Delligatti emerges as Haddon Township wrestling star
Vinny Delligatti's emergence as one of South Jersey's top light middleweights seems like an overnight success story. It's far from it.
Vinny Delligatti's emergence as one of South Jersey's top light middleweights seems like an overnight success story.
It's far from it.
And that's the best thing about Delligatti's superb senior season, according to Haddon Township coach Brian Farnham.
"Vinny is a kid who was below .500 as a freshman," Farnham said. "He gradually got better, year after year, working harder and harder.
"He earned it."
Competing mostly at 145 pounds, Delligatti has an 18-1 record. His only "loss" was in his last bout at the Jack Welch Duals Saturday at Moorestown and deserves an asterisk. He was winning, 6-0, when he sustained a cut above his left eye that required four stitches and caused him to injury default.
"I shot and hit my head on his shoulder," Delligatti said of Holy Cross' Beau Bruneau. "I don't think of it as a loss."
The soft-spoken Delligatti isn't being brash. He talks in the same measured, matter-of-fact tone about his two biggest wins, a pin of Paulsboro's George Worthy and an 8-4 decision over Gateway's Reggie Davis.
"Those are very good wrestlers," Farnham said of Worthy and Davis. "They were just as capable of beating him, but he wrestled a little better that day.
"The big thing for Vinny now is to keep improving. He can't stop getting better."
Delligatti said he "took some lumps" as a freshman, going 9-13 while wrestling mostly at 120 pounds.
He was a top 120-pounder as a sophomore, taking fourth in Region 7. As a junior at 152 pounds, he took second in District 28 and lost on the first night of regional competition.
"As a freshman, he was a little overmatched strength-wise," Farnham said. "But each year, he has added a little more to his game.
"The big thing from last year to this year was he finally committed to strength training in the offseason with [assistant coach] Steve Nelson. That's the difference you're seeing."
Delligatti said added strength, a move down to 145 pounds - a rare drop in weight class as a year-older wrestler - and increased urgency as a senior have changed him for the better.
Delligatti has won 12 bouts by fall, technical fall or forfeit. He won titles at the Pine Barrons and Bert Payne tournaments. He registered Haddon Township's only win in the dual meet with Paulsboro and handed Davis his lone loss of the season.
"It's basically my experience, how I focus on matches," said Delligatti, who hopes to wrestle in college but has not decided where he will continue his education. "I prepared a lot more for this season, both in weight training but in the mental part too.
"It's all coming together, the work and everything."
Delligatti said he came into this season knowing it was his last chance to make his mark.
"I did have that mindset," Delligatti said. "It's my senior year. Most [top] kids have gotten to A.C. (Atlantic City, site of the state championships) and won districts and done all that, and so I was like, 'Why not me?'
"I started putting in more work, working harder."
Given that he has never won a district nor region title nor advanced to the state championships, Delligatti understands why outsiders might perceive his success as something of a surprise.
"No one would think it," Delligatti said. "I always knew that I was capable of it.
"It wasn't that I wasn't working hard in the past. But I guess I wasn't pushing my limits."
Farnham would love to coach a bunch of wrestlers who enter the program ready to compete for district and region titles as freshmen. But that's not the case with most athletes on his team and the majority of other teams, either.
That's why the coach thinks Delligatti's steady improvement and breakout senior season sets such a great example.
"It's great to see somebody have success that worked for it," Farnham said. "I can say to these other kids, 'He was just like you. He had a losing record as a freshman. Look at him now.' "
@PhilAnastasia