Captains Corner: Wrestling 

After longtime head coach Major John Bourgault ’80, P’09 retired last year, he passed the role to Director of Campus Safety Eric Lundell, who had been serving as an assistant coach since 2017. One of coach Lundell’s first tasks was to oversee the election of a team captain. Senior Declan Matthews ’25 proved to be the right man for the job. We sat down with Declan to get his thoughts on the season so far. 

How many years have you been wrestling at Avon?
“It’s my third year at Avon and third year wrestling. Major got me into it, and I’m glad he did. I really enjoy it.”

What makes you a good captain?
“I’ve learned that when it comes to being a leader, communication is the biggest part, and that’s something I’ve been doing a lot of even in the offseason. During the fall, I was always talking with coach or with the facilities department about getting some mats down to practice, stuff like that.”

What does the role of a wrestling captain entail?
“Be the first one to arrive at practice and set the room up. Then I lead everyone through warmups and then from there just make sure others are doing what they’re supposed to do. At meets, I have to meet with the other teams’ captains and the refs and represent our team. Other than that, just help the coaches with whatever they need.”

How has this season gone so far?
“It’s been going great. We picked up some new wrestlers from the local area. They’ve really helped us improve. We’ve had some really close matches with some of the best teams in New England.”

What are your goals for this season?
“As a team, we want to send a full lineup to Westerns. We just need to keep winning matches, keep working hard in practice, and keep getting better.”

Is there any one match in particular you are most looking forward to?
"Actually the one coming up this Saturday against Belmont Hill and Trinity-Pawling. It's the only match my dad is able to make it down for this year, and it's two good teams so there should be a lot of good wrestling that day."

How does new coach Eric Lundell differ from Major?
“There’s less focus on conditioning and overall fitness. We’re focusing a lot on technique, learning new moves. There were also some big rule changes going into this season, so we’ve had to navigate that as well.”

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