(Editor’s Note: The PV Student Publication will be releasing feature stories on senior athletes at Pascack Valley who will be continuing their athletic careers in college. A signing ceremony for these athletes was scheduled to take place in the fall; however, it was pushed back due to COVID-19 concerns and other conflicts. Five athletes took part in the ceremony held on March 25, while there will be another ceremony in May for the remaining college-bound athletes.)

No matter the obstacles senior Tyler Pizzi has had to face, he’s found ways to overcome them.

As part of Pascack Valley’s North 1, Group 3 state sectional title-winning team in 2018, Pizzi needed to wrestle through a knee injury in the sectional finals, ultimately helping Valley pick up the victory.

In 2019, Pizzi had to overcome a similar challenge, this time in the state sectional semifinal against Montville. Despite injuring his knee yet again, Pizzi came out on top.

“His freshman year in the state sectional final he hurt his knee badly and he gutted it out and beat a really good kid from Sparta,” coach Tom Gallione said. “The next year he hurt his knee prior to the state sectional semifinal and basically went out there on one leg and defeated a kid from Montville who was very good.”

Pizzi made sure his wrestling career would continue even after he graduates from PV in June, committing to wrestle at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) next season and beyond.

The injuries he faced early on in his career may have limited Pizzi from taking home medals for himself in the postseason, but these small setbacks pushed him to work harder.

“Injuries cut my first two seasons short and it definitely fueled the fire,” Pizzi said. “It made me work harder – plain and simple. It motivated me every day throughout the past two years and I definitely used that to my advantage.”

In 2020, Pizzi finally had the opportunity to showcase his skills on the big stage at the state tournament in Atlantic City after being unable to wrestle in the postseason in his first two years at Valley.

“It felt like I finally was where I belonged,” Pizzi said. “It was cool that I finally made it happen and that it was finally coming to fruition.”

Despite dealing with injuries in his first two years at Valley, Pizzi managed to be recruited by several Division III schools.

In the end, his decision came down to TCNJ, NYU, and Muhlenberg. But one school stuck out the most.

“TCNJ was one of the first schools that started recruiting me,” Pizzi said. “I really liked the coach since the moment I met him. Right when he started recruiting me I was pretty sure that I wanted to go there. It kind of just came full circle, and I was like, ‘that is the place for me.’”

Gallione supports Pizzi on the decision, having high praise for TCNJ’s program and his fit with the school.

“I think [TCNJ] is a perfect program for him,” Gallione said. “He will succeed there academically and athletically. It’s a great Division III wrestling program. He will get better each day and keep improving.”

Throughout his time at Valley, Gallione has gotten to know Pizzi both on and off the mat, and the two have built a strong relationship over the last four years.

“Once he got to PV, our relationship got stronger and stronger and he has been a pleasure to coach and a pleasure to have on the team,” Gallione said. “[He is] the nicest kid in school, a respectful young man, but when you get him on the mat, he wrestles hard and clean for six minutes.”

Pizzi’s high school wrestling career certainly had its highs, but he was able to use the lows to find key takeaways that will help him in the future.

More specifically, he was forced to learn how to cut weight in order to fit into PV’s lineup early on, something that was certainly not an easy task for a freshman and sophomore Pizzi.

“My first two years I could have been better at cutting weight, however, it’s a learning curve for sure,” Pizzi said. “I’m glad that I had the experience of cutting weight poorly and draining my energy so now I do it properly. I diet well and I run,” Pizzi said.

In their time together in the practice room and on the mat, Gallione has been able to find out how driven and unselfish Pizzi really is.

“I’ve been coaching for 16 years and we’ve had hundreds of wrestlers throughout the years,” Gallione said. “He is probably one of the toughest and [most] selfless kids I’ve ever coached.”

No matter what Pizzi does during and after his college wrestling career, Gallione knows his future is bright.

“[He] has more heart than a lot of kids and he’s going to be successful no matter what he does, Gallione said. “He doesn’t stop and he has a lot of heart.”