Paulsboro’s Duca is wrestler of the year

Perfection is something that eludes most athletes, but not Joe Duca.

Duca, a Paulsboro wrestler, finished the season with a 42-0 record. But more important to the Indiana University-bound senior was the 125-pound finale in which he won the state crown.

It was a title that had eluded him each of the three previous years in which he'd worked so hard to win for himself, his team and his family.

Duca's career record is an exhibit of the effort he put into each bout over a period of four years: 155-14, the most victories in South Jersey history.

"You have no idea," Duca said when a reporter asked what it felt like to finally capture the prize he had coveted for four years.

Duca is The Inquirer's wrestler of the year in South Jersey.

"I never won my last match at states, ever," said the four-time District 29 and four time Region 8 champion after he won the trophy. "I wanted to go out and pound this guy."

The unlucky wrestler he pounded was Bobby Stevely, a Delaware Valley senior with a 40-3 record. Duca, who hadn't allowed himself to be taken down all season, won a 10-3 decision on three takedowns, backpoints and an escape.

"My team has been through hell with me," said Duca about the way he pushed team members in Paulsboro's wrestling room throughout the season.

One of those wrestlers was Zach Greenwald, a senior who won a state championship at 215 with a 3-1 win in overtime over St. Peter's Prep's Kevin Innis, a senior who had beaten him twice before in high school.

"Me and Zach have been best friends since sixth grade, always rooting for each other," Duca said. "With a best friend behind me, I knew I'd win."

Greenwald, who will attend Sacred Heart University to play football, acknowledged his friend's passion for the sport.

"Wrestling is his life," Greenwald said. "He is one of the most focused individuals you'll ever meet. He'll push you during the season, push you to death."

Duca and Greenwald became the first wrestlers to win two state crowns for Paulsboro in the same year since Matt Suter (145) and Larry DeVault (152) in 1991.

And as far as putting his team through hell during the season as part of his own inner drive to win, the inferno turned out to be the gauntlet that made the team stronger and the outcome sweeter.

With Duca pushing to the point of near-mutiny – he said he almost got into a fistfight with a larger teammate who would have pulverized him – the Red Raiders won the program's 40th conference/division crown, the 30th South Jersey Group 1 title, 37th district trophy and 27th Group state championship.

Ranked No. 10 in the country by InterMat Wrestling, Duca added to his luster by recording 27 pins this season.

So when he pushed his teammates in the wrestling room they didn't push back, except maybe out of the exasperation evidenced by the wrestler who nearly crushed the 125-pounder.

"He's had the will and desire for years," Paulsboro coach Paul Morina said about Duca after he won the title, choking back tears. "He's a good kid from a good family."

Duca's father, also named Joe, won the 122-pound state title for Paulsboro in 1979 and is a member of the South Jersey Hall of Fame. Dean Duca, his uncle, is an assistant wrestling coach at the school.

The standard already had been set by Duca's father. His uncle helped to guide him along the way, and the ending was perfect.