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WATCH FOR FALL SESSION IN MID AUGUST!!!

                

@ JOHN E. HUGHES SR  WRESTLING FACILITY

405 MAIN STREET

MANTUA TOWNSHIP NJ 08051

ACROSS FROM MANTUA LITTLE LEAGUE AND BEHIND MANTUA TWP POLICE DEPT.

VENMO:     @johnvanbrill15             

 

 

 


NIL check!!!


SEAGULLS TEAM PIC AT DECKARD MEMORIAL 2022

ALL SOUTH JERSEY STATE PLACERS

ALL SOUTH JERSEY STATE PLACERS

SEAGULLS ROCK IN 2025

NJSIAA STATES

Jada Pichardo    STATE CHAMP

Sammy Spaulding    STATE CHAMP              

Sal Marchese    THIRD PLACE            

Mateo Vinciguerra    THIRD PLACE   

Jackson Weller    THIRD PLACE      

 Kloi Tighe    THIRD PLACE 

Dom DiGiacomo    7TH PLACE   

Chase Hansen   4TH PLACE

 Colton Hagerty   FOURTHPLACE   

DELAWARE STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

2ND PLACE   DOM "KILLER" LUCIAN

6TH PLACE AARON MENICKELLA  *note Aaron was unbeaten but was suffered an injury in the tournament and could not continue.

NATIONAL PREP CHAMPIONSHIPS

Eddie George     7th place

 


BLUE SEAGULL SINGLET $50 WITH NAME ON BACK $55

SPRING AND SUMMER SEAGULL GEAR 2025


RED SEAGULL SINGLET $50 WITH NAME ON BACK $55


SEAGULL T SHIRTS $15


SEAGULL FIGHT SHORTS $35


Jada wins Regional Tournament and Qualifies for 2025 NJSIAA States


Jada wins match #100 Congrats


Jada and Jackson with Coach John getting their gold seagulls


Coach John and Toby with winners of Gold Seagull


JVB with Jada at Atlantic City


FARGO PODIUM SHOT WITH ALL AMERICAN EDDIE GEORGE


SEAGULL FLOCK AT FARGO


Seagulls at Super 32 Fall Championships


Toby and Jada - Jada takes 2nd in AC


Coach VanBrill and some warriors at the Dustin Deckard Memorial Run.


SEAGULLS IN FARGO 2024

17 INCHES

 

You will not regret reading this an excellent article to read from beginning to end. Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”
Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.
In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.
Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy? After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage. Then, finally …
“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”
Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”
After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.
“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause.
“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”
“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.
“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.
“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”............“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues? “Seventeen inches!”
“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”
Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? "
The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.
We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”
Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”
Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”
“And the same is true with our government. Our so-called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.”
I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable.
From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.
“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: "If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”
With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “…We have dark days ahead!.”
Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches."
And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and now go out there and fix it!
"Don't widen the plate"
The author is Chris Sperry from Vancouver, WA. Former head coach at The University of Porrlsnd.

FRANK ITALIANO THIS YEARS RECIPENT OF THE GOLDEN SEAGULL

USAWNJ QUESTIONAIRE 2024

https://forms.gle/H7CepoFYztPTGeU28


EDDIE "SEAGULL" GEORGE WINS GOLDEN SEAGULL AWARD

JONATHAN LIVINSTON SEAGULL

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell Munson, is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. Bach wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in Flying magazine in the late 1960s. It was first published in book form in 1970, and by the end of 1972 over a million copies were in print. Reader's Digest published a condensed version, and the book reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for 38 weeks. In 1972 and 1973, the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States.

SEAGULLS WORKING OUT FOR FARGO 2025

SEAGULLS RESULTS FARGO 2025

16 U

EVAN VILLECCO      LANDON WRIGHT   

   EJ BONNETTE        CLAYTON TYSON 

JP BONNETTE  

JUNIORS

JEREMY GEORGE     EDWARD GEORGE   

 RYAN HORNER   SAMMY SPAULDING     

JACKSON WELLER     MIKE CRAFT

DAVID BORODZIUK JR     

SAL MARCHESE 

JUNIOR GIRLS

JADA PICHARDO   2-2 DNP


SEAGULLS AT THE JUNIOR DUALS IN MILWAUKEE COMBINED 35-10

FARGO SCHEDULE 2025

JUNE 27-29 FARGO CAMP  PRINCETON UNIVERSITY JADWIN GYM  CAMP FEE $150  MANDATORY

JULY 10 GIRLS ARRIVE IN FARGO - PRACTICE ON JULY 10 EVENING  AND JULY 11 LATE MORNING BENTSON BUNKER

JULY 12  PLEASE ARRIVE BY JULY 12 FOR FREESTYLE BOYS- PRACTICE  SATURDAY PRACTICE EARLY EVENING AND JULY 13 IN THE MORNING    BENTSON BUNKER

BOYS GRECO PRACTICE ON JULY 16 BENTSON BUNKER

WEIGH INS: JUNIOR GIRLS JULY 11

WEIGH INS: 16U AND JR BOYS FREESTYLE  JULY 13

WEIGH INS: 16U AND JR BOYS GRECO JULY 17


JACKSON WELLER 3RD AT NJSIAA STATES


CLASSIC PICTURE FROM THE PAST....NAME THESE GUYS


JADA WINS STATES


SAMMY SPAULDING STATE CHAMP


JACKSON IN ACTION


DOM PLACES AT NJSIAA STATES

EDDIE GEORGE PLACES 7TH AT NATIONAL PREPS

Eddie George of Blair Academy placed 7th at the National Prep Championships held at Lehigh University. Eddie won 4 matches including the 7th place medal match. Eddie ended the season with a 23-9 record and is ranked #25  in the nation by Willie Saylor  (Matscouts).  Ryan Horner of Peddie Prep also qualified for the finals and went 2-2.


PRINCETON OPEN CHAMP


PRINCETON OPEN PLACE WENT 4-1


FARGO CAMP AT FDU IN HACKENSACK AWESOME DAY


TRAINING AT TRIUMPH WITH COACH NASE


OLD TIMERS REUNION: ROBERT AND BOBBY MALATESTA AND DAVID HECK


PAT, AUGIE, BOB, ROBERT, DOUG, JOE..... GOOD TIMES.


SPRING PRACTICE- GETTING IT DONE!


SEAGULL FREESTYLE TECHNICAL SKILLS


Freestyle States


Chase "Fluff" Hansen takes third in AC

READING LIST

Jonathan Livingston Seagull- Richard Bach

The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho

The Five People You Meet in Heaven- Mitch Albom

Outliers- Malcom Gladwell

 

Way of the Peaceful Warrior- Dan Millman

ILLUSSIONS: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah- Richard Bach


SOLD NOW ON AMAZON

EARN THE RIGHT TO WIN BY JAMES PECKHAM


EARN THE RIGHT TO WIN PAGE 1


EARN THE RIGHT TO WIN PAGE 2

Former Seagull Coach Passes

Vern Zellner a fixture in South Jersey wrestling passed away today,  March 21, 2020 after a long illness.  Vern coached at Seagulls in the 1990s and was also a Coach on many New Jersey Nationals teams. Vern founded The Orchard Wrestling Club and coached many great wrestlers.

Seagull Wrestling Club

The Seagull Wrestling Club was founded in 1981 by Robert Malatesta and Peter DiBiase. The Club is the longest running USA Wrestling Sanctioned Club in the state of New Jersey.  SWC runs year round with an extensive Freestyle and Greco program.  

Division 1 Starters: Quinn Kinner at Ohio State, Travis Layton at Rider University,

Seagulls Wrestling in College CLICK on picture for alum page

SMALL GROUP MEETS YEAR ROUND


Coach Bryan Pearsall of University of Penn instructs at a recent Seagull Practice


Seagulls getting better one day at a time


Quinn Kinner is victorius vs Stanford in first OSUDual.

Getting Better One Day at a Time

Wrestling for the Seagull Wrestling Club is family.

Dustin Deckard Memorial Run

The Seagull Wrestling Club will participate in the 6th Annual Dustin Deckard Memorial Run this Saturday Sept. 21,m 2019. The 5k run will be held at Riverview Beach Park in Pennsville, NJ rain or shine. Registration for the run is at 7:30 a.m. with the 5k run beginning at 9 a.m. All proceeds will benefit the Dustin Deckard Scholarship Fund. Please register at LMsports.com

Seagulls in AC

Seagull Action

About

Seagull Wrestling Club  
401  Main Street , Mantua NJ  
609-221-3210  
pete29grant@yahoo.com  
   

 

Read the book- Its our history

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell Munson, is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. Bach wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in Flying magazine in the late 1960s. It was first published in book form in 1970, and by the end of 1972 over a million copies were in print. Reader's Digest published a condensed version, and the book reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for 38 weeks. In 1972 and 1973, the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States.

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Pete DiBiase

Pete DiBiase

Seagull Wrestling Club

Phone: 6092213210