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Wrestling: Mustari, former Lely grapplers head to Las Vegas
Naples to Nationals
Wrestlers from Naples who will compete this week in the National Wrestling Championships, which begin today in Las Vegas:
Obe Blanc: The Lely High grad is a senior at Lock Haven (Pa.) University with one year of college legibility remaining. He will wrestle in the freestyle division in the 121-pound weight class.
Dusty Leutz: The Lely High grad is a senior at Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C. He will wrestle in the Greco Roman division in the 145-pound weight class.
Jeff Mustari: The Barron Collier wrestling coach is competing in the tournament for the seventh straight year. The 41-year-old will wrestle in the Veterans "C" division in the 167-pound weight class.
Tige Thompson: The Lely High wrestling coach is competing in the tournament for the first time. The 38-year-old will wrestle in the Veterans "B" division in the 152-pound weight class.
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Most men visit Las Vegas for the shows, the Strip and the slot machines.
Not Jeff Mustari.
By late this morning, Mustari, who flew to “Sin City” on Tuesday afternoon, aims to have introduced a rival 40-something to the wrong end of an underarm spin, gut wrench or body slam.
Mustari, best known as the Barron Collier wrestling coach, makes this cross country trek every year, so he can throw his 41-year-old frame about the mat like a college kid.
This week marks his seventh straight appearance in the National Wrestling Championships, a four-day WrestleMania for Olympic-style wrestlers of every age, size and weight.
“I go out there,” he says, laughing, “basically to stay in shape. It keeps me in shape.”
It’s a nice bonus, of course, that Lely High products Dusty Leutz and Obe Blanc — wrestlers Mustari used to coach — will be in town as well, competing for a spot in the Olympic trials.
But their old coach has some business of his own. He scored a championship on his last visit to Las Vegas and would like to bring home similar winnings this year.
“Why don’t I just continue doing it,” he explains, “until my body says I can’t do it anymore?”
Mustari, a 5-foot-7, 160-pound mat rat, asked himself the question again this winter. The answer, as always, was to plan a trip and pack his boots.
So there he was Monday, two days before his first match in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
He dropped his keys on a desk in the Barron wrestling room and wrapped some tape around his fingers. Moments later, Richie Blasucci, a Golden Gate sophomore who wrestles for Mustari’s year-round club team, found himself in one of his coach’s headlocks.
“We’re gonna roll around a little bit,” Mustari said before he and Blasucci got to work, energized by the blare of some post-grunge rock.
But really, Mustari’s training never ends.
The men he’ll face in the 167-pound class of the Veterans “C” Division — ages 40-48 — should know that Mustari almost never leaves a practice without sweat on his shirt.
Mustari is a sparring partner of sorts for the Barron wrestlers his size. He figures it’s the best way to make them better.
And he enjoys it.
“He still wrestles me like he always has,” says Leutz, a longtime workout buddy. “He’s tough. Every time I wrestle him, he’ll throw in a new trick — a curveball. I could always tell I was having a good day when he couldn’t pull those tricks out of his bag.”
Mustari started putting that bag together before Leutz was born. He grew up in Chicago, mimicking the moves of his two older brothers. He had registered his first pin by fourth grade.
That passion came with Mustari when his family moved to Marco Island in the late 1970s. It helped mold one of the top high school wrestlers Southwest Florida has known.
Mustari helped Lely High win a state championship in 1983. He didn’t lose a match his final three seasons, stringing together 94 straight wins to end his career.
After four years on the Michigan State wrestling team, Mustari came back to Lely, where he coached wrestling for 12 years. He’s been at Barron the last four.
Through it all, Mustari has maintained a head full of hair and a slim, muscular frame — the look of a takedown waiting to happen.
And he’s maintained the passion.
On his last trip to Vegas, Mustari brought back a stop sign-shaped plaque, his prize for winning a Greco Roman championship in the Veterans “C” division.
He’s told friends that this week will mark his last appearance in the tournament. They don’t believe him, though, saying they’ve seen that bob-and-weave move before.
“I know him,” Joe Blasucci said the other day, as he watched his son Richie roll around on the mat with the coach. “He can’t say no.”

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