The big stage suits Amir Faublas and Will Riley just fine.
Whether it’s wrestling in a crucial competition or strumming bass chords in concert, Faublas and Riley have a lot in common when it comes to performing under pressure. The two High School for Creative and Performing Arts students enjoy their time competing for the Academy at Palumbo wrestling team.
“I was originally into basketball,” said Riley, a junior at CAPA. “I was tall, but I wasn’t that good at it. I wanted to find a way to use my weight as an advantage and be able to do something with it. Wrestling came along. First it was just something to do to join a sport and get out of school, but now it’s something I really like and really enjoy. Now, it’s an honor. My friend told me about it.”
That friend was Faublas. He plays electric bass and cello in CAPA’s orchestra, but he helped orchestrate a boom in attendance on the Griffins’ wrestling roster. The team now has about 50 athletes in the program.
“I have a lot of friends and when I see some potential, I get them to come out for the team and they do good,” said Faublas, a senior. “It’s really fun and everyone has a lot of energy. It’s like a brotherhood. We all cheer and scream for each other out on the mat.”
Faublas started wrestling about nine years ago and has been one of the main recruiters for the Griffins’ growing program. It’s helped Palumbo emerge as a strong contender among the Public League ranks. Last year, the Griffins finished fourth in team scoring at the PPL championships and had an individual PPL champ in Zyad Zabib at 139 pounds. This year, they are looking to continue that path of success and were off to a good start, winning four of their first five matches in the early stages of the 2024-25 season. The program has come a long way in a short time.
“My freshman year, they had about eight kids on the team,” said Faublas, who wrestles at 189 pounds. “From sophomore year, when I joined, it seems like everyone is developing. Everybody is learning and they are trying to put that knowledge to the mat. Everyone is doing good.”
The numbers tripled heading into Faublas’ sophomore season. And they’ve more than doubled again over the last two years.
“We have two wrestling rooms so we are able to split up varsity and JV and this year is looking pretty promising,” said Geoff Verallis, one of the team’s coaches. “The kids are locked in and ready to go. They have been wrestling for two or three years so we have a lot of experience on our side and we’re hoping to take the whole city championship this year.”
Riley is one of those athletes who has made a big splash. Last year, as a sophomore, he earned a promotion from the JV team when the squad needed someone to wrestle in the heavyweight slot at 275 pounds. At that time, Riley could have carried two cinderblocks onto the scale and still made weight.
“Last year, I was 195 pounds wrestling heavyweight,” Riley said. “I was putting in the work and we needed a heavyweight and I was putting on weight. I wrestled and I won and I kept winning.”
Riley finished his season with an impressive 11-10 record and placed fourth at the PPL championships despite yielding up to 80 pounds to his opponents. Since then, he has somehow managed to add another 35 pounds despite a rigorous workout routine.
“I also do freestyle and greco and lifting twice a day and going on runs and eating,” said Riley, who also plays bass guitar. “I was just maintaining my weight. Over time, I was able to do everything I wanted to do, but I had to make sure I kept eating after I sweat.”
The only thing scarier than facing Riley is staring down the grocery bills.
“I had to be 6,000-8,000 calories a day,” Riley said. “We were doing morning lifts before school and tire flips. I’m hitting protein bars and drinking water and milk. Lots of Ramen noodles. I like not having to worry about my weight or having to cut weight. It feels that I can just wrestle and have fun.”
Opponents are forced to face 215-pound wrestler and region qualifier Mohammed Wan right before Riley, giving the Griffins a big edge in the heavy weight classes. They are also sneaky good in the lower weight classes. Aside from Faublas, who went 22-16 last season, the Griffins have some power with Kevin Vu (172 pounds), Hezekiah Womack (160), Jayden Jordan-Loran (152), Hamin Muhammad (152, 160), Robert Randolph (107, 114) and Benjamin Anderson (121, 127).
There’s strength in numbers, certainly.
“That’s a huge thing because everyone has practice partners,” Verallis said. “We never have a situation where a kid at 107 is going with a kid at 140. They wrestle their own weight and iron sharpens iron. We hope the whole team continues to grow and everything falls into place.”
So far so good. The Griffins have several assistant coaches helping keep order in a crowded wrestling room, which includes about eight female wrestlers, too. Palumbo is hoping to field a full girls team in the near future.
“On the girls side, things are growing,” Verallis said. “We have two girls on varsity but we have about seven or eight total. Our hope is to have a girls team, whether it’s with a couple other co-op schools so we can fill up a whole roster, but we’re hoping to have that done in the next year. With two wrestling rooms, it makes it easier to facilitate that. We just need the numbers at this point.”
