Varsity Wrestling

Team Overview

Philosophy

The Trinity-Pawling School wrestling program is one of the strongest in New England, year after year. One of the program’s strengths has been the consistency and expertise of the dedicated coaching staff. Our coaches focus on hard work, discipline, sportsmanship, and building character. While Trinity-Pawling does have seasoned wrestlers with prior experience before joining the team, we are also proud of our wrestlers — including many who become champions at all levels — who had never competed in the sport before walking into the Trinity-Pawling wrestling room.

League

The Pride competes against the top teams in New England throughout its dual meet season. Our success against New England teams is unmatched — we have amassed an outstanding dual meet record over the last ten years. The Pride has placed in the top five in New England the last three years, which included six New England finalists. The Pride has won seven Western New England titles, a New England team title in 2005, and produced numerous Western New England Champions over the years. We have also produced several national place-winners, including Paul Mancuso ’06, Khaleed Exum-Strong ’16, Jeff Thompson ’17, and Bim Gecaj ’18.

Facilities

McGraw Pavilion: Home to the Pride wrestling team. A 5,000 square foot wrestling room, named in honor of Peter Schuyler McGraw ’72
Smith Field House: Opened in 2017
Schreiber Weight Room: Renovated in 2014
Pride Locker Room: Renovated in 2013

Questions regarding the Pride wrestling program? Contact either Head Coach Bill Dunham or Coach Ralph Fedele ’04.

Meet the Coaches

About The Coaches

Head Coach Bill Dunham arrived at Trinity-Pawling in 1993 after serving as head wrestling coach at Canterbury School for eight years. He assisted Dave Coratti for many years before becoming co-head coach and then taking the program over in 2002. In that span of time, the Pride has crowned 39 individual Western New England Champions (the most of any team since 2002), 9 individual New England Champions, and 10 All-Americans. Coach Dunham has also served as an officer of the Western New England Wrestling Coaches’ Association for the majority of his 26-year coaching career.
Coach Ralph Fedele ’04 wrestled for Trinity-Pawling under Coach Coratti and Coach Dunham. He won several Western New England titles and a New England title, and went on to wrestle for four years at Trinity College. Since returning to the faculty in 2014, Coach Fedele has enjoyed great success with the team, including eleven Western New England champions, three All-Americans, and seven New England Finalists (1 champion).
Coach Slade Mead is Trinity-Pawling's Director of College Placement and serves as Assistant Coach for the wrestling program. In addition to his fine career as a wrestler at Taft, Coach Mead served as an assistant coach on several championship teams at Avon Old Farms and most recently, coached high school wrestling in Arizona.

Meet the Players