The day Annapolis and Old Mill wrestling waited for had finally arrived.
Coaches Tom Sfakiyanudis and Jim Grim cooked up the annual outdoor match between their two teams last winter. Grim held the inaugural bout at Old Mill’s football stadium, and it went well enough to make it a permanent tradition in their seasons.
Though it was the Panthers’ turn to host, welcoming the Patriots at their football stadium didn’t feel festive enough for Sfakiyanudis.
So, he gave Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley a call to suggest the outlandish: high school wrestling in Susan Campbell Park under the lights.
“He loved it,” Sfakiyanudis told the Capital Gazette last week.
But, at the last minute, the dream was not to be. The drizzling rain that bathed Annapolis all day wouldn’t cease, even after the officials called for what is likely the first weather delay in Anne Arundel high school wrestling history. Forty minutes passed before Skafiyanudis called his team in. It was just too wet and too unsafe. As Old Mill departed, he called out an apology.
“I feel bad for a lot of people,” Grim said. “The worst I feel is for our kids. They were really jacked about it. And I feel for Tom and his crew setting this whole thing up because I know what that was like. There’s a lot of people that put a lot of time into this and the weather did not cooperate.
“But I’m proud we gave it a shot.”
Sfakiyanudis and Annapolis staff arrived around 10 a.m. to begin setting up for the match and were not finished until approximately 5 p.m. To make it all happen, the coaches had to not only run it by the city and earn a license, but AACPS coordinator of athletics Clayton Culp and each other’s respective school administrations as well.
“But we had to be responsible,” Sfakiyanudis said.
Annapolis vs Old Mill outdoor wrestling canceled due to rain | PHOTOS
Under the telescopic lights, the fog that blanketed Annapolis’ City Dock all day diminished. Heat machines placed around the sprawling maroon mat melted the chill away. Old Mill and Annapolis players milled around by the water, investigating the heat tents set up for them, drilling as soon as the rules allowed them to while managers and coaches wiped down the mist-slick surface of the mat over and over again.
The rain picked up, but the wrestlers could not be deterred. The two teams stood together as one for a photo, and then sent Annapolis’s 106-pound Finn Carroll out to claim his forfeit.
Old Mill’s Brandon Womack and Annapolis’ Steven Umana and wrangled through the first period of the 113. Onlookers thickly surrounded the mat, even piling onto cement fixtures.
“We have a crowd out here, even in the rain,” Sfakiyanudis said. “People who wouldn’t normally come to a wrestling match.”
But in the moment, Sfakiyanudis could see something was wrong.
“We could see it was possibly a dangerous situation,” the coach said. “The last thing Jim or I wants is one of our wrestlers to end up with an injury because we tried to go ahead. In that first match, they were slipping and sliding. The knees came to mind.”
The match between the two schools will be rescheduled for Jan. 8, but will be held at Annapolis High, indoors. That said, there are still ideas for where next year’s outdoor meetup will be.
“We’re gonna continue to do this thing very year,” Grim said, “and try to come up with different ideas to do for the sport of wrestling.”
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