Cliffside Park enjoying turnaround year by Sean Farrell of The Record
CLIFFSIDE PARK – Marc Cabrera retreated to an unusual spot to watch the last match of the day.
On the bench.
For most of Saturday afternoon, the expressive Cliffside Park wrestling coach stood several feet onto the mat – as animated as almost anyone.
Tilting his shoulders to demonstrate moves. Yelling out tactical advice. Reacting to every win and every loss as if they were his own.
But he took a seat as Naseem Elayan walked into the circle. His top wrestler was about to finish off yet another team win. His work was done.
“I can’t be like that for 13 or 14 kids,” joked Cabrera, in his 19th year with the Red Raiders. “I’d never make it. I started the season with an Afro. Look at me now.”
“He’s something else,” junior Kenny Pena said.
The atmosphere around Cliffside Park has been much different this season. More wrestlers have joined the program. And the wins soon followed. The Red Raiders (14-10) are enjoying one of the most drastic turnarounds in North Jersey after winning just three times a year ago.
“I never saw it coming,” Cabrera said. “There’s no way.”
“We brought this program back,” Elayan said.
A simple numbers game explains the improvement. Cabrera started counting on his fingers when asked how many wrestlers were on the team last season. The program has gone from eight to 15 members in one year. As the roster grew, the number of forfeits started to decrease.
“It’s a full team so to the kids who came out and stuck with it, I’m very thankful,” Cabrera said. “We’re more balanced and have gotten wins from kids we didn’t expect.”
A centerpiece to the Red Raiders lineup over the last few years has been Elayan. The senior, who said he’s undefeated in home matches, finished off that streak Saturday. He defeated Mahwah’s Travis Arata at 145 as his team came away with a 42-27 win. He’s now earned well over 100 victories in his career, only trailing former teammate Nicholas Esposito on Cliffside Park’s all-time wins list.
“It feels great to be on there with a guy who made me who I am,” Elayan said.
Cliffside Park has a few other standouts in Pena, senior Noah Argueta and sophomore Austin Hufnagle. Cabrera said the team’s depth has been helped by adding juniors Victor Armani, Timothy Sayanlar and Hunter Corcoran, who did not wrestle last season. They’ve allowed the Red Raiders to have one of their strongest lineups in recent history.
“It’s just from every day in practice,” Pena said. “We talk together and train together, and we train hard. It was only a matter of time.”
The Red Raiders were a strong wrestling program in the 1980s when Cabrera competed for the team. He was a state finalist in 1982, while the team captured three league championships during the decade. It makes both the victories and the defeats mean twice as much for the longtime coach.
“He cares a lot and not just about the studs on the team, but everyone,” Pena said.
“He sees potential in everybody and makes sure we get to that point,” Elayan added.
Elayan is optimistic that he will leave the program in good hands, and the wins will continue to come even after he’s gone.
“I know that they’re going to be successful,” Elayan said. “They’re going to keep up the hard work that we’ve been doing.”