Plymouth Whitemarsh’s John Staudenmayer is on another level

John Staudenmayer's coaches need to outsource his competition. Either that or hit the mat with him themselves.

Staudenmayer, a senior at Plymouth Whitemarsh who has amassed a career record of 145-11, is so good that he simply cannot practice regularly with his teammates.

"He's pretty much wrestling coaches every day. He wrestles me, and I wrestled at Penn State," said PW head coach Nate Wachter, who is 30 years old and about 165 pounds. "My other assistants wrestled at Pittsburgh and Kutztown, so he has college wrestlers to wrestle with.

"My Drexel guys come down and wrestle with him as well. So, we give him the competition that he needs to be successful."

Wachter, who was an assistant at Drexel for five years before taking the job at PW, is forced to search for extra competition to assure Staudenmayer's improvement.

A wrestler since he was 5 years old, Staudenmayer is ranked No. 1 in the state at 171 pounds by PA Power Rankings. According to Wachter, he is ranked fifth in the nation, and will wrestle for the University of North Carolina on a scholarship next year.

"Working with these older people, every single day, [provides] one-on-one attention," said Staudenmayer, who placed third at the state tournament last season at 160. "It's amazing how much the little things have started to come into place. I really have to credit my success to the workout partners he's bringing in every single day to make me better."

Aside from Staudenmayer, PW has been average as a team this year, with an 0-2 record in duals and middling showings at tournaments. It's due, Wachter said, to a young team that lacks experience.

But Staudenmayer has been perfect, going 19-0. He has yet to beat Wachter when they wrestle in practice, but the coach concedes to being taken down a few times and expects that, in a year or two, his star pupil will return from college and "whoop up on me."

For now, Staudenmayer has one goal: to win the state championship.

"We're really not settling for anything less. . . . Every day that's all I think about," he said. "I go to sleep with it in my head."

C.R. South's star. Glance at Trey Balasco's record last year as a freshman and it doesn't impress: 15-21.

"Last year, his record is very deceiving," said Balasco's head coach at Council Rock South, Brad Silimperi. "Although his record wasn't like it's now, you have to remember we're wrestling some of the top competition in the state and the country, so our guys are always going to have records with a lot of losses on them."

Balasco has an 18-4 record this season as a sophomore, an improvement he attributes to the strength of his practice partners at South: Billy Rappo, who medaled at states at 103 last season; Mack Moore; and Dan Martoccio, who is the freshman younger brother of Matt, who also placed at states last season.

"I personally believe, and obviously I'm biased, that he has some of the best workout partners in the nation," Silimperi said.

Balasco said he worked out with his teammates over the summer, which helped develop his confidence. Silimperi said Balasco has become stronger and filled out into a true 112-pounder, whereas last year he was undersized for the weight class.

"I was competing with them," Balasco said of his summer practices. "I knew that I could come into the season and compete, and, even beat them."

Henderson's young gun. Talk about a hot start.

Josh Nichter, just a freshman at West Chester Henderson, has kicked off his high school wrestling career in workmanlike fashion. Not that it's a surprise to the 103-pounder, or his coach, Dean Donley.

Nichter, who has been wrestling since the first grade, is 19-2 thus far with 11 wins by pin for the first-place Warriors in the Ches-Mont League National Conference. He says there really is no groundbreaking secret to the early success.

"I'm just going out and wrestling as hard as I can," Nichter said. "Working hard in practice. Practice makes perfect. So, yeah."

Donley says its fun to coach a wrestler like Nichter, adding that he has a "bit of a mean streak."

When asked what he thought his coach meant by that, Nichter replied: "I don't show mercy on anybody."