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Next year, Bristol Central Invitational will be the Dennis Siegmann Invitational

Hall of Fame coach Dennis Siegmann, left, and Bristol Central head coach Matt Boissoneault before the finals of the Bristol Central Invitational earlier this month.

In 1982, Bristol Central wrestling coach Dennis Siegmann was trying to give wrestlers an opportunity to gain some confidence in a tournament situation by organizing and hosting the Bristol Central Invitational.

There were just eight teams involved, all from the greater Bristol area.

“The initial goal was to have a local tournament that could build up all of the programs in the area,” Siegmann said. He wanted his kids to have some success on the mat and build from there.

More than 40 years later, the Bristol Central Invitational is the second-oldest wrestling tournament in the state. Earlier this month, there were four teams from Connecticut Wrestling Online’s top 10 poll competing along with wrestlers from another 21 schools at the 42nd annual event.

Next year’s event will have a new name.

It will be called the Dennis Siegmann Invitational. Bristol Central head coach Matt Boissoneault announced it at center mat before the finals earlier this month and handed the Hall of Fame coach a t-shirt with the new name of the tournament.

“Dennis has meant a lot of the wrestling community in Connecticut, the Bristol Central wrestling community, the Bristol Eastern community, myself,” Boissoneault said. “I wrestled for him and when I started teaching here, he was the principal.

Siegmann had discouraged renaming the tournament in his honor in past years. But he was all smiles on the mat with Boissoneault after the announcement was made.

“We thought it was important and sometimes you have to do what you think is right, even if you’re being discouraged,” Boissoneault said.

Siegmann, who was inducted into the Connecticut Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2019, came to Central in 1977 and coached the Rams for 23 years. He led Central to two Class L titles (1985, 1998) and 11 league championships. Bristol Central was 348-109-12 under Siegmann and he coached three All-Americans, 31 state champions and one New England champion.

Through the years, the tournament began to grow, attracting teams from across New England, New York and New Jersey.

Wrestling and coaching have been a part of Siegmann for years. He stepped down from the Rams job following the 1999 season.

He was the chair of the CIAC wrestling committee for 10 years and the tournament director of the New England championships for four years. He founded the Gladiators wrestling program at the Bristol Boys and Girls Club and the middle school wrestling program in Bristol. He was a member of the National Federation of State High School Association’s wrestling rules committee from 2006-09.

He remains active with the Gladiators, coaching some of the young wrestlers in the club, including one of his grandsons.

Siegmann was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He also coached girls track and field and girls soccer at Bristol Central and boys soccer at Nonnewaug in Woodbury, leading the Chiefs to the state finals.

Siegmann began his wrestling career at Woodrow Wilson High in Levittown, Pa., under Hall of Fame coach Donald Wise (Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association). After graduating in 1964, Dennis attended Bloomsburg State where he wrestled under another Hall of Fame coach Russ Houk (PA chapter of National Wrestling HOF), wrestling on a team that won the NAIA national title in 1965.

“He was a big proponent of (wrestling),” Boissoneault said. “He came from an area (Pennsylvania) where wrestling was bigger and he was trying to bring that here and build that. He was one of the pioneers that helped do that.”

Bristol Central has won the tournament 11 times with its most recent victory coming in 2009. Bristol Eastern has nine tournament titles with their most recent title coming in 2020. The closest tournament came in 2022 when New Fairfield prevailed with a ½ point win over New Milford, 142 to 141½. The most lopsided win came in 1997 with NFA winning by 115 points.

Earlier this month, East Hartford won their second straight Bristol Central Invitational title with a 232-211 win over Newtown.

The oldest active wrestling tournament in the state is the Guilford Invitational, which began in December 1976 and held their 48th annual event this season.

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of Connecticut Wrestling Online. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

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