Ledyard — The New London High School wrestling program was pretty barren when Mike Gorton took over as head coach four seasons ago, forcing him to think differently when he began a recruiting drive.

Senior George Hidalgo, for instance, had never wrestled prior to his freshman year.

“I used to skateboard a lot and I used to skateboard around the high school,” Hildago said. “Coach saw me with the long hair and he was like, ‘you want to wrestle?’ I said, ‘I don’t know about that.' He showed me videos and stuff. I thought I had pretty good hips skateboarding and could be good at it. I had good balance. So I tried it.

“My freshman year, I thought I was going to win every match. I lost every match.”

Hidalgo came close to quitting, but stuck it out and got better at it. He placed third in the 170-pound weight class at last season’s CIAC Class M championships.

Hidalgo and the Whalers have continued to evolve this season, as shown during Wednesday’s match against state heavyweight Ledyard. The Colonels won the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division match 50-22 but it wasn’t that long ago that they would’ve torn through New London like a badger through a T-bone.

“Approximately 2007, 2008, we went down there and beat them a real lot to a real little,” Ledyard coach Steve Bilheimer said. “The match took like half an hour with all the forfeits. They probably had 10 guys on their team at that point and only about eight wrestled in the varsity lineup.

“They’ve gone from that to having an entire full squad with seven JV and a competitive match. He’s got some good seniors and some good, young guys. At a few weights, they really surprised us.

“They’re really coming along. They’re impressive and I think they’re going to be a force.”

Bo Nguyen (120), Connor Kiely (126), Jake Millbach (152), Daric Johnson (220) and Ty Miller (106) won by pin Ledyard (12-1, 4-0). Austin Robertson (113), Collin Crader (160), Curtis Patsiga (170) and Danny Contino (195) also won.

Heavyweight Auggie Cornish won his match by pin for New London (2-1, 1-1). Alejandro Paulino (132), Efrain Santiago (138), Christan Lozada (145) and Hidalgo (182) were also winners.

New London had 12 try out for wrestling Gorton’s first year. Half quit within the first week.

“We had an old mat that was probably about 20 years ago that we rolled out in the cafeteria every day,” said Gorton, who wrestled at Waterford. “Probably about eight kids stuck around (that year).

“I keep the CIAC records of the last 10 years printed out in the locker room so that they can see the growth (of the program). After 2001, I believe we were either dead last or second-to-last or third-to-last at states. We didn’t have many guys, but enough to make a core. A couple of kids starting winning. That kind of pulled a couple of new kids in, but there wasn’t much. We knew it needed to be rebuilt.”

New London has 35 wrestlers this season, including Paulino, last season’s 126-pound Class M champion. Gorton said he and assistant Rashib Robledo have made sure to keep things fun.

“I haven’t been around the type of coaches who were like, ‘if you lose, everybody is going to be disappointed,’” Gorton said. “My coach, when I was in high school, we were really weird kids. We were listening to techno. A lot of other coaches would’ve come in with a military attitude. ‘No, you listen to me, and you listen to rock.’ (Waterford wrestling coach Chris) Gamble was like, ‘let them do their thing.’ That’s kind of how I’ve been.”

Bilheimer is pleased with New London’s improvement, knowing that a team is going to get better when they face tough competition.

“You want the ECC to be strong,” Bilheimer said. “It’s no fun to go to a gym and the team has nine kids and you’re done in a half hour. I’d much rather have competitive matches. I hope the best for them.”

Renelson Michel showed the kind of improvement New London has made during Wednesday’s match. The 220-pound junior led defending Class M champion Daric Johnson 5-1 with seconds left in the match. Johnson pinned him with two seconds remaining.

“I’m proud of hell of them right now,” Gorton said about his team. “That was awesome. Every kid went out there and brawled.

“Once they start focusing on their own performacnes and stop obsessing over the winning and losing, that’s when they start to fly.”

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED