In 2016, an 8th grader weighing 97 pounds stepped onto Durfee’s varsity mat at 106 and went 23-6. He was the only Durfee wrestler to qualify for the MIAA Division 1 State Championships that year. Eight years later he’d wrestled in the biggest conference in Division I — on a full scholarship. Then he came home to build the club Fall River never had.
A kid from Fall River’s South End. Eighth grade, giving up nine pounds every match at 106. Varsity for Durfee High School. A 23-6 record. Third place in the Division 1 South Sectional, fifth at the Division 1 State Championships, and a spot at the All-State Meet — as a middle schooler wrestling high schoolers, and Durfee’s only state qualifier that season.
“Only an eighth grader, Fallon was not intimidated competing on the varsity level. A skilled technician with plenty of heart.”
— The Herald News, naming Fallon a 2016 wrestling all-star
The point made plainly: talent in Fall River isn’t the problem. It never has been.
Why Rhode Island? Durfee had talent, but the coaching and daily training partners weren’t enough to push Andrew to the next level. He needed a room full of wrestlers who could challenge him every day and a schedule built for the biggest tournaments. La Salle Academy and then Bishop Hendricken gave him exactly that. It wasn’t leaving Fall River behind — it was doing whatever it took to become one of the best wrestlers the city has ever produced.
8th grade varsity at Durfee. 23-6 at 106 lbs. Durfee’s only state qualifier: 3rd at D1 South, 5th at the MIAA Division 1 State Championships, All-State Meet qualifier. Herald News All-Star.
35-1 as a freshman at La Salle Academy. Rhode Island State Champion at 106 — three straight pins at the state tournament, then an 8-3 win in the final. 3rd at the New England Championships. NHSCA Freshman All-American.
Top seed at 113 — season ended mid-year by a dislocated elbow and torn UCL. Tommy John surgery. Nine months off the mat.
The comeback: 17-1, Rhode Island State Champion at 120 with a takedown in the final seconds over the defending champ, then New England Champion in an overtime final. NHSCA Junior All-American. The Herald News headline: “Resilient champion.”
Signed a full NCAA Division I athletics grant-in-aid to American University: full tuition, full fees, full room, full board, full books. The document is below.
Third state championship as a senior at Bishop Hendricken. A three-time state champion with over 200 career wins.
6th at the EIWA Championships for Sacred Heart — then the largest Division I conference in wrestling — one overtime match from an NCAA Championships berth. MBA earned on scholarship.
Back home. Head coach at Shamrock Wrestling Club in Somerset — ten minutes from Durfee — building the year-round wrestling room Fall River never had.
“Wrestling paid for every credit of his degree. That’s not a story we tell — it’s a document we can show you.”
Andrew wrestled for LaSalle and Bishop Hendricken — Rhode Island powerhouses — but he never left Fall River. He lived here the whole time.
Every morning before school, he was standing outside the YMCA on North Main Street at 5 a.m., waiting on the custodian to unlock the doors. Lift. Go home. Get ready. Go to school. Practice after. Every day, for years.
Before-school lifts at the YMCA on North Main Street, Fall River.
That’s what a 40-2 freshman season and a stack of state titles are actually made of. Not talent — Fall River has always had talent. The 5 a.m. alarm.
Hover any card to preview — tap to see the full tournament brackets.
Andrew Fallon’s wrestling story starts the way it does for a lot of Fall River kids — at Durfee. Three years after wrestling varsity for the Hilltoppers as an 8th grader, he stood at the center of the mat in the New England Championship final: a Rhode Island state champion against the Massachusetts state champion, tied 1–1 in sudden-victory overtime.
New England Championship final, 120 lbs — won by takedown in sudden-victory overtime.
That takedown made him a New England Champion at 120 pounds — and it started with the fundamentals he learned wrestling in Fall River. Today, Coach Fallon teaches those same fundamentals at Shamrock Wrestling Club, ten minutes from Durfee’s gym. If your kid wants to wrestle for the Hilltoppers someday — or already does and wants to level up — the mat is waiting.
Condensed from the live broadcast of the New England Championship final at 120 pounds.
“Your 120-pound finalists: from Danbury, Massachusetts, the Mass champion — a two-time New England place winner, third last year at 113, 20-0 on the season and 74-2 in his career. And from Bishop Hendricken — he’s a two-time Rhode Island state champion, a two-time New England place winner, third as a freshman. This is Hendricken’s Andrew Fallon. The Rhode Island champ against the Mass champ.”
“Fallon got the escape here to start the second period… Still just one-nothing with thirty seconds left in the second. Nice circle, nice shift — both wrestlers with an opportunity to score, but the defense wins out.”
“Well, we’re one-to-one with a minute forty-five left here in the third… Fifty seconds left. We’ve had shots, we’ve had action, but not a lot of scoring — there has definitely been more action than you would typically see in a one-one match. Looked like a two, but it wasn’t there.”
“So we’re in overtime. Sudden victory overtime. I’m going for my third prediction of the night: someone will win it here in the next forty-five seconds… And we have — overtime takedown!”
Final: Fallon 3–1, sudden victory. New England Champion at 120 pounds.
First practice free. Tuesday or Thursday — ten minutes from Durfee.
Andrew’s career hangs on the Legacy Wall at MetroWest Wrestling Club — one of the premier wrestling programs in Massachusetts. Three state titles, a New England championship, two-time NHSCA High School All-American, and a three-year NCAA Division I starter.
When Andrew was six, there was no year-round wrestling club in Fall River. His family drove him to Warren, Rhode Island. In high school he trained at MetroWest in Natick — over an hour each way — because that’s where the toughest kids in the region trained, no matter what school they wrestled for. The talent was local. The training wasn’t.
His high school coach put the whole thesis in two sentences in that Herald News story: “He works hard. He works year round.” That’s the difference. Not talent — Fall River has always had talent. Year-round mats.
That’s the gap Shamrock closes. The kids who make varsity lineups — at Durfee, at Somerset Berkley, anywhere — are the kids who don’t stop wrestling in February. Club wrestlers walk into the school season in November with a hundred extra matches under their belt.
We’re not a replacement for a school team. We’re where school-team wrestlers are built. If your kid wants to wear the Durfee singlet someday — or wants their name on that gym’s banner — the work starts now, in the offseason, ten minutes away in Somerset.
Why wrestling beats every other martial art for student-athletes →
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Yes — that’s exactly who we built it for. Year-round training in Somerset, about ten minutes from Durfee High School. The kids who train through the spring, summer, and fall are the ones winning spots in November.
No. Club training runs year-round and builds the kids who make varsity lineups. During the school season, your school coach and school schedule come first.
Kindergarten through 5th grade is ideal — Andrew started at six. But we take beginners at every grade, and most kids who walk in have never wrestled.
120 Slades Ferry Ave in Somerset, MA — about ten minutes from Durfee High School and anywhere in Fall River. First practice is free: call or text 508-784-7505.
Because he lived in Fall River the entire time, trained at the YMCA on North Main Street at 5 a.m., and proved the path works. Plenty of kids wear the Durfee singlet for four years. Very few leave with three state titles, a New England championship, and a full Division I scholarship. Results matter more than the number of years in the jersey.
Now it has the room. First practice free — Tuesday or Thursday.
