Ryan Gerondel is an Old School Athlete

Three-sport athletes are a dying breed. At Sachem there have been multiple young men and women who have strapped on the Red, Black & Gold for every sport season of the calendar year. This year Ryan Gerondel has been the iron man.

The senior Sachem North athlete was a captain on the football team that had its most successful offensive season, captained the wrestling team on his way to a fourth place finish at the New York State tournament and is currently running track in the spring.

To think, Gerondel only started playing football and perform in the wrestling room in seventh grade. He's not a "lifer," who played pee-wee football as long as he could walk. He was just a normal kid who liked physical activity and that love of sport progressed brilliantly over the last six years.

"I like new challenges," he said. "I like changing things up, going from pushing myself in one thing to the next."

Wrestling is his bread and butter sport. He's known as a tough grappler, and his ridiculous 112-17 career record as Sachem will go down as one of the most respectable ever.

What doesn't show in the books and notes about Gerondel is just how he got to the level of being one of the best in New York State. Putting the old adage of hard work aside, it's more about his desire to follow in the footsteps of former Sachem wrestlers. Looking up at the wall in the North wrestling room, eyeing the pictures of former Suffolk County and New York State champions, Gerondel focused on becoming the next great grappler to wear a Black & Gold singlet.

And while he eventually made it to that level and will have his picture on that wall, it wasn't the typical path like many others have walked. He was never one to wrestle year-round like many other champions. For him, "it just clicks," he said.

Everything came together when he won the Suffolk County title by coming from behind with 16 seconds left to beat Kings Park's Mike Delvecchio, 9-6, in the 125-pound bout.

"That defined my high school career," he said.

At the state tournament, Gerondel lost in the first round and wrestled back to place fourth – a difficult task considering the talent pool.

"He's a phenomenal wrestler who everyone overlooked even after he won the counties," said Ray Pickersgill, North's wrestling coach who recently announced he is stepping down from the position. "He looked great in the states only losing two matches to the absolute best kids in the state, in between the two losses he won four straight matches. He was the only wrestler in the tournament to lose in the first round and place as high as fourth."

As for football, Gerondel will always remember his key interception against Connetquot last season. He jumped a route to surprise everyone - especially Thunderbirds quarterback Ryan Anderson. He ran the ball back to Connetquot's 1-yard line. He had solid field vision and worked as hard as anyone during practice to get to the level of intercepting passes against a team like Connetquot, who came into that game as the defending Class I Long Island champions.

North football coach Dave Falco is cognizant of Gerondel's leadership approach and has always preached that multi-sport athletes are good for the district's athletic program.

"Ryan is a perfect example of how kids can achieve success in multiple sports and also have success in the classroom," said Falco, who noted that this year Gerondel was named North's National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete. "I believe because of Ryan's participation in the wrestling and football programs at North he is better equipped to be successful in college and beyond."

As the sun sets on his athletic and high school career at Sachem, things are looking bright for his future at Binghamton, where he'll wrestle next year for a program that was ranked in the top-25 this season.

Why wrestle there? Aside from the high academic standing of the SUNY school, Binghamton presents a familiar characteristic for Gerondel ... being the underdog.

"They're a rising team in wrestling, coming out of nowhere," he said. "No one thought much of me and no one thinks much of Binghamton right now. No one thought I could do all the things I'd did, so Binghamton seems like a good fit."

This spring he's been fine-tuning certain wrestling moves to perfect his game on the mat. He has also found time to participate with the North track and field team – a first for Gerondel, who used to play baseball until this year. He runs the 100-meter dash, 400-meter dash and is trying the pole vault.

Think about going from one practice to the next: he's grappling in a hot basement, then comes outside to the warmer track to run sprints. If that doesn't speak acres about his dedication to sport, then what does?

"It's not like he comes from a walk in the park," said Ryan Stillufsen, an assistant track coach at North. "He's coming from a hard wrestling practice and comes to track practice to work even harder. To do that, you need great discipline. He likes being put to work."