Built in the Mat Assassins Room: Hanover Area’s CJ Caines Chasing State and Fargo Gold
- Ryan Hayes
- 21 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Hanover Township, Pa. — Walk into a Mat Assassins practice and it doesn’t take long to find CJ Caines. The Hanover Township product has grown up in that room, and he credits the club for turning him into one of Pennsylvania’s toughest young wrestlers.
Caines has been training at Mat Assassins for years, surrounded by high‑level partners and constant competition. He says flat out that without the club, he wouldn’t be close to where he is today. That work has shown up in a big way: a Northeast Regionals freestyle title, only one freestyle loss this season to a Fargo runner‑up, and strong back‑to‑back runs at Super 32, including a fourth‑place finish as a freshman.
He brings several Hanover Area High School teammates with him to Mat Assassins every day, including Chase Smith and Michael Perez, turning club practice into an extension of their high school room. Caines’ goals match the intensity of his training — win a Pennsylvania state title, get back on the Super 32 podium, and chase a Fargo championship — all while sitting near the top of his class academically and unwinding with a surprisingly technical hobby: origami.
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