p style=”text-align: justify;”>The Jewish Link of New Jersey recently reached out to Eric Samson, the wrestling coach who led two yeshiva high school wrestling teams to victories in the Wittenberg Invitational tournament nine times. Under his skill and training, The Frisch School has brought home six trophies and SAR has won the championship three years in a row.
Where did you grow up and what schools did you attend?
I grew up in Washington Heights and then we moved to Teaneck. I attended Breuer’s, Moriah and TABC, spent one year at BMT in Israel and then went to Queens College.
What is your current professional position?
I am currently the CEO of a boutique digital marketing business called Group 8A. Our offices are in the Starrett Lehigh building in NYC. We employ six people, two of whom are former wrestlers. Yoni Ellman is the assistant coach at TABC and Ari Simchi is a four-year Wittenberg champion and occasional coach.
Were you involved in sports while in school?
I always loved sports but was rarely on any teams. I wrestled my senior year at TABC which was in 1996, the first year that they had a wrestling team and the first year that the Yeshiva Wrestling Tournament was founded.
When did you begin your coaching career?
After I returned from my gap year in Israel, I started as the assistant wrestling coach at TABC. I was only 18 at the time and the $250 I earned that year seemed like a fortune. After three years, Dave Siegel asked me to help out at Frisch and he really helped me grow. One year later I became Frisch’s head coach. Under Siegel’s guidance, I was successful in taking the team from fourth to third to second and then on to first place for five years in a row, the longest winning run of any school at Wittenberg.
Where did you go from your first position at Frisch?
Through a parent, I was introduced to Rabbi Harcsztark at SAR. The same parent offered SAR the requisite mats. So, with Roni Simchi as head coach and myself as assistant coach, the SAR wrestling team was born. The administration at SAR has been exceptionally helpful and responsive to us over the years and has helped us achieve our successful record.
What important life skills can be learned through the sport of wrestling?
Wrestling is the sport that most resembles life. Early in life, you are in school with others, but you are working for your own grades. Later on, when you work for a company, you get paid your own salary and you are responsible for your own career. But at the same time, you have co-workers, clients or a team. In life, you are simultaneously working independently and together with others. Similarly in wrestling, you have a team in which all the players are close-knit, but every match is still an individual event. You score team points, but ultimately you are responsible for your own performance. You have to plan your own moves and you have to be honest with yourself about how hard you work, how you train and how prepared you are. These are all life lessons.
Can you comment for our readers on your success in leading the Frisch and SAR teams to nine championships in 15 years?
It’s simple. I care about education. Wrestling is an extracurricular activity which means its sole purpose is to further the education of the students who participate. As such, the focus is on a goal and that goal is winning. To win you must have mental as well as physical strength. In sports, winning is where the lessons live, but it is winning through the challenges that come along the way, the split-second decisions which have to be made and, of course, the coping that comes with losing a game. I have been fortunate to work with students who actualize all these components.
By Pearl Markovitz
