Titans Grow to Tower Over Competition
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
January 19, 2017
WARREN – The year was 1999. Greg Mayer had recently graduated from Central Michigan University and didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.
After serving as a co-head wrestling coach at Warren Woods Tower in 1998, Pat Threet directed the program alone the following season.
Although they never had met before, Mayer and Threet knew of the other through mutual acquaintances and athletics. They didn’t know it then, but soon they would team together and build a wrestling power in Macomb County from the ground up. Along the way they also would become best friends.
Woods Tower’s wrestling program was struggling when Threet took over. Warren public schools like Lincoln and Fitzgerald were far more competitive and Threet, as a graduate of Woods Tower, made a commitment to himself and the community to get the program to where it could be competitive as well.
Threet wrestled in high school, but he knew his limitations. He also knew he needed to hire someone with a strong wrestling background, one who would demand excellence.
“I didn’t know Greg, but I knew he was a phenomenal wrestler,” Threet said. “His brother (Jeff) was, too. From day one I told him we’re in this together.”
Mayer was hired as Threet’s assistant in 1999, and the wheels began turning. It took a few years but, finally, in 2004 Woods Tower won a District title. Three years later it won its first Regional. The Titans won another Regional in Division 2 in 2014 and again last season.
This season Mayer, now in charge of the program, returned 13 wrestlers, just four of whom are seniors, and the Titans are looking to take that next step past the Quarterfinal round.
“We were terrible,” Mayer said of his first season with Threet. “When I got there Pat and I had some 20 kids. At the end of the season we had nine, but we had nine hammers.
“Then we started to win some Districts. Pat moved on in 2007. He had other obligations, family and stuff. I’m really grateful to him for giving me that chance.”
Mayer was an MHSAA individual champion wrestler at Lincoln, one of the county’s top programs. In 1994, his senior season, the Abes won the Class A team title with Sam Amine as the head coach and Mayer was the individual champion at 130 pounds.
Mayer enjoyed a successful four-year wrestling career at CMU, one that was highlighted by a fifth-place finish nationally when he was a junior and a seventh-place finish his senior season.
Upon graduating Mayer, like many 23-year-olds, didn’t have a plan.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to,” he said. “I was doing a camp in Warren and Pat was in his first year (1998) at Woods Tower, and he said to me if you come over I’ll put a good word in for you to get you a teaching position. So I took it and convinced my brother, who was the head coach at Roseville, to coach the youth program.”
Mayer didn’t stop there. He convinced two other Lincoln graduates, Russell Correll and Mike Milunovich, to join his staff. Like the Mayers, Correll and Milunovich were MHSAA Finals placers at Lincoln. Ian Fredlund, a Woods Tower graduate, also is on staff.
In a division dominated by Lowell and St. Johns (each has won four MHSAA team titles over the last eight seasons), Woods Tower is the new kid on the block attempting to disrupt the status quo, and made the Quarterfinals last season as the sixth seed before falling to third-seeded Gaylord 31-26.
The Titans finished third at the prestigious Detroit Catholic Central Invitational earlier this month. And with all of the experience back, hopes are high.
Among his top wrestlers is sophomore David Stepanian, ranked No. 1 in the 103-pound division by MichiganGrappler.com. At 112 is another sophomore, Chaise Mayer, the coach’s nephew. At 119 is senior Elijuh Weaver, the reigning Division 2 champion at 112 pounds.
Six years ago Woods Tower joined the Macomb Area Conference Red and is the only Division 2 school to compete in the MAC’s top division. Not only did Mayer want his wrestlers facing the best, it’s become a numbers situation within his program.
“We carry almost two full teams,” he said. “Being in the Red guarantees my guys they will wrestle in every (division) meet. We’ve never won the MAC Red and to be honest, that’s not our goal. Our goal is to win a state title. As long as we’re progressing, I’m happy.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Elijuh Weaver, top, works toward flipping his opponent during last season’s Division 2 Quarterfinal match against Gaylord. (Middle) Greg Mayer, left, and Pat Threet from a team photo early in their tenure at Warren Woods Tower. (Below) Mayer directs one of his wrestlers last year at Rose Arena. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Performance: Hartland's Sage Castillo
January 20, 2016
Sage Castillo
Hartland senior – Wrestling
Two bouts remained in Sunday’s matchup of top-ranked Hartland and No. 2 Davison at Central Michigan University’s McGuirk Arena in what could've been a possible preview of next month’s MHSAA Division 1 championship match. The Eagles trailed by 11 points, and Castillo faced the day’s pivotal moment – and seized it to key his team’s 27-26 win and earn this week’s Michigan National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Castillo, ranked No. 3 in Division 1 at 152 pounds by Michigan Grappler, earned a hard-fought pin over No. 6-ranked Kurt Schlack, setting up teammate Logan Vish to score the match-clinching pin in the final bout at 160. The team victory was the 650th of coach Todd Cheney’s career since taking over the program in 1991-92 and moved the Eagles to 17-1 after they’d lost their first match this season earlier in the morning to Detroit Catholic Central.
Castillo, 24-0 this winter, is a four-year starter for Hartland and holds a 167-35 career record. He was an MHSAA Individual Finals qualifier last season at 135 pounds and a key contributor as the Eagles finished runner-up as a team in Division 1, falling to Brighton 31-25 in the championship match. He also finished fifth at 125 pounds at the Individual Finals as a sophomore and qualified at 112 pounds as a freshman. He’s still deciding college plans, but holds a 3.3 grade-point average and is considering a career in the medical field.
Coach Todd Cheney said: “Sage is an extremely hard-working kid and a great leader. Sage had a 4-0 week recording three pins and a major decision, and he helped start our comeback pinning a ranked wrestler from Davison.”
Performance Point: “When my friend Reese (Hughes), right after he won, (I thought) we have a chance to win this. Our next wrestler … he ends up losing (at 145), so we’re down by 11, and then I’m like, ‘OK, we have to pin the next two kids or we lose.’ Schlack is a great wrestler; he’s strong, he’s agile. But I went out, and I knew I was not going to lose. I wrestled my heart out, and I ended up pinning him. I had so much going through my mind. When I got in my first shot, it was like, ‘Wow, that wasn’t really that bad. (But) if I’d gotten into a scramble with him, there was a chance he’d catch me. … I got him into a cross-face cradle, and it was just so tight. There was so much energy and strength going through me, there was no way he was going to break it.”
Comeback kids: Hartland opened Sunday with its first loss of the season, 33-16 to No. 3 Detroit Catholic Central. “We went in way overconfident. We thought we’d never lose. With that mentality, we didn’t take it too seriously, and that’s what cost us the match. We lost the first five or six matches right in a row and couldn’t bounce back from that. Taking that, and going into the Davison match, that fueled the fire. Our loss helped us bounce back from it and wrestle hard.”
Title dreams: In addition to finishing runner-up last season, Hartland also finished runner-up in Division 1 four straight seasons from 2004-07. “It would mean the world to me, being the first team to win a state title at Hartland. It would be the most amazing feeling in the world. To have Cheney hand me the trophy in the center of the mat at Central Michigan … to make my school proud and my family proud, I’ve dreamed about it numerous times. Cheney’s talked to me about it. He’s sort of talked about this year, the overview of it, talked about how tough of a season we have this year. He’s scheduled tough tournaments, not for us to lose, but to get ourselves better. If we do lose, it gives us room for improvement.”
Learning from a legend: “It’s been pretty awesome; I’m not going to lie. I love wrestling for Cheney. He’s a great coach, and he knows what he’s doing. Cheney’s taught me how to respect others in my match, in other matches, my family; he’s taught me a lot about respect over the last four years."
Next level and beyond: “I’m mostly leaning toward nursing (and) I want to wrestle. Just working with people, getting to know other people, helping out others. (Science) is what I excel in, mostly. It just interests me the most – figuring out how things work in the body, nature, and all of that stuff.”
– Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2015-16 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our Nation's freedom, or protecting lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2015-16 honorees
Jan. 13: Rob Zofchak, Dexter swimming & diving - Read
Jan. 6: Tyler Deming, Caro wrestling – Read
Dec. 15: Jordan Weber, East Jordan boys basketball – Read
Dec. 8: Kaitlyn Geers, Kent City girls basketball – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Hartland's Sage Castillo attempts to finish a pin as the official leans in to make the call. (Middle) Castillo celebrates his victory during Sunday's match against Davison. (Top photo by Danna Castillo; bottom photo courtesy of Todd Cheney.)