Wrestling – Jack Trevisan a breakthrough story for Ridgewood

Jack Trevisan a breakthrough story for Ridgewood by Kevin Czerwinski special to The Record

RIDGEWOOD – Colleen Trevisan sat in the top row of the bleachers at Ridgewood High School Saturday afternoon, a baseball cap pulled down over her eyes and her face buried in her hands.

When she clapped, it was with her head down. She allowed herself to look up for just a peek when there was 0:11 remaining in the match between her son, Jack, a senior at Ridgewood, and West Milford’s Anthony Cecere. She saw the final seconds tick off in the 145-pound bout, her son scoring a workmanlike 10-2 victory.

Jack Trevisan would go on to defeat Westwood’s Chris Dugan, 6-1, in similar fashion later in the afternoon, but Colleen Trevisan didn’t see much, if any of that match, either. The nerves and the tension of watching her son compete seem to be too much and that’s too bad because she’s missing one of the better underdog stories on the North Jersey wrestling scene this season.

“It’s a little weird that she doesn’t watch,” Jack Trevisan said with a laugh. “But I go and talk to her after all my matches. She is very superstitious so whatever works for her.”

What’s been working for Jack Trevisan this season is a less analytical approach. While he’s still working as hard as ever, probably harder, he isn’t putting too much pressure on himself, according to Ridgewood coach Torre Watson. It’s made a world of difference and allowed Trevisan to surprise some people, including last month in the BCCA Holiday Tournament, when he reached the 145-pound finals before dropping a 4-3 decision to Mahwah’s Matt Surich.

“Jack has always been a talented wrestler,” Watson said. “He’s not overthinking about his opponent and he’s not forcing anything in his matches. He’s letting things come to him. That’s the main thing I attribute his success to. Last year, I think he pressed a little and he put pressure on himself and over thought things.

“In a sport like this, that tightens you up. Not thinking about it has allowed him to wrestle free and be successful and show more of his potential.”

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Everything seemed to go wrong for Trevisan last year. He said he got off to a bad start because he was rushing his moves in matches and taking an impatient approach.

It didn’t help he that he broke his left hand during a match last January and wound up missing the rest of the season. Trevisan knew he needed a new game plan, so once he got the cast off in the spring, he went right to work, pushing himself physically and mentally. He decided to focus more on the match itself rather than who he would be facing.

That attitude allowed him to win four matches and go from the preliminary round to the finals in the county tournament before running into Surich. It also helped him sweep on Saturday.

“Last year, I was worrying about who I was wrestling, how they did and how they did against people I wrestled,” Trevisan said. “This year I’m not checking on any of that. And I have so much more confidence to go out and wrestle so it’s helped a lot.

“In the counties I came in as nobody. I was in the play-in round. I could have finished better, but I am working harder every day to get there. I had a chip on my shoulder that motivated me in the off-season.”

Trevisan will be attending Lehigh University in the fall and will study finance and perhaps computer science. He’s looking to wrestle club but isn’t ruling out trying to walk onto the school’s team.

Either way, his mom may be there to support him. She just won’t see how he does.