A Wrestling Rivalry Is Renewed: Mitchell's Bonackers Take On Detore's Hurricanes

A rivalry, albeit a familiar and friendly one, was reignited this past Friday night when the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton/Ross wrestling team hosted Westhampton Beach in what was the first League V dual meet for both teams.

The Bonackers are now led by head coach Ethan Mitchell, who graduated from Westhampton Beach in 2008 and helped coach the team until just before joining East Hampton a few years ago. He faced off against his alma mater and the program that he helped coach, facing not only those he used to coach side by side with, but wrestlers who he used to teach the sport to.

Experience won out, as the Hurricanes took the match, 47-15, over the Bonackers, but the results almost became secondary on the night — wrestling was alive and well again in East Hampton.

As almost like a cherry on top, legendary East End wrestling coaches Jim Stewart, who coached East Hampton’s varsity team prior to Mitchell, and Paul Bass, who retired from coaching Westhampton Beach after the 2019-2020 season after a long successful run, commentated on the match during the livestream of the match.

“Oh my God, it was so exciting. Any time you’re wrestling against your alma mater it’s always exciting,” Mitchell said after the match. “The atmosphere that East Hampton wrestling is bringing back is tremendous. The stands were more or less packed, guys were hootin’ and hollerin’, cheering the right way.”

Pete Detore, who now heads up the coaching staff at Westhampton Beach, joked that the night turned into the “Hampton Classic.”

“It’s really enjoyable to be able to coach with Ethan and then against him in a fun kind of way. It was just really good camaraderie,” he explained. “We’re friends at the end of the day. It was tough to be across the mat from him in a sense because we’ve coached together for so long. To get a victory is nice because I want to walk away with the bragging rights at that time, but it’s always great to have that camaraderie. Wrestling is like that, so it’s really enjoyable in that sense, to have that bond and still be friends after, it’s really cool. It makes the sport that much more special, it makes coming here more special.”

Although the final score was a little lopsided, there were still some very competitive matches. Luke Citarelli of Westhampton Beach won a very close 3-2 decision over East Hampton’s Caleb Peralta at 126 pounds. Citarelli, who had lost to Peralta at East Hampton’s Sprig Gardner Tournament the weekend prior, scored an escape point with 40 seconds remaining and was able to stave off Peralta until the final whistle.

“I came into this match hungry all week, [after] he beat me last weekend,” Citarelli said. “Coming into this match, I wanted him, I wanted that win, I was just thinking about it all week and finally I was able to put it together.”

Citarelli said it was tough going against a former coach in Mitchell, but said it was fun at the same time.

“He started off with me in middle school and then after he left it was bittersweet,” he explained. “Facing him is kind of difficult because he comes to camp with us every summer, he knows what I got, he knows my tools in the tool box … he just knows what I’m going to do. I can imagine what he was telling Caleb, what I was going to do all week. In the match, he knows what I’m going to do, there’s nothing I can do, but he’s got to stop it. He didn’t stop it tonight.

“Definitely fun,” facing Mitchell, Citarelli continued. “He’s got a very distinct voice, you can’t not hear it, so it was kind of nice to put a win over him,” he said, with a smile.

Bonacker Santi Maya and Hurricane Randy Cabrera had a competitive match at 138. Maya moved up two weight classes to wrestle Cabrera, something he did for the team’s sake so as to not have to forfeit the weight class. He said it was difficult and gave credit to Cabrera for wrestling tough, but he was happy he was able to pull off the victory.

Maya said he and his teammates were well aware of the connection with their head coach in Mitchell and Westhampton Beach and said it was fun to be a part of.

“It’s obviously great competition knowing that we have the old Westhampton coach. It’s dope,” he said.

Of the 10 bouts that were contested — three were forfeits, Westhampton Beach won eight of them. Mike Hempfling (215 pounds), Finn McIntyre (118), Citarelli, Bobby Stabile (132), Connor Gormley (145), Nolan Michalowski (152), Clifford Baynon (160) and Salvatore Francapane (172) all picked up victories for the ’Canes. Jose Calderon had the only other victory for East Hampton, outside of Maya, with a pin at 189.

Detore thought his team wrestled great and said, aside from their wrestling, their attitudes have been great.

“Their energy is great and they’re going out there and getting the job done,” he said. “They used the pressure in the right way, they used it to fuel them forward. Some people crack under the pressure, but they came out there and they met their fear head on and that’s what I love about them right now. They have their ups and downs, like sometimes in practice they’ll have their lulls, but when the pressure’s on, the team seems to really step up, and that’s what’s great.”

Mitchell said that outside of Maya, Peralta, Calderon and J.P. Amaden, the rest of the team was either wrestling in their first dual meet ever on Friday night or just their second event after the Sprig Gardner. His team was not going to match the experience of Westhampton Beach in one night.

“It was tough wrestling against experience. All those kids who were wrestling for Westhampton, I coached when they were in kid wrestling,” he explained. “Heartedly proud of these boys, to go out there one-on-one against an experienced group and just wrestle your heart out, that’s all we can ask for.”

Westhampton Beach competed in the Michael Tarulli Memorial Tournament up in Irvington, New York, on Saturday and won three of its four matches in the dual-meet style event. East Hampton stayed closer to home on Saturday to compete in the Doc Fallot Memorial Tournament at Hampton Bays. Also a dual-meet tourney, the Bonackers went 2-2, taking fourth place. Both Maya and Peralta went 4-0 on the day, all wins via pin.

East Hampton had a dual meet at Comsewogue on Wednesday, and was expected to host Eastport-South Manor Friday night at 6:15 p.m. Westhampton Beach was at East Islip for a dual meet on Wednesday night and is scheduled to host Kings Park Friday at 4:30 p.m.