Four FishEye Wrestlers Earn All-American Status

In just its third year, Granby’s FishEye Wrestling Team is achieving some noteworthy accomplishments.

Last month, the team had four wrestlers earn All-American status - top four in their respective weight classes - at the Pop & Flo Mini-Men National Wrestling Championships in Schenectady, N.Y.

KJ Fernandes of Simsbury placed fourth at 119lbs; Miguel Gonzalez of Granby placed third at 93; Xavier Gonzalez of Granby placed fourth at 78; and newcomer Hunter Adams of Suffield placed second at 78.

The tournament featured wrestlers from 16 states; for the team to return four All-Americans is quite an impressive feat considering that Connecticut isn’t considered a hotbed of wrestling.

“It’s huge,” FishEye head coach Jeff Fernandes said. “There’s not a lot of All-Americans in Connecticut. [The wrestlers] did an unbelievable job. It was a great tournament.”

While they all did well, the big surprise was Adams, a 9-year-old who only started wrestling in December.

“He’s not the most technical kid, but he’s not afraid of anybody,” Jeff Fernandes said. “He lost 9-8 in the finals on a real bad call.”

Pop & Flo is just one in several successful performances at big tournaments for FishEye.

In February, 22 of the 26 team members qualified (top 16 in their respective weight classes) for the state championships.

Logan Fleming and Miguel Gonzalez both placed second in their weight classes; Cooper Fleming, Adams and Spencer Clark placed third; Ryan Finn and Hunter Fleming placed fourth and Ty Finn, Sammy Bergin and Xavier Gonzalez placed fifth.

In March, Addison Wilkey placed second at the Connecticut girls state championships and won the New England girls championships.

For the boys at New Englands, Cooper Fleming and Miguel Gonzalez placed second; Spencer Clark, Adams and Hunter Fleming placed third; Xavier Gonzalez and Logan Fleming placed fourth and Ty Finn placed fifth.

Still, despite the success, Jeff Fernandes, who wrestled in college at Western New England, is loath to take any credit for it.

“These guys work hard; I just sit around and yell at them,” he said with a laugh before turning serious. “My goal is to make them wrestlers. If you want to be a champion, then let’s work.”