The Parkland Trojan 2021 wrestling season is history and you could say it was an accomplishment there was any history made.

That’s because the 2020-2021 campaign had the potential to be quite maddening, quite demoralizing and - if it really went south - even worse. But the wrestlers focused on what they could control, which was becoming a better wrestling team.

“All in all, it was a great season for Parkland wrestling,” said coach Jon Trenge. “Despite COVID, we made huge gains and will be in a much more competitive standing next season.”

The Trojans had a 4-2 regular season, bowing to rival Emmaus twice. In the District 11 Class 3A individual wrestling tournament held Feb. 20 and 21 at Parkland High School, the Trojans did not have any wrestlers in the 13 weight classes who were closer than two wins from advancing to the Northeast Regional. This year’s district tourney was a strange bird - only the top three wrestlers in each weight class received a punched ticket.

“I was bummed about the structure of the tournament,” Trenge said. “On any other year, the top six kids place and top five go on to regionals. I understand they had to decrease the number of competitors at regionals so they could only qualify three this year. But I felt that they still should have wrestled the top six and called them district placers.”

Trenge added 2021 will likely be an anomaly where the fifth- and sixth-place matches were not wrestled, meaning they didn’t technically place.

“It is a shame for those kids,” said Trenge. “I still consider them placers at districts.”

While the Trojans did not have the tournament success they would have liked, Trenge offered perspective. For example, last year Parkland’s two top wrestlers placed fifth and sixth and both graduated. This year, the Trojans had four kids in the fifth- and sixth-place rounds and another two were in the top eight.

“When you compare the numbers, we did better at the district tournament than last year,” he said. “Ten out of 13 of our kids outperformed their seeds, which is a good sign.”

The Parkland coaching staff was pleased with the improvements and growth. Cases in point, seniors Edwin Moya (160) and Garrett Fitzgerald (215), who stepped up, each making top six in the district while serving as team leaders in the absence of Luke Yatcilla, who missed the season recovering from knee surgery. Moya’s growth was dramatic. Last year he struggled through a 3-10 campaign. This year, he went 7-4. Fitzgerald had the same 7-4 mark, and improved his winning percentage from ‘19-’20. Add Yatcilla to the mix and the district performance surely would have been even better.

“He would have done really well at 152 this year,” Trenge said enthusiastically. “Fortunately, he crushes it in the classroom and got accepted to all of his desired colleges for architectural engineering. He still came to practice and served as a leader, even though he couldn’t do the workouts. He is a fantastic kid. He is the one kid on our team who really missed out.”

A few other Parkland wrestlers used this year to serve notice they could be monsters next season. Aaron Ciampittiello and Nate Kresge could take it to the next level if they put in the work this offseason. Juan Moya, Blake Dergham, Will Sallit, Mikeal Palmieri, Alex Neely and Adrain Gacek also have the capacity to make life miserable for opponents next winter.

Parkland’s feeder system continues to supply talent. An awesome crew of freshman big guys who didn’t start this year could be primed and ready to rip next year. They include Trey Tremba, Nick Kleckner, Michael Gavrilesku and Ali Wezza. Trenge would like to see them and their classmates commit to technical advancement in the offseason while they lift and train for football. Given this talent infusion, Parkland should have an upswing for the next two years.

That’s in the future and if this year taught the Parkland Trojan wrestling program anything, it’s to be thankful for the moment.