Torres Family, Once Sleepy Hollow Fans Now Face Horsemen Rivals

A Sleepy Hollow Class of 1992 graduate and Mahopac wrestling coach, Juan Torres, said that when his Indians hosted his alma mater this past season – a match that the Headless Horsemen won – it was an emotional one for him.   

Besides coaching against his alma mater, he was also going against his mentor, Sleepy Hollow coach Brian Tompkins, and wrestlers he had coached when he was a volunteer assistant the previous three seasons for the Horsemen.   

As conflicting as that was though, it paled compared to the emotions he went through this spring as his family moved from the Sleepy Hollow school district to the Ossining one.  

That meant his daughter Cassie had to switch schools and pitch twice against Sleepy Hollow's varsity team after pitching previously for the Lady Horsemen. After losing the first meeting 7-1 at Sleepy Hollow, Torres rebounded by beating the Lady Horsemen 4-0 in Ossining as she threw a four-hitter.   

Torre's other daughter, Yesenia, became a member of Ossining's JV team who also played Sleepy Hollow twice.   

"It was tough knowing that my daughters were playing against kids who are lifelong friends, not to mention it was strange looking at the other side of the fence and seeing people myself and my wife are friends with," Torres said.  

What made those meetings more of a twilight-zone experience for Torres is that he coached travel softball with Roger Bucci and Wendell Brand, whose daughters played on this year's Sleepy Hollow team. While coaching travel softball, the trio won two championships in the Westchester/Putnam Baseball Association's softball division and most of those players were on this year's Lady Horsemen squad.   

While its tough to face friends on the field, or the mat, Torres said the transition to Ossining has been a good one for his family.

"My daughters are very happy with the change now thanks to their coaches here at Ossining," Torres said. "I will always bleed Sleepy red but for now I am Ossining maroon and Mahopac blue. My wife got what she wanted. She is a Ossining alumni and me a Sleepy alumni who never thought I would root for Ossining."   

While Torres maybe doing the unthinkable for a Sleepy Hollow graduate and rooting for Ossining, it was those Sleepy Hollow roots that helped him gravitate into coaching. This year, his first year coaching at Mahopac, he had two wrestlers, Justis Flamio and Andy Scopio, qualify for the state tournament with Flamio being a finalist.   

"One thing I learned while wrestling in high school for coach Tompkins was the importance of having a strong work ethic," Torres said. "I also learned a lot from being on a team that had two state champion wrestlers in Juan Garcia, who was a two-time state champion (at 112 and 105 pounds) and his uncle, Carlos Jimenez (98 pounds)."   

Torres, who was a three-time all-league wrestler in high school at 91, 98, 105 and 119 pounds, said that the lessons he learned while wrestling for Tompkins are ones he puts in use when he coaches his Mahopac squad.   

"While coach Tompkins stressed discipline and hard work, he also knew when to let us have fun," Torres said. "He did a great job of balancing when to have fun and when it's time to work and that's something I do now coaching Mahopac."   

Besides learning from Tompkins, another coach Torres learned from was Croton-Harmon coach and Sleepy Hollow graduate Sam Occhipinti. Torres was an assistant for the Tigers during the 1999-2000, '00-'01 and '01-02 seasons.   

"It was good to be working with a fellow Sleepy Hollow graduate," Torres said. What I learned from working with Sam that I do to this day at Mahopac is the importance of being organized. You can't have a strong program unless you are organized yourself."