![Imlay City’s Dominic D’Ambrosio, right, wrestles to a fifth-place finish at 132 pounds in Division 3 last season at Ford Field.](/sites/default/files/2024-02/240207_Imlay_2H.png)
Imlay City's D'Ambrosio: Calm, Cool & Contending for School's 1st Mat Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 7, 2024
Dominic D’Ambrosio’s answer when asked at 5 years old if he wanted to start wrestling was probably a clue for what was to come.
“I remember when my dad asked me if I wanted to wrestle,” D’Ambrosio said. “I think I just said, ‘Sure.’”
It’s not that D’Ambrosio would be nonchalant or aloof when it came to wrestling. He’s quite the opposite, actually. The work he’s put in has him unbeaten at 43-0 as a senior, ranked among the top four at 138 pounds in Division 3, and threatening to become the Spartans’ first Individual Finals champion.
The clue was that D’Ambrosio was going to be calm and cool on the mat, and have a grounded view of the sport off it, which has also helped him reach those heights.
“When I was younger, I got an award for being a cool cucumber – the Cool as a Cucumber award,” he said. “When I lose, I just look at it as I can get better from it. At the end of the day, it’s just a game. It’s serious, the work you put into it, but it’s not so serious. If you lose, you just want to get better. I just like to get the work done.”
To be fair, D’Ambrosio doesn’t do much losing.
He’s dropped just nine matches during his four-year career, compared to 159 wins, and a third of those losses came against Dundee four-time Finals champion Braeden Davis, who is now unbeaten and ranked No. 5 in the country at 125 pounds as a true freshman at Penn State.
D’Ambrosio was 14-0 as a freshman when COVID-19 ended the Spartans’ 2020-21 season short of the postseason. He placed third at the Finals as a sophomore, and fifth as a junior.
He has his eyes on the ultimate prize this year, and for a moment he allowed the thought to get him out of his even-keeled nature. But even that doesn’t last long.
“It would be pretty special,” he said. “I’ve been working hard for it. But, either way, I’m just going to go and leave it all out there.”
D’Ambrosio is the son of Imlay City coach Tony D’Ambrosio, which in some cases could create more pressure. But not this one. And a lot of that could be credited to Tony.
“We always tried to keep the pressure low and just have fun,” said Tony D’Ambrosio, who is in his 10th year at the helm in Imlay City. “We just focus on getting better. He’s always just wrestled. It’s just how he is. Dominic doesn’t even look at the brackets. He doesn’t find out who he’s wrestling until he shakes hands.”
What happens after they shake hands isn’t what one would expect from someone who could win that same Cool as a Cucumber award every year.
D’Ambrosio’s matches typically don’t last long. Of his 159 wins, 105 have come by pin, including all three of his wins at the 2023 Individual Finals. As a junior, he set the school pin record at 41. This season, 32 of his 43 wins have been by pinfall.
Just four of his matches have gone beyond the first period this season, and only two of those have gone the distance.
“This year, he’s really been turning it all on,” Tony D’Ambrosio said. “He didn’t start pinning a lot until later on into middle school and high school. It’s just basic stuff, not anything fancy. He’s a nice kid, but when he’s on the mat, he’s going to turn you over.”
Dominic isn’t a thrower, and his pins aren’t the result of catching an opponent in anything fluky. He’s just meticulous, and able to take advantage of any opening he’s given.
“I’m (working on a half Nelson) 100 times, 200 times during the week, so I’ll be able to hit it during the weekend,” he said. “If I got somebody’s head, nobody is getting out of it. I can just flow really well into a pinning sequence.”
As he pins his way through the season, D’Ambrosio is racking up awards. He’s been named Most Valuable Wrestler at four tournaments bouncing between 138 and 144, and at one point found himself ranked No. 1 by Michigan Grappler at 138.
As you would expect, he hasn’t allowed that to get to his head, and as his father puts it, “the only ranking that matters is the podium.”
With District tournaments this week, D’Ambrosio now can focus 100 percent of his efforts on getting to the top of that podium. But don’t expect the pressure to mount in his house or on the mat.
“It would be special,” Tony D’Ambrosio said. “But, again, as long as he goes out there and just does what he does, and does his best – it’s kind of like the NCAAs, you have to have a good weekend. It doesn’t dictate who you are. It would be awesome, and it’s a great goal to have. It would be a great goal to accomplish and be the first (from Imlay City). But wherever he ends up, I’m going to be proud of what he’s done.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Imlay City’s Dominic D’Ambrosio, right, wrestles to a fifth-place finish at 132 pounds in Division 3 last season at Ford Field. (Middle) D’Ambrosio, right, takes to the mat during his early years in the sport. (Below) D’Ambrosio, right, works to pin an opponent. (Top photo by High School Sports Scene; other photos courtesy of the D’Ambrosio family.)
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Rep Council Wrap-Up: Spring 2021
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 6, 2021
The addition of a girls division to the Individual Wrestling Tournament series and approval of a common start date for all Fall sports highlighted actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Spring Meeting on May 3.
The Spring Meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association’s more than 1,500 member schools is generally the busiest of its sessions each year. The Council considered 19 committee proposals and dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, postseason tournament and operational issues.
Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, a championship division for female competitors who participate on MHSAA member school teams will be added to the Individual Wrestling Tournament series. There will be 14 champions awarded, based on weight classes established by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Qualifiers will be determined via a sectional format, and girls will continue to compete on boys teams during regular-season and team tournament competition; girls also may choose to compete in the boys individual tournament instead of the girls bracket. A total of 401 girls competed in wrestling for MHSAA member schools during the 2019-20 school year, up from 250 in 2017-18 and then 327 in 2018-19. The girls division proposal had been put forth by the MHSAA Wrestling Committee.
The Council also voted to move the start of all Fall sports practices to the same day. Those sports now may begin on the 16th Monday before Thanksgiving. Previously, football started on a Monday and all other sports began Wednesday. For the upcoming school year, the Fall sports start date is Aug. 9, 2021.
As it has during most meetings over the 2020-21 school year, the Council continued to discuss possible adjustments because of the COVID-19 pandemic and disruption it has caused to Michigan high school athletics. Notably, the Council approved an extension of the waiver of the previous academic record regulation for sports played in Fall 2021. This is the third extension of the waiver. The previous academic record regulation requires participants to have received credit for at least 66 percent of a full credit load during the previous semester. As COVID-19 has resulted in various academic scheduling adjustments, schools will continue to determine if athletes have met the credit level necessary to be eligible for athletics this fall.
The Council also made permanent the allowance for cooperative programs in nine sports among schools of the same public school district regardless of the 3,500-student enrollment maximum. Those co-op programs were first allowed as part of a two-year experiment beginning with the 2016-17 school year to increase possibilities for participation in those sports – baseball, bowling, girls competitive cheer, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis and wrestling. Schools taking part in these co-op programs must continue to show a demonstrated history of inadequate numbers of participants and apply for renewal every two years.
Here is a summary of other notable actions taken by the Representative Council at the Spring Meeting, which will take effect during the 2021-22 school year:
Athletic Equity
• The Council approved an Athletic Equity Committee recommendation to publish the following statement to suggest to local schools that they review nicknames and school logos that are considered offensive or hurtful to minority groups or demonstrate an insensitive bias:
“The MHSAA recognizes the importance of equity in high school sports. Schools and mascots are rich in tradition and unique to each community. Although we understand the tradition of those individual communities, we also wish to support and foster an environment of inclusion. It is in this spirit that the MHSAA encourages member schools and communities to evaluate and reconsider names and mascots that may be offensive to groups of individuals.”
Officials
• The Council approved an Officials Review Committee recommendation to adjust the officials rating system with the hope of encouraging more ratings and providing a more specific understanding of an official’s overall body of work. Instead of the current overall 1-5 rating system, officials will receive specific feedback in four categories: judgment, presence and demeanor, attitude and effort, and administration and communication.
Sport Matters
• In bowling, the Council approved a Bowling Committee recommendation to adopt the Phantom oil pattern for the 2021-22 season.
• In competitive cheer, the Council approved a Girls Competitive Cheer Committee recommendation to study a new choreography chart that will award points based on a variety of skills while also awarding a range of points to benefit both small and large teams which have various skill levels.
• Also in cheer, the Council approved a pair of Committee technical recommendations; the first allows for a connected tumbling skill to be considered a new variety point for Round 3, and the second allows four difficulty points for a one-leg flair at the elevator level for middle school competition.
• In golf, the Council approved the Golf Committee recommendation to require the use of the iWanamaker scoring program and app during the regular season, beginning in Fall 2021. The program and app became required during Regional and Finals play during the Fall 2020 season.
• In softball, the Council approved a Girls Softball Committee recommendation to add a suspended game policy to MHSAA playing rule adoptions in the MHSAA Handbook. This policy – which mirrors that approved for baseball in 2020 – provides a game will be suspended any time it is called before it reaches regulation, or if called any time when the score is tied.
• In tennis, the Council approved a Tennis Committee recommendation regarding instances when a seeded player withdraws from Regional or Finals competition before the first match is played. In those instances, the players seeded lower in that flight than the player who withdrew will move up one seed and be placed on the previously-determined lines for those seeds within the flight bracket. However, non-seeded players already drawn into the bracket will not be moved.
• Also in wrestling, the Council approved a late-arrival skin check on days – especially during weekends – when teams may be competing in multiple regular-season duals. An athlete who misses the scheduled morning skin check may, with coach’s notification to the official beforehand, receive a skin check upon later arrival to the event but prior to the start of the dual in which the wrestler may compete. This will allow an individual the opportunity to participate if that wrestler missed the scheduled morning inspection due to educational reasons or unforeseen circumstances.
The Council also discussed possible topics for presentation during this fall’s Update Meeting statewide tour, and took action to clarify Handbook language regarding a variety of topics. The Association’s $11.5 million budget for the 2021-22 school year also was approved.
The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.