Vinny Grippa tends to his own garden, designs cars online and is interested in the business world. He also has a 4.2 weighted GPA at Robbinsville High.
Sounds like he doesn’t have time for much else.
Ah, but he does.
Aside from being a member of RHS’ Agriculture Club, Future Business Leaders of America Club and the Automotive Design Club, Grippa is most well known for his fourth activity. The sophomore returns as one of the dominant lower weights in Colonial Valley Conference wrestling after carving out an impressive freshman season.
Grippa burst on the scene by going 29-9 with 13 pins and seven major decisions. Despite being on the lighter side, he reached the 106-pound finals in the Mercer County and District 21 tournaments and won a match in the Region 6 tournament.
He spent the season weighing in at around 102 but worked in the off-season to add weight, and will go to war at a solid 106 pounds this year.
“Over the summer I was really working hard to get bigger and better and fill out that weight,” Grippa said just prior to the start of the season. “I’ve had to come down to 106 now, which is good. I can definitely feel the difference in taking control more.”
Ravens coach Dan Hughes was happy to see the increase, saying “I think we could call him a full 106-pounder this year.”
That could mean big things for the 10th-grader, who was pretty darn good wrestling around 100 pounds last year.
“I went in with high expectations,” Grippa said. “I knew I’d work hard to be the best wrestler I can be. But I wasn’t expecting to go as far as I went last year. I’m really happy where I got to. I’m only gonna be working harder and striving harder to get to a better place this year.”
After learning valuable lessons in his finals defeats last year, Grippa is setting his sights on the state meet.
“I know his personal goal is to get to Atlantic City,” Hughes said. “We as a coaching staff believe he can not only get there but win some matches. He’s capable of everything.”
Grippa has shown those capabilities for a long time. Born into a wrestling family, his father, Blaise, grappled for Manhattan University. Oldest brother Blaise II was a senior and Vinny’s practice partner last year, while middle brother Nick wrestled for a while before embarking on a successful soccer career.
As a 5-year-old, Grippa climbed the podium for the first time when he took second in the RWA Robbinsville Rumble Pee Wee Division. He continued in the Robbinsville Wrestling Association until middle school, and then wrestled for Pond Road.
“We had a very good wrestling program,” Grippa said. “The coaches at Pond, particularly coach (Sean) Grieg, really prepared us for the high school level and made us tough wrestlers.”
As does Elite Wrestling in Jackson, which Grippa attends twice a week. Elite is run by four-time Division III All-American Steve Rivera, whose son Sebastian is a former Christian Brothers Academy standout who was an Olympic bronze medalist last summer.
“That really helps,” Grippa said. “Steve is a very tough coach. He’s tough on us, he pushes us to get better.”
That toughness showed when Grippa arrived in high school. He opened with a fifth-place finish in the TCNJ Pride tournament, lost to Hopewell’s Dean Meissner in the MCT finals and fell to South Plainfield’s John Barron in the district finals.
“That match was pretty crazy,” Grippa said of the districts. “I’d never been in a big match like that where the crowd’s going crazy. I was getting prepared all season for that.”
At the regionals, Grippa got a first-round win before losing to Barron again, and then losing his consolation bout.
“I wasn’t putting too much pressure on myself for regions,” he said. “I knew I had a great season already. I was just going out there and putting everything on the mat at the end of the season, leaving it all out there. I was just really happy to get that far and have some success.”
Both Grippa and Hughes felt those losses in the finals will only help this season.
“The only way to get that experience is to be in that position,” the coach said. “It’s not the outcome that he wanted last year but you get to come back and hopefully put yourself in a position to be in that same spot again this year and hopefully win a few more matches.”
Grippa added that, “It gets you hungry, angry, determined to work to win that next time in that situation. I’m working on my mindset, my confidence. I don’t think I was confident going into those matches, which could have started my downfall.”
No matter, it was still a solid freshman campaign. Hughes could see immediately that Grippa was poised for a nice year.
“He came in and had big goals and a work ethic that matched those goals,” the coach said. “We just want our kids to come in and work hard and enjoy their teammates. Success comes just by doing the right things.
“Vinny does all the right things. He works hard in the room, he does the extra stuff, he lifts outside of practice, he goes to club outside of practice. Once we saw his work ethic and attitude we knew he would be successful.”
It didn’t hurt having Blaise to work out with. Vinny’s senior brother went 30-4 last year, while taking third in districts and fifth in regions wrestling at 113.
“Immeasurable,” is how Hughes measured Blaise’s impact on Vinny. “It’s his older brother, he looked up to him, they worked out together. Blaise was so tough and so good for our team. Iron sharpens iron. He got the chance to get his hands on Vinny and coach him that whole freshman year and make him tougher. He showed him the ropes of high school. I can’t even tell you how big that year was for them.”
Vinny loved it.
“It was amazing,” he said. “He was pushing me in the room, pushing me to get better, setting a great example for me. It just helped all around.”
On the mat, Gripp likes to be in control. He feels he’s most dangerous at neutral or on top, figuring he can get into his moves most effectively from those spots.
“From our perspective he’s good at every position,” Hughes said. “He’s solid in all three and that’s what makes him so special. When he’s on his feet, he wants to dominate and when he does get a takedown he’s not one to let somebody up. He’s a bull. He’s in your face, he’s always trying to score and put pressure on you. He wants to impose his will on others. When he puts you on your back he wants to find a way to end the match.”
Grippa’s game plan is simple – he just wants to do what he does best. Therefore, he doesn’t worry about scouting his opponent.
“It doesn’t matter who the guy is on paper,” he said. “I’m just putting everything out there on the mat. I like to go out aggressively and attack and do whatever I can to score and win.”
Although he’s just a sophomore, Grippa already has a presence on the Ravens.
“Vin’s a team leader, he’s a real good role model,” Hughes said. “Everybody in the wrestling room can look to him and see he’s always doing the right things.”
And Grippa feels his team could be poised for great things this season, despite graduating some studs.
“I’m excited for what the team is gonna do,” he said. “We lost a very good generation of wrestlers last year. We have a new generation here ready to go out and wrestle. We’ve got some good guys coming back – Alex Messiner, Andrew O’Reilly, Lucas Messinger. We’ve got some tough guys like Tyler Shane, Taylor Adams, Michael Panzer.”
While Grippa prepares for success, he also has the right personality to deal with days when he or the team is not so successful.
“He’s self-described as a cool dude,” Hughes said with a laugh. “He’s very calm, very mellow. He has that calm confidence of just enjoying each day. He likes to show up and do the work. After a big win he doesn’t get too high. After a tough loss he doesn’t get too low. He just continues to put the work in the next day. That mindset serves you well as an athlete. That’s gonna help him when those pressure packed situations show up later in the year.”
Grippa has a way of escaping that pressure, and it comes from his extracurricular activities.
“My dad is in business, Blaise majored in business so I was interested in that and I joined FBLA,” he said. ‘I’m interested in cars, we design cars in the Automotive and Design Club, which I think is really cool. In the Agriculture Club we plant a bunch of stuff. I have a garden at home that I love to take care of, but doing it for school is really fun.”
And while he loves the mental aspect that comes with being a successful wrestler, he also appreciates taking a break from the sport with his hobbies.
“I’m just doing things I love, not worrying about anything else,” he said. “It’s amazing. It takes your mind off of things.”
But when he returns to inside the circle, Grippa’s mind is back on being the best wrestler he can be.
Robbinsville High School sophomore Vinny Grippa, seen above in a recent match, excels both in the classroom and on the Wrestling mat.,
