Former Portland High wrestling coach Tony Napolitano will be inducted into the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame on Saturday at Mast Landing Brewing Company in Freeport, beginning at 2 p.m.
The classes of 2021 and 2022 will be honored together. The 2021 inductees were Mt. Ararat/Brunswick Coach Erick Jensen and former Sanford Coach Dick Faulkner.
Napolitano and Travis Spencer, a four-time Class B champion at Belfast and the MAWA Wrestler of the Year in 2009, are the 2022 selections.
“It’s very humbling and it means a lot,” Napolitano said. “I really care a ton about wrestling. I think it’s really good for kids and it’s humbling to think that some of my peers have recognized some of the things I’ve done.”
Napolitano, 50, a South Portland resident, finished up a 20-year career as Portland High’s varsity wrestling coach this past season. The last several years, the team has been a co-operative with South Portland.
A former state champion wrestler at Portland, where he graduated in 1990, Napolitano took over the program while completing his college degree at the University of Southern Maine. Prior to that he wrestled for two years at West Point. During a two-year duty in the U.S. Army, Napolitano was a member of the All-Army wrestling team.
While coaching at Portland, Napolitano started and coached the Portland Youth Wrestling program and the Greco-Roman style Casco Bay Elite, and also started the International Wrestling Exchange.
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