Section Six Wrestling Team of the 1980’s

Section Six Wrestling Team of the 1980’s Announced

Falconer Picked Team of the 1980’s

The Falconer Golden Falcons have been selected as the varsity wrestling “Team of the 1980’s” by the “Teams of the Decades” Committee.

Using a wrestling tournament style scoring system, in which points are awarded for finishing in first place, second, third, etc, the committee reviewed the final top ten rankings from the 1980-81 season to the 1989-1990 seasons. Total points were then added up to come up with a list of overall points leaders from one to ten. Unique to the 1980’s team selection was the fact there was no distinction between division one and division two schools in the Section Six rankings until 1988.

The top point total overall for the decade of the 1980’s was Falconer high school. The Golden Falcons had three number one finishes and twice were ranked number two among Section Six schools. Falconer finished with 124 total points followed by Niagara Wheatfield, the Div 1 team of the 1990’s and 2000’s, with 68. Rounding out the remainder of the top ten had Pioneer and Sweet Home finished in a third place tie with 64 points, Clarence and Orchard Park were tied for fifth with 62 points, Iroquois was seventh with 50 points, Tonawanda eighth with 48 points, Maple Grove ninth with 40 points and Roy-Hart tenth with 38 points.

Falconer was coached in the 80’s by the legendary Bill Davenport, a member of the Western New York Coaches Hall of Fame. Plenty of brother acts among Falconer’s outstanding wrestlers of the 1980’s beginning with the Waddington brothers Jeff and Rob, Al and Dan Lindquist, Mark and Dan Baglia and Jim and Marty Schwab. Other outstanding grapplers on the great Falconer teams of the 1980’s were Lynn Jose, Joe Sopak, Troy Lefford, Ray Norton, Tony Milliner, Todd Carson and Brad Spencer.

Falconer will be honored prior to the finals at the Section Six Div II State Qualifier at East Aurora high school Saturday, February 12^th and again at the Section Six Coaches Banquet in March.

The “Teams of the Decades” committee was created in 2009 to research and select the teams of the past six decades and members include Section Six Wrestling Hall of Fame coaches Walt Thurnau (Southwestern), and Dick Lange (Roy-Hart & Newfane). Members also include Niagara County Community College coach Eric Knuutila, an inductee of several national, state and local wrestling Halls of Fame and Bob Koshinski, Chairman of the Ilio DiPaolo Wrestling Scholarship Committee.

The committee will announce the team of the 1970’s just prior to the start of the 2011-12 high school wrestling season in December.