Grand Street’s Josh Antoine controls Brooklyn Tech’s Yaneev Hirsh before pinning him in 58 seconds. (Denis Gostev)
Josh Antoine is tiny. He’s barely 5-foot-1 and his best wrestling weight class is 99 pounds. Yet he might be Grand Street Campus’ most intimidating force.
The pint-sized senior gets fired up before matches by slapping his head, posing for the crowd and jogging around vociferously. Then when he enters the circle, he’s one of the best in New York State at his weight. Antoine helped lead Grand Street to a PSAL wrestling dual meet city title Wednesday with a 58-second pin of Brooklyn Tech’s Yaneev Hirsh.
“The school rallies around him,” Wolves coach John Zarcone said. “A lot of people who don’t understand wrestling get excited to see such a small kid who’s so tough. He can bring our team up or he can bring it down. Luckily, he never brings us down. He’s just the kind of sparkplug we need.”
Antoine was invaluable in the playoffs. Last Thursday in the semifinals, he wrestled a larger opponent up at 106 for strategic purposes as Grand Street defeated Wingate. On Wednesday in the final, his quick pin came after two straight Brooklyn Tech pins and lengthened Grand Street’s lead to 22-14.
“Most of the time, when we have a little drought going on, I go out and I pick it up for the team,” Antoine said. “That’s just to hype up the team to get back into the swing of things.”
He very well should have been tired. Over the weekend, he wrestled at the Eastern States meet and came a match away from placing against top-notch competition. Antoine is the defending individual PSAL city champ at 99 pounds and also a Mayor’s Cup winner. This season, he’s a contender for a state title as well.
“I’m very excited,” Antoine said of leading the Wolves to their first title since 2007. “I get to be a part of history. My goal is to make the program even better by going to the state tournament and placing very high.”
Zarcone had no qualms about moving Antoine up to 106 in the semifinals, because of that attitude. Antoine certainly won’t be beaten mentally and despite his stature, it’s pretty hard to beat him physically as well.
“We can move him around and feel pretty confident,” the coach said. “When you’re that tough, it’s not that much of a disadvantage.”
Added Antoine with a smile: “Yeah, I’m the toughest little guy in the city.”
His role for Grand Street is simple. He gets the Wolves going. He’s a meet changer. Against Brooklyn Tech, which beat Grand Street in the finals last year, that was readily apparent.
“We slipped up a little bit, we lost a little bit of momentum,” Zarcone said, “but we got it right back with somebody like Josh Antoine.”