'Unprecedented' Season: Deerfield Wrestling Pins Competition

DEERFIELD, IL — During a typical high school sports year, wrestling takes place throughout the winter months. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020-2021 was anything but typical. Though its season was moved to a modified summer schedule, it was business as usual for Deerfield High School on the wrestling mats.

The Warriors won a 13th consecutive CSL North conference title, a fifth regional title in seven years, along with a number of other individual and team accolades for the storied program.

"This was an unprecedented year. We didn't even know if we could get through it," Deerfield coach Marc Pechter, in his 20th season at the helm, told Patch. "The dedication that these young men demonstrated was incredible. It is tough enough sport without having to deal with a pandemic and to perform as they did was simply amazing."

Among the individual achievements, Deerfield sent eight wrestlers to the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association state tournament, a record for the program. Five were medalists. The previous best was three, which the Warriors have done twice. The five state medalists were seniors Lucas Wittkamp and Rory Perlow, juniors Lucio Morgan and Ben Shvartsman, and sophomore Aiden Cohen.

Perlow (at 132 pounds) and Shvartsman (at 152 pounds) were state runner-ups, another school record.

Renzo Morgan, Stamos Tsakaris and Braeden Wittkamp also competed in the state tournament.

Deerfield took fourth place as a team to be the highest placing public school in the Class 2A State Tournament.

For Pechter and assistant coach Aaron Cohen, who has been with Deerfield for 19 years, the team has grown for a number of reasons.

"The program has had sustained success over the years. I believe we have built a culture that emphasizes doing these the right way," Pechter said. "The Deerfield Wrestling Nation understands that we can have it all. A great community, high grades, and a solid wrestling program. We expect to win."

In addition to success on the mat, Deerfield wrestlers also excelled in the classroom. Seven senior wrestlers earned scholar-athlete award recognition: Andrew Bender, John Flaminio, Vincent Flaminio, Rory Perlow, Sam Reichman, Lucas Wittkamp and Jon Ybarra. Scholar athletes must have at least two years in wrestling, one of those years as a senior, must have either a 3.0 un-weighted or 4.0 weighted semester grade point. to be recognized.

"We [the coaches] have learned a lot together about building from within and not just coaching the physical aspects of the sport, but the mental aspect as well," Pechter said. "We work on training the brain. We were told a long time ago that we could not win in Deerfield, and my competitive nature wanted to prove people wrong in a big way. I think we have done that and plan on continuing it."

DEERFIELD ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTIONS

• 106: Freshmen Luke Reddy
• 113: Freshmen Joey Shaffer
• 120: Freshmen Brady Mills
• 126: Senior Lucas Wittkamp
• 132: Sophomore Renzo Morgan
• 138: Senior Rory Perlow (also receives CSL Sportsmanship Award)
• 145: Junior Lucio Morgan
• 152: Junior Ben Shvartsman
• 160: Junior Stamos Tsakiris
• 170: Junior Braeden Wittkamp
• 182: Sophomore Aiden Cohen

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