WATERBORO — Joe Eon won four individual Class A wrestling championships at Massabesic from 2006-09 and helped the Mustangs win back-to-back team titles in 2007 and 2008.
In his first season as the Mustangs’ head coach Eon, 32, led the team to the Class A Dual Meet championship.
So he knows a bit about winning.
That’s probably why for Eon, and especially his veteran wrestlers, there is a niggling feeling that Massabesic left something on the table last season.
Instead of winning their first Class A team title since 2008, the Mustangs finished second to Noble – Massabesic’s seventh runner-up finish since its last title.
“I think the guys know we had a lot more potential last year and we didn’t wrestle to our capabilities at the end of the season,” Eon said. “That was last year. I want to move forward.”
Jack Harriman, a senior, said it’s time to reverse a trend and reach peak form at the right time.
“We messed it all up at regionals,” Harriman said. “We had some key kids who definitely should have qualified for states that, due to injuries or technical things, couldn’t go to states, and that definitely hurt.”
The most important thing at a regional meet is to place as many wrestlers as possible in the top four of their weight class, thus qualifying for the state meet. Massabesic advanced seven wrestlers. Those seven performed exceptionally well at the state meet. Massabesic had more finalists than Noble (4 to 3), and both teams had six wrestlers place. But Noble, with nine wrestlers, won more bouts and had twice as many pins (12 to 6) at the state meet, finishing with a 110-89 advantage.
One change this year for all wrestling teams in Maine are slight tweaks to the middle and heavier weight classes, to stay aligned with the other New England states. The first six classes, from 106 to 138 pounds, remain unchanged. From that point, the changes are relatively minor. The next weight will be 144 instead of 145, followed by 150 (was 152), 157 (160), 165 (170), 175 (182), 190 (195) and 215 (220). The heavyweight class still has a max weight of 285.
Massabesic has the pieces for a title run, starting with seniors Dominick Bubar, Harriman, Isaac Boulard and Austin DeWitt, and two-time state runner-up Nicholas Chenard, a junior.
A year ago, Bubar won the 160-pound state title and went on to place sixth at the New England championships. He’ll likely wrestle at 165 this year. Harriman, at 145, and Chenard, at 120, both placed second. Boulard was a state runner-up as a sophomore at 106 and figures to be among Class A’s best at 113.
“We need the guys to step up. This year, they understand what we need. We need to work harder so we can actually win the team states and come back all happy like we wanted to last year,” Bubar said. “It didn’t happen, so we’ve all got our goals this year to push each other and walk away from states celebrating.”
DeWitt was third at 113 pounds last season while wrestling for Biddeford/Thornton. He wrestled in the Massabesic youth program before moving to Arundel in sixth grade, and is glad to be back with his original wrestling buddies.
“The coaching staff is amazing. I mean, you’ve got Joey Eon, four-time state champion. You’ve got Leo (Amabile, an assistant coach), a state champion and 100-win wrestler. You’ve got talent on talent,” DeWitt said. “Everyone here has been wrestling for so long. It’s the same crew from when I started wrestling at 5 years old.”
This season has started well. Massabesic, strongest from 106 through 165 pounds, showed its overall depth by winning a preseason dual meet tournament at Oxford Hills. This past weekend, the Mustangs finished third at the Jarvis Memorial tournament in Athens, Pennsylvania. DeWitt, Harriman and Bubar won their weight classes, freshman Evan Boulard, who will be in the 126-pound slot, placed second, and Isaac Boulard was third.
Harriman agreed that Eon has brought a renewed energy to the program – a “change of brand” as he called it.
“We look up to him quite a bit, so that helps,” Harriman said. “It’s just the discipline factor and the will to win. Like there’s no other option but to win, so that helped the team out quite a bit.”
Eon is also happy to be back with Massabesic, where he wrestled two seasons with his father, Bob Eon, as head coach and the latter two under Rick Desrosiers, who was the Mustangs coach from 2008-22.
Joe Eon wrestled at Norwich University as a freshman and part way through his sophomore season before transferring and finishing his degree at Unity College. From 2010 through 2018, Eon basically stayed away from wrestling. After dedicating himself to the sport from a very young age, he needed a break, he said. An arborist for Central Maine Power who is in charge of managing the utility’s tree work, Eon began to help with the youth program in 2019.
“By taking that eight, nine years off, it kind of reignited that flame, and now I’m ready to give back,” Eon said.
During a recent practice, it was apparent that Eon, who won his titles at 140 and 145 pounds, is glad to be back on the mat – and is still a formidable opponent.
“I’m still young enough to roll around with them, in 30-second goes,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not going six minutes. Those days are behind me. I just want to give back and spread my knowledge, and what better place to do it than the school where I wrestled?”
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