For Staudenmayer, state title is a need

In the Plymouth Whitemarsh wrestling room, there is a wall.

"STATE CHAMPIONS," it reads - in all black, all capitals, with the "s" at the end hanging as a silhouette. There's no need for the plural, because only one name in school history can claim the designation.

Twice when Justin Giovinco wrestled in college, he was one win from becoming an all-American at the University of Pittsburgh. Twice when Giovinco wrestled for Plymouth Whitemarsh, he won individual state championships.

On a recent Friday at a PW practice, now as an assistant coach, Giovinco was on his back, in a headlock, with John Staudenmayer presiding over. Laughing.

Staudenmayer, a Colonials senior who wrestles at 171 pounds, began the exercise on top, not exactly having to earn the advantage. But he was amused. For all intents and purposes, he thought the playing field was level.

"I'm giving up two state championships," Staudenmayer said with a titter to a nearby volunteer assistant, while tightening his grip. "Well, one by the end of the season."

Staudenmayer says he "needs one." Arguably the best wrestler in the state, if not one of the country's most prominent, Staudenmayer seems destined to be the Colonials' second all-time state champ.

Some nights, he loses sleep thinking about it, envisioning what could be. Giovinco, a very fit 30-year-old whom Staudenmayer calls "nasty," brought state crowns to PW in 1998 and '99. As a junior, Staudenmayer lost the opening match of the state tournament. He salvaged the season by winning out, and placing third.

Coach Nate Wachter said he wasn't mentally ready for the event a year ago.

Staudenmayer practices with his teammates, but he's somewhere entirely different. In PW's sultry wrestling room, with its engulfing scarlet walls that bleed into the wall-to-wall red mat, Staudenmayer inhabits his own oasis. Wearing a royal blue Colonials Wrestling T-shirt, he pumps life into the room.

Each day, Staudenmayer wrestles his three coaches: Giovinco, Wachter, and assistant Dominic Sabia.

He grappled Giovinco into the padded walls. He picked up and threw Sabia to the mat. With a controlled fever, he worked reversals on Wachter. An hour in, he shed the blue T-shirt and was down to black spandex.

Sabia, 28, wrestled at Kutztown and was a four-year starter. Wachter, 30 and a muscular 160 pounds, was ninth in the nation as a senior at Penn State.

They rotated in and out. They stayed fresh, while Staudenmayer kept going.

With his coaches, Staudenmayer practices a college style, in which he spends more time on his feet instead of on the mat. He competes with grown men daily.

"We're not getting any younger," Wachter said. "We've got to make sure we're in shape. We've got our weight down."

"You get into a match with a high school kid and it's so much different," said Staudenmayer, who according to Wachter has been taken down just twice this season.

"It's easy."

Ranked No. 1 in the state in his weight class by the PA Power Rankings, he is 31-0 and committed to wrestle at North Carolina next year. Earlier this season, he cruised through the Beast of the East, widely regarded as one of the premiere scholastic wrestling tournaments in the nation.

"He just walked right through it," Sabia said.

Matches are only an extension of practice for Staudenmayer. When he competes, his coaches perch at the corner of the mat and bark orders, choreographing his moves.

He tries new things, polishes his technique. He lets opponents out of locks, up off the mat, simply to work on something different. "A technician," Sabia calls him, describing his matches as "incredible" to witness.

As a team, the Colonials have been underwhelming this season. They're 4-8 overall. Staudenmayer acknowledges that it can be frustrating, but maintains that he's happy. The team is young and full of hard workers, he said. He likes mentoring them.

"It's like having another coach here," Wachter said. "If kids are slacking . . . he tells them they need to get serious."

In four years, Staudenmayer has lost 11 matches. He has won 157. He is working toward that state title, but he comes to practice with other things in mind, as well. He's readying for college.

"Right now, to be an all-American would be ideal," he said of his college aspirations. Giovinco thinks he can be one by his sophomore season. Staudenmayer will head to North Carolina this summer to begin practice before the school year.

First, he wants his name on the wall.

Staudenmayer yearns to know the sensation Giovinco twice realized: "What's it feel like? What's it feel like?" Giovinco said he's constantly asked.

The "s" at the end waits to be sealed, for someone else to win one.

That's Staudenmayer's motivation. By practice's end, his spandex soaked through, Staudenmayer was shirtless, running sprints across the room.

"The 's,' " Staudenmayer said, "is planned for me."