Coach from Jeff Jordan Wrestling Instructs at Sachem

Jesse Leng, a former high school All-American, two-time Ohio State champion and NCAA qualifier at Ohio State recently taught a three-day wrestling camp at Sachem East.

Leng, who is an instructor with Jeff Jordan Wrestling and is an assistant at Graham High in Ohio under Jordan, spent more than 10 hours instructing on technique and fundamentals.

“It coincides with what the coaches here at Sachem already have in place,” he said. “It’s a way for kids to hear from a different voice and it’s the equivalent of a week of wrestling in one weekend to jumpstart the season and get them rolling.”

A handful of top grapplers from Sachem East and North attended the mini-camp to propel themselves ahead of their competition, who Leng said most definitely did not get as hard a workout as they did.

“The No. 1 thing is to outwork everybody,” said Conor O’Hara, a junior at East and three-time all-league wrestler. “If you spend more time on the mats, you’ll get the technique down more.”

O’Hara said Leng brings more of a philosophical approach to the mat, “breaking it down into such simple things.”

“It’s a great opportunity for our wrestlers to see one of the top coaches in the country,” said Sachem East head coach Sean O’Hara. “It really reinforces the things we teach during the year. It gives them an edge to be here in the pre-season getting this amount of work in. It’s a how bad do you want it type weekend. I’m pleased we had a lot of our guys in here, willing to pay the price to get better. We’re trying to get better every day and we made a lot of progress this weekend.”

Others from East like Anthony and Michael Pistone, Jackson Mordente, Mike Rothbaum, Doug Iadanza, and recent Longwood transfer Jake Restreppo, and North’s Frank Napoli, Sean O’Hagan, Mike Falcon, Matt Marino and Frank Blais all took advantage of the extra work on the mat.

“With wrestling you are your own vehicle for success,” said Leng. “You have to fine tune your own skills. Each individual wrestler is responsible for making himself prepare for whatever strengths or weaknesses he needs to work on. The off-season is crucial for gaining ground on those guys who were ahead of you technically, physically, mentally, whatever it is.”