Originally printed in Newsday https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-school/wrestling/massapequa-freeport-wrestling-takes-down-drugs-1.40653215
By Gregg Sarra gregg.sarra@newsday.com @Gregg_Sarra Updated January 16, 2020 8:50 AM PrintShare
Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder walked to the center of the Massapequa gym and started to speak. The Freeport and Massapequa wrestlers surrounded him in a large circle as the crowd listened to his impassioned speech on how Wrestling Takes Down Drugs.
Ryder’s rousing speech sent a strong message about the department’s initiative to Take Down Drugs Wednesday night before the regular season dual meet championship between Freeport and Massapequa.
Ryder nailed it. The former Lynbrook wrestler in his anti-drug message empowered the high school athletes to educate the younger kids in the community and lead by example.
“We’re educating kids and building a foundation for our future,” Ryder said. “Our initiatives start in the schools. We can’t continue to just lock people up and think the drug problem will go away. We need to get the message out and educate the young people. And it starts in places like Massapequa that is such a large area and has tons of youth programs.”
In Wednesday night’s pregame ceremony, every wrestler on the varsity and junior varsity teams signed a pledge to take down drugs.
And then the night belonged to the Massapequa wrestlers as the state’s defending Division I dual meet champions took down Freeport, 58-12, to capture the Nassau Conference 1A crown. Massapequa improved to 15-4 and 5-0 in conference and Freeport is 7-5 and 4-1.
