Brandon Lauer picked up the biggest win of his young coaching career last Tuesday when his River Hill High wrestling team edged Howard County rival, 34-32.
The victory snapped Hammond?s 27-match winning streak against county opponents and gave Lauer an example of how good his young team, which only has five seniors, can be with additional hard work.
Lauer should know. The first-year coach is one of the best wrestlers ever to come out of the state. A three-time state champion who went 111-0 at River Hill before wrestling at West Virginia, Lauer took over at his alma mater this year for his father, Earl, a recent inductee into the Maryland chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
“It?s been an interesting transition,” said Brandon, who coached the junior varsity team last year. “There is a lot of preparation involved, and you are looking at ways of teaching wrestlers at all weight classes.”
Lauer is one of a number of area wrestling coaches who keep the sport as a central part of their families? lives. This also describes Archbishop Curley coach Gregg Kessler, who was a three-time state champion at Owings Mills before wrestling in college at Rider. One of Kessler?s younger brothers, Steve, won four state titles, and another brother, Michael, is currently a sophomore wrestler at Rider.
At Annapolis Area Christian School, coach Jake Palumbo is one of four brothers from his family to participate in the sport. Palumbo?s prep career was derailed due to concussions, but he has done a solid job guiding the Eagles, who are 13-6 overall and went 5-3 in last weekend?s Arundel Duals. He also coaches his younger brother, Adam, who is 28-1 wrestling mainly at 125 pounds this season.
Palumbo got involved with wrestling after seeing how much older brother, Josh, and younger brother, Luke, enjoyed the sport. Luke Palumbo, now 23, is an assistant at Annapolis Area Christian. As a wrestler at the school, Luke won 158 career matches.
“Wrestling is something we always did around the house, just by the nature of being brothers,” said Jake Palumbo, 25. “It?s a sport you can practice anywhere from the basement to the living room since you only need one person to work on moves with.”
