THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 p
Paint Branch senior finishes what he started After quitting the sport twice, wrestler has lofty postseason hopes
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BY
NICK CAMMAROTA STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Thomas S. Wootton High School’s Brandon Hall is in control of the puck against Bethesda-Chevy Chase on Friday.
Wootton confident for postseason-title run With a dynamic offense, stout defense, Patriots look unbeatable n
BY
NICK CAMMAROTA STAFF WRITER
RAPHAEL TALISMAN/FOR THE GAZETTE
Paint Branch High School senior Mitchell Zio looks for an angle on Oxon Hill’s Jahi Jones during Saturday’s 145pound finals at the Winter Blitz annual wrestling tournament held at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale. Zio wore the mask to protect a broken jaw.
RAPHAEL TALISMAN/FOR THE GAZETTE
Paint Branch High School’s Mitchell Zio took off his mask and ended up winning the Winter Blitz championship. thing, that sense that was there that you just have to go with it. Don’t even care,” Zio said. “With wrestling, as soon as I hit the floor, I’m right back up. The coaches like that about me.” He finished the final 1:46 of that match and it wasn’t until
he visited the doctor three days later that he was told he needed surgery immediately to fix his jaw. It was wired shut. Now, however, Zio is at the heart of Paint Branch’s wrestling program — a team that won the division a year ago
— and is one of three captains along with Chris Young (285 pounds), and Ryan Van Meers (126). The Panthers won the Winter Blitz, too, unseating two-time defending champion Parkdale and placing 12 of their 14 wrestlers in the top six. “Last week, [Zio] lost to the returning state champ from Catoctin [Charles Perella] in the semifinals of the Hub Cup, 3-2,” Paint Branch coach Rich Smith said. “That was a good match but he did something crazy at the end. He was taking it to the kid, but we’ve got to correct a few things with his technique.” Saturday’s final at the Winter Blitz followed a similar pattern given the wild finish, but this time Zio, who also plays football but hopes to wrestle in college, was able to come out on top. Last season, the Panthers were stacked with experience as all but three starters in the lineup were seniors. Now, the exact opposite is true and a youthful team continues to navigate the county’s crowded competition with an eye on postseason success. “We just work as hard as we can during practice and try to set a good example for the rest of the guys,” said Young, who finished third at the Blitz. “Show them how to become winning wrestlers and how we do things at Paint Branch.” ncammarota@gazette.net
Thomas S. Wootton High School ice hockey coach Dave Evans knows what it’s like to coach a championship team. Not just coach them, but interact with them on a daily basis, pick their brains about school and neutral zone traps and their favorite brand of stick. So when — with his team sitting at 9-0-0 in league play as the regular season nears its conclusion — Evans said that coaching this team feels a lot like leading his championship teams of the 2008 and 2009 seasons, it’s significant. “I’ve had great athletic teams over the years, but it’s that game intelligence, the ability to control the play with puck movement and smart play that separates this team,” Evans said. “That’s what makes this feel like ’08-’09.” The Patriots aren’t only undefeated against Maryland Student Hockey League competition (their only loss this year came to Landon School of the Interstate Athletic Conference), they’re outscoring their opponents by a whopping 72-14 margin. They downed defending champion Winston Churchill, 5-1, in an emotional game earlier in January and they feature six players with 12 or more points. It all adds up to Wootton thinking that, at this point, it’s state championship or bust. “I think this is our year to win states,” said sophomore Brandon Hall. “It’s probably one of the best teams we’ve had. We’re a close group of guys, we’re all friends and a good amount of the team is seniors.” Hall, who started playing hockey at the age of 3, has scored 14 goals and contributed 12 assists to Wootton’s dominant cause this year. “For a sophomore, the kid can shoot,” Evans said. “There’s
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Even before Mitchell Zio stepped onto the mat at Charles H. Flowers High School, the murmurs in the crowd became audible. They crescendoed when he shook hands with his opponent, Oxon Hill’s Jahi Jones, and with that those in attendance at the annual Winter Blitz wrestling tournament were hooked. “How the heck does he see?” one onlooker asked. “That’s terrifying. He looks like Darth Vader,” yelled another. Zio, a 5-foot-3, 145-pound senior from Paint Branch, was wearing a glossy black mask that covered his entire face to offer protection for his jaw, which he broke during a match last year. A horizontal Iron Manesque slit left just enough room for him to be able to see, but not without tilting his head up. For the first 2 minutes, 30 seconds of the match, nothing much happened. Zio crouched remarkably low to the mat, often sliding his knees against the padding, and quickly defended any attempt by Jones to shoot. But he also couldn’t accomplish anything offensively. It was stale. That is, until Zio stormed toward the side of the mat following a whistle and tossed the mask into the stands. Now it was on. Zio recorded an escape to begin the third period but was dramatically taken down by Jones with 50 seconds remaining to fall behind, 2-1. Shortly after, Zio reversed Jones before a mad scramble to the finish ensued with both wrestlers tumbling multiple times, but with no points awarded either way. The best match of the night, one between two wrestlers who pinned their way to the finals, ended 3-2 in Zio’s favor. Another learning experience for one of Montgomery County’s more talented wrestlers who, two years ago, wasn’t even sure if wrestling was something he wanted to do. “I started freshman year, quit halfway. Joined again my sophomore year, quit halfway. Then junior year, I broke my jaw on both sides so I had to stop,” Zio said. He said the weight cutting and the diet discipline were too much to handle during his first two attempts at the sport. And once he finally became fully invested, his jaw slammed against an opponents’ hip. “After you break some-
no question about it, the kid can shoot. It seems like if he gets one [goal], you better get on him because he’s going to bury his chances.” But what makes the Patriots so strong is not only their ability to light the lamp at an eightgoals-per-game average, but the versatility of their defenseman, especially first liners Austin Schoenfeld and Jordy Bretner. Schoenfeld, also a standout lacrosse player, has 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) while Bretner has 16 (7, 9). The pair complements one another well as Schoenfeld is a steady defender with excellent puck possession skills and Bretner has the ability to transition with ease and join the attack. “Austin’s huge and he doesn’t turn the puck over very often. He’s very effective both ways. Jordy is a cut-and-slash guy. He’ll spin and take off up ice,” Evans said. Behind them, goalies Aaron Cooperman and Jake Mitchell have been solid. “This is more than I expected,” said Bretner, one of the captains along with Sam Eichberg. “I saw from the beginning we were going to have a good team, but over the course of the year we’ve gotten better.” Of all the wins, there’s little doubt the victory against Churchill was the most important to date, but both players and coach know they’ll likely see the Bulldogs again before season’s end. And while that blowout inspired a confidence among the group, Evans believes the experience his team stands to learn the most from this year was the 8-2 loss to Landon. Now with the mentality that they can hang with any team in the league, the Patriots will round out the schedule with Richard Montgomery and Sherwood before the playoffs begin and bring with them hopes for the program’s third title in seven years. “It’d be great to win a title,” Bretner said. “I can’t even describe what that would be like, but we’ve had a great year and we’re looking forward to winning it all.”