RAW, NC United and New Bern: The Triangle That Built Two Talents

New Bern freshman Xavier Bernthal and Raleigh‑area product Elias Taylor are part of a new wave of North Carolina wrestlers willing to chase tough partners, long drives, and bigger expectations to reach the next level. They share mat time through NC United and Raleigh Area Wolfpack, but their paths into the sport, their willingness to seek out the right rooms, and their perspective on faith and pressure help show where wrestling in the state is headed.

Bernthal has already stamped his name into New Bern High School history, winning the 7A 106‑pound state title as a freshman. He came out of the East Regional with a third‑place finish, then flipped the script in Greensboro by beating the same opponent who had defeated him at regionals, grinding out a 3‑0 decision in the state final. That run capped a breakout season and instantly made him one of the central figures in New Bern’s wrestling program. His path into the sport started the way a lot of good ones do—tagging along with an older brother. He remembers being “probably like eight,” watching his brother wrestle in middle school practices and thinking it looked “really cool,” even though there wasn’t a youth option for him in New Bern yet. Once he finally found a place to wrestle around sixth grade, he’s “been wrestling like pretty hard ever since.”

Ask Bernthal how he’d describe himself and he doesn’t dress it up. “I would just describe myself as like hardworking, because you know, I haven’t been at it as long as some of the other guys, but I just try to do the best that I can,” he said.

On the mat, his scouting report is all about offense. “I shoot a lot… I just like to shoot,” he explained, describing a style built on getting to legs and staying on attack more than leaning on heavy‑handed brawling. Neutral is where he feels most dangerous, especially when he gets in on a leg and can work through crackdowns and finishes. At the same time, he’s blunt about wanting to turn the other side of that position—defending when an opponent is in on his leg on the mat—into a strength. That balance between being honest about weaknesses and obsessed with building on strengths is a big part of what makes him dangerous for four more years of high school.

His weekly schedule shows how seriously he takes that growth. In New Bern, his local base is Walters, a jiu‑jitsu gym that has become a de facto wrestling room for area high schoolers. Tuesdays and Thursdays are built around drilling and technique with coach Justin Perry, and Fridays are live‑go nights, where he can “work on whatever you want with some good kids.” On Sundays, though, he turns the radius way up. That’s when he leaves the coast, gets in the car, and heads for the Raleigh–Chapel Hill area to train with Raleigh Area Wolfpack and NC United. “On Sunday, I either come up to Raw or NC United to get with like Eli and just some other really good kids that push me really hard,” he said.

That willingness to travel is exactly the kind of thing many around North Carolina wrestling have been calling for—kids seeking out the best partners and multiple looks instead of feeling locked into a single room. Bernthal is an easy example of what that looks like when it’s done right. Asked why he spends two‑and‑a‑half to almost three hours each way on the road, he didn’t hesitate. “Just to get better,” he said. “I feel like I started kind of late and I just I feel like I always have to catch up… and it’s also it’s just like why would I not go? There’s just such good partners there and I like all these people. Eli is like one of my good friends. I just like going, hanging out with all them.” In a state where the conversation has often been about whether clubs should “share” kids, a defending state champion from the coast willingly driving to Raleigh to get his hands on better partners is a pretty strong argument that more freedom and more travel only help.

Sharing that Triangle orbit is Taylor, an eighth‑grader who will attend Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh. Like Bernthal, he came to the sport around age eight, introduced by his dad, who wrestled in high school in New Jersey. Taylor’s first practices were at  RAW, where he met coaches and future high school standouts and realized wrestling was something he wanted to stick with because it was fun. Those early years at Raleigh Area Wolfpack have now turned into a full‑blown weekly routine built almost entirely around the sport.

“During the week, I go to Raleigh Area Wrestling,” he said. “We have Mondays and we go back and forth from NC State and our Raleigh location… we have a lot of different coaches like Christian Knop, Casey Gashaw, and Brandon Palmer.” Tuesdays mirror Mondays at the other site, Wednesdays bring the group back to NC State, Thursdays are at the Raleigh room, and most Sundays end with him at NC United. It’s a schedule that blends two of the most active hubs in the state and keeps him around high‑level partners virtually every day.

For Taylor, that continuity is a major plus as he steps into high school wrestling. “I’ll have the same club coaches as my high school coaches, Casey Gashaw and Brandon Palmer, so that’s great,” he said, noting that many of his Raleigh Area teammates also go to Cardinal Gibbons. “I know a lot of the team. I’m excited for that.” Instead of having to spend a year adjusting to a new voice and a new system, he’ll walk into a Gibbons room already fluent in what they do.

On the mat, Taylor sees himself as a pace‑pusher with some flair. He believes he tries “to push the pace a lot,” but also likes to wrestle “sort of slick,” mixing in creative attacks and funky positions. He’s straightforward about where he needs to grow. At national events, he admits he “hasn’t done too well at some national tournaments,” and a lot of that, he says, is mental. “I get pretty nervous sometimes, but I still need to keep working on some technique,” he said, pointing specifically to his defense and keeping people off his legs. The rooms he trains in are intentional about preparing kids for those pressure moments. Taylor talked about how often they run “situational lives” at practice, like being down by a point with 30 seconds left. When he’s actually in that spot in a real match, he tries to “put my mindset to where I am at practice,” which makes him more comfortable closing matches and “just keep pushing the pace.”

Bernthal handles those situations in his own way. In a tight third period, he tells himself to “just stay focused… don’t let off the gas, just keep going,” reminding himself that if he’s kept it close, he knows he can win. That approach was on full display during his run from third at regionals to state champion. After he lost to his eventual state

finals opponent at regionals, it was back in the practice room to prepare for the state championships. Bernthal and his coaches went back to the video and the basics. “We reviewed some matches, like the ones that I lost,” he said. “We were just talking about some defense ‘cause that kid had gotten to my legs a lot in the match that I lost at regionals.” The technical tweaks mattered, but he says the biggest change that week was mental. “The biggest thing wasn’t even going over stuff like that,” he explained. “I think the biggest thing was just like just telling myself that like it’s okay. You can still win the tournament. I just told myself I could still win.”

By the time he stepped on the mat in Greensboro, he was calm and confident. He knew he had already beaten one wrestler in the bracket who had defeated his regional rival, and he trusted his preparation. The final ended 3‑0 in his favor, and when the ref raised his hand, it all hit him at once. “I was just like overloaded with excitement,” Bernthal said. “It was just like it was such a great feeling.” When he thinks about what he’d tell a younger kid asking how to get there, he talks as much about belief as about technique. “Just stay focused,” he said. “If you really want to do something, you really got to put your mind to it.” He points to his own path—third at regionals, then beating the same kid at states—as proof that the last result doesn’t have to decide the next one.

Faith is a big part of how both Bernthal and Taylor handle those swings. When Bernthal was asked about being a Christian and an athlete, he went straight to what it does for his mindset. “I think it keeps me really at peace with myself and it helps me get through the hard times,” he said. After a tough day on the mat, he often finds himself sitting alone, praying, and “talk[ing] to God,” something he believes “really helps” him reset and see that every loss has something to teach him. That perspective helps him process bad tournaments as part of the journey, not the end of it.

For Taylor, he goes to Catholic school and comes from a family of faith, and he says being a Christian matters most in how it changes the way he thinks about pressure and results. “It’s really good and it helps a lot to take stress out of like the outcome of tournaments and matches,” he said. In his mind, trusting in God means he doesn’t have to carry every bracket or every match like a verdict on who he is. That trust “really takes stress out of competition,” he explained, and lets him focus on effort, preparation, and attitude instead of obsessing over wins and losses.

That outlook shows up in how they handle the realities of wrestling in the social‑media age. Asked about seeing video of a loss posted online, Bernthal answered with a calm that would make a lot of adults jealous. “It’s really fine,” he said. He figures opponents “put in the work probably just as much or… if not more than I have,” and if they want to share that moment, “it’s cool… it doesn’t really bother me.” If anything, he said, it “would just make me want to get better.” Taylor admitted it can be “a little more embarrassing” because friends will see it, but he shrugged it off too. “It’s what people do now,” he said. If the opponent was better that day, “it’s okay if he does that,” and like Bernthal, his response is to go back to work.

Behind both wrestlers is a family structure that makes their schedules and their mental approach possible. Bernthal, the youngest of five brothers, grew up in a house he describes as “really rowdy.” His earliest memories are of his brothers “beating the crap out of each other” and throwing one another off bunk beds. The brother closest in age “beat me up the most” and is the one who made him want to wrestle. Now, a lot of his brothers are involved in combat sports like boxing and Muay Thai, and he’s sure all those years of roughhousing “made me a lot tougher at an earlier age.” On the nutrition side, his mom’s cooking is central. When it’s time to cut, he keeps it simple and leans on “really good chicken” and “a lot of lean food like rice and stuff,” tightening things up in the weeks before big events.

Taylor’s home is smaller but just as influential. His older sister is a serious swimmer headed to college and a coach herself. The two are close—“we hang out a lot, we’re like good friends”—and her sport has become part of his training. Taylor has swum on their summer team “just for conditioning,” calling it “really good for keeping your cardio up and stuff like that.” His dad, who works in the medical field, brings a scientific eye to weight management. “Whenever I’m about to cut, I usually like definitely I start a couple weeks before if it’s a big cut and my dad really helps me plan a lot,” Taylor said. “He’ll diet with me too and it helps a lot and we like cook a lot of good food like, you know, salmon and steak and I just hydrate a lot and water load.” Academically, he keeps a clear order of priorities—“first is always academics, then sports, and then free time and fun things”—and he’s already thinking about wrestling in college while making sure he’s “definitely going to college for an education.”

Bernthal is thinking ahead too. He hopes to wrestle in college and would love the chance to compete Division I, though he says he’ll be fine with wherever he finds the right fit. He’s already had real conversations with college coaches, including one from Averett University who came up to him after a loss at a Super 32 qualifier because of how he fought back from a 10‑0 deficit and kept attacking. It was a reminder that college coaches pay attention to how you respond as much as to whether your hand is raised. Taylor’s long‑term goal is similar—he’s “definitely hoping to wrestle in college”—but he talks just as much about keeping his grades up and using wrestling as part of a bigger plan for his future.

When wrestling isn’t on the schedule, both of them tend to end up around the water. If the sport disappeared tomorrow, Taylor says he’d “probably go fishing a lot.” He already uses it to decompress after tough tournaments. “It’s really peaceful,” he said. “It’s really nice just being outside and it’s really quiet. And there’s also a lot of like… technique to it and it’s fun to learn about.” He often fishes with friends as a way to “just talk to people and hang out.” In New Bern, Bernthal laughs that there’s not much to do “unless you like going out on the water in the river,” so he spends plenty of time on boats, wakeboarding, tubing, and “anything I can do to just hang out with people.”

They share some of the same role models on the mat as well. Bernthal loves watching NC State’s Will “Denny” for how well he shoots as an upper‑weight and tries to imitate his leg attacks. Taylor watches Cornell’s Myer Shapiro for his “really exciting and really funky” style and tries to wrestle like him. Put together, their stories are more than just two individual profiles. They show a freshman state champion from the coast who spends Sundays in Raleigh, and a Raleigh club kid stepping into a Cardinal Gibbons room where his longtime coaches will be waiting for him. They are friends, training partners, and examples of what happens when North Carolina wrestlers are given the freedom and support to chase the best version of themselves—wherever the mat happens to be that day.