Wrestling: Monroe's Profaci can defy law of economics in Atlantic City

After weighing in before a quad meet, Sal Profaci and several of his Monroe wrestling teammates gathered on a set of bleachers, where they broke their fast and got into a robust debate, of all things, about the law of diminishing marginal utility.

Assistant wrestling coach Zach Morolda had previously taught the concept during an Advanced Placement Microeconomics course in which Profaci and several other high school grapplers are enrolled.

The law states that as a person increases consumption of a product, a decline results in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product.

Morolda drew an analogy to the food his wrestlers were devouring in the bleachers: the more a hungry person eats, the less pleasure that individual gets from each additional bite because he or she becomes increasingly satiated.

As one teammate attempted to explain the law of diminishing marginal utility to another, "Sal jumped in and corrected (him)," Morolda recalled. "It became a debate of who was right and the discussion escalated."

All of a sudden, Profaci, who is the winningest wrestler in school history and will attend the University of Michigan on a partial athletic scholarship, was playfully going it as hard with his teammates as he does in the room, prompting Morolda to intervene.

"It was one of those strange 'ah-hah' moments where no one in the world would believe this conversation," said Morolda, noting approximately 65 percent of the wrestlers in Monroe's program are in honors or advanced placement courses, several of whom he recruited to the team.

"I started teasing them and told them to be quiet and get ready for the match. I think that day was very telling about Sal. He really doesn't compartmentalize his life. He very easily changes gears and can go right back onto the mat. That's how he does everything."

Profaci, who is making his fourth trip to Atlantic City this weekend for the NJSIAA Individual Championships with a 37-0 record, is entering his farewell tour with an attitude that contradicts the law of diminishing marginal utility.

The appetite of the 132-pound senior, who placed fourth in the state in a stacked 126-pound weight class last year, will increase with each opponent he hopes to defeat on the way to taking his place atop the podium.

Boardwalk Hall has not exactly been kind to Profaci throughout his career. As a freshman, he wrestled in the state tournament, essentially on one leg, concealing a knee injury while losing consecutive bouts to opponents who went on to medal. As a sophomore, he endured a heart-breaking one-point loss in the closing seconds of a pre-quarterfinal match to yet another opponent who placed before rebounding for a Top 12 finish. Last year he lost a semifinal in overtime to two time-state champion Craig De La Cruz of Bound Brook before losing the third-place match in a tiebreaker to Delaware Valley's Ryan Pomrinca.

"Those weights always seem to be stacked," Monroe head coach Billy Jacoutot said of the classes in which Profaci has competed throughout his career. "You don't find in weights like that where people have an easy draw."

Profaci will likely face Warren Hills' Max Nauta, another four-time state qualifier and the reigning Region I champion, in the quarterfinals with the winner likely facing De La Cruz in the semis.

He represents the Greater Middlesex Conference's best chance for a state title, a responsibility Jacoutot believes Profaci is mature enough to handle.

"I'm not the first guy to say this, but pressure is a privilege," Jacoutot said, "and when you start to ramp up expectations and you feel like you belong, you've got to expect people talking about it. It's a compliment. You let your skills and your hard work show when you get the opportunity."

After winning his second region title last weekend, Profaci exuded a relaxed confidence that stems from being a lifer in the sport.

"I just feel like I'm having a blast this year," Profaci said. "I'm really having fun out there, scoring points and attacking. It's weird because a lot of people think it's pressure, pressure, pressure but this is the most relaxed I've been in my career. I'm not nervous. I'm confident. I know I've put the time in. I've been doing this a while."

Profaci began attending practices with regularity at Monroe High School, where his father, also named Sal, was the head coach, when he was in the second grade. After practice, Profaci and his dad, a former Division I standout at Central Connecticut State University, whose program is now defunct, would roll around on the mat.

"Basically I was born right into the sport," Profaci said. "My dad never pushed me to wrestle as much as I was just surrounded by It. Automatically, I just wanted to be where my dad was. I just took a liking to it. I played a bunch of other sports. I tried everything, but I just took a liking to (wrestling). I knew that's what I wanted to do."

Jacoutot, whose father, Bill, is the former head coach at Spencerport (N.Y.) High School, where he was named the 2008 National Coach of the Year, can relate to being a product of a wrestling environment. He and his father both wrestled at the University of Buffalo.

"I grew up with my dad being a high school coach," Jacoutot said. "When you come home, you have to have a line drawn where you just don't talk about it anymore. There's always a delicate balance when a father is coaching his son, and Sal (now a volunteer assistant at Monroe) has taken little Sal all over the country."

Profaci dislocated his elbow last April during a national tournament in Virginia Beach, Va. The injury kept him off the mat for three months. He returned to place sixth last fall at the prestigious Super 32 in Greensboro, N.C., where Profaci caught the attention of the Michigan coaching staff.

"He started to prove himself, not only at the state level, but on the national stage," Jacoutot said. "I don't care who you are, you need results to really get that edge. I think the edge he's gotten over the last year, combined with, of course, his health, is really helping him going into this weekend."

Morolda said regardless of how Profaci fares this weekend, he has already earned the respect of everyone around him for the manner in which the senior conducts himself off the mat.

"Everyone loves him," Morolda said. "The administration and staff always talk about how respectful he is. He's never had a disciplinary issue in school. He's family-oriented and incredibly loyal. He's also incredibly humble."

Morolda said Profaci is just as diligent about his studies as he is about his wrestling, which makes him a perfect fit for a school with Michigan's academic reputation.

Profaci will put to the test this weekend the law of diminishing marginal utility, as the taste of each victory in Atlantic City becomes sweeter, whetting his appetite for an elusive state title.