Hundreds of high school wrestlers from across New York are in downtown Albany this weekend for the NYSPHSAA wrestling state championships at MVP Arena, and for one Bethlehem senior and his longtime coach, it feels like a farewell tour.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem\u2019s James Nalbone is coming off a historic performance at the Section II state qualifier, where he captured the 132\u2011pound title and became the school\u2019s first section champion in 28 years. He said the run through the bracket \u2014 knocking off the top seed, the No. 3 seed and everyone else in his path \u2014 still doesn\u2019t feel real.<\/p>\n
His focus now shifts, though, to the state tournament. Nalbone will be one of the many student\u2011athletes on the mats at MVP Arena as wrestlers from across New York compete for a spot on the podium over two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to the states, I know I can do the same thing,\u201d Nalbone said. \u201cI know every dude in that bracket. I know I can beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York State Public High School Athletic Association says its individual wrestling state championships bring together qualifiers from its 11 sections along with schools from New York City\u2019s Public Schools Athletic League and the Catholic High School Athletic Association. The event, which has used a two\u2011division format for more than two decades, now features more than 500 athletes after the field was expanded in recent years, according to the association.<\/p>\n
For seniors like Nalbone, it is one last chance to leave a mark at what he calls the highest level of high school wrestling in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to work hard, and you get to really know that this is the best level in New York wrestling you can get,\u201d Nalbone said.<\/p>\n
In his corner is head coach Chris Braga, who plans to retire after this season. Braga has coached wrestling since 1994 and said stepping away after so many years will not be easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to miss it,\u201d Braga said. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s been a long time; it\u2019s been a big part of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braga said his relationship with Nalbone, on and off the mat, is part of what makes this weekend special.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a great kid,\u201d Braga said. \u201cHe\u2019s smart, he\u2019s driven, motivated \u2026 I\u2019m going to miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 61st annual state tournament began Friday morning at MVP Arena, with preliminaries and quarterfinals leading into a full day of semifinals and wrestlebacks on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Finals are scheduled for Saturday evening, following a parade of finalists and pre\u2011match ceremonies. The association says tickets for each session start at $16 and are available through the arena box office and website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of high school wrestlers from across New York are in downtown Albany this weekend for the NYSPHSAA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1593,153,155,154,58448,7596,139,25636],"class_list":["post-125360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-albany-capital-region","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-corey-james","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}