Coach Ernie serves as one of the PAWS elder statesmen who likes to come by and check in on us from time to time. Coach Ernie wrestled in high school for the perennial team champion Roxbury Latin team of the late 1970's. In college, Coach Ernie played offensive line for the University of Pennsylvania's varsity football team. Coach Ernie, along with Dave Vale, developed the Matchman wrestling program which is now used throughout the Grapevine League and he was active in guiding the Grapevine League towards standardizing its youth wrestler ratings. Coach Ernie's son, Jeff Barsamian, spent 7 years in the PAWS program and Jeff is now a senior wrestling at Princeton High School. Coach Ernie has also coached soccer, baseball, and football in Princeton. If you see Coach Ernie at practice, he'll be happy to show you how to properly execute his famous bearhug, if you ask him politely
