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Several Minutemen competed in the Greater Hartford Classical Novice Tournament on Sunday, January 26th. In the Mighty Mite Division wrestling in his first tournament Matt Bouchard placed 1st, Bantam Matthew Peck placed 1st, Midgets: Isaac and Athony Myer, Cody and Connor Ruszczyk placed 1st, Tyler Bajjo and Jack Hamel placed 2nd. In the afternnon Novice wrestler Mike Davila placed 1st.
Coach Moss said, "It was a good day, all our wrestlers worked really hard and have shown marked imrpovements."
King of the Mat Kids WindhamTournament
A small group of Minutemen traveled to Windham for a Sunday tournament. Mighty Mite Luke Mangiafico placed 2nd. In the afternoon, Nick Mangiafico placed 2nd and Sean Sulllivan placed 4th.
By Nancy Clark, MS RD CSSD
For Active.com
More often than not, athletes ask me “What is a well balanced diet? What should I be eating to help me perform at my best?” They feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless list of nutrition don'ts. Don't eat white sugar, white bread, processed foods, fast foods, french fries, soda, salt, trans fats, butter, eggs, red meat... You’ve heard it all, I’m sure.
If you want to eat better but don’t know where to start, here’s a nutrition strategy that can help you fuel your body with a well balanced sports diet. The suggestions guide you towards an eating style that's simple and practical, yet can effectively help you eat well to perform well, despite today’s bewildering food environment.
Eat At Least Three Kinds of Nutrient-dense Food at Each Meal.
Don't eat just one food per meal, such as a bagel for breakfast. Add two more foods: peanut butter and low-fat milk. Don't choose just a salad for lunch. Add grilled chicken and a crusty whole grain roll. For dinner, enjoy pasta with tomato sauce and ground turkey. Two-thirds of the meal should be whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, and one-third low-fat meats, dairy, beans or other protein-rich foods.
Too many athletes eat a repetitive menu with the same 10 to 15 foods each week. Repetitive eating keeps life simple, minimizes decisions, and simplifies shopping, but it can result in an inadequate diet and chronic fatigue. The more different foods you eat, the more different types of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients you consume. A good target is 35 different foods per week. Start counting!
Eat “Closer to the Earth.”
For instance, choose oranges rather than orange juice; orange juice rather than sports drink; whole-wheat bread rather than white bread; baked potatoes rather than french fries. Foods in their natural (or lightly processed) state offer more nutritional value and less sodium, trans fat and other health-eroding ingredients. You’ll find these foods along the perimeter of the grocery store: fresh produce, lean meats, lowfat dairy, whole grain breads. If possible, choose locally grown foods that support your local farmer and require less fuel for transportation to the market.
Fuel Your Body on a Regular Schedule
Eat even-sized meals every four hours. For example, a reducing diet (non-dieters need another 100-200 calories per meal) might be:
- Breakfast (7-8:00 am): 500 calories (cereal + milk + banana)
- Lunch (11-noon): 500 calories (sandwich + milk)
- Lunch #2 (3-4:00): 400-500 calories (yogurt +granola+nuts)
- Dinner (7-8:00 pm): 500-600 cals (chicken +potato + greens)
This differs from the standard pattern of skimpy 200 to 300 calorie breakfasts and lunches that get followed by too many calories of sugary snacks and super-sized dinners.
Depending on your body size, each meal should be the equivalent of two to three pieces of pizza; that's about 500 to 750 calories (or 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day). Think about having four “food buckets” that you fill with 500 to 750 calories from at least kinds of foods every four hours. Even if you want to lose weight, you can (and should) target 500 calories at breakfast, lunch #1 and lunch #2. Those meals will ruin your evening appetite, so you’ll be able to “diet” at dinner by eating smaller portions. (Note: Most active people can lose weight on 2,000 cals, believe it or not!)
Whatever you do, try to stop eating in a “crescendo” (with meals getting progressively bigger as the day evolves). Your better bet is to eat on a time-line and consume 3/4 of your calories in the active part of your day; eat less at the end of the day. One runner took this advice and started eating his dinner foods for lunch, a sandwich for lunch #2 (instead of snacking on cookies) and then had soup and a bagel for dinner. He enjoyed far more energy during the day, was able to train harder in the afternoon, and significantly improved his race times.
Honor Hunger.
Eat when you are hungry, and then stop eating when you feel content. Hunger is simply a request for fuel; your body is telling you it burned off what you gave it and needs a refill. To disregard hunger is abusive. Just as you would not withhold food from a hungry infant, you should not withhold food from your hungry body. If you do, you will start to crave sweets (a physiological response to calorie deprivation) and end up eating “junk”.
While counting calories is one way to educate yourself how to fill each 500-calorie “bucket” (for calorie information, use food labels, www.fitday.com, and www.calorieking.com/foods), you can more simply pay attention to your body's signals. Keep checking in with yourself, “Is my body content? Or, does my body need this fuel?” If confronted with large portions that would leave you feeling stuffed, consider letting the excess food go to waste, not to “waist.”
Think Moderation.
Rather than categorizing a food as being good or bad for your health, think about moderation, and aim for a diet that offers 85 to 90 percent quality foods and 10 to 15 percent foods with fewer nutritional merits. Enjoy a foundation of healthful foods, but don't deprive yourself of enjoyable foods. This way, even soda pop and chips, if desired, can fit into a nourishing food plan. You just need to balance the “junk” with healthier choices throughout the rest of the day. That is, you can compensate for an occasional greasy sausage and biscuit breakfast by selecting a low-fat turkey sandwich lunch and a grilled fish dinner.
Take Mealtimes Seriously.
If you can find the time to train hard, you can also find the time to fuel right. In fact, competitive athletes who don’t show up for meals might as well not show up for training. You’ll lose your edge with hit or miss fueling, but you’ll always win with good nutrition!
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| By Gerry deSimas Jr | |
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MANCHESTER — The coaches on the Berlin High football team wanted John Fiorillo to come out and play football for the Redcoats last fall. But his preparations for wrestling were already under way. He spent many afternoons on the road and in the Berlin High wrestling room working out with his brother, Michael, and other teammates. That preparation was evident Saturday as he won one of the most competitive weight classes at Saturday’s Eagle Classic with a 7-3 win over Windham High’s Addison Fleming. Fiorillo was sharp with three takedowns and a relentless, aggressive style that wore down Fleming.
“I feel confident with my shot and defending against a shot,” said Fiorillo, who remained undefeated with a 31-0 record. “It came down to setting up shots well and finishing hard.” Fiorillo, the defending Class L champion at 160, took a 2-0 lead by swooping in for a smooth single leg takedown and picked Fleming, the defending Class M champion, right off the mat. Fleming tied the bout with a pair of escapes but Fiorillo moved ahead in the second period. He darted in, grabbed a piece of Fleming’s ankle and chased him down for a 4-2 lead he would never relinquish. Fiorillo was one of eight Berlin wrestlers to win medals at the Eagle Classic as the Redcoats turned in an impressive third place finish. New England championship contender Mt. Anthony Union of Bennington, Vt., won the tournament for the 12th straight year with 236.5 points. Windham High was second with 181 while Berlin was third with 172.5. “We wrestled excellent,” Berlin High coach Dave Tremblay said. “We were missing two starters who were ill and to take third in a tournament of this caliber with just 11 kids was excellent. They were getting a lot of pins. Our kids picked it up a notch.” Cameron Banks (171) and Justin Roncaioli (140) missed the event. Newington, led by finalist Nick Petillo (171), finished 11th in the field of 20 teams while Plainville was 13th with 52.5 points. Berlin sophomore Jack Banks finished second at 152 pounds while Kevin Moss (135) and J.R. Dynak (215) were third. Chris Solek (130), who was competing with a fever, Ethan Berube (145) and Jamie Luczynski (189) each finished fourth. Sean Sullivan won the 95 pound weight class, which was unofficial and not counted in the team scores. Petillo had little trouble getting to the finals. He won his first match by technical fall and easily pinned Griswold’s Jeff Talbot in the semifinals in 1:35. But in the championship match, he was overpowered by Windham’s Zach Fleming in a 12-2 defeat. It was still anybody’s match early in the second period with Fleming leading 5-1 but Petillo made a mistake, turned the wrong way and was pancaked to the mat to give the Whippet wrestler a big lead. “I wrestled the best I could and left it all out on the mat,” Petillo admitted. Newington’s teammate Norberto Laguna (215) upset No. 1 seed Drew Whitehead of Killingly in the quarterfinals with a pin in 2:38. But he fell in the semifinals and eventually finished fifth. Plainville had two wrestlers finish fourth. Junior Mario Acca, who won this tournament a year ago with a one-point decision over Fiorillo at 160, fell in the quarterfinals to Bristol Eastern’s Eric Sassu, 13-7. But Acca rallied with three straight wins, including two pins, in the consolation bracket to earn a spot in the consolation final. But he finished fourth because he wrestled five matches, the limit allowed by national federation rules. Matt Tanner (112) also finished fourth. |
The Berlin Minutemen hosted a USAWCT Tournament on Sunday, January 13th at Berlin High. The tournament had the highest number of registrants so far for a weekend youth tournament with 500 youth registered.
In the morning group the Minutemen did well as they placed 2nd in the team scoring and had the following place finishers: Mighty Mite; Luke Mangiafico 1st, Bantam; Daniel Veleas and Isaac Myers 1st, Matt Peck, Matt Wojciechowski, Joshua Veleas, Mike Patterson and Nick Zuk placing 3rd, Ryan DeVivo and Tyler Tralli 4th, Midget; Anthony Myers 1st, Cody and Connor Rusczyzk 4th. In the afternoon the team placed 3rd with the following indiviual results: Novice; Jeremy Eliades 1st, Riley Greider, Jimmy Bourgoin, Richie Schlichting, Colin Cunningham and Devon Reilly all placing 2nd, Matt Cote and Sean Sullivan placing 3rd and Calvin Johnson and Zachary Veleas 4th. In the Middle School Division Andrew Alessi and Nick Mangiafico 2nd, Ethan Grieder 3rd and Jordan Zima 4th.
Coach Moss wanted to thank all the parents, Berlin High School Wrestlers, relatives and others who helped make this day a great success. Coach Moss said, "We ran things a little different then they are use to at these tournamanets. It was confusing to some but we were able to be done in record time for the amount of matches we had."
Wrestlers came from 17 different clubs in Connecticut, as well as New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York to compete.
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