‘A good bunch of guys’

It’s not often that young people get to be on the ground floor of starting a school program, but that will be the legacy of five graduating Hewlett High School seniors: Matt Appelbaum, Ben Ashkenazi, Jordan Browdy, Mike Piri and Simon Turkin.

Appelbaum, Browdy, Piri and Turkin helped jump start the district’s wrestling program as middle school students. Ashkenazi came aboard as a junior. The program was established in 2006 through the efforts of community members Ken Rosenberg, Billy Smith and the late Jeff Locker.

A wrestler at Lawrence High School, Rosenberg thinks the sport teaches participants life long lessons. “It instills American values of hard work, discipline and the mental toughness attitude of never quit,” he said.

The high school team coached by Mike Jimenez has steadily progressed from zero dual meet wins in its first season to 16 this past year. Seventh grader Owen Bachelder earned All-County honors and Troy Smith and Simon Greebel were named All-Long Island.

“Wrestling is the kind of sport that shows you what kind of person you really are,” said Jimenez, who teaches math at Long Beach High School. “These guys are a good bunch of guys. They’ve shown me that they won’t collapse, they’ll keep on going and keep on working hard to get themselves better, just to be come better people.”

The five gravitated to wrestling for a variety of reasons from Turkin, who collected 22 victories this year, was All-Conference twice and will attend SUNY Maritime College, and thought it was “something cool to do,” and thinks it helped him get into college. The sport ran in Appelbaum and Browdy’s families as Browdy’s dad wrestled in high school and Appelbaum’s uncle Ricky was a state champion. Piri, already thinking of his future, thought it would make a difference for college and a way to stay active, while Ashkenazi sought to get into better shape.

Challenging established programs was difficult for the wrestling novices as not only were they competing for the first time, but they didn’t want to use being beginners as an excuse for not winning, said Browdy, who notched 32 wins this year, was All-Conference three times and is headed to SUNY Binghamton “But there comes a time when you sort of not take that excuse and use it as motivation to work harder and to build your team and your character,” he said.

“Competing against very qualified and teams with tradition was definitely difficult at first and definitely disheartening at first,” Piri said. “But with each loss we gained more and more experience and it only helped make the reputable program we are today.” “You have to have an air of confidence to it, and a lot of hard work will allow you to have confidence,” Turkin added.

That growth also extends to the student’s academic and social lives, while serving as jumping off point for their futures. “I think wrestling had a huge impact on my life in the way I see things,” said Appelbaum, who recorded 24 wins this year, was a one-time All-Conference and is off to Towson University in Maryland. “It could be a discouraging sport, but for me, for anyone, it should push you to always do better.”

The sport’s work ethic motivated Ashkenazi, who had 11 wins this season, including three by pins to help Hewlett take third place at the Stony Brook dual meet to improve his schoolwork. “It benefited me because wrestling makes you think that you can go through anything, you just have to put in the hard work,” said the self-professed “crazy wrestler” who is headed to Baruch College.

It is not easy to judge the impact of someone’s contributions, but these graduating seniors may look back someday and understand what being part of the first wave of Bulldogs wrestlers meant.

“I can’t say how I am going to feel a few years down the line, but I have a great sense of pride for what me and my friends started,” Piri said. “I hope to come back and see a team with more wins and a much deeper roster.”