By JIM MACLEAN
All the years of hard work, the memories of last year in the same setting, coming so close and then feeling the pain, Fox Lane senior Alex Berisha knew what he had to do and focused on the task at hand.
Facing overtime, where one move could decide it all with the New York state championship on the line, Berisha was locked in a 1-1 tie taking center stage on the mat in front of thousands of fans at the MVP Arena in Albany. Berisha had been there just last year in the state wrestling finals suffering a heartbreaking 3-1 loss, and he didn’t want to feel that ending again; he had to make his move and make it count.
Berisha set up his shot, made his move and scored the takedown for three points and four back points to finish off an 8-1 victory over Michael Mauro of John Jay/East Fishkill in the 215-pound Division 1 final to claim his title as a New York state champion.
“Now is the time, I felt the shot coming, I saw it, I worked that exact sequence many times, drilled it into my head, and once I got in I knew I was going to take him down, got him on his back and just had to stay focused and win,” Berisha said of his title winning move in overtime. “I was 100 percent motivated by last year — I just didn’t want that to happen again. They raised my hand and that felt so amazing. So much adrenaline, so happy, so proud, I pointed to my family, my friends, my teammates, those are the people who supported me through this whole journey, they’re the reason I’m a state champion.”
He gives them credit, but they were clapping for him because they knew the real reason why he was a state champion. He earned it. From the moment he walked off the mat last year after falling in the state final match he was determined to get back, laser focus every day on his goal to win a state championship.
He earned the No. 1 seed by rolling through the season winning a title at the Eastern States tournament and winning his third-straight Section 1 title. He didn’t lose to an opponent from New York state all season, finishing with a 42-2 overall record.
However, seeds and records don’t mean a thing when you are competing in the state finals. Berisha knew he had to prove it on the mat. He got a bye in the first round, and then scored a 7-4 victory over Landon Lee of Herricks in the second round. In the quarterfinals he won by tech fall over Julani Graham of Middletown by a score of 21-5. He then scored a 6-0 win over Mason Depew of Canandaigua in the semifinals.
That set up the finals showdown against Mauro, a wrestler that Berisha had defeated three times this season, the latest a victory in the Section 1 finals. Facing the same wrestler so many times you get to know their moves, and Mauro was working a defensive strategy, forcing the overtime period where he would have choice and the advantage to try and pull off the upset if it went to the second overtime period. Berisha made sure that didn’t happen and finished it off.
“One of the hardest matches of my life as a coach,” admitted Fox Lane coach Anthony Rodrigues. “There’s pressure being the No. 1 seed and you beat the guy before, but Alex kept his composure and got it done. He is one of the easiest kids I’ve coached. I joke around with him that I just have to get out of his way. He’s like a thoroughbred racehorse and I just have to let him run. I’ve coached a lot of great kids, and now he is a legend, a state champion.”
For Rodrigues, it was a bad sense of déjà vu heading into the finals. Fox Lane has enjoyed a long run as one of the most successful wrestling programs in the state, but the Foxes have had a tough time in the championship round. Since 2009, Fox Lane wrestlers had advanced to the state finals 11 times with the only champion being Anthony’s son, Steven Rodrigues, in 2011.
Fox Lane has had more than 40 Section 1 champions and 35 state place finishers, but Steven Rodrigues was the first in school history to win a state title, and now Berisha is the second.
“Go back 15 years and we’ve had a lot of success, 12 kids in the state finals, and it’s not easy to win that title, out there it’s personal,” Rodrigues said of his program. “It’s getting harder as a coach to handle the losses because we love these kids so much, we see what they do to get here, and when they lose it’s devastating. It was so nerve-wracking, for me it was such a relief when he got that takedown, like an anvil was taken off my shoulders. My phone blew up about 25 former wrestlers texting me, as Harrison Cook said, “the curse is over” and everyone was so happy for Alex. He won that match for a lot of people in the history of our program.”
Berisha was well aware of the Fox Lane history and he says it has inspired him throughout his career to reach this point and break the curse as a state champ.
He first went to Albany as a freshman to watch his older brother Marc in the state tournament for Fox Lane.
“My brother was so excited, so proud of me, he’s definitely motivated me a lot over the years,” Alex said of Marc. “In eighth grade I learned a lot about the history of Fox Lane wrestling and I wanted to be up there with all the greats. That means a lot to me, all those guys who had gotten to the finals, A-Rod said they were all texting him, people from way back, still involved. That’s really special and means a lot to me.”
And coach A-Rod knows what it took for Berisha to get there and stand on top of that podium as a state champ. Rodrigues has seen the work ethic that Berisha put in every day since he first walked into the weight room as a sixth grader.
That work ethic intensified each year for Berisha, and he admits he was more motivated than ever after making it to the finals last year.
“Everything was a build up to states, focus on my main goal, everything I did was with a purpose to help me get better and better. You have to go all in on everything, training, lifting, how you eat. My lifestyle changed for the better and that helped me win a state title. My mom and dad, Fox Lane wrestling, my GPS club wrestling, they all helped me make the jump to get here. You work hard and it pays off, and now I move on to the next chapter of the book.”
Berisha is a good student and will focus on strong academic schools that also have a good wrestling program for college, but for now Rodrigues hopes he can enjoy his accomplishment knowing the hard work paid off and appreciate the experience walking off the mat finishing his Fox Lane career as a state champ.
“I’ve been doing this for 38 years and I never take it for granted, it never gets old. Any time you get to Albany it’s exciting, and Alex is an even better person than he is a wrestler, just a great kid. He’s a good student, he’ll do well in college, and in life he’ll do even better.”