Candela leads Sailors on mat

After becoming Oceanside’s first wrestler to reach the Nassau County finals in seven years, junior Rocco Candela will lead a youthful Sailors team against a challenging group of Conference I-A foes that includes Farmingdale and Baldwin.

“We’re really young with a promising future,” Oceanside coach Joe Pumo said. “We’ve got an athletic and coachable group of kids and they’re working hard and buying into the system.” 

Candela made a thrilling run to last winter’s 96-pound Division I county final, knocking off the No. 1 seed in the process, and finished runner-up to then-fellow sophomore Robert Person of Bellmore-JFK. Person took the title with a hard-fought 8-5 decision at Hofstra’s Mack Sports Complex. On the way to the title bout, Candela stunned top-seeded Steven Sewkumar of Long Beach in the quarterfinals and also had wins against All-County finishers Owen Bacheldor of Hewlett and Thomas Cozier of South Side.

“Rocco’s a year-round wrestler and spent the offseason competing in tournaments and lifting weights,” Pumo said of Candela, who won 33 of 37 matches last season. “He didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” he added. “He’s shooting for the stars this season and looking to compete for the county and state championships.”

Last Saturday in the Bruins Cup Tournament in Baldwin, Candela made a run to the 106-pound final where he came up short against Sewkumar after beating his first three opponents.

Pumo is excited about the return of junior Zach Strandberg, who suffered a broken nose prior to last year’s county qualifying tournament and missed the stretch run. Strandberg didn’t take long to get his arm raised, winning a 15-3 decision at 132 pounds against Valley Stream Central Dec. 8. “Zach is a tough wrestler with good skills,” Pumo said.

The coach said getting senior Jacob Goldberg, who took last season off, and junior Andrew Mercadante, who missed last season with a back injury, in the lineup once again is big. Goldberg sealed Oceanside’s 46-39 victory over Valley Stream Central with a pin of his opponent at 170 pounds, while Mercadante is “at full force,” Pumo said.

An influx of talented freshmen have bolstered the roster, Pumo said, including Kash Calderon at 99/106, Luke Evans, who already has two wins at 120, Karron Koretz at 132, and J.T. D’Angelo at 138. Junior Jace Koretz will look to make some noise at 152, while sophomore Sebastian Jimenez may prove a handful at 145.

“We’re up to 28 on the roster and look tough in the light and middle weights,” Pumo said. “We’re going to forfeit two or three of the upper weights and we’ll have to overcome those 12 or 18 points.”

Pumo said he’s looking for the Sailors to finish “no worse than middle-of-the-pack” in Conference I-B. Prestigious tournaments like Baldwin’s, he said, only makes the team stronger over the long haul. “We’re rebuilding the program and seeing what the best programs are doing and how they’re doing it is important,” Pumo said.