urizar, Jose Echeverria, Michael Foncellino, Lyman Musa and Caleb Visnicky.

“We also have a lot of strong sixth-graders on this team, led by Nicholas Baccala, who enters the team with successful youth wrestling experience,” Nasisi continued. “We have several sixth-graders – Xander Polofsky, Dylan Martins, Joseph Castellone and Alex Morin, who have taken advantage of the Johnston Youth Wrestling program, and that makes a huge difference in the development of a wrestler.”

The energetic and personal Jaguars coach, who is in his first year at the Ferri helm, went on: “Youth wrestlers not only get the extra training, but also get a lot of on-the-mat competition experience. We wish we could get all of our (FMS) wrestlers to participate in the youth program.”

The Jaguars will not begin preparing for two end-of-the-season tournaments, the first being junior varsity wrestlers competing in the Futures Tournament this weekend and the second in the Varsity State Tournament on Feb. 11-12.

“We are looking forward to our varsity wrestling have a successful tournament this year,” Nasisi went on. “Leading the way will be eighth-grade captains Lyman Musa and Caleb Visnicky. We wish all the wrestlers a successful tournament.”