While a lot of high school athletes play their respective sport prior to getting to high school, many never even decide on playing sports until they enter their freshman year. One such case is Bellingham’s Joe Townsend. As an incoming freshman to Tri-County Regional Vocational High School, the Bellingham native had never wrestled, but was always intrigued by the sport - it was here he decided to give it a go.
As a first time wrestler, Townsend was dedicated to the Cougar’s Junior Varsity squad, where he recorded 10 wins on the mat in his first season. According to Townsend, the season was nothing special but was definitely one in which he found that he really enjoyed the sport and wanted to continue with it. During his sophomore campaign he moved up to the Varsity team where he wrestled in the heavyweight division at 230 pounds and had a respectable 24 wins and made it to the State Tournament. The very next season as a junior, he recorded 30 wins and finished fourth in the States, and unfortunately, was knocked out with two quick losses in the All State Tournament.
“As a four-year athlete and three -year starter, Joe has had success since his sophomore season,” Tri-County Coach Steve LaPlante said. “Each year he got better because of his hard work and dedication to the sport.”
All that hard work came to fruition this past season as the senior captain went 27-2 during the regular season on the mat and captured his first ever State Championship as a heavyweight, wrestling at 260 pounds. While the run to the title was nothing out of the ordinary, Townsend did go up against some tough opponents, but the end result was definitely worth it.
“I had no real mindset going in; I was just going to wrestle to the best of my ability. There was one particularly tough opponent (Brent Leger from Quabbin) on my way to the Championship, but I was able to squeak out the win (a 3-2 decision),” Townsend said. “Winning the Championship felt strange, it didn’t really set in until the next day, and even then, it wasn’t real as I didn’t expect to win, it was a total surprise to me.”
Although he had just captured his first Division 3 State Championship in just his third year on varsity and fourth year taking part in the sport, the Bellingham wrestler was more impressed with becoming Tri-County’s first ever wrestler to win a State Championship.
Following his run through the States, Townsend participated in the All States where he finished fifth, but was hoping for better.
“Finishing fifth is not all that bad in my first All State appearance, but I would have liked to have gotten third or fourth,” he said. “I was confident going in and felt great, but after being involved in a real tough match, I just ran out of gas. (Townsend took 5:19 before he pinned Algonquin’s Joe Vencile and then lost a 13-9 decision to Billerica’s Ryan Higgens).”
Culminating his senior season with an overall 38-6 record and posting close to 100 wins on the mat for the Cougars during his three-year career, very few opponents could say that they were able to pin the Tri-County athlete.
“One of his greatest strengths is that you just can’t pin him,” Coach LaPlante said. “Most heavyweight matches end in a pin, but Joe has only been pinned once in 85 matches and not once this year.”
Townsend is proud of that statistic and tried hard to keep it intact throughout the year.
“That was my main motivation going into this year. I had been pinned the last match of the season last year and was not going to let it happen again,” Townsend said. “When I get on the mat I get a little angry within my mind thinking about that match and just don’t let my opponent get me on my back. There were a couple of times where they did, but I just switched it on and fought through it.”
Issue Date:
April, 2017
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