Dom Nania trying to build solid foundation with 1st-year Saint Vincent wrestling team
Share this post:
Dom Nania knows what it’s like to be involved in a wrestling program that is starting from Square One. A decade ago, the Hempfield grad was the first recruit for the wrestling team at Wheeling Jesuit (now Wheeling University).
Nania ranks third on the program’s all-time wins list (98) and still holds the Cardinals’ mark for the fastest pin (10 seconds). He also has the second-fastest pin (13 seconds).
For the past year-and-a-half, Nania has been working on the other end of a fledgling program, building the Saint Vincent team from scratch. The Bearcats had a wrestling team from 1963-75, and, in March 2022, it was announced that the program would return. Nania was hired two months later.
“It’s been a lot of fun, to be honest,” Nania said. “It’s something I’ve been waiting for for a long time. … It’s been really fun seeing the relationships grow and our culture grow a little bit, too, and get to see these guys become best friends.”
Now that the team is well into its inaugural season, Nania can, to a degree, breathe a sigh of relief.
At this point, he can focus his attention on coaching, but in the run-up to this winter, he spent a year feverishly recruiting athletes.
And without much to sell.
At the time Nania was hired, Saint Vincent had no bona fide wrestling facility and no history, save the one that, to a bunch of teenagers, must have seemed ancient. So lacking anything tangible to use as bait, Nania had to sell recruits on the school and his vision for the program.
The result was the current 21-man roster — Nania said he believes a “healthy” number for his roster would be 30-35 — made up mostly of freshmen. The team also has its own space within the campus’ Carey Center now.
“It was just getting guys on campus and showing them what we’re trying to do and showing them who I am,” said Nania, who was an assistant at Seton Hill before being hired by Saint Vincent.
Fortunately for Nania, the Unity campus is located in a high school wrestling hotbed. Westmoreland County and the Alle-Kiski Valley — and Western Pennsylvania in general — routinely produce some of the best wrestlers in the state, if not the nation.
Ten of Nania’s athletes are from Westmoreland County or the A-K Valley. Four more hail from other WPIAL schools.
“When we recruit, I don’t have to drive more than 20 or 25 minutes to get a really good wrestling match,” he said. “There’s not a lot of areas where you can say that. Between Powerade and WPIALs, and even our section tournaments are incredibly difficult.
“On the flipside of it, everyone recruits here. Penn State recruits here. Oklahoma State. Iowa is recruiting here. They’re stealing the top talent, then everyone is fighting for the remaining guys, and those remaining guys are still really good. It’s nice to have that.”
Nania has seen plenty of good from his athletes in the early going. After finishing seventh of nine teams in their first tournament at Adrian, the Bearcats placed 10th of 20 teams at the Washington & Jefferson Invitational.
Chase Brandebura (165), a freshman from Carlynton, and Sean Cain (125, freshman, Mt. Pleasant) had four-win days for Saint Vincent.
Brandebura and Cain are among the wrestlers who have stood out. Beth-Center grad Tyler Debnar (141/149) has eight wins through the Dec. 17 tournament at Division III power Wartburg in Las Vegas. Kiski Area grad Ryan Klingensmith (125/133) leads the team with nine wins and also earned a Presidents’ Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Week award for his 20-3 tech fall victory against Penn State Behrend.
Then there’s Jake Beistel, one of only two seniors on the roster. The heavyweight from Southmoreland returned to wrestling after a nearly two-year hiatus to help Nania build the program. Beistel was coached by Nania at Seton Hill.
“I strategically did not name him a captain this year because guys are going to flock to him as a leader anyway,” Nania said. “They look to him for advice as an older guy … and he’s that voice in our locker room that I need.
“I think it’s a big reason he came here. He wants to leave his mark and continue to make a name for himself.”
Beistel, whose college odyssey began in 2016 — when most of his current teammates were starting middle school — as a football player at St. Francis (Pa.), has been more than a figurehead. He has contributed five victories.
But his intangibles, Nania said, are vitally important to his group of young college wrestlers.
“I really enjoy it,” Beistel said. “That’s something that me and Dom talked about when I was deciding on if I was going to come back. … I like to think that I’m setting a good example for them, especially in the room and how we act whether we win or lose and how we act at tournaments.
“I’m an open book with them. They know they can talk to me about whatever they need.”
There remains plenty to navigate in this maiden season for the Bearcats. Practices started in September, and, Nania said, several of his wrestlers already have remarked about how long the season has been. “This is a whole high school season already,” he said, has been a familiar refrain.
When the team returns to action after the holiday break, there are still nearly two months of matches to go. Though Nania said it would be nice to have a couple of his wrestlers do well at the PAC championships, wins and losses are not his main concern.
Right now, he wants to lay a solid foundation for the program, and, once that happens, he said, results will become more important.
“I think Year 1 and 2 is really just getting the numbers and make sure we’re bringing in solid people and solid kids who are bought into what we’re doing,” he said. “And we’re going to lose some (athletes) here and there due to grades and falling out of love with (wrestling) at times. That just happens with college wrestling.
“Five years from now, I hope we’re making some noise on the national level and people know who Saint Vincent is.”