Southern wins first outright team title
By MARC MALKOSKIE Press Enterprise Writer (Written after Saturday, March 9) HERSHEY — Back in 1984, Southern Columbia wrestling coach Jerry Marks was in eighth grade. The Tigers won a team title at the individual state tournament and was co-champion with Danville that year. On Saturday, that 35-year drought came to an end. Southern won the PIAA Class 2A team title with a total of 121 points, 25.5 more than second-place St. Joseph’s Academy. While Southern’s accomplishment may seem like a redemption story, it’s also a story of solidification for a team that has been knocking on the door the past few years at both team states and at the individual state tournament. “Marriage, two kids, in that order, and then a state championship,” Marks said of the importance of the team title. “We’ve been working for this goal for 10 years.” In addition to six state medalists, Marks also took some hardware home, as the 10th year head coach won the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year Award for the second consecutive year. “I have to give kudos to Coach Lane, Coach Spiller, Coach Yates, and Coach Tirko,” Marks said. “These guys have put in so much time and work, I couldn’t do it without them. It’s a brotherhood, and I’ve said that before. We argue, we fight, but at the end of the day, we’re hugging each other and saying we love each other, and that’s what makes us close. I think our guys see that, and it just brings everybody together.” Aside from the Tigers winning their first team title in program history, they also helped the school become the first one in District 4 history to win team titles in three different sports within the same school year, and just the 13th in PIAA history to do so. Southern assistant coach Kent Lane and head coach Jerry Marks react to Ian Yoder's first round win in overtime on Thursday. For a team in any sport to achieve the success Southern’s wrestling program has, several sacrifices need to be made. “It’s like the domino effect, like when (Kole) Biscoe wins (Friday),” Marks said. “Kole was a huge part of this because guys just fed off him. He’s a guy who we didn’t know where he was going to finish. He has a torn meniscus, we didn’t tell anybody that. We didn’t even know if he was going to wrestle a month ago, it happened the Thursday before sectionals. He’s getting surgery here soon.” Biscoe, who took second place at 113 pounds, wasn’t the only Tiger to make a huge sacrifice this season. State champion Gaige Garcia needs to have his gall bladder removed, but he knew surgery would be season-ending, so he delayed it until this upcoming Thursday. Marks and the rest of the Tigers’ coaching staff have done an extraordinary job of getting their kids to look past just the individual aspect of states, and buy into the team mindset. “I’d rather have everybody succeed on my team than just me,” Cade Linn said after taking seventh place at 160 pounds. “It’s just awesome that we’re all winning and placing.” Southern will ride the high of this weekend for the next couple of weeks, but then preparation for next season will get underway. “It’s all about the training here in the offseason,” Marks said. “We’ll take a week or two off here and recover, regroup. Guys have to get healed up. We’ll go back and train harder than we ever did because we have the X on our back and have to pick up the pace here.” Marc Malkoskie covers sports for the Press Enterprise. He may be reached at 570-387-1234, ext. 1338, or by email at sports@pressenterprise.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mmalkoskie.
Southern wins first outright team title
By MARC MALKOSKIE Press Enterprise Writer (Written after Saturday, March 9) HERSHEY — Back in 1984, Southern Columbia wrestling coach Jerry Marks was in eighth grade. The Tigers won a team title at the individual state tournament and was co-champion with Danville that year. On Saturday, that 35-year drought came to an end. Southern won the PIAA Class 2A team title with a total of 121 points, 25.5 more than second-place St. Joseph’s Academy. While Southern’s accomplishment may seem like a redemption story, it’s also a story of solidification for a team that has been knocking on the door the past few years at both team states and at the individual state tournament. “Marriage, two kids, in that order, and then a state championship,” Marks said of the importance of the team title. “We’ve been working for this goal for 10 years.” In addition to six state medalists, Marks also took some hardware home, as the 10th year head coach won the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year Award for the second consecutive year. “I have to give kudos to Coach Lane, Coach Spiller, Coach Yates, and Coach Tirko,” Marks said. “These guys have put in so much time and work, I couldn’t do it without them. It’s a brotherhood, and I’ve said that before. We argue, we fight, but at the end of the day, we’re hugging each other and saying we love each other, and that’s what makes us close. I think our guys see that, and it just brings everybody together.” Aside from the Tigers winning their first team title in program history, they also helped the school become the first one in District 4 history to win team titles in three different sports within the same school year, and just the 13th in PIAA history to do so. Southern assistant coach Kent Lane and head coach Jerry Marks react to Ian Yoder's first round win in overtime on Thursday. For a team in any sport to achieve the success Southern’s wrestling program has, several sacrifices need to be made. “It’s like the domino effect, like when (Kole) Biscoe wins (Friday),” Marks said. “Kole was a huge part of this because guys just fed off him. He’s a guy who we didn’t know where he was going to finish. He has a torn meniscus, we didn’t tell anybody that. We didn’t even know if he was going to wrestle a month ago, it happened the Thursday before sectionals. He’s getting surgery here soon.” Biscoe, who took second place at 113 pounds, wasn’t the only Tiger to make a huge sacrifice this season. State champion Gaige Garcia needs to have his gall bladder removed, but he knew surgery would be season-ending, so he delayed it until this upcoming Thursday. Marks and the rest of the Tigers’ coaching staff have done an extraordinary job of getting their kids to look past just the individual aspect of states, and buy into the team mindset. “I’d rather have everybody succeed on my team than just me,” Cade Linn said after taking seventh place at 160 pounds. “It’s just awesome that we’re all winning and placing.” Southern will ride the high of this weekend for the next couple of weeks, but then preparation for next season will get underway. “It’s all about the training here in the offseason,” Marks said. “We’ll take a week or two off here and recover, regroup. Guys have to get healed up. We’ll go back and train harder than we ever did because we have the X on our back and have to pick up the pace here.” Marc Malkoskie covers sports for the Press Enterprise. He may be reached at 570-387-1234, ext. 1338, or by email at sports@pressenterprise.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mmalkoskie.
Southern wins first outright team title
By MARC MALKOSKIE Press Enterprise Writer (Written after Saturday, March 9) HERSHEY — Back in 1984, Southern Columbia wrestling coach Jerry Marks was in eighth grade. The Tigers won a team title at the individual state tournament and was co-champion with Danville that year. On Saturday, that 35-year drought came to an end. Southern won the PIAA Class 2A team title with a total of 121 points, 25.5 more than second-place St. Joseph’s Academy. While Southern’s accomplishment may seem like a redemption story, it’s also a story of solidification for a team that has been knocking on the door the past few years at both team states and at the individual state tournament. “Marriage, two kids, in that order, and then a state championship,” Marks said of the importance of the team title. “We’ve been working for this goal for 10 years.” In addition to six state medalists, Marks also took some hardware home, as the 10th year head coach won the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year Award for the second consecutive year. “I have to give kudos to Coach Lane, Coach Spiller, Coach Yates, and Coach Tirko,” Marks said. “These guys have put in so much time and work, I couldn’t do it without them. It’s a brotherhood, and I’ve said that before. We argue, we fight, but at the end of the day, we’re hugging each other and saying we love each other, and that’s what makes us close. I think our guys see that, and it just brings everybody together.” Aside from the Tigers winning their first team title in program history, they also helped the school become the first one in District 4 history to win team titles in three different sports within the same school year, and just the 13th in PIAA history to do so. Southern assistant coach Kent Lane and head coach Jerry Marks react to Ian Yoder's first round win in overtime on Thursday. For a team in any sport to achieve the success Southern’s wrestling program has, several sacrifices need to be made. “It’s like the domino effect, like when (Kole) Biscoe wins (Friday),” Marks said. “Kole was a huge part of this because guys just fed off him. He’s a guy who we didn’t know where he was going to finish. He has a torn meniscus, we didn’t tell anybody that. We didn’t even know if he was going to wrestle a month ago, it happened the Thursday before sectionals. He’s getting surgery here soon.” Biscoe, who took second place at 113 pounds, wasn’t the only Tiger to make a huge sacrifice this season. State champion Gaige Garcia needs to have his gall bladder removed, but he knew surgery would be season-ending, so he delayed it until this upcoming Thursday. Marks and the rest of the Tigers’ coaching staff have done an extraordinary job of getting their kids to look past just the individual aspect of states, and buy into the team mindset. “I’d rather have everybody succeed on my team than just me,” Cade Linn said after taking seventh place at 160 pounds. “It’s just awesome that we’re all winning and placing.” Southern will ride the high of this weekend for the next couple of weeks, but then preparation for next season will get underway. “It’s all about the training here in the offseason,” Marks said. “We’ll take a week or two off here and recover, regroup. Guys have to get healed up. We’ll go back and train harder than we ever did because we have the X on our back and have to pick up the pace here.” Marc Malkoskie covers sports for the Press Enterprise. He may be reached at 570-387-1234, ext. 1338, or by email at sports@pressenterprise.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mmalkoskie.