He felt his wrestlers still were not showing enough intensity, not making enough sacrifices. Morina wanted four key wrestlers on the team to drop to lower weight classes, where he thought they had a better chance of winning. They had refused. Morina believed cutting weight, sacrificing for the team, was an indispensable ingredient in Paulsboro's long record of success - a winning tradition that was a great source of pride to the struggling refinery town. As the guardian of that tradition, Morina expected and needed the sacrifice.
Kids have no intention of going down.
They don't see the importance of going down. They're wrestling for themselves, and that's very frustrating. Morina knew Absegami would be gunning for Paulsboro and its 59-match winning streak. The school, in Galloway Township, near Atlantic City, was the last team to beat Paulsboro in a dual meet, in January 1998. Its coach, Gene Barber, wrestled for Paulsboro in the 1960s.