Rhaine Sziy certainly has some incentive to excel this winter on the mats for the Catasauqua wrestling program.

Sziy's season ended unceremoniously last season in the PIAA District 11 Class 2A 182-pound semifinals when he suffered a broken leg in his match against eventual semifinalist Lyle Troutman of Tri-Valley.

It was a bittersweet ending for Sziy, who many believed to be the favorite in the bracket with 36 wins during the season. Sziy eventually had to be disqualified in a match for third place and finished fourth overall in the district.

This winter, Sziy has returned to the mats with an unbridled enthusiasm fresh from a storybook football season. In his lone match this season at 195 pounds, Sziy recorded a pin over Notre Dame's Elijah Lyons in just 36 seconds.

Surrounded by friends and fellow grapplers who have been with him for approximately 10 years, Sziy believes it could be a banner year for him and his teammates. So far, the Roughies have rattled Salisbury, 51-24, and demolished Notre Dame, 61-18.

"We all have high expectations for this year," said Sziy. "We have a group of us who have been together for a while and we should all have good seasons. We have been looking forward to our senior year.

"But overall we have depth on this team and we have plenty of good wrestlers in all of our weight classes."

A few years back, wrestling wasn't as easy for Sziy. He experienced his share of growing pains his freshman year, and then began to gain a perspective on the sport the following year. But it wasn't without the help of some outside forces his first two years.

"I always wore the same pair of socks my first two years as a superstition," he said. "Overall, it wasn't working that badly for a while. But then I started losing some matches during my sophomore year and things weren't going well.

"I finally dropped it before my junior year."

It wasn't until his junior year that he finally put it all together.

"Rhaine (Sziy) got beat up his freshman year," said head coach Mike Conner. "He went out there and he learned what he needed to do in a hard way. But he never stopped working. He was very determined and became a better wrestler his sophomore year.

"Last year, we knew he would have a big year."

It has been a long way to the penthouse as Sziy started wrestling in first grade. He recalled one of his favorite moments that occurred in a tournament in third grade that he won when his opponent was penalized for the use of a full nelson.

Since then, it has been a love affair with the sport, one he hopes to continue at either Hofstra or Worcester Polytechnical Institute next fall.

Until then, however, Sziy expects to follow through on his incentive.