By Michael Letendre
It’s part two of the story on Bryant Lishness who recently stepped down as the coach of the Bristol Eastern wrestling program.
Under Lishness, the Lancers were a squad that did its talking at the state championship level, winning three straight Class L titles from 2017-19 – a couple captured by the slimmest of margins.
Under Lishness’s watch, Eastern zipped up the fifth longest dual meet winning streak in state history at 51 straight victories.
The Lancers had two undefeated seasons in 2017 and 2018 – tied for the sixth best streak in CT.
Eastern has the ninth most victories in scholastic competition in state history at 772 and 216 of those wins belongs to Lishness.
In 2017, behind three first place finishes from Mikey Barrett (160 pounds), Trinidad Gonzalez (170), and Zach Marquis (182), Eastern defeated New Milford 231-230 – beating a program that had either won or was the Class L runner-up since 2009 – for Eastern’s first state title since 1995-96.
Then in 2018, Eastern roped in individual state championships from Leonardo Fernandez (145), Justin Marshall (152), Barrett (160), and Gonzalez (195) to win it all.
The Lancers seized the Class L championship, defeating runner-up Xavier 231-196.5 as the locals made it two titles in a row.
That season, Bristol Eastern placed third at the State Open.
Finally in 2019, the Lancers got to the Class L championship pay window one more time as Simsbury nearly ended Eastern’s run on top.
But behind titles from Tommy Nichols (132), Marshall (152) and Gonzalez (195 for his third straight title at a different weight), the Lancers got by Simsbury over a slim 204.5-204 final score.
That half-point victory over the Trojans tied for the smallest margin of victory in a state title victory.
That’s three outstanding years leading to state championships.
And how many of his kids went on to win state titles, and beyond, as individuals in Class L competition?
The list goes on and on with Craig Sassu (Connecticut NHSCA All-American at 130 pounds in 2010, fourth place), Andrew Chase (Connecticut NHSCA All-American at 103 pounds in 2011, third place), Josh Wilson, Justin Marshall, Trent Thompson (CT All-American at 100 pounds in 2018), Marquis, Fernandez, Nichols, Barrett, Gonzalez, Ella Nichols (Connecticut NHSCA All-American at 136 pounds in 2019, 7th place) and a boatload of other quality athletes all winning at the Class L, State Open, and the New England’s.
Lishness won the Connecticut High School Wrestling Coaches Association Class L Coach of the Year award from 2017-19.
And just about every season, Eastern was a top placer in the State Coaches Top 10 Wrestling Poll.
However, all those awards that came his way were just icing on the cake.
What Lishness will miss most is going to meets, being with the athletes, and watching them excel under the bright lights of the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium from Bristol Eastern.
“For me, it’s definitely going to be the kids” that he’ll miss most said Lishness. “I mean, going to graduation this year for Mason, just seeing all the kids graduate, there would have been ten or twelve seniors on the [wrestling] team [this year]. And most of them I’ve coached since they first stepped on the mat. Just seeing them grow up and transition into young men and see them go on to bigger and better things, not even the prolific wrestlers, [but] it’s all of them.”
“Those are the things I’m definitely going to miss.”
Lishness loved watching the kids wrestling, competing, and then getting further and further in competitions every season.
The achievements for himself are certainly secondary when it came to the success of the athletes he loved to mentor.
And many of those kids have come back years later for meets, talked to coach, and simply loved being around the program again.
There’s plenty of stories that can be told under those three Class L championship banners hanging in the gymnasium from Bristol Eastern.
“I’m not walking away because I’m sick of coaching or sick of dealing with the kids or anything like that,” said Lishness. “It’s just the right time.”
He recently attended Peyton Soucy’s wedding and Lishness was hanging out with former athletes from the BE wrestling program like Todd Krolikowski, all the Sassu’s, and a ton of other Eastern alumni.
Lishness admitted that once you coach a special group of athletes, you’re a part of many different individual’s lives and seeing what the future holds for those young men is certainly exciting.
Lishness is thankful for those type of life-long connections.
“I’ll miss hanging out with kids, joking and having fun because as hard as we work, we do have a lot of fun,” said Lishness. “I think we’re a really close team and I still have alumni from years ago calling me up. I still see them, and I still reach out, still connect with them and do things.”
