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Dorrance, Butler boards reorganize for 2019

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Trump tries to blunt shutdown impact; critics accuse lack of urgency

<p>It&#8217;s no secret that Tommy Traver has always been one of the most well-known and well-liked wrestlers in all of Northeastern Pennsylvania since his days of wrestling in elementary school with the X-Calibur Club.</p><p>That&#8217;s evident by all the connections and friendships he&#8217;s made over the years.</p><p>The Tunkhannock senior is also on the short list of Wyoming Valley Conference athletes to have a legitimate chance at a state title in wrestling.</p><p>Those state hopes were dashed Friday afternoon when a horrific accident during an auto class at school occurred, resulting in a broken tibia and fibula, most likely ending the promising career of the school&#8217;s all-time wins leader.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a sunken feeling,&#8221; Tigers coach Bob Hegedty said of his reaction when he first found out. &#8220;I was just hoping it wasn&#8217;t what they were saying. My first initial thought was that he broke both bones in his bottom right leg, I was hoping it would be something different, but it wasn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p><p>The son of Tom and Kristen and brother to Sarah and Alyssa, Tommy Traver piled up 138 career wins to just 19 losses in a phenomenal career and held a mark of 19-0 this season. He was just two wins away from joining an elite class of just 12 wrestlers in WVC history to win at least 140 bouts, and six pins away from getting to the milestone of 100.</p><p>He won his first District 2 Class 3A title as a junior after a pair of runner-up finishes. Being in Class 2A this year, he&#8217;s currently ranked No. 7 in the state and No. 1 in the Northeast Region at 138 pounds by PA Power Wrestling. Last weekend, he won the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament for the third time, becoming one of just eight wrestlers to win the event at least three times in the 10-year history of the tourney.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah it&#8217;s tough. It&#8217;s hard to comprehend it, but we have to be there to support him,&#8221; said Hegedty, who has been close to the family for many years &#8212; having coached Sarah Traver, who graduated in 2017, in softball &#8212; in addition to being a wrestling coach.</p><p>The injury is also a big hit for the Tigers as a team. They entered the season as one of the contenders for the District 2 Class 2A Duals and team crown. Days before the WVC Tournament, junior state qualifier Dave Evans suffered a broken arm in practice. He&#8217;s expected to return before the postseason. The team remained positive after that injury.</p><p>Losing a team leader is a different story. On Friday, the team was scheduled for a practice after school. But that lasted just a half hour after the Tigers hearing the news about Traver. Then they hopped on a bus to travel to Souderton for the Big Red Duals where they wrestled on Saturday, now missing two stars heading into Tuesday&#8217;s showdown with fellow Division 2 and Class 2A contender Lake-Lehman.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;re stunned. They&#8217;re flat. We&#8217;ve got some kids trying to step up and take over a leadership role but it&#8217;s tough,&#8221; Hegedty added. &#8220;Wrestling is a sport of adversity. They&#8217;re going to have to try to rebound. They&#8217;re kinda resilient. We&#8217;re just gonna have to try to take some positives and move forward.&#8221;</p><p>Hegedty said there were many positives in Traver&#8217;s career from being a quiet freshman on a team that won District 2 Duals and advanced to the PIAA Team Championships to his qualifying for the state tournament as a sophomore. As a junior, he was in a tough regional bracket and missed out on states, but was using that as motivation this season as he was taking on a leadership role.</p><p>&#8220;The kid works his ass off,&#8221; Hegedty said. &#8220;This year he was starting to get everything together. Just a well-respected kid and I think just his perseverance and his hard work and his drive stand out.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Traver </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_Tommy-Traver-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Traver </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_wvcw4_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tunkhannock senior Tommy Traver (top) was unbeaten this season and on a short list of WVC wrestlers who had hopes for a state title before an accident ended his wrestling season, and effectively, his high school career. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_wvcw4_faa.jpg</photo1><caption1>Tunkhannock senior Tommy Traver (top) was unbeaten this season and on a short list of WVC wrestlers who had hopes for a state title before an accident ended his wrestling season, and effectively, his high school career. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Accident during auto class ends state hopes of promising wrestler</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLSports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Promising Tunkhannock wrestler Traver out for the season after accident