- January 23, 2026
FPC's Trey Twilley pins Matanzas' Terry Marchman in the 132-pound match. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Buster Bossardet (left) wrestles Matanzas' Xachary Heselton in the 132-pound match. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Braden Dailey (top) wrestles Matanzas' Jacob Gibson in the 120-pound match. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Jackson Marchman (right) wrestles FPC's Brian Veal at 215 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Lenny Fries (right) wrestles Matanzas' Landon Blackburn at 144 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Buster Bossardet takes down Matanzas' Xachary Heselton at 132 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Braden Dailey (left) wrestles Matanzas' Jacob Gibson at 120 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Jacob Hald takes down Matanzas' Zayden Stoetzel. Hald won the match by technical fall in the second period. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Jacob Hald (top) wrestles Matanzas' Zayden Stoetzel at 113 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Kevin McLean won the 126-pound match with a technical fall (17-2 in 1:28). Photo by Brent Woronoff
Jackson Marchman recorded the only win for Matanzas in the dual with FPC. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC freshman Buster Bossardet won the 132-pound match with a pin at 2:56. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Michael Fries wrestles Matanzas' Jaden Ruiz (standing) at 157 pounds. Fries won by technical fall (17-1 at 2:40). Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Braden Dailey won the 120-pound match by a 9-7 decision. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Jacob Gibson (right) wrestles FPC's Braden Dailey at 120 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Jackson Marchman (right) wrestles FPC's Brian Veal at 215 pounds. Marchman won by pin in 3:39. Photo by Brent Woronoff
After an absence of nearly two years, wrestling competition returned to the Matanzas High School gym.
The Pirates had not hosted a tournament or a dual match since the 2023-24 season. On Thursday, Jan. 21, they hosted Flagler Palm Coast in a boys dual. And although the match was one-sided with FPC winning 64-6, the crowd was exuberant, loudly cheering for each Matanzas wrestler.
“There's always been a good rivalry between Matanzas and FPC wrestling. Whether it's there or here, there's usually a pretty big crowd,” said John White, who took over the Matanzas program again this year after stepping away from coaching after the 2021-22 season. White started the Pirates’ wrestling program when the school opened 20 years ago.
While the Bulldogs are an experienced team that was preparing to compete in the Duals State Championships, Jan. 23-24, the Pirates are rebuilding. They have no seniors and only two juniors. But they had nearly a full lineup against the Bulldogs after forfeiting six of 14 matches a year ago when the teams wrestled at FPC.
Hats off to (Matanzas coach John) White. He stepped in, took over that program, and they put together just about a full lineup. The score was maybe a little one-sided, but I do think he's doing a good job here. They’re Flagler County kids and they’re moving in the right direction, so hats off to them.”
— DAVID BOSSARDET, FPC wrestling coach
“Hats off to Coach White,” FPC coach David Bossardet said. “He stepped in, took over that program, and they put together just about a full lineup. The score was maybe a little one-sided, but I do think he's doing a good job here. They’re Flagler County kids and they’re moving in the right direction, so hats off to them.”
The Pirates won one match, with junior Jackson Marchman pinning Brain Veal in 3:39 in the 215-pound match.
“Jackson did what he’s supposed to do,” White said. “He scored when he needed to score, and then he had great mat awareness. He kept his foot in and got the pin when the kid was out of bounds. Jackson did a great job.”
There was only one match that went the full six minutes with FPC’s Braden Dailey winning a 9-7 decision over Jacob Gibson at 120 pounds. The Bulldogs won the remaining 10 matches by pin or technical fall. The teams had a double forfeit at 106 pounds and Matanzas forfeited the 285-pound match.
“They had a loud crowd here tonight,” Bossardet said. “This gym gets very loud. And I think that got to us a little bit in some matches. (The 120-pound match) comes to mind. The kid catches us, and the crowd gets very loud, and I think that got in our head a little bit. I do appreciate the environment. You want to wrestle in environments like this, but you can't let it impact what you're doing.”
In the other matches, FPC’s Jacob Hald (113), Kevin McLean (126), Michael Fries (157), Ronden Ricks (165) and JoJo Foalima (175) won by technical fall (where the match ends when one wrestler gains a 15-point advantage). Buster Bossardet (132), Trey Twilley (138), Lenny Fries (144), Gabriel Moy (150) and Doyvonne Leadon (190) won by pin for the Bulldogs.
Twilley, a junior, said that in his three years on the team, this is the best the Bulldogs have looked at this point in the season.
“Everybody looks really good,” he said. “I think this year we're going to do some pretty big things.”
White, meanwhile, is seeing progress from his young wrestlers.
“When I watched this match, we were able to compete for a period or for three minutes,” White said. “We just are so young, we're not able to put six full minutes together against a tough team. So we got to get to that. We will. Give me a year or so, we will be competing against some of these guys again.”
