St. Joseph's Tyler Whitford is the Home News Tribune GMC Wrestler of the Year
Faces fly, bodies clash, arms swing.
Wrestling can be a tough sport. Just look at Tyler Whitford after a hard day’s work; like when he pulled out an overtime victory to clinch a medal at the state tournament.
“I mean, he had blood coming out of cuts on his face,” St. Joseph coach Mike Carbone said. “He had bruises on his face. Bruises on his eyes. The back of his neck and his shoulders had cuts like he had been clawed. … But like, he almost embraces that. He embraces a hard hand fight.”
Think the wrestling equivalent of a pesky baseball player with a dirty jersey, hustling and doing all the little things to succeed.
“It comes with the sport,” Whitford said. “I think in doing it so long we kind of start to enjoy it. It’s like battle scars. … It’s always good to just kind of be in those tight, close matches. You’re just like, grinding it out. One of our mottos for our team is we’ll always find a way, even if it’s like a dogfight, we’ll always come out on top and just grind through it.”
The St. Joseph junior knows about grinding to victory.
Whitford is the Home News Tribune Wrestler of the Year after placing fifth in the state in a 36-6 season at 165. He three-peated as a district champion and also captured Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, Region 5 and John Goles Tournament titles.
Whitford had a personal Redemption Tour in the postseason by avenging a pair of regular-season losses with victories in the region final and the state fifth-place match.
“He does everything with max effort,” Carbone said. “He’s not one of those kids who you’re ever going to look at him and be like, ‘Oh, man, he’s gassed out.’ Like, that’s not him. He tires other people out. His conditioning and our conditioning in the room is top-notch. He gets it done in multiple ways. You want to ask like, what Tyler really is: He’s the true definition of a tough guy, grinder.”
However, even the fastest race car needs to slow down and fuel up on occasion. Whitford went 40-5 as a sophomore and set a program single-season win record. That’s a lot of matches and he didn’t get much of a break.
Whitford and Carbone agreed that he was a little worn down at the state tournament with all the wear and tear. This winter, Whitford sat out of some dual meets and the team took a weekend off to focus on training.
The extra rest had Whitford fresh and spry in Atlantic City.
“Going into states, Tyler said this is one of the best I felt all year long,” Carbone said. “I think coming into states he was definitely ready and his body felt really good, which was a change from the last two years and you saw how he just exploded and ran it to fifth in the state.”
Whitford was like Must-See TV at the state tournament. He dropped a tough quarterfinal in the ultimate tiebreaker and then bounced back a couple of hours later to win 8-5 in sudden victory in the blood round to clinch a top-eight finish. He later had 8-5 and 5-1 wins en route to the podium.
“Coach (Joe) Liquori was saying down in AC after my blood round match, he was saying we live for those types of matches,” Whitford said. “Those close matches. Those are the matches we win because of what we do in the practice room and the way we practice – kind of take it toward the mats. So even if it is a close match, I’m constantly in it, just grinding, looking for a win.”
Whitford is a familiar name for GMC sports fans. One brother (Mark) was a quarterback for Sayreville and another brother (Dennis) played for the Bombers baseball team, as well as wrestled.
Tyler, whose dad Dennis was also a wrestler and coached him in the youth level, tried those other sports but eventually stuck solely to wrestling. He came into St. Joseph as a polished freshman and improved by practicing with state finalist Giovanni Alejandro.
He now has 109 wins and is closing in on Nico Calello’s school record of 125 wins (two years at Watchung Hills) and Alejandro’s 124 wins (all four years at St. Joseph).
“It’d be a good thing for him to have,” Carbone said. “He’s been like a true model citizen at St. Joe’s. Just a classy kid. Doesn’t taunt anybody after a win. Doesn’t get upset and throw his headgear after a loss. He takes his result and he walks off.”
Chances are, you’ll see it on his face. Whitford noted he enjoys constantly striving along with his teammates in the practice room to all reach their potential.
He added, “I think that’s what kind of attracts me to the sport more than anything."
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Wrestling: St. Joseph's Tyler Whitford is the Wrestler of the Year
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