Sean Petrosino was ready to move on from wrestling to tackle the rigors of a real-world startup company.

Those plans quickly went out the window.

Petrosino received a phone call from his mentor, Marc Loranger, saying there was a wrestling opening at Scituate and he should apply for the job. One thing led to another and Petrosino was back where he has spent most of his life – on the mat.

“I started a company (Standard Traffic Controllers Inc.) and was planning to take the year off from wrestling for now,” Petrosino said. “Then Marc (now a principal at Scituate High School) called me to say that Kevin King was leaving as Scituate coach because he moved to Connecticut. I decided to put in for the job and wound up getting it.”

The fact that Loranger would immediately think of Petrosino to fill a wrestling opening should come as no surprise. A former wrestling coach at Plymouth South, Loranger got a first-hand look at Petrosino early on and felt he had all the attributes needed to become a good wrestling coach.

“Sean wrestled for me at Plymouth South and I remember back even when he was a 15-year-old kid, he would work with the younger wrestlers and just had a great way about him,” Loranger said. “I told him all the time that he should consider becoming a wrestling coach down the road.”

Petrosino took the advice to heart and once he ended his own wrestling career, he exchanged the singlet for a whistle. His coaching sojourn began at his alma mater, followed by stints as Walpole and Bridgewater-Raynham, where he coached from 2019-23.

“I loved my time at Bridgewater-Raynham,” Petrosino said. “The school had a long history of having good programs and I can remember when I was at Plymouth South and the big match every year was the Bridgewater-Raynham match. We started a youth program there that is thriving, so there was a lot of work put in, which made it harder to leave for sure.”

The immediate goals at Scituate were no different than any other coach coming into a new program. Petrosino knew he wasn’t walking through the doors at a St. John’s Prep, a Central Catholic or even a Plymouth South.

“The two biggest things were getting wins and increasing the amount of kids coming out for wrestling,” said Petrosino, whose team is 6-8 on the season. “The school didn’t have a winning tradition in recent years, so that makes it tougher to get kids. The hope was to stack up some wins and change the narrative.

“I am not in the building so it is tougher, but having Marc around in there is great. This past week, we were able to get 14 wrestlers on the mat and they haven’t done that here in a long time. The school is loaded with athletes, we just have to build up that winning tradition.”

Rich homecoming

Bruce Rich spent countless nights at Chelmsford High coaching one of the state’s legendary wrestling programs.

Last weekend was different for a couple of reasons.

Rich took his Northeast/Bishop Fenwick wrestling team to Chelmsford to compete in a tournament which was recently renamed the Bruce Rich Invitational in his honor. It was a gesture that the Hall of Fame coach will not soon forget.

“I was somewhat awestruck, it was pretty flattering,” Rich said. “I’m grateful to (Chelmsford coach) Chris Piscione, who came up with the idea. It was a great day of wrestling and it was nice to see my two sons (Bruce Jr. and Tim) coaching at Westford Academy.”

If anyone in Chelmsford deserved to be recognized in such fashion, Rich was as good a candidate as anyone. A three-sport star at Chelmsford, Rich spent 40 years as the wrestling coach there, winning 648 dual meets, 14 Merrimack Valley Conference championships, 11 MIAA Div. 1 North sectional championship, a pair of All-State and a New England team title.

A teacher at Bishop Fenwick, the travel demands played a large part in Rich stepping down from Chelmsford in 2020. That, along with the school’s decision to start up a wrestling program, invigorated Rich to a certain extent. While his fledgling program will need time to reach the lofty status of his Chelmsford heydey, the Northeast/Bishop Fenwick co-op program had some solid moments at the tournament.

Standout wrestler Luke Connolly took a second at 165 pounds, losing a hard-fought 3-2 decision to Central Catholic’s Caden Chase in the final. Anthony Nichols took a fourth at 215 and Jackson Cody placed fifth at 120.

Scituate wrestling coach Sean Petrosino is excited about the potential of the program. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)