Story by Darren Cooper / Columnist for the Record Sports Department
ATLANTIC CITY – Garfield High School senior Joshua Ferreira refused to sit back, and now he’s standing tall in the 132-pound quarterfinals at Boardwalk Hall.
Ferreira, who battled injuries the past two years, scored one of the biggest upsets of the night in the second round, beating second seed Bryan Miraglia of Delran, 6-2, with three simple takedowns.
“I was just sticking to the basics, just working my shots and getting into my dumps,” said Ferreira. “I knew he would wrestle defensively, and if he came in, that’s when I would make my move.”
He is Garfield’s first wrestler in the quarterfinals in almost 10 years.
“We knew he was a defensive wrestler, we saw some footage on him and heard some things and we felt we had to score to win,” said Garfield coach Aaron Khan. “I didn’t think we would get three takedowns though, we thought maybe one and we could keep it close, but when we saw how aggressive he was going at him we said go get him.”
Khan has known Ferreira since third grade and was constantly trying to get him to come out to wrestle. Finally, he relented in third grade and started having some early success.
But injuries have hampered his high school career. Ferreira first hurt his back in eighth grade, then aggravated the injury again as a junior. He missed the entire season. Then before this season started, he suffered an unspecified knee injury (wrestlers don’t specify injuries as a rule) and placed sixth at the George Jockish Holiday Festival.
“Once that happens, man, you start thinking about last year, and can I really go and do this,” said Khan. “But he knows this is his last shot. This is huge for him. Finally, he is ready to go and he got ready at the right time.”
“I was confident going into this whole tournament that I feel like I could win the whole thing,” said Ferreira. “I have put in so much hard work because I was out last season, so I have a lot of stuff to make up. I have been working on my shots, top, bottom, everything.”
North Jersey sent 22 wrestlers on to the quarterfinals, not exceptional, but not too shabby. The theme of the night was nothing came easy. Mickey O’Malley of Hasbrouck Heights is the top seed at 170, he survived his round of 16 match with a 1-0 win. Drew Flynn, the top seed at heavyweight for Pompton Lakes, also escaped with a 1-0 win over John High of Bergen Catholic.
