As he has done thousands of times over the last 34 years, Manny Costa will watch from the corner of the mat this weekend, wearing his customary dress shirt and tie, as one of his St. John’s Prep wrestlers looks to achieve greatness.
This will take place Friday and Saturday at the New England Championships in Providence, marking the final time for Costa — the winningest wrestling coach not only in Massachusetts, but New England high school history. The 58-year-old announced earlier in the season that this one would be his last.
Four St. John’s Prep wrestlers — All-State champion Jayden D’Ambrosio (157 pounds), runner-up Alex Bajoras (285), Braedon Goes (120) and Jimmy Lally (138) — will take to the mats looking to return home with a New England crown under Costa’s guidance for the final time.
“I’ve never wanted to chase numbers. It’s always been about the guys,” said Costa, a National Wrestling Hall of Famer whose teams compiled an incredulous 876-149-6 mark in his 34 years with the Eagles, an .853 winning percentage. “This is why I’ve coached all these years.”
The retiring Peabody police officer admitted it was “very hard” knowing the end is now here. For all the success his squads have had, he’s taken just as much pride in teaching them life lessons and how to rise up from adversity following heartbreaking losses.
“This is the sport; someone wins, someone loses,” he said. “That’s why we do it.”
Success, however, has followed Costa and his Prep wrestlers like paparazzi stalk celebrities.
The Eagles won a New England wrestling championship in 2022, All-State titles in 2022 and 2023, and back-to-back-to-back Division 1 state crowns in 2021-22-23. They’ve won a half dozen Division 1 Dual Meet state titles (2013, ’15, ’20, ’21, ’23, ’24) and finished atop the Division 1 mountaintop on eight occasions (2003, ’13, ’14, and from 2020-24).
Then there are the Catholic Conference championships — 29 in 31 official years of the conference, including the last 26 in a row.
St. John’s Prep holds state wrestling records in most consecutive match wins (114), most consecutive Catholic Conference wins (119), most state medalists in one year (10 in 2003), most state qualifiers that same year, and most wins in a single season (38 in 2015). Individually, Eagles legend Ryan Garlitz has the most victories by one wrester (226) in state history.
Staggering would be one word to describe the accolades and titles won by St. John’s Prep wrestlers during Costa’s tenure. Unprecedented and otherworldly would be two others.
To wit:
* There have been three National Champions (Nick Curley in 2021, Tyler Knox in both 2022 and 2023) under Costa’s watch.
* Fifty-three Prep wrestlers have compiled 100 or more career victories.
* Five have won the Best Athlete Award at the Prep; three have been Student-Athlete recipients at the school; and two have been class valedictorians.
* Four grapplers — Nathan Cote, Mike Pedro, Ryan Garlitz and Rawson Iwanicki — were Dave Shultz Award winners, chosen as the Best Wrestler in Massachusetts by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. That’s the most of any school.
* Eight of his wrestlers are St. John’s Prep Hall of Famers (thus far, with many no doubt in the pipeline when they become eligible), and 11 are in the Massachusetts Wrestling Hall of Fame.
* Twenty-four have been chosen as All-Americans; 104 Eagle wrestlers have been named Academic All-Americans.
* When D’Ambrosio won the All-State crown last weekend at Salem High School, he became was Costa’s 20th All-State champion. The others are Kevin Cote (1996), Nathan Cote (1999), Mike Pedro (2000, 2001 and 2002), Ryan Malo (2007), Ryan Harding (2009), TJ Crabtree (2011), Corey Jean-Jacques (2013), Ian Butterbrodt (2013, 2014 and 2015), Hunter Costa (2016), Jay Carnevale (2016), Ryan Garlitz (2019), Tyler Knox (2022), Rawson Iwanicki (2022, 2023), and Alex Schaeublin (2023).
“About midway through the season, my son Jared said to me, ‘Dad, Ben Ring is a legend because he was your first All-State champion. And I’m jealous that someone else is going to be your last … and Jayden took that to heart,” said Costa.
* There been 40 Division 1 state champions: Ben Ring (1992), Doug Alton (1993), Eric Connolly (1995), Kevin Cote (1996), Nathan Cote (1997-98-99), Mike Pedro (1999-2000-01-02), Nathan Rabbit (2000), Jamie Grabowski (2001), David Blais (2003), Kyle Ayer (2004-05), Ryan Malo (2006-07), Mark Grabowski (2007), Ryan Harding (2009), TJ Crabtree (2011), Ian Butterbrodt (2013-14-15), Jared Costa (2014), Hunter Costa (2016), Jay Carnevale (2016), Ryan Garlitz (2017-18-19), Malcolm Mitchell (2017), Adam Schaeublin (2020), Rawson Iwanicki (2020, 2022-23), Alex Schaeublin (2022-23), Tyler Knox (2022), Jack Blizard (2022) and Jayden D’Ambrosio (2024).
* There have been 52 Division 1 North champions to wrestle for Costa wearing the Eagles’ colors.
* Kyle Ayer (2005), Ian Butterbrodt (2015) and Jay Carnevale (2016) have all been nominated for Salem News Student-Athlete of the Year.
* Ryan Malo (2007), Hunter Costa (2016) and Tyner Knox (2022) were chosen as the Moynihan Lumber Male Student-Athlete of the Year.
Now it’s all coming to an end for Costa — and the sport is better off for him having been a huge part of it the last 34 seasons.