Wareham Tigers youth wrestling continues to grow in program’s early years
Adam Giacomozzi coaches two kids. Photos by Bobby Grady
Lincoln Spezzano and Wyatt Charbonneau work on their takedowns.
John “Duke” Murphy and Connor Fellows practice.
Nicholas Mullins takes on Bentley Giacomozzi on the mat.
Lorenzo Soqui and Isaiah Adomaitis go at it.
Adam Giacomozzi coaches two kids. Photos by Bobby Grady
Lincoln Spezzano and Wyatt Charbonneau work on their takedowns.
John “Duke” Murphy and Connor Fellows practice.
Nicholas Mullins takes on Bentley Giacomozzi on the mat.
Lorenzo Soqui and Isaiah Adomaitis go at it.
The Wareham Tigers youth wrestling season is underway and head coach Adam Giacomozzi said the program is continuing to grow in its third year with nearly 40 kids participating and six total coaches.
The Wareham Tigers Athletics Association is one of the town’s youth sports organization supporting tackle and flag football, cheerleading, basketball and the most recent addition, wrestling.
From early December to early February, the Tigers will travel across the South Coast and up to New Hampshire for matches and tournaments but most of their time is spent practicing in the gym.
“The first year we never left the gym, we just stayed here and wrestled each other. I just taught them the basics of how to take down and how it all works,” Giacomozzi said. “I have some kids that have been with me for all three years and you can see it's really showing — they’re doing really well so far.”
This year has a few changes, according to Giacomozzi, including the number of kids who have never wrestled before. He said of the 37 kids in the program, less than half have any wrestling experience.
The increased number of tournaments is also new and Giacomozzi added the tournaments give the kids new experiences on the mat.
“Last year I took a handful of kids and we went up to New Hampshire and wrestled which was very eye opening for them,” he said. “That’s a completely different breed of people up there and they love wrestling.”
The program got started three years ago for a number of reasons and a love of wrestling was one of them. Giacomozzi is a lifelong wrestler and not only does his son wrestle, but both Giacomozzi's brother and dad help him coach.
Prior to wrestling, the Tigers only offered basketball in the winter and giving kids another sport during the cold months was a big driver for Giacomozzi to start the wrestling program, he said.
He also hopes that in the next few years enough wrestlers will come out of his program to start a Wareham High School wrestling team.
“The high school had been reaching out to [the Tigers] president to see if we could sustain a program to help them get a program,” he said.
While the Tigers have not had any athletes filtered into the high school, Giacomozzi said his biggest age group is 9 and 10-year-olds and hopes they learn more than just how to wrestle.
“We try to make them better people and teach them discipline,” he said. “All my kids know if they’re messing around at home or not doing well in school they’re putting in extra work.”
For the remainder of the season, Giacomozzi said his goal for the program is to keep kids having fun, learning and getting more tournament experience.
“I’ll take the kids wherever they want to go and if the parents see a tournament I don’t have them in I’ll take them,” he said.
