Notre Dame High School senior Stefanos Karpontinis, a Lawrence resident, finished his wrestling season by winning his first Mercer County and District 17 tournament titles and finished second in Region 5.
Stefanos Karpontinis was bored one day as a seventh grade student at Lawrence Middle School. A buddy of his had some advice.
“It was right after the Pop Warner football season with the Lawrence Lightning, and my friend said ‘You’re a really big dude, you should go out for the wrestling team,’” Karpontinis said, laughing at the recollection. “He didn’t wrestle, he just made a mere suggestion.”
Karpontinis decided to act on the suggestion and promptly fractured his wrist during the third pre-season practice. He ended up wrestling a few matches, but it was overall a wasted first year in the sport.
Fortunately for the Notre Dame wrestling team, Karpontinis did not let that discourage him. As a senior this year, he came within one match of being a 285-pound place-winner at the NJSIAA State Championships in Atlantic City March 6-8. That’s not too shabby, considering his main sport is football, which he will play for Division I St. Francis (Pa.) next fall.
“For him to be able to find time to put that much work into two sports, it’s pretty special,” Irish coach Andrew Roberto said. “He deserved everything he got this year. He won counties and districts for the first time, he fell a little short of placing at the states, he wanted to be on that podium. But everybody’s tough down at the state tournament. He was a little disappointed, but it’s OK to fall short. Overall it was an awesome year. He got to enjoy a lot of success as an individual.”
And to think it almost didn’t happen. After his seventh-grade fiasco, Karpontinis wasn’t too anxious to get back on the mat. But a few other friends also informed him that he could do really well in wrestling due to his size.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t really know,’” Karpontinis said. “I was doing great in football, I knew at that time I was going to Notre Dame to play football.”
Karpontinis’s father, Tony, also encouraged him to wrestle, much like Tony’s brother Stav. That became the deciding factor.
“I wanted to be like my uncle, and follow in his footsteps,” Karpontinis said. “So I went out, and I was undefeated in eighth grade.”
Because of that success, he decided to continue wrestling at Notre Dame, but admitted had he bombed during his last year of middle school, that would have been it.
“I don’t think I would have pushed myself the next year,” he said. “It really takes a lot out of you mentally.”
When he arrived at ND, his coaches told him he would probably get two wins as a freshman, and he ended up getting 18. His first match came against his hometown school of Lawrence.
“The coach was sitting me out because it was my first time on varsity and he was nervous about it,” Karpontinis said. “I pushed him to put me out there. He put me in against Lawrence and we needed six points or we would have lost a match. I was wrestling a senior, I can’t remember his name, but I was very crazy my freshman year and very aggressive. I ended up winning that match and winning for my team. And my freshman year ended up being pretty good.”
As a sophomore, Karpontinis amassed over 20 wins, won the Hunterdon Central Tournament, took third in the Mercer County Tournament and finished second in districts. He admitted to being “a little timid” during his first trip to regions and lost in his first match.
The progress continued his junior year, as Karpontinis went 30-7, finished third in the MCT and second in districts and regions to qualify for states. It was his first season under Roberto.
“He cleaned a lot of things up,” the coach said. “He went to a lot of wrestling clubs his junior and senior year. We worked with him but he really came a long way from what I was told, in the way he wrestled and just in terms of his maturity.”
In making his first state appearance, Stefanos pinned in his first match, but lost by disqualification and was then pinned. He embraced the experience, though, and used it to motivate himself.
“I stayed for the finals just to see the pressure of being in a super huge stadium,” Karpontinis said. “It’s like the Coliseum in there, just you and the other guy fighting with a bunch of spectators watching.”
Despite having to prepare for football, Stefanos continued to work at a wrestling club in Lakewood, and the hard work played itself out in an outstanding senior season. Karpontinis went 29-3, won his first Mercer County and District 17 tournament titles and finished second in Region 5 for the second straight year. He fell to Sayreville’s Anthony Porcaro, 3-1, in the finals for his first loss of the season.
“Getting those two titles actually meant a lot to me,” he said. “I’d been really pushing for those two titles since my freshman year, I don’t like to lose. I hate losing. So getting those two titles, it was an amazing feeling. I just remembered being so focused and wanting it so bad and I got it. When I got to the finals in regions, I just wasn’t all there. My head just wasn’t there that day.”
Then came the states, and another unfortunate incident. After pinning his first opponent, Karpontinis was winning 3-0 but lost by disqualification for the second straight year when he was called for a head butt. And while Roberto was willing to concede the 2014 DQ, he didn’t feel the same way about this one.
“To say it was questionable is being nice,” the coach said. “They’re heavyweights, they weigh 270 pounds going at each other, they can get physical in there and all that. I don’t know if it was the way he went in for a tie-up, but it was totally unintentional. I know people will look at it and say ‘Oh look, he’s at it again, another DQ.’ But Stef is not that kind of kid. He’s come a long way in terms of maturity. He made a total 180 from last year, just the way he carried himself in the room, everything. It’s really a shame, I think he could have done some damage.”
He actually did a little more damage, as he rebounded from the disappointment to win two more matches before falling one short of being a place winner.
And while it marked the end of his wrestling career, it was also the beginning of some well-earned rest for the big guy. He has been training since the eighth grade, and it intensified when he became a two-sport athlete. During football season, he would attend school, go to practice and then head to his wrestling club twice a week before coming home to start on homework.
“You want to keep that wrestling mentality throughout the year,” he said. “You never want to go into a season like it’s a fresh start.”
Now that it’s over, Karpontinis will continue going to his club just for the enjoyment, but his football career is his main focus. He will play defensive line at St. Francis, a school he fell in love with upon his initial visit.
But in mid-March, he treated himself to a rare week of doing nothing.
“I’m actually just chilling out, hanging with friends,” he said. “I decided to take a week off just to let my body rest. My schedule is very tight between school work and training. You don’t get to see your friends a lot. It’s a lot of sacrifice.
“But,” he added, “if I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it.”
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