Repeat conference title for North Shore

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It has been around 30 years since North Shore High School has been able to successfully win back-to-back wrestling conference championships. Last week, the Vikings were able to accomplish just that.

“We were able to clinch a conference championship with a 44-27 team win,” coach Mike Emmert said.

The past few weeks have been bittersweet for the Vikings, though, as the grueling nature of the sport has given way to a few injuries to North Shore’s top wrestlers.

“We had to give away some team losses pretty late in the season to rest our guys for the county qualifiers,” Emmert said. “It was good to get the younger guys, the freshmen, some experience with varsity competition although I understand it is frustrating because they all want to get their hand raised.”

Emmert has had to deal with the smaller size of student population for the better part of the roughly 20 years he’s been coaching. North Shore ranks as the second smallest school in the big school division.

“It is definitely tough when you’re dealing with one of the smallest schools in the division,” Emmert said. “We’re very strong but not very deep.”

One major thing helping feed the varsity is the North Shore peewee wrestling program that is run by Emmert’s assistants Mike Degarabedian and Anthony Facchini.

“The peewee program does really well funneling kids through it to the middle school and high school programs. We have about 30 kids wrestling in the program right now,” Emmert said.

While Emmert keeps an eye on the distant future, his team’s immediate future consists of a multitude of talented wrestlers looking to qualify and win a county championship.

One such wrestler is Steve Grabher, a topnotch lacrosse player and versatile athlete that is making his name on the mats these past two seasons.

Last year, Grabher was making his way through the 152-pound county gauntlet eventually earning his way to the championship match. Grabher lost on a tech fall to then-senior Jacori Teemer of Long Beach, the pound-for-pound #4 recruit in the nation according to FloWrestling and Arizona State commit.

Grabher will likely be amongst the last few standing wrestlers at his weight class.

Antonio George at 113 pounds will also be one of North Shore’s best shots at a county champion. “He did a lot of work over the offseason, wrestled some national tournaments, and in my opinion is the best clinician to ever walk into the room,” Emmert said. “He only has one loss on the year and he’s worked on every part of his game going into this county qualifiers.”

Emmert also lauded Michael Dergarabedian, Michael Bianchi, and Phil D’Amico. “(Dergarabedian) is a phenomenal talent. Bianchi has won a few tournaments this year and, after losing in OT in the counties last year has 8 OT wins this year. Phil D’Amico is tough, tough, and tough. He has beat 4 or 5 guys ranked kids above his weight class this year and still isn’t ranked. That’s perfectly fine, let him in there as the dark horse,” Emmert said.

North Shore is enjoying a high of repeated success right now and it comes down to the relationship of the coaches and athletes. “Twenty years doing it there’s no secret trick, I’m still learning,” Emmert said. “We all are.”