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McGuiness, Devlin leave large gap in Marauder
wrestling room
By Bob Decker
MOUNT OLIVE --- When Seamus McGuiness takes to the mat
for the first time as a member of the Montclair State University wrestling team this fall, something will be missing.
Oh, he'll still have that glittering 106-18 four-year career record tucked away in Mount Olive High School's record
books.
And all those titles, three District 1, three Region 1 and two Morris County Championships chief among them will
still be there. As will his fifth-place and second-place awards for his state tournament finishes.
Still, something will be missing. Something BIG. Something about 103 pounds.
Gone will be the push and the drive that his workout mate since third grade gave him. Gone will be the mutual respect
that two competing wrestlers, although they never officially squared off against each other, had for each other.
Kyle Devlin, McGuiness' workout partner since the third grade, won't be at Montclair State, he'll be starting his
freshman season at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
McGuiness and Devlin ... Devlin and McGuiness. Rewind to the Mount Olive wrestling room the past four years and
these two will be going at it. Hard, too.
They're friends, of course, but not best buddies, mind you ... they don't hang out with each other outside of school.
But their wrestling bond is just as deep, just as rewarding to them both. There is a lot of admiration one for
the other.
Put them in the same wrestling room and they're right there with each other, working hard to beat the other guy,
taking the other guy's best shots and coming back for more.
They're getting better. Both of them.
They went to different elementary schools and when McGuiness showed up to try out for the township's rec team,
Devlin was already there.
"We were the same size so we got paired," McGuiness said. "We always worked out together, went to
the same clubs, trained together and yeah, we often ended up wrestling off for the same spot in the lineup,
too. We really went at it. Even back then in the third grade, we both had the same goal and that was to
wrestle varsity for Mount Olive. It's going to be weird not having him around."
Devlin's high school credentials are not as impressive as his workout partner's but he posted a 68-23 mark in his
three-year varsity career, failing to make the varsity in his freshman year because McGuiness would beat him when
they wrestled off at 103.
Devlin's best showings in the districts were second-place finishes as a junior and senior; his best showing in
the regions was a third; his only taste of state competition was a loss in the preliminary round.
Devlin and McGuiness wrestled at 103 in their freshman year but Devlin moved up to 112 as a sophomore, because
he couldn't beat McGuiness..
Devlin was back at 103 the next two years with McGuiness moving up to 112 and then to 119 when he started to grow.
"Seamus made me a better wrestler," stated Devlin. "He pushed me hard day in and day out in practice.
I couldn't have had a better workout partner."
McGuiness will tell you the same thing, adding, "Devlin used to beat me all the time,when we were younger."
Those losses to Devlin in the third and fourth grade only strengthened his desire to become a better
wrestler.
"HE is part of the reason I improved ... he kept me going," continued McGuiness. "Even though we
were friends, we always went at each other on the mat, we didn't want to lose to each other."
The tone was set early on when Devlin told McGuiness to take it easy one day, reminding him it was only practice.
McGuiness, of course, refused and the two have been going at each other tooth and nail ever since.
First-year coach Sean Smythe appreciated the way his two seniors went at each other but he also made sure he stayed
between the mat and the stage in the wrestling room when the two squared off.
"They were like two pit bulls and sometimes the mat just wasn't big enough for them," stated Smythe.
"Sometimes one of them would get thrown into the stage ... Seamus is the stronger of the two but Kevin is
sneakier."
As a coach, Smythe couldn't ask for any better team leaders than McGuiness and Devlin.
"Work ethic? I never had to stress it because all I had to do was to point to those two guys going at each
other and say, OK, guys; this is how it is done," Smythe explained. "Here I was running the practice
but Seamus and Kyle were showing how it was done. This isn't the place to be buddy-buddy ... we go all out and
that is exactly what these two guys did. Seamus and Kyle were both good at working with the younger kids, too.
They were able to recognize their expectations and work well with them ... they'll be good coaches some day."
Both McGuiness and Devlin plan to major in phys-ed with an eye toward coaching one day.
"I'll tell you what," Smythe added. I'm sure we can find room for them here is they want to come back
here in four years and coach at Mount Olive."
And, if there is only one spot open, maybe they could wrestle off for it.
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