EAST PROVIDENCE — It’s been a whirlwind few years for the East Providence High School wrestling team with the program attempting to rebuild on the fly while also contending with the COVID-19 pandemic, which likely affected the sport more than most others.

The Townies, a contender in Division I for much of their past, dropped down a level in recent seasons. Last winter, EPHS began to see the fruits of its toils. After finishing with a 3-6-1 record their first year in D-II in 2020-2021, the Townies made the most of their second campaign in the state’s middle tier by going a perfect 11-0 in 2021-2022.

It was the second time in school history an EPHS wrestling team completed its dual meet slate with an unblemished record. The 1954-55 Townies went 4-0 in a single division format during what is believed to be just the second Interscholastic League-sanctioned season of the sport.

“We had a good year last year. We did pretty good,” said EPHS head coach Tom Galligan. “We’re back in D-I this season. We should be do OK. We should be able to compete. We lost some kids, but we have a lot of good kids coming back and coming up so we should be OK.”

As the coach mentioned, in time for the ’22-23 campaign, East Providence returns to where it wants to be, among Rhode Island’s elite programs in Division I.

“One hundred percent, we’re glad to be back. We spent lot of years in D-I before. Sometimes you take a step back to take a couple forward and that’s kind of what we did,” Galligan explained. “We got whacked pretty good by the pandemic, but so did everyone across the state and around the world, so it’s kind of hard to complain. I give lot of credit to the kids who stuck it the last few years, who persevered through all the craziness.

“We had a lot of cancellations last year and the year before that we had the season in spring, so the last couple years have been tough. Things are getting back close to normal, although now we’re getting by hammered flu, but we’re not complaining.”

East Providence opened its 2022-23 season last weekend by taking part in a non-league tournament in Bristol at Mt. Hope where the Townies eventually lost to the host Huskies in the championship round. Mt. Hope won the final few matches to fend off E.P. for the title.

This weekend, the Townies make their annual trip to Waterford, Conn., for the Lancer Invitational. East Providence then travels with North Kingstown to Cumberland for its D-I league outing of the season on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

“I’m happy with where we are. I’m happy with the effort the kids are putting in. I’m happy with the attitude of the kids,” said Galligan. “We have a ways to go, but every coach on the planet will say they have a ways to go because no matter how good of a team you have you always want to be better.

“We made it to the finals at Mt. Hope last weekend. It came down to the last couple of matches, but it’s early in the season and everyone got a chance to wrestle. That’s why I like the team tournaments as opposed to the individual ones early in the year. We have a lot of new kids on the team and they all got a chance to wrestle multiple matches instead of lose two and you’re done.

“It showed us what we need to work on. I always love doing these kinds of tournaments early because it shows you the stuff you need do. We need to get better with our conditioning, which everyone needs, and with certain technical aspects.”

Freshman Brady DeRoy leads off the EPHS starting lineup at 106 pounds. Galligan said a group of freshman and sophomores are in the mix at 113. Senior Martim Moniz opens at 120 pounds followed sophomore Bronson Mercado at 126 with junior Matthew Marlow at 132 and sophomore Charles Phillips at 138.

The EPHS middle weights begin with junior Simon Palumbo at 145 then another pack of aspiring contributors following at 152 with senior Jacob Poore at 160 and sophomore Isaac Peterson at 170.

The lineup in the upper weights starts with senior Robbie Amaral at 182 amd junior Steven Clark Jr. is next at 195. A third cohort of competitors are vying for time at 220. Sophomore Machar Francis rounds out the starters at 285/heavyweight.

Moniz is coming off a terrific junior campaign. Like the team, he went through the ’21-22 regular season undefeated at 11-0 then won the D-II sectionals. At states, he wrestled back to a sixth-place result. He, Poore and Palumbo are this year’s team captains.

“For Martim, it’s like what I say about all of the kids. You just want to get better every day, every match, get ready for the state tournament and see what happens,” said Galligan. “But he’s put in the time in the offseason and in the preseason getting ready. He should be able to compete with the best guys in the state.”

Among others, Galligan placed Amaral, Poore, Phillips (last year’s 145 freshman champ), Francis (second at 285 for freshman) and Mercado (the junior varsity winner at 120) in the group of wrestlers who could contend in their respective weight classes.

“They all had good years last year and should be able to compete at the state level this year,” Galligan said. “They’re all going to go through ups and downs, going to have wins and losses, but if they keep working their tails off like they have been they’ll be just fine.

“We have a lot of guys, like 30-35 guys on the team. It’s a nice group of kids. They work hard. We have good leadership with the older kids and a good core of younger kids coming up. They’re fun to be around. I say what I say every year. We want to be better by the end of the year than we were at the beginning. We want to get better every match, prepare for the state tournament, wrestle our hearts out and whatever happens, happens.”