MIDDLETOWN — It's pretty hard to miss the activity in the middle of Overcomer Training Center on any given day when Middletown High School wrestling teammates Isaiah McDaniel and Joshua Ramos square off in spirited practice sessions.
McDaniel and Ramos, both undefeated against Connecticut competition this year, came into the season motivated to learn from their losses in the 2025 Central Connecticut Conference championship matches.
"Iron sharpens iron” is how Middletown wrestling coach David Baldyga refers to the daily training sessions. Ramos, who moved from the 106-pound weight class to 120 pounds, and McDaniel, who made the jump to the 150-pound weight class, passed pretty much every challenge during the regular season. Now they go after CCC titles this weekend.
"I haven't won CCCs yet," McDaniel said. "It would be nice to win. You have to go out there, give it your all and see what happens."
It would be quite the story if Ramos and McDaniel both win CCC championships. Just two years ago when Ramos was a sophomore and McDaniel was a freshman, they battled to be the Middletown High School representative at 106 pounds. McDaniel emerged victorious and would win the CIAC Class L title with four dominant wins.
Ramos wrestled at 113 pounds as a sophomore before competing in the 106-pound class in 2025. He used the lessons from his battles with McDaniel to make him a better wrestler, even if it took a little time.
"His freshman year, I kind of ran from him in practice,” Ramos said. "I feel like if I hadn't done that, I would be a way better wrestler than I am now. He was so good and beating me up and I was just mad. To get better, you have to lose, you have to get beat up. I was stubborn and I didn't want to believe in that until I woke up a little bit going into my junior year."
Ramos began wrestling at age 5. Now a high school senior, there is a sense of urgency as he heads into the postseason.
“Thanks to Mr. (Mark) Fong (the former Middletown wrestling coach),” Ramos said. "He got me into it when I was 5. There was a park and rec program at the time, I've been doing it at Keigwin Middle School. I kind of liked it and I was also doing soccer at the time. I was on the smaller side. Especially playing soccer, everybody else kind of grew and I just stayed kind of tiny. I liked wrestling a little bit more and I kind of stuck with it."
It was a little different for McDaniel. It was not love at first sight when he first started to wrestle.
"I did almost every sport growing up,” McDaniel said. "When I didn't have an activity to do, I would be all over the house trying to find something to do. Somebody told my parents about it, so they signed me up. I originally didn't like it. I told my parents I didn't want to do it. They said to just finish out the year, I started to work harder and pick up the actual practices. Once I got to a certain point, the competitiveness, it wasn't just me getting beat by everybody, it was me learning and getting better. I started to pick it up and I started to learn to love it."
The Central Connecticut Conference Wrestling Tournament begins on Friday at Bristol Central High School. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be held on Saturday.