Months before they even played their first game – and an entire recruiting class ready to step on campus in the fall – the Bengals found themselves without a coaching staff.

The athletic department needed a reliable, knowledgeable and well-connected coach who could serve as interim coach and keep the team on track during the inaugural season.

Enter Alex Conti.

Conti is an inductee into the Western New York Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame and is a pioneer of women’s wrestling in the region. He served as director of the women’s division for New York USA Wrestling and coached the USA women’s freestyle wrestling team at the Pan American Games. Conti is also a past recipient of Girls’ Coach of the Year honors from the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

Alex Conti delivers his induction speech into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame in February 2016. PJ archive photo by Scott Kindberg

“We are very fortunate to have Alex join our team and help us establish women’s wrestling at Buffalo State University,” said Jeff Ventura, Buffalo State University’s senior assistant athletic director, upon Conti’s hiring. “Alex brings a wealth of experience, and his passion for the sport and existing relationships in the extended wrestling community will play a critical role in ensuring a successful launch of the program in its inaugural season.”

Conti, who wrestled collegiately at Ball State University, SUNY Brockport and Jamestown Community College, recently retired after 29 years as a physical education teacher in the Fredonia School District, including many years as a wrestling coach. He was instrumental in founding the girls wrestling program at Fredonia High School.

“I am very excited to take on this challenge and help coach the inaugural season of women’s wrestling at Buffalo State University,” Conti said upon his hiring. “We have a great group of talented wrestlers coming to campus in August. I hope their enthusiasm for the sport matches the talent I know they have. If that happens, we will have a great season – win, lose or tie.”

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Buffalo State University announced that it will add women’s wrestling to its program in June 2022.

“This extraordinary announcement represents the first intercollegiate women’s wrestling program to be added at SUNY,” NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer said at the time. “I speak for our NWCA Board of Directors when I say that the SUNY Buffalo State administration is a pioneer in a region where intercollegiate women’s wrestling is sorely underserved despite strong high school participation.”

“Creating this new opportunity for female wrestlers is an incredible boost to our sport,” Moyer added. “Most importantly, it means more opportunities for more students. This is a victory we should all celebrate.”

Head coach Steve Hart and assistant coach Kellen Devlin were slated to lead the program starting in July, but both were fired just four months before the start of the season, prompting officials to turn to Conti.

“Buffalo State University is committed to building a successful women’s wrestling program and will begin competition this fall,” Wayne Brumfield, interim vice president for student affairs, said in a statement at the time.

Carlene Sluberski, a 2009 graduate of Fredonia High School and a 2024 CSHOF inductee, is currently the head coach at D’Youville University in Buffalo. Sluberski wrestled for Conti in high school and became the first girl to reach the New York State Public High School Athletic Association finals in 2009.

“We worked way too hard to bring women’s wrestling to New York. With Section VI being the only section in the state with two women’s programs (Buffalo State and D’Youville), we couldn’t just let that go by the wayside,” Conti said. “We couldn’t just give up on this. It’s too important to every part of women’s wrestling. It’s exciting. If they execute on their plans, it will be the best standalone women’s facility in the country – I’m convinced of that.”

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Conti admitted his recruiting class has shrunk since the coaching change, but is excited about the women he has attracted to start the program.

“I’ve been in this position before, running a high school program. You go out, find a couple of athletes and teach them how to wrestle,” he said. “The (previous) guys did a great job recruiting.”

Rosaliz Aponte, Tina Evans, Sofia Ramdial, Madison Szymanowski, Hailey Hankinson, Brook Tarshis and Cecilia Williams have committed to arriving next week for orientation before the first day of classes on August 26.

Aponte is from Fredonia and Szymanowski wrestled at Chautauqua Lake.

“For me, she has great potential,” Conti said of Aponte. “She’s brand new to the sport, but boy is she tough.”

Evans is from West Seneca West and is, according to Conti, “arguably the best wrestler in Section VI.”

Ramdial wrestled in Shenendehowa, Hankinson in North Tonawanda and Tarshis in Pine Bush.

Williams, the 2021 16U national champion, is from East Lansing, Michigan.

“If you have a heavyweight who learns to wrestle as a lightweight, that’s the best case scenario for me,” Conti said. “She’s going to open some eyes.”

Now Conti will work to build a larger team as more student-athletes arrive on campus in Buffalo.

“It’s still in its infancy nationwide, and I’m a firm believer that if we go out and find people from the common people – rugby players, softball players, soccer players – who are willing to come out and work, I’m willing to train them,” he said. “… Sometimes it’s easier to teach someone who doesn’t have bad habits than it is to break them of bad habits.”

“People have been doing this since they were two years old; they grab their little brother or sister, throw them on the ground (and wrestle with them),” Conti joked. “If they could think back to their childhood, they could do the same thing.”

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The season officially begins on October 10th and runs through the spring semester. Teams have eight “flexible days” available for pre- and/or post-season training, but with such a new team, Conti is currently planning to utilize all of those preseason days.

“I’m going to do my best to make sure it’s a great year for those who have stuck around. Training eight is a lot easier than training 58. If I can get around 20 people together, it’ll be perfect. That’s my goal,” he said. “I’m more excited every day I work on it.”