{"id":194917,"date":"2026-02-26T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194917\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:18:11","slug":"long-beach-boys-wrestling-coach-ray-adams-to-play-role-of-dad-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194917\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach boys wrestling coach Ray Adams to play role of dad, mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ray Adams said he\u2019ll try and\u00a0not allow his emotions to get the most of him this weekend. He\u2019s not making any promises.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old Long Beach wrestling coach will face his most difficult test as he wears two hats at the state wrestling championships at\u00a0the MVP Arena in Albany.<\/p>\n

One as a father and the other as the Long Beach boys head coach.<\/p>\n

Adams will wear the hat of proud dad when his daughter, Reese Adams<\/a>, a senior at\u00a0Calhoun, competes in the 126-pound weight class\u00a0in the second annual\u00a0girls state wrestling tournament on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very personal this weekend, very emotional,\u201d Adams said. \u201cMy daughter missed her entire junior season of wrestling after a complete tear of her ACL during a practice. She has shown such grit and perseverance to come back and wrestle in her senior season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams pinned defending county champion Olivia Rausenberger of MacArthur in 1:52 for the Nassau sectional title at 126 pounds. She was named the tournament\u2019s Most Outstanding Wrestler.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my daughter wrestles, I approach it from the perspective of a proud dad,\u201d Adams said. \u201cHer coaches are great and I trust them 100%. I\u2019ll sit and watch and cheer and win or lose I\u2019ll tell her I love her.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday and Saturday, in the 63rd edition of the boys state tournament, Adams will be in the coaching corner guiding his three qualifiers, including two-time Division I state champion Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez<\/a> (42-3) at 118 pounds. It\u2019s the final stop on a miraculous journey for the 18-year-old Sibomana-Rodriguez, who has defied the odds to climb to the upper echelon of the wrestling world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis journey has been special,\u201d Adams said. \u201cI was blessed when he walked into our wrestling room. He has taught me about having strength and toughness and being resilient. He\u2019s a survivor. He enjoys life. He\u2019s the type of person to make a difference in this world. Wrestling will give him the platform to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibomana-Rodriguez survived a horrific chimpanzee attack in Virunga National Park in his native Congo when he was six years old. Two playmates were killed in the attack and Sibomana-Rodriguez suffered traumatic injuries to his face and\u00a0right ear, and\u00a0had the middle finger on his left hand completely bitten off.<\/p>\n

At eight years old, he came to the United States for rare reconstructive facial surgery at the Stony Brook Children\u2019s Hospital. He has endured 19 surgeries to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis is the epitome of courage,\u201d Adams said. \u201cHe inspires our students at school and our community. He\u2019s a rock star.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final state tournament in his high school journey will not be easy. The 118-pound weight class is loaded with talent, including Manhasset senior Will Russell (41-6), whom Sibomana-Rodriguez beat, 1-0, for his fifth Nassau title earlier this month<\/a>. His first win at the state tournament will be the 200th of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he brings his ‘A’ game, he has a chance to do it,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThe pressure will be unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

One wrestler inspired by Sibomana-Rodriguez is Adams\u2019 daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDunia is one of my best friends,\u201d said Reese Adams, who will wrestle at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania next school year. \u201cHis life story is an inspiration \u2013 look what he went through. When my therapy got hard, I thought about Dunia for motivation. I also remember that awful, empty feeling when the bus left for the state tournament last year and I watched them go. It was heartbreaking and I cried. It was emotional and drove me hard in physical therapy. I never skipped. And every session was one step closer to achieving my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notes from the mat<\/p>\n

Perhaps the toughest weight class in the tournament comes at 110 pounds. Freshman Jon Tutku (34-2) of Massapequa won the 101-pound Division I state title as an eighth grader. He\u2019s moved up in weight and will battle for the 110-pound crown out of the third seed. Tutku has a loaded weight class, including Suffolk champion Xavier Seabury (43-1), the top seed out of North Babylon. Long Beach sophomore Ethan Andreula (25-2) is the fourth seed and defending state champion Will Soto (42-1) of Newburgh Free Academy is the second\u00a0seed . . .\u00a0 Camryn Howard (44-0) of Bellport and Tommy\u00a0Vecchio (44-0) of Sachem North\u00a0are\u00a0the only undefeated wrestlers from Long Island. Howard, a\u00a0four-time Suffolk winner, is the top seed in Division I at 157 pounds and Vecchio is the No. 16 seed at 175 pounds\u00a0. . . Plainedge senior Devin Downes (39-4) won the state title in Division II in 2025. This year he\u2019s the top seed in Division I . . . Shoreham-Wading River junior Gavin Mangano (43-3) is looking for his third straight Division II crown. He is the top seed.<\/p>\n

\"Gregg<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tGregg Sarra is Newsday’s high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ray Adams said he\u2019ll try and\u00a0not allow his emotions to get the most of him this weekend. He\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[66332,131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-194917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-hs-wrestling-boys","9":"tag-long-beach","10":"tag-long-beach-headlines","11":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}