Things are certainly looking up for Nashua North wrestling under the guidance of head coach Chad Zibolis, right. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It’s a busy final week of the high school hoop and hockey regular seasons mixed in with the semis and finals of the NHIAA division wrestling dual meet tournaments.

Here are a few of the notables:

NORTH WRESTLING ON RISE

The Nashua High School North wrestling team will be a heavy, heavy underdog on

Wednesday in the Division I semis at Timberlane, as the Owls have won the Division I/Class L title 16 of the last 17 years, interrupted by only Londonderry in 2015.

But no matter what happens, there’s no denying that the North program has been resurrected under head coach Chad Zibolis.

The Titans could barely muster enough wrestlers to compete a few years ago, and there were some in local wrestling circles fearing it could be ending. But Zibolis, the North football offensive coordinator, had a simple plan: Get athletes from sports in fall and spring seasons to compete for him in winter.

So his roster has been filled with talented football players like Spencer Whiting and Max Ackerman, and he’s recruited other athletes to wrestle as well.

He’ll have to replenish that group after the season ends either Wednesday or in Saturday’s finals. North beat a very good Windham program in this past Saturday’s quarters thanks to its numbers, as it got 30 forfeit points. That would have easily been reversed before Zibolis took over two years ago.

“Just continue to recruit the way I’ve been recruiting,” Zibolis said. “Pull from the freshmen football team, get those kids. We’re always going to have those heavier classes, from 182 to 285. We’re going to have good kids at that because those are our football kids.

“The lighter weights is where I’ve got to go find (athletes). I have to go to the soccer team, the cross country team, and go find those kids that can wrestle at that lighter weight class.”

As an example, Zibolis said it’s the first year in his three seasons he hasn’t had a wrestler for the 106-pound weight class. “That hurt us a little bit,” he said, adding that he also this year lost seven or eight wrestlers who opted out for this season due to COVID. “But you know, that’s everywhere,” he said.

And now the Titans will have to go from the frying pan into the inferno.

“Yup, of course,” Zibolis said. “It’s very true. And the way we’re going to have to coach it up is try to do some throws and try to get some kids caught off balance, and see what we can get out of it.

“It is Timberlane, we know what it is, our kids know what it is. Our kids will work to beat them, obviously. We’ll change our strategy to go up against those guys. It’ll be tough.”

It was tough enough under the overall championship meet format, and in a dual meet siutation the Owls are even more dominant; witness their 69-12 win over Pinkerton in the quarters.

LOCAL DIVISION II SEMIS

The other local 6 p.m. semis Wednesday are in Division II and will feature Merrimack at Bishop Guertin and Goffstown at Hollis Brookline.

Both are rematches of Feb. 13 matches: HB beat Goffstown 38-24 and BG beat Merrimack 60-16. The winners will square off in the finals this Saturday.

“We really need our younger wrestlers to step up and do their job for us to move on to the finals next Saturday,” Guertin coach Paul Rousseau said.

“This Wednesday will be tough,” Merrimack coach Bryan Dine said. “BG is a strong team and with Paul Rosseau, for whom I have the most respect, coaching he has put together a well coached squad that has made it through this strange season well.

“Love to face good competition and looking forward to the opportunity to face the Cardinals again.”

It appears the closest matchup will be HB-Goffstown. But in that match just over a week ago, the Grizzlies got half its points on two forfeits.

GIRLS HOCKEY GAME OF YEAR

Also on Wednesday, earlier in the day (3:30 p.m.), Cyclones Arena in Hudson will be the site of the biggest girls hockey game of the regular season.

It will be a battle of unbeatens, 8-0 Hanover visiting Bishop Guertin, which is now 12-0.

Guertin hasn’t been this impressive since it reached the 2010 finals and fell to the Marauders 2-0, the beginning of Hanovers’s 10 straight state titles.

Guertin coach Scott Ciszek hasn’t seen Hanover in person this year, but he knows what to expect.

“Hanover always comes with talent, depth and discipline,” he said. “They move the puck well and are not afraid to go to the net.

“So depending on what is put in front of us, we plan on trying to keep the puck out of our defense zone and just put pressure on them no matter what zone they are in. We believe that we are playing good hockey and it should be a competitive game.”

HONORS FOR OLIVER

Longtime AAU coach and former longtime Nashua North girls basketball coach Ricky Oliver was recently inducted into the New England AAU Sports Hall of Fame.

Oliver, who has over 200 wins at the high school level and now coaches Salem, was the NE AAU Girls Basketball Chair for 12 years as well as being a member of the National AAU Girls Basketball Committee.

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