Community Corner
Building the Town's Future Wrestling Program
East Haven High School Coach Paul Cicarella develops a youth wrestling program with an eye toward advancing the middle school and high school teams.
Wrestling in is a passion for Paul Cicarella.
A former star wrestler, Cicarella has started a youth wrestling program with the help of some friends that he hopes will strength the town’s scholastic wrestling team in the years to come.
It’s also good for the children, who range from age 5 up to middle school. "Wrestling improves your strength, your hand-eye coordination, your balance, your speed and your endurance," he said.
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The youth program is known as Bulldog Cartel Wrestling. It has a web page and a Facebook page. It meets at a facility behind Gold’s Gym in North Haven and children from several area towns are members.
Cicarella, a 2002 East Haven High graduate, was an all-state wrestler and captain of the high school team. He also wrestled for Springfield Technical Community College in Massachusetts.
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After college he worked as a private investigator, then took a position as a corrections officer with the Connecticut Department of Correction.
For awhile he volunteered as a wrestling coach for Guilford High School, until East Haven High, his alma mater, asked him to be the head coach.
To strengthen the high school team, and to meet the demand for a younger wrestling program, he helped start a team at , which is coached by another former East Haven High School wrestler, Lou Rivellini.
Cicarella said he and Rivellini work together so the two teams use the same practice drills. That way the wrestlers are familiar with them when they move up to the high school level, he explained.
Rivellini also helps coach the youth program wrestlers, along with Steve Tarquino, Mike Dincola and Nate Stadig. Tarquino and Dincola are also former East High High wrestlers, while Stadig wrestled for Branford High School.
"The youth program benefits the middle school," Cicarella said.
Now two years old, he estimated that youth program wrestlers from East Haven would reach the Melillo Middle School team in another four to five years.
Currently there are between 20 and 30 youngsters in the youth program, but Cicarella said he wants to expand that to between 40 and 50.
"We’re trying to get the word out," he said.
