When about a dozen wrestlers from the United States compete at the Summer Olympic Games later this year, their road to Paris, France, will have gone through Lancaster County.
That’s because those freestyle men’s and women’s grapplers from Team USA recently completed a five-day training camp at Spooky Nook in East Hempfield Township.
“I’ve been on this (national) team for 10 years and I think this is the best camp I’ve ever been a part of,” Kyle Snyder said.
Snyder, 28, will be making his third trip to the Olympics after having won gold in 2016 and silver in 2020.
“The hotel is attached to the restaurant, which is right out through the (wrestling) mats, and the weight room is within walking distance,” Snyder said of the Spooky Nook complex.
The camp was held from May 20 to 24.
“When I first got here I’m on the mat wrestling next to the guys I’m like, ‘Wow, this is kind of crazy,’” said Tocci, who just completed his redshirt freshman season at the University of North Carolina.
It’s the first time Team USA Wrestling held such a training camp in Lancaster.
It had been six years in the making. Manheim Township residents Steve Capoferri and his wife, Wendy, took a trip to the USA Wrestling headquarters in Colorado in 2018. Steve Capoferri, 58, is the CEO of River Rock Academy, an alternative education school in East Hempfield Township.
During the visit to Colorado a half-dozen years ago, the Capoferris asked if any Team USA wrestlers could visit Lancaster and speak to students at the academy. Sarah Hildebrandt has been doing so once a year ever since, even before she won a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During the visits, Hildebrandt stays with the Capoferris.
“It (Lancaster) feels like home,” said Hildebrandt, an Indiana native.
Seeking a change of scenery from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, Team USA Wrestling staffers earlier this year began discussing a venue at which to hold team training camp.
Lancaster County was brought up because Hildebrandt and some of her female teammates held a training camp at The Barn, a wrestling facility in East Hempfield Township, in 2022.
The Capoferris soon caught wind of the matter and suggested the camp be held at Spooky Nook.
In March, the Capoferris invited Terry Steiner and Bill Zadick to tour the facility. Steiner has been the U.S. women’s freestyle coach since 2002, and stayed with the Capoferris in prior years when Hildebrandt had done so. Zadick is the U.S. men’s freestyle coach.
“They liked the setup and facility,” Pat Tocci said.
Tocci is a few years into being the athletic director at Penn Manor High School, but his previous line of work was being the senior director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. The latter is why Capoferri tapped Tocci to help out with the logistics of bringing the team camp together at Spooky Nook. Helping the matter was the fact Tocci and Zadick first met as youngsters at a wrestling event in Oregon decades ago.
“Some of the women wrestlers were able to come over to Penn Manor to speak to some of our students while they were here,” Tocci said.
USA Wrestling coaches will sometimes look for some of the high-level athletes that are local to the camp and bring them in for developmental reasons, Tocci said. It explains the invites extended to Tocci’s son, Marco, and Vikings’ grappler Seidel, a three-time state champ and Virginia Tech University recruit.
“It’s sick to train with all these high-level guys,” Seidel said. “And to have it right in your backyard is awesome.”
By all accounts, the camp was a hit in its first time being held at Spooky Nook.
“This is the coolest place ever,” Hildebrandt said. “If there’s a venue where I need to make sure that I get out to see the sunshine then I’m in a good spot. It’s so convenient with everything in one spot. … I would totally be onboard doing this again in four years.”
