Harrison’s Cole Joseph is an All State Wrestler

Recently, Cole Joseph wrestled in the NYS High School Wrestling Championships in the D2 138 pound weight class.  While Cole was a Harrison CSD student through 8th grade, he moved to Hackley High School.  Cole was the 13th seed.  After winning comfortably in the first round, Cole recorded major upsets in the round of 16 and quarter finals to make it into the semifinals on day 2.    Cole won these matches with dramatic late takedowns and was the lowest seed making it to the semifinals.  Cole thrilled the crowd early in the semifinals taking down the ultimate champion and putting him on his back.  His run ended there, and Cole finished in an impressive 6th place.  

Cole is a 3x NYS Independent School Champion and finished his High School career with a record of 135 – 29 with 98 pins.  Cole was named Con Ed Scholar Athlete of the Week earlier this year and he will join his brother Tyler Joseph (a NYS champion from Harrison High School) on the wrestling team at the University of Chicago. 

What makes this story even sweeter for Cole, is that in October he severely dislocated his knee on the soccer field and while in extreme pain in the back of an ambulance tears ran down his cheeks as he believed this injury would end his final wrestling season before it began.  Cole has been wrestling since he was in kindergarten and always dreamed of being on the medal stand in the State Championships. 

 Cole finished out the soccer season on the sidelines in a full leg brace.  In a bittersweet victory, he cheered on the team that he captained to a victory in the NYS independent school championship game.  He put all his effort into rehab and caught some breaks.  He was back on the mats earlier than anyone expected and wrestling at a high level soon after that.  Cole is very much looking forward to having fun playing lacrosse with his friends in his last few months as a High School student.

Cole credits his amazing support network for his success and especially his brother, coaches and teammates, throughout his career including Vic Arcara, Frank Arcara, Mark Arcara, Vinnie Nicita, Andres Corrales, Mike Skokos, John Laurenzi and especially his High School coaches Fran Stanek and Dan Shaw and his club coach from GPS wrestling Grant Paswell.