Rich Gildner knows he has to treat all his wrestlers the same, whether or not they are his brother or some freshman just up from middle school.
The Robbinsville High coach did a great job of that over the past four years with his younger brother, but on March 9 his juices were flowing just a little bit more intensely when they were announcing the NJSIAA state championship match-ups for the finals in Atlantic City.
When they got to heavyweight and Tyler Gildner’s name was announced, it was almost a surreal experience for Rich.
“It’s a moment in coaching where you almost don’t’ realize what’s going on,” Rich Gildner said. “As I sat there and watched and listened as they did the introductions, it was one of those moments where I just sat back and enjoyed it. I said to one of my assistants ‘I’m very proud.’”
As well he should have been. Tyler Gildner and teammate Chris Tan became Robbinsville’s first state place-winners (Tan took third at 113), and Tyler became the first in school history to reach the finals. The senior lost 3-0 to Camden’s undefeated (37-0) Andrew Stevens, but that couldn’t detract from Gildner’s remarkable season.
Asked to reflect upon his achievement a week after it occurred, Tyler is happy, but not 100 percent satisfied.
“I wouldn’t call it great happiness, but it’s taken me a couple days to realize what I actually accomplished,” Gildner said. “All these people coming up saying congratulations and saying amazing things. People are making me realize it’s a great accomplishment. But it’s still a disappointment that I couldn’t win the state championship.”
Gildner lost to the feel-good story of the states, as Stevens became Camden’s first state champion at a school that is legendary for its basketball. He and his family had some hard times growing up in Camden after moving from Orlando, and Stevens didn’t even start wrestling until his freshman year.
Writers and news programs were profiling the senior all weekend.
“The atmosphere in the arena, every person, all 10,000 people were cheering for the Camden kid,” Rich said. “I get it, and I’m happy for the kid he won, he probably deserves that attention. But you’ve got a kid on the other side of the mat, too. And the way Tyler handled it was great. After it was over, he hugged Stevens, he hugged his coach. He gave all the credit to Stevens. He talked about other coaches and people who helped him, all with 10,000 people cheering against him.”
Tyler knew they weren’t actually cheering against him, just cheering for Stevens.
“I knew it was the big story, with where he came from and everything,” the wrestler said. “I just wanted to prove people wrong who thought I couldn’t get that far.”
He did that well before the championship bout, posting four straight pins in his matches leading up to the finals.
“It’s kind of funny,” Rich Gildner said. “When the brackets come out and you look at way things are and who each kid has and where they’re seeded, we thought he was in a pretty good spot. But to go down and say I thought he would have been in the finals, that’s kind of crazy.
“I definitely thought he had a good chance to make the podium. Once you saw him outside of the first match, and he got his nerves out, you could kind of tell he was in a zone and he believed he could win. That’s a huge thing. When you have confidence you can step on the mat and beat anybody; nine times out of ten you’re gonna do it.”
That 10th time came against Stevens—again. The two tangled in the Region 7 finals, with Stevens taking a 3-1 victory. The Camden grappler’s strength and athletic ability were too much to overcome for Gildner, who has a football future with a scholarship to Bethune-Cookman College next fall.
“Tyler wrestled his game plan to the best of his ability,” Rich said. “Stevens is a tremendous athlete and unbelievably strong.”
“He’s just an athlete,” echoed Tyler, who finished the season 36-3. “He’s 260 pounds. I think I weighed in at 246 for finals. He’s strong, he moves. He has enough understanding of the sport. He’s just an amazing wrestler.
Tyler said he got to know Stevens off the mat as well.
“Not only is he an amazing wrestler but an amazing person,” he said. “If I was going to lose, I am glad it was to someone like him.”
It is that kind of class that has helped Gildner present Robbinsville’s wrestling program in a positive light.
He began wrestling in seventh grade at Southern Regional Middle School in Manahawkin. Rich Gildner was a state champion at Southern Regional High School in 1998, but Tyler wouldn’t get the chance to do that as he moved to Robbinsville and attended Pond Road in eighth grade.
He had to quickly cut weight in order to wrestle that year, and he went from 240 to 185 in three weeks by just eating a lot of salads and doing a lot of running. His only two losses at Pond Road were to Hopewell Valley’s Mike Markulec, who finished fifth in the state at 220 this year.
From there it was on to Robbinsville, where his brother would also be his coach. Never once did Rich apply the screws that Tyler had to wrestle.
“I kind of let it go, I wanted him to be his own person,” the coach said. “I don’t want to put any pressure on him. I didn’t want to have these goals or expectations of ‘You need to do this or that.’ It was basically just let him feel it out. Is this something he wants to commit to? Is it something he wants to be good at?”
It was something he did indeed want to be good at, thanks indirectly to Rich.
“He won states, and it was something that had always been in the back of my mind, that I have to make it to states,” Tyler said. “Having that image in the back of my head pushed me. I never told him that or anybody else, but that helped me go through and gave me the goal I wanted to meet.”
Both brothers made it abundantly clear there was no more or no less attention paid to Tyler than anyone else.
“In school and in the wrestling room he treated me like any other kid,” Tyler said. “There was no favoritism whatsoever. I was the same person as everybody else. Outside of school it’s different, but not in wrestling.”
Rich admits to one teeny difference.
“The way we talk to kids, the things we make kids do, how they’re going to wrestle or approach matches is basically the same,” the coach said. “The biggest difference for me, is that five minutes before he goes on the mat.
“I do honestly love each and every kid I coach. But there’s a different anxiousness before he steps on the mat. There’s an extra little bit of nerves going on. It’s your brother, it’s your blood, it’s your family.”
Big brother’s pride was at its finest on March 8 when, in the quarterfinals, Tyler pinned St. Peter’s Armond Cox in a match that called for a double celebration. It was Gildner’s 100th career win and it also guaranteed him a spot on the podium as a place-winner.
“It’s funny, I was getting ready for my match and I was looking around the place and I didn’t see any other St. Peter’s kids except for the 220-pounder,” Gildner said. “I thought it was strange I didn’t see the kid I was gonna wrestle, then I look next to me and see this St. Peter’s kid who looks like he’s 205 pounds. I’m thinking ‘This is the kid? I’ll dominate him.’
“But he went out and takes a single. From there I started wrestling very smart and tough and felt like I was man handling him and working my moves, doing what I needed to do. After the match I was ecstatic, getting my 100th win and also getting a state medal.”
His ecstasy turned to surprise when Rich informed him he had just beaten the tournament’s number one seed.
“That opened my eyes a little bit,” Tyler said with a laugh. “Up until the finals I hadn’t looked at a bracket at all. I didn’t want to know where they came from, what their seed was. I just wanted to wrestle.”
Now that Tyler’s wrestling career is over, he made sure to thank his brother, his other coaches and all the alumni who came back to help the Ravens wrestle. He can now look forward to a college football career.
“My goal was to try and get a football scholarship,” he said. “I love wrestling but I knew it would be very difficult to do in college. I love football too and I don’t think the workouts would be as tough. I would still push myself and get to hit people.”
Temple and Rutgers offered Gildner a chance to walk-on and, ironically, Maine offered a partial scholarship. But the coaches at Bethune-Cookman offered a full ride and made an impression. He verbally committed in January and signed on National Letter of Intent day.
With that decision out of the way, Tyler could put his total focus on wrestling, where he notched his first trip to the states after four long years.
“After getting the scholarship he could have said ‘I don’t want to wrestle, I don’t want to get hurt,’” Rich said. “I think it speaks to what kind of character he has. He wanted to be known as a good wrestler, go to AC to make the podium. He went down with that mindset and got his best effort.”
Along with the best state finish in Robbinsville High wrestling history.
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