According to head coach Carter Jordan, high school wrestling revolves around the Northeast, with New Jersey and Pennsylvania leading the way.

In fact, the talent level is so great in those areas, Jordan said he has focused his recruiting efforts there.

“As far as Pennsylvania and New Jersey are concerned, we’re going to spend most of our time in those two states,” Jordan said.

And a quick look at N.C. State’s roster would certainly confirm those efforts.

Of the 29 wrestlers on this year’s roster, six are from New Jersey and six are from Pennsylvania, which are tied with the most out-of-state wrestlers on the team.

But as far as the wrestlers making the most impact on the mat right now, Jersey seems to have the advantage.

Just this past weekend, the Wolfpack faced North Carolina and nationally-ranked Navy, and of the nine matches State won, seven were won by wrestlers from New Jersey.

In fact, two of the three defending individual ACC champions on this year’s team are from the Garden State — junior Kody Hamrah and redshirt sophomore Ryan Goodman.

Hamrah said Jersey guys are so much more successful because the atmosphere that surrounds high school wrestling up there.

“Wrestling up north is a lot more serious,” he said. “It’s kind of like we know where we’re coming from and we all expect real big things. That’s probably the biggest thing New Jersey wrestlers have in common. We all expect to do big things on a national level.”

But another thing New Jersey wrestlers have in common is attitude.

According to freshman Darrion Caldwell, a Rahway, N.J. native and a member of this past year’s high school national championship team from New Jersey, guys from Jersey “are all about fun.”

“Everybody on the team likes to laugh, but Jersey guys like to laugh more,” Caldwell said. “If you see us around the mat, you can see it. We take the sport seriously, but we’re here to have fun at the end of the day. Jersey guys just got it. We bond real well.”

Goodman, whose brother Randy is also on the team, agreed and said it just makes things more comfortable to be around guys with similar backgrounds.

“There’s definitely a bond between us,” he said. “It’s just good to have a lot in common with certain people. You feel more comfortable. I definitely bonded with those guys a little easier.”

And with being so far from home, that “bond” has been important for a lot of the guys, especially the younger ones.

Redshirt freshman Anthony Badaracco, who is from Vineland, said knowing a few of the guys from back home eased his transition to college in his first year away from home.

Badaracco and former State wrestlers Scott and Zach Garren were friends in high school.

“I knew the Garrens, who are from Paulsboro,” he said. “Us guys from up north, we kind of know each other better and know how we act, so it’s easier to bond with those guys.”

Caldwell said having upperclassmen from the same area has been a comforting force in his early college experience as well, both on the mat and in the classroom.

“A big part of me keeping my head on straight has been Kody and Ryan,” Caldwell said. “When I first came here, school was tough. But even with the wrestling stuff, if Kody didn’t see me finish a takedown, he would pull me aside and explain to me that I needed to be quicker and work on my technique.”

Caldwell, interestingly enough, first crossed paths with the two as competitors instead of teammates.

“My sophomore year was Kody and Ryan’s senior year in high school, and I saw Ryan win [the state championship],” he said. “And after the tournament there was some debate over who would win the [outstanding wrestler] award, because he had 146 wins and I beat a kid who was No. 4 in the country. But Ryan was a senior and I was a sophomore, so he ended up getting the award.”

But despite losing out on the award to Goodman in high school, he has developed a strong friendship with him in Raleigh, along with all the others in the Jersey group.

Freshman Philip Black, a Ventnor native, said that even though having common interests is important, the most valuable benefit of having so many wrestlers from New Jersey is that it helps the team.

“Jersey has a lot of good wrestlers, so it’s good for N.C. State,” Black said. “We love the sport of wrestling, and it shows in the practice room. We come in there every day to beat up on one another.”