St. Joe’s hosting its first dual meet Dec. 13

BOALSBURG — For the first time in the short history of St. Joseph’s Academy wrestling, a dual meet will be hosted by the Wolves. On Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 7p.m., the Tyrone Golden Eagles will make their way to Boalsburg to take to the mat with St. Joe’s. 

Wolves head coach Pat Flynn reached out to Golden Eagles coach Terry Tate to set up the meet.

“I just called Terry up and asked him if he had any extra points in his schedule and he said ‘yeah,’” said Flynn. “They actually compete on (Dec. 12), and then they’re coming over to our place. It’s just a matter of the local schools wanting to compete against each other.”

Now in the program’s fourth official year, the team has enough wrestlers to fill the 11 weight classes that will hold matches at the dual meet.

Since its start, the team has had to travel all over to get to each of its meets.

“We travel quite a bit,” said Flynn. “We have that one dual meet at home, but this weekend we’re going to St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania. Next weekend we have the Sheetz Classic, which is over the mountain toward Cresson. We go to Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia also for tournaments.”

Before this season, the program struggled to maintain enough wrestlers. With some students leaving the school and others deciding to stop wrestling, building the program from scratch has been difficult at times. Flynn has enjoyed being part of the process.

“It’s been trying,” said Flynn. “It’s also been fun and it’s also rewarding.

‘The first year, we had three guys out of the classrooms and we had one kid semi-successful who took sixth in the district, Austin Emel. (Now) we’re just trying to build the program.”

Flynn would like to see students and family come out to the meet to support their wrestlers Dec. 13.

“We’re just hoping to have a big crowd and some excitement,” said Flynn.